I walked by Loree’s stateroom, but stopped to watch Nadira, framed by the door.

She sat in the chair by Loree’s bed, covered in those swathes of fabric, a half-amused smile on her face, but her eyes betrayed that her thoughts were elsewhere.

Xander’s voice boomed down the hall. “And then Ronan…”

I entered the room, and whatever I’d been about to do in Xander’s tall tale could obviously wait to be explained until I wasn’t around.

“You’re relieved.”

“Yes, sir.” He hurried out of the room with a quick shrug for Loree.

“What was that about?”

“Just another of your charming brothers, keeping us company.” She sighed. “Don’t you need them for other things than watching us?”

It was true. In the two days since the breach of our haven, we’d all been busy.

Staterooms in other parts of the ships had been raided, clothes and beds found, excess furniture dumped.

I tapped the earcomm. “Actually, I wanted to let you know Lorcan and Quinn are on the way back with presents for you.”

She hopped up. “They hit the lab?”

Teams of two had gone out scavenging in near-constant rotation. I wanted that cargo bay inventoried, but I knew Nadira would be more comfortable knowing she had the tools to keep us patched up.

So far, we’d been able to avoid the Hunters. But it wouldn’t last.

I opened the hatch for the pair, and Nadira damn near bounced down the corridor to her makeshift clinic.

As Quinn helped her unpack the boxes they’d brought, Lorcan pulled me to the side.

“Sir.”

“Yes.” I didn’t know Lorcan as well as most of the others. He’d been out on long- range missions for most of our years. But I knew that tone.

“The bodies you mentioned. They’re gone.”

“Dammit. Don’t tell Nadira.”

“Wasn’t planning on it.” He joined Quinn in sorting out the tangle of devices, and I headed out to check on Hakon.

I found him in the cargo bay, where Xander and Geir had pulled half the crates off the shelves.

“We were just heading up with the news.” Hakon pointed to a shelf, and the knot in my gut loosened.

A small row of weapons lay separated by the door. Small blasters, needle guns. Nothing long range, but a hell of a lot better than knives.

“Xander, go take a pair up to Quinn and Lorcan.”

“Man, there are days I long for the quiet rest of my gel, you know?” But he grabbed the weapons and headed out.

“Where’s Aeden?”

Hakon shrugged, went back to his search for tools.

I tapped the earcomm. “Aeden? Report.”

He came on with a crackle. “Up at the bridge, boss. Trying to figure out how to get in. Or why it’s locked in the first place.”

“I’d think that was obvious. The Hunters don’t want us in.”

“But that’s the odd thing. Quinn said that he and Loree were checking the code. This lockdown doesn’t look like the Hunters’ work, but part of the original systems.”

“Then how…” I stopped. I didn’t need to figure it out. Other people were on it. Good people. “Let me know when you have something.”

“Got it.”

I found Hakon further back in the racks, digging through crates. “Any luck with the engines?”

Hakon stared at me. “”We were lucky. The engine doesn’t seem affected by the… surprising amount of debris that happened to shake loose from the upper console.”

Good job with the wording. I might never live that down. “That was lucky, yes.”

“It’ll take some time to reroute the controls to only need the lower console, but I’ll get it.”

“The top one was messed up anyway,” I muttered as he went back to his work.

I headed back out, scowling at myself.

This was what I’d wanted, the damn near-miracle of having a team, my brothers back.

Then why was I so cranky?

Because giving orders was boring.

Grinning, I headed up the stairs. Why should everyone else have all the fun?

I popped out of the stairwell feeling more cheerful than I had in hours.

Aedan had pulled the panel off the wall next to the sealed door of the bridge. I gave him a quick wave and then headed back to the captain's quarters.

If the bridge hadn't been sealed by the Hunters or whoever commanded them, the only one with the power to do that would be the captain. And if Loree hadn't found any clues on the tablet, then it would have to be here, in this room.

I turned around, examining it closely. It was a good-sized room, had been nicely furnished, more complete than the staterooms downstairs. Meant for working and comfort, as could be seen by the full-sized desk that took up almost a quarter of the space and the large holoplate against the wall behind it.

If it was in the secure area, I'd move Nadira and myself into here in a heartbeat.

I shook my head. I wasn't here to play house, I was here to get information.

I flipped through the contents of the shelves. Some awards from the Starliner Association, whatever good that was. I stopped. A row of ribbons in a case. Imperial Marines. And not just puff commendations, these were combat zone ribbons.

I looked around the room again. Whatever else the captain had been, they had been a soldier. And the captain and their men wouldn't have left their command without a damn good reason.

No further clues on the shelf. I turned my attention to the desk. The drawer we’d found the tablet in was empty.

One of the others was stacked with actual papers.

I pulled one out, turned it back and forth. It looked like a menu for the day.

Void, no wonder people had rioted at the idea of these ships being built. Real paper for something so trivial.

I flipped through them, half noticing the menus, and wishing that some of that had been saved in the emergency rations.

But nothing further of interest

I slid the drawer back in and it caught oddly three quarters of the way back.

I pulled it out, pushed it back again, and then pulled it out all the way to examine the bottom.

And that was interesting.

Stuck to the bottom of the drawer was a small, square chip.

I gently pried it up, wondering what it would fit into.

I didn't remember a slot this size on the tablet we’d found for Loree. But there had to be something here that could take the chip.

Something a captain of that time would think would still be working, something everyone would be familiar with.

Turning around, I examined the holoplate.

Tapped it and it showed a wide beach, black sand sparkling in the sun as the wine-dark waves rolled over them.

Pretty. But not helpful. I tapped it again and got icy mountains against a pale pink sky. Again, and a field of flowers waving in the breeze appeared.

I ran my fingers around the edge of the frame. There.

The frame came off the wall easily, and I propped it on the desk where I could see all the way around it.

What I'd felt was a small slit in the back, ready for a chip just this size.

I slid in the chip, and immediately the picture of the beach reappeared.

This time, instead of the crashing sound of the waves, a woman's voice spoke.

This is Amano Whorton, captain of the Pyrian Star of Starways Liners. I am making this record in the hopes that it will never be needed.

But there's something off about this trip.

It's supposed to be a pleasure cruise, just around the outer edge of the Hub planets, but I fought in the Lomari Uprising. I know when something is about to go down.

General Melchior refused his cabin assignment. He'd been placed in the largest, most luxurious cabin on the ship.

As you know, the corporation’s intelligence is very good. This should have pleased him. But he was very particular about what cabin he wanted, even if it was smaller.

Half the passengers are obviously here to see and be seen and you can't say that this isn’t the perfect place for it.

But the other half, there is a problem there. If I was still in the field, I'd say we had a mutiny coming. I've told Corporation, but they don't believe me. I'd really like to be wrong. However, I don't think I am.

I'm locking myself into the bridge starting with first watch tonight. I'll place my personal security code on the door. This can be overridden by the matching code in the corporation’s vaults.

If there's no problem, I'll eat the rest of my meals there; maybe lose a little of this civilian weight. No harm done.

I'm hoping that no one finds this, and if they do, it'll only be to laugh at my paranoia.

Signing out.

The sound of the waves returned and I popped the chip out and put it in my pocket.

Obviously, the captain had been right. Something had happened. But if it was this General Melchior, or a random accident, I couldn't tell yet.

I kept looking, on the off-chance there might be a clue we could use instead of giving up on the bridge. We wouldn't be getting into any information vaults held on the Capitol.

The chirp of my comm interrupted my thoughts.

“Sir,” Geir said, “we may have an issue in the cargo bay. Could you return?”

“Is it the kind of issue that requires weapons?” I asked as I sealed the captain's quarters behind me.

“No, sir, just your presence.”

I thought about calling Aeden off from rewiring the door, but it couldn't hurt for him to keep trying.

And I had a feeling the only sort of problem that required just my presence wouldn't be one he could help with anyway.

* * *

It didn’t take long to find Nadira. Geir stood watch beside a massive crate. His gaze flicked to it, then he faded into the background.

Smart man.

“What are you doing in there?”

“Looking for anything useful, what do you think?”

I gave her a hand as she crawled out.

“Where’s Quinn or Lorcan?”

She grabbed a smaller package from another shelf further down, started unwrapping it.

“Hakon must have called for help in the engine room.”

Her eyes darted up to mine, but, damn it, I wasn’t going to be distracted from the main topic here.

“Lorcan stayed on guard, and I came down with Quinn.”

Quinn and I were going to have words. But that could wait.

“Come up, let’s get you back.”

I strode toward her, but froze as her spine snapped straight and she held up a hand. “I don’t think so.”

“What?”

“You can’t just storm in here, drag me back, and lock me up.”

“I wasn’t going to drag you,” I muttered.

“I’m not one of your men, you can’t give me orders!”

“I’m not having this discussion here. It’s not safe here. You’re not safe.”

Her lips pressed together. “Then we don’t need to have the discussion at all.”

“Nadira, please. Come back to the stateroom with me.”

She waited, considering, while I fought the urge to scoop her up, tuck her away. Sure, Geir was on patrol, but we still didn’t know how many Hunters were left. After their attack, I couldn’t count on them sticking to their regular routines.

“Alright. Because you said please.”

Spine still ramrod straight, she walked past me, and, with my jaw so tight I could crack a tooth, I followed.

Once in the safety of our room, my grip splintered. “You can’t go out. You just can’t. You know it’s not safe out there, and I’m not risking it.”

“You can’t keep me here. I’m not going to spend however long it takes to get rescued wrapped in cotton.”

“You’ve said it yourself, you can’t fight.”

“So I’m useless?”

I pulled at my hair. “Of course not. You’re brilliant. You have brilliant ideas. But I need you to stay safe.”

“No one is safe here, why can’t you see that?”

“You nearly died!” I shouted, and she stepped back, the anger on her face replaced by shock.

“No, I didn’t.”

“Yes, you did. You didn’t have a pulse. That’s dead.” Void, I sounded like a cub.

I dropped to the edge of the bed, hands covering my face, trying to block out the vision of her lying still on the engine room floor. “I picked that control station for you to enter the code into. I could have killed you.”

She perched next to me, carefully not touching me. “You could have died when I asked you to go back to save Loree during the Hunters’ attack. You could have died when I wanted to go find a tablet. But I didn’t stop you. I know you have to fight, or you’ll be dead inside.”

“If something happened to you, it wouldn’t matter. I’d be dead inside anyway.” The breath heaved from my chest, tired, leaden. I couldn’t stand this argument. “What do you say to that?”

Long moments stretched, until she leaned towards me to take the link out of my ear and place it on the night table. “I’d say I’m pretty well rested.”

With a roar I pounced on her, pinning her to the bed under me.

She licked her lips in invitation, rocking her hips to press against me.

“Unless you don’t feel like it?” she joked, and I claimed her mouth, our tongues tangling until she panted beneath me.

I ripped open her shirts, needing the taste of her skin, to feel that silken softness under my hands.

“No more clothes,” I growled.

Whatever she answered was lost in her yelp as I took one of her glorious breasts into my mouth, feasting and sucking until she squirmed. I switched to the other, glancing at her beautiful eyes, half-lidded and glazed.

Her breathless gasps made me harder, every moan going straight to my cock.

Rearing above her, I shoved her skirts up to her waist, snarling at the fabric tangling my hands as I reached for her core.

Void, her folds were slick and hot. I wanted to taste her, but not now. She came off the bed as I speared her with a finger, and any last shred of my self-control shattered.

“I need you now,” I shed my pants without looking away from her. “I don’t know how gentle I can be.”

She reached out, pulled me to her. “I don’t want gentle. I want you.”

The head of my cock breached her, and she gasped.

“Are you alright?” I managed between clenched teeth.

“Yes, just…. There.” She made a tentative roll of her hips, and sparks flew across my vision.

“Ronan?” She ran her fingers down the edge of my ears, and, with a tremor down my spine like an earthquake, I unfroze, ramming home into her hot sheath.

Her eyes widened, and I fell into the deep green pools of them, hammering mindlessly until I heard her high cry of release, her body spasming, and I howled, undone and lost within her.

* * *

After, she curled on my chest, and I stroked her hair. This was dangerous, my need for her. Tactically, a disaster. But I didn’t care.

“I’ll go where I want,” she mumbled sleepily.

“No.”

She poked my gut. “Yes. If you get worried, we’ll just do this again.”

“I’m not sure that’s a valid strategy.” But she was right. I couldn’t keep her locked away.

“Only leave with one of us. Stay with them. And you’re back here during any fighting.”

She rolled to kiss my shoulder, and my arm tightened around her. “I’m not eager to be around during the fighting, anyway. Deal.”

Drained, she dropped into sleep and I tried not to think of all the ways this could go wrong.