Okay, Ax thought. This is a little more my speed.

Just like the footage had shown, the box containing the Gambler’s Luck sat on a stone pillar at center stage. An elegant woman dressed in an expensive-looking bodysuit sat just in front of it, watching the crowd with dispassionate boredom. The club itself spanned several floors, with bars on each level to speed up service and—more importantly—increase revenue. Efficient. In another life, he’d be looking for the owner, trying to get an idea of their take in a week and...

And the location was too close to Gobby’s territory for her not to have someone present. She was a lot of things, but sloppy wasn’t one of them. His eyes scanned the crowd again, looking for telltale signs of her influence. He spotted a well-dressed woman in the corner, her eyes the pale green of someone riding a Jade Musk high. Not Gobby’s typical fare, but a solid moneymaker all the same.

“What’s wrong?” Kayana tightened her fingers on his arm and leaned in. “You tensed up.”

“I’m being paranoid.” Not quite a lie, but not the whole truth either. Guilt twisted his stomach. She deserved the whole truth. And he’d give it to her.

Later.

She kissed the middle of his forehead, and the smell of her skin was a balm for his ragged nerves. “It’s a crowded room with dozens of exits and no reliable witnesses. It would be extremely simple for even a semiskilled assassin to fatally wound someone and be well away from the scene before it was discovered.”

So much for feeling better. “For the record, you suck at reassuring people.”

“Sorry, was that what I was supposed to be doing?” She bumped her head against his lightly, her grin infectious. “Besides, that’s going to work to our advantage, too.”

“Except that we’re the ones jumping up on a dais in an extremely flashy robbery.” A sudden thought hit him. Even if Gobby didn’t have people here, the robbery would absolutely make the news programs. There’s no way she’d miss it. Or him. His stomach cratered out. “I’m not so sure this is a good idea after all.”

She smiled. “Cold feet already?”

Would he ever be cold again with her amazing smirk to fire his blood? He slipped his arms around her waist and hooked his thumbs into the pockets of her exo-suit. “Let’s say I’m having an attack of common sense, instead.”

“There’s a first time for everything, I suppose.” She tapped him in the ribs with a fist. “Relax. I told you, anything that happens, we’ll handle it. Together.”

There it was again, the sharp pain that practically made his eyes water. The knowledge that no matter how much he might want to, he couldn’t deserve the faith she’d put in him. Sooner or later he’d end up disappointing her.

“Be casual, we’ve attracted attention.”

Kayana’s voice snapped him out of the pity spiral he’d started down and called him back to the dangers of the room. A bald man had broken off from the crowd and walked directly toward them. Ax didn’t recognize him as one of Gobby’s thugs, but looks-wise he certainly could have been.

“Which team are you?” the newcomer asked. When Ax feigned confusion, the man pointed at his ear. “That’s an Octiron comm unit. So, I assume you’re here for the race.” A rough scar marred one side of the man’s face, but instead of downplaying it, he’d had a tattoo that called attention to it.

“And if we are?” Kayana stepped in front of the newcomer, her hand on his chest. “Who are you, our planet-side contact?”

The man made a wet sound that could have been a laugh or a cough. “Hardly, devil-girl.” Ax tensed, expecting Kayana to bristle at the dismissive tone, but she surprised him by not throwing Baldy through the nearest wall. “I’m more like the larf in the wiring.”

Ax debated stepping forward, but unless this guy had a weapon in his too-tight jeans, Kayana could handle herself. He contented himself with looking over her shoulder. “Meaning what, exactly?”

“Meaning you both look hungry, and I need someone to send a message to one of your rivals.”

“Send your own messages.” Kayana’s vehemence surprised Ax. “I’m no one’s delivery person.”

Baldy held up his hands. “Normally, I’d say fine. Unfortunately, I can’t show my hand directly.” He reached into his pocket, and Kayana’s hand dropped to the knife at her waist. She only relaxed when he tugged a small cloth pouch free and held it up. “In a few minutes, one of the other teams is going to show up. You can’t miss them. Big guy. Albino.”

Ax remembered the guy from the pre-race events. Big was an understatement. “Team Galaxy Riders. He’s got a bright-blue teammate, right?” The team name was hard to forget, especially since it had popped up repeatedly on the chyron. They were doing well, and positioned ahead of Ax and Kayana after Octiron’s penalty was applied.

Baldy scoffed. “Something like that, yeah. They’re coming for the box, I suspect same as you are. When they get close, you touch them with what’s in that pouch. Tell them Orion sends his regards.”

“What happens then?” It was never as simple as they made it sound, and Ax really didn’t want to be point-blank when someone got vaporized. Beams had been known to miss.

Kayana stepped back into Ax’s chest. “I already said we weren’t interested.”

“Wait a tick. Let’s hear him out.” This was an opportunity he hadn’t considered. They were already cheating on the challenge, why not stretch a little further.

She narrowed her eyes at him. “You can’t be considering this.”

“Nobody gets killed,” Baldy interjected. “I give you my word. Though I admit, I wouldn’t have expected that to bother you.”

“Your word means nothing to me.” Kayana’s skin flared with heat as her anger nearly seared Ax’s hands. “We have no precedent to establish its value, but someone who can’t deliver their vengeance personally gives me a good idea of their word’s worth.”

Ax put a hand on her shoulder and whispered. “Let’s not piss him off, shall we?” He turned his focus on Baldy. “What do we get out of it? Those who take the risk deserve the reward.”

“One fewer team between you and victory seems like reward enough. If you can’t spin that into a win, that’s on you.”

Ax took a deep breath. He could do it, push the team that much closer to a victory. Get Kayana that much closer to what she wanted. And she already knew what his word was worth.

“Best make your decision fast,” the man said. “They’re here.”

On the far side of the room, the elevator doors opened. Ax couldn’t miss the albino—the guy had to be two meters tall. A split second later, he spotted the man’s partner. Honestly, he wasn’t sure how he missed seeing her first. She glowed like a well-lit sapphire. Part of him wished he’d paid more attention to their names during the pre-race events. Then again, that would only make screwing them over more awkward. He held out his hand to Baldy. “I’ll do it.”

Kayana’s hand rested on her wrist, “Ax, no.”

“You get the gem. I’ll take care of this.” He’d explain it later. He could make her understand. Just not now. Hopefully sometime after that, he’d be able to wash the memory of her disappointed look away.

Baldy slapped the cloth bag into his hand. “At least one of you has some stones.”

The woman on stage had stood up, a response to some kind of commotion down in the gaming area. Had one of the contestants won while he and Kayana were standing around? Ax looked toward the elevator again. The albino’s blue partner had taken off at a dead run for the stage. Her teammate stood for a moment longer, then took off after her.

“They’re moving. We gotta go.”

Kayana took off just ahead of him, using a combination of her threatening appearance and a solid right shoulder to bulldoze through the crowd. It made an easy path for Ax to follow, though he noted the crowd, and security, closing surging closed in his wake. Whatever happened, he hoped they didn’t have to run for it afterwards. There’d be no getting back the way they’d come.

The albino’s partner was already leaping up onto the stage, her azure hair bouncing. How did anyone move that fast? She grabbed the box with both hands and leaned back, but it refused to budge.

Kayana and Ax hit the stage at the same time as the albino, and everything went into overdrive. The crowd screamed and howled. The hostess looked a lot less bored and was shouting for guards. And Ax and Kayana reached the box.

Ax shook the pouch out into his hand as he ran, revealing a red gemstone that glowed with some kind of internal light. He tapped the albino and his partner on the hand with the stone and slapped it down on top of the box. After glancing back toward Baldy, Ax growled out, “Orion says hello.”

The albino had enough time to give Ax a startled expression. An eyeblink later, brilliant white light seared Ax’s eyes, and he turned away from the box for a moment. When he looked back, the albino and his sapphire-skinned partner were gone. Ax grabbed the box from the pedestal.

The shock of the disappearance was starting to wear off the crowd, and Ax could sense the outrage taking its place. They were going to want answers—and blood—soon. He tucked the red jewel into his pocket and “Forget about them. We need to go!”

Ax tucked the box under his arm and tugged Kayana toward the center of the stage. He tapped his comm unit. “Algol! Get us out of here!” For a moment, he thought the message hadn’t gone through; security started onto the platform, stunners at the ready. Then the nausea hit, and the goose-flesh sensation of his every hair standing on end as the transfer beam grabbed him.

#

KAYANA TUGGED HER ARM free of Ax’s grip as soon as the transfer beam’s disorientation had worn off. Too soon, if she was honest, and she stumbled a few feet forward to brace herself against the wall. She glared at him. “What in the ice-blasted hells was that?”

He looked stunned for a moment, the surprise on his face somehow even more infuriating. Not that it lasted long. It coalesced into a hardness she hadn’t seen from him before, and wouldn’t have expected. He set the box on the edge of the console. “We completed the challenge.” He cracked open the box to reveal the Gambler’s Luck, a lapis cabochon the size of her palm. “We also eliminated our biggest rivals at the same time, so bonus.”

Almost as reflex, she checked the chyron on the viewscreens in the transfer room. Team Galaxy Riders no longer appeared in the rankings, leaving her and Ax at the top. Sour bile filled the back of her mouth and she fought to swallow it back. “I thought we were supposed to be a team.”

“You were taking too long to decide. We were going to miss our opportunity.”

“No. I’d already decided. I even asked you not to. This stupid race is dangerous enough with Octiron trying to kill us all. Why in the Nine Names would you make it harder?” She stumbled to a small chiller unit in the room and grabbed a pixberry yogurt tube. Probably the best part of the ship’s design – keeping snacks in the same room as the matter transfer beam. The protein and carbs would help her recover from the transfer, and maybe take the taste of disappointment out of her mouth. She choked down the tart-sweet mixture and dropped the empty tube in the waste bin.

“It’s not like we killed anybody.” He shut the box and stepped off the platform, reaching toward her.

She stepped out of his reach. “You don’t know that! Just because some tattooed outlander said it doesn’t necessarily make it so.” How had she been so wrong? First Braxas, now Ax; when had she become so lousy at judging a man’s character?

He scoffed but there was no mirth in it. “I’m certain Darryn appreciates your sudden reverence for the sanctity of life.”

The words sliced deep. She’d been genuinely upset at the revelation that her crew had killed the man, even indirectly. She could claim it hadn’t been their intent, but that didn’t make him any less dead. “That’s not fair.”

“Fair? Which one of us is a pirate again?” He set the box containing the Luck on the console and turned back toward her. After taking a deep breath, he tried again. “I’m sorry. Of all the things that could have happened, them being ported off to gods know where wasn’t what I expected. At the end of the day, it gets us closer to victory.”

Kayana wanted to scream, but managed to grind her words out past clenched teeth instead. “And you’d be okay with winning like this? Without any kind of honor?”

“Honor doesn’t get you your own ship, or buy you back into your family’s graces.”

“Being without it isn’t going to get me back in either. Not to mention the fact that I resent being roped into being the instrument of someone else’s revenge. The nineteenth maxim is pretty clear on that point.”

“What’s that again?”

She recited it from memory. “In betrayal and vengeance, have conviction enough to strike the last blow yourself.”

He blinked, and the shame that crossed his features seemed real. “I did it. Not you.”

“That doesn’t matter. We’re a team. In the eyes of my people, our actions as individuals speak for the collective. That’s why our Houses are so important to us. They define us, and we define them in turn.” She sighed and slumped against the doorframe. “Al’kheri didn’t create the maxims on a whim. He set them down to give structure to the infighting that had been tearing us apart for generations. To keep us connected even as we scattered to new worlds on the fringe.”

Ax nodded. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know.” His shoulders bowed like he’d been carrying half the galaxy on his back.

Kayana shook her head. “Yes you did, Ax. You heard me ask you not to. You just chose to ignore my feelings.” The truth of it hurt, but she’d been the one foolish enough to form attachments to him despite knowing better. She needed to keep her heart better protected, not set it free every time someone swayed her with a thoughtful gift or talented mouth.

“What do we do now?” He sounded small, as though he’d finally realized the price of his actions, and she could hear her heart telling her that he could change. That he was changing.

“What choice do we have? The ship won’t let us return without going to Altaira. We still have to finish the race. Just...” she took a deep breath. “Talk to me. I never told you why it was important that we not do someone else’s dirty work, so that’s on me. No more secrets.”

Ax looked at her extended hand, considering it for a moment, then reached across and took it. “No more secrets.” It wasn’t quite a reconciliation, but it felt like a step toward one. “And for what it’s worth, I never meant to hurt you.”

She nodded. That much she believed. He’d done what he thought was expedient, but not maliciously. Toward her, at least. Stupid that her v’tana still flared at his touch. Kayana forced the energy back down with a twinge of regret. Now wasn’t the time.

After a moment, she called out to the ship. “Algol, plot in a course for Altaira and get us underway.” The vibration in the deck plates changed as the engines ramped up.

His fingers curled against her palm, tracing a gentle line that stoked her v’tana despite her best efforts to resist. “I don’t suppose there’s some way I could make it up to you?” he asked.

The promise in his voice made want curl along her nerves and sent a shiver along her spine. “Aren’t supplicants usually on their knees?”

He paused a moment, stroking his chin as he imagined the possibilities before piercing her with his smug grin. “I’m good with that.”