Chapter 28

Chapter Twenty-Eight
Bodies smashed into a thick paste all along the interior of a shuttle. Connor couldn’t shake the image, no matter what he tried. Those had been Coil soldiers. They had been people like him.
The stench of it. The sight of it.
He shuddered. Even knowing that something like that had happened made complaining about the relative comfort and safety of the Lucky Sevens feel pathetic.
Sure, things broke down—were breaking down all the time—but they hadn’t been pulped. The air was a little stuffy, but once he and Drew replaced the scrubbers and cleaned the shafts, that would clear up. The sections of the ship where the air circulation system didn’t quite balance out? That could be fixed, too.
He was in one of those places, standing outside Selen’s cabin. Everything sounded normal—no grinding or scraping like the other areas that had problems.
Quiet, he realized. The blowers were absolutely quiet. Operational.
It was a little odd that he couldn’t remember when her cabin had suddenly developed the problem. Until recently, he always associated an animal heat with being inside.
After running into Toshiko on Mara, though…
Connor pressed the button on the bulkhead next to the hatch to Selen’s quarters.
What could he say to her? That was the tough part. How would he start—?
She was leaning against the bulkhead when the hatch opened, staring right at him. “What?”
“Hitting the sack?” He felt awkward smiling at the black tank top and gym shorts she usually wore to bed. He’d helped her out of those clothes so many times, usually with a bunch of impatient grunting and groaning and sloppy kisses.
“What do you want, Connor?”
Not tonight. He wasn’t actually looking for that, but the message came across with an icy chill to match the air.
It took him aback. “I was wondering if you had a minute to talk.”
“About?”
Your hostility, for starters. He almost said it. Almost. “Well, I guess I’m curious if I’m still your second.”
“Too many mistakes piling up, even for you? That it?”
Her words were clipped. She barely opened her mouth to speak. Something was eating her up.
He did his best to deescalate: slumping in on himself, showing his palms, looking at her but also casting his eyes down slightly. “I think we’ve exhausted that point, haven’t we?”
“We had. Now Drew.”
“I had no choice but to stand up for her. We needed an engineer, and she was our only option.”
“Your fault, remember?”
Selen was antagonizing him. It wasn’t like her. Well, it was like her, but in a cartoonish, outlandish way. She could be stubborn and argumentative and petty, but she could also be fun and warm—hot, even—and smart.
And she was passionate about her Devils.
Connor stepped back. “Maybe I should come back.”
Her hand shot out and grabbed him by the shirt. “You don’t get to make that call.”
“Whoa! Selen. We don’t hit each other. That’s a bad idea for professionals.”
For a second, she squinted at her own hand, then she released her grip. “Sorry.”
“Do you need to talk?”
She braced an elbow high on the bulkhead and leaned her forehead against the crook of her elbow. “I don’t—” A shudder ran through her. “Come in.”
As the captain of the operation, she could’ve had much larger quarters, but her cabin was the same size as his, although it was more cramped with years of collected paraphernalia—trophies, keepsakes, awards. An entire shelf was dedicated to the dead: dog tags, photos, lucky charms, talismans. They were all nearly lost in the dim light.
That was another change in her behavior. Selen used to love bright light.
His hand drifted up to the necklace Toshiko had given him, but he stopped himself. Bringing attention to her was the last thing he needed at this crucial point.
He leaned against the bulkhead where a foldout desk sometimes occupied Selen’s attention. The desk was folded up now. “You go first.”
Selen set her butt against the fold down bunk and grabbed the side of it hard enough for the triceps of her arms to bunch up. “I think I got that out of my system. You go.”
Was it a trap? He couldn’t read her body language beyond…well, she was tense. “I guess I want to start with what I already asked.”
“I told you before, a good second is hard to come by.”
“And I’m good enough for now?”
She glanced over her shoulder, at the bunk. Was she saying that was part of the deal? “One mistake doesn’t undo all you’ve done.”
“Which mistake? Dr. Litvinenko?”
“I think that’s the only one we can definitely say was a mistake. Like you said, Mosiah gave us a job that got us off Mara.”
“Okay.” It seemed to Connor that she was being sincere. “So, as your second, when were you planning to tell me about the job?”
Now she folded her arms. Muscles played the length of her forearms as she squeezed her elbows. “What do you want to know?”
“What I should know: everything, right?”
“I assume you’ve already heard where we’re going, since Martienne ran her mouth off.”
“Gregor told me what happened to him there.”
“I’m a little too old to believe ghost stories.”
“He believes it. That’s the important part.”
Selen leaned forward, eyes narrowed. “And you?”
The cabin felt so much colder to Connor than he could remember. Images of the crushed soldiers covering the shuttle interior flashed through his head. “What’s Mosiah want? We loaded crates up for him. Are we delivering some sort of cargo?”
“Doesn’t matter, Connor. The way I see it, he’s the customer now. He paid our way. What he wants, he gets.”
“But your team should know what’s going to be expected of them.”
“What they should know is that they’re getting paid. I’ve taken care of all my old debts now. Going forward, all of you owe me.” She strode across the cabin faster than Connor had expected. There was a smell like jasmine coming off of her, and more heat than could rightly be expected in such a cool room. “You should remember that, since you’re the one who cost us the other jobs.”
Even quicker than moving into his space, she’d jumped back to blaming him for their situation.
And the way she was breathing—hot and deep, like when she wanted him.
Except their was no mistaking the fury in her eyes.
Something was wrong—with her, with their relationship, with the job. He needed to figure out what, even if it meant pushing her beyond this fury.
She moved closer, and when he raised his hands to stop her, she guided them to her chest.
But the anger was still in her eyes. Her lips parted. “Why are you wearing that thing?”
“What?” He pulled his hands free.
“That stupid necklace she gave you.” Selen stroked his chest with a finger, tracing an outline of the necklace without ever touching it.
“I—”
Selen licked her lips and leaned closer, breathing on him. “Why let her get between us? We had it good. You said you loved me.” She grabbed his belt. “Let’s—”
An alarm blared, jolting the two of them out of the moment.
She backed away, blinking and shaking her head. “What just happened?”
“I don’t know. I’ll check.”
Connor hurried out of the cabin, only relaxing once the hatch was closed again. Whatever was going on, he felt like it couldn’t be more troubling than what had just happened with Selen.