Steel Coyote Page 18

  It was quick work to load with the four of them working together. The shuttle had straps to secure the machines. Within thirty minutes, the job was complete.

  The woman approached Remy and took her hands. It was startling, and she had to tell herself not to pull away.

  “We will make sure the babes are safe.” The other woman squeezed Remy’s hands. “You will succeed on Haverty. Don’t doubt what you can accomplish.”

  Remy didn’t have time to be surprised the Great Family knew where she was going. They had been watching her. And there wasn’t much they didn’t know.

  With a final nod, the two strangers climbed into the shuttle. Max and Remy stepped out of the loading dock and sealed the door before opening the outer door. After the shuttle left, she started shaking.

  Max put his arm on her shoulders. “We’re going to stop him.”

  Remy nodded, but inside she knew it was going to be one of the hardest things she’d ever done. She was glad he was at her side. The next twenty-four hours were going to crawl by.

  The time for battle had arrived.

  Chapter Eight

  Max didn’t remember the last time he’d been so wound up. His hands gripped the controls so tightly, his elbow hurt. He had to loosen his hand and let up so he could ease the ship into orbit above Haverty.

  It was time.

  He eased the Steel Coyote down and blew out a breath when he set the system to orbit the moon. The gravity of Haverty was easier than some, for which he was grateful. It could have been a real bitch, but his home moon seemed to welcome him back. Not that he wanted to be there. Truthfully, he’d never expected to set his sights on Haverty again.

  Max double-checked the panel before he got to his feet. He hadn’t yet looked out at the moon, but when he did, his gut took that opportunity to flip. Then flop.

  “Shuttle’s ready.” Katie’s voice yanked him back from his stupid reaction.

  “I need to get my things together.” He tried to walk past her, and she grabbed his arm.

  She’d been ignoring him since their conversation a few days earlier. Now she showed him a side he hadn’t expected—concern.

  “She’s my best friend. You keep her safe.” It wasn’t a question, but rather an order.

  “I’ll do my best to protect her, but she’s a grown woman. And armed. I can’t control her. God knows, no one can.” He’d fallen so hard for her already. Thinking about what would happen on Haverty made him want to puke. For now, he’d focus on keeping her out of the line of fire.

  “That’s true, but I still expect you to protect her, whether or not she likes it.”

  He shook his head. “I damn sure know she won’t like that.”

  “I don’t give a flying shit what she wants. You gotta protect her.” Katie’s voice hitched, showing the depth of how much she cared for Remy. He knew they were close, like sisters, although they couldn’t be more physically different.

  “I’d give my life for her.” It popped out of his mouth before he thought about what he’d say.

  Katie’s brows went up. “I think you mean that.”

  He grimaced, uncomfortable with the depth of his feelings for Remy. “I do. Damn it, I do.”

  “Good. She needs someone who loves her for who she is, not who they want her to be. She’s trusted the wrong man before, and it damaged her soul.” Katie’s words made him want to find the son of a bitch who hurt Remy and rip him to pieces. “You get your asses back here alive, and I might even approve of you being in charge of the bridge.” She narrowed her gaze.

  Pulling his thoughts from Remy’s past, he focused on the present and reassured Katie. “I swear to you, I’ll give everything to keep her safe.” He’d give his life for hers, that was the absolute truth. Whether she would let him was another matter.

  “Fine. I’m done then.” Katie left the bridge, clomping down the stairs in her small pixie boots.

  Max blew out a breath and followed. He made it to his cabin before he ran into the next person—Foley stood in the corridor, his arms crossed and the usual scowl on his face. Max tried to push past him, but the old fool blocked his path.

  “What do you want?”

  “I want your promise you’ll keep her safe.”

  Max resisted the urge to roll his eyes. He wasn’t sure if he should be insulted to be doubted by the two of them or be glad she had people who truly cared for her.

  “I’m not going to promise you a thing, old man. She’d tear you apart if she knew you were pushing me into a promise to keep her safe.” He was rewarded when Foley’s frown faltered.

  “I know that. I’m talking to you because you’re a pretty boy, and I want you to find your balls before you hit atmo.” Foley had the gall to peer at his crotch.

  Max took him by the collar, his patience snapped. “Look, you old badger, I’m doing this for her. Do you think for one second I’d let her walk into danger if I couldn’t protect her? Goddammit, I might just love her.”

  Foley smiled and plucked Max’s fingers from his shirt. “That’s what I thought. You watch your six, Fletcher.”

  The fool walked away with his hitching gait, leaving Max to steam at the interference these people thought they could ply. He was here for Remy, every damn second of it, from the moment his shoes hit the ramp to the Steel Coyote. Now, it was more than helping out a pretty woman. His heart was involved, and their lives were on the line.

  Things had become very serious, very quickly. He didn’t know if he should be frightened or terrified. The awful truth was, he was more afraid of what would happen if he lost her.

  Shaking off all the nonsense the crew had dumped on him, he went into his cabin and got his gear ready. He touched the small pouch around his neck and left for the shuttle dock, which was next to the cargo bay at the base of the ship. When he got there, Mason and Morgan were waiting.

  His patience was wearing thin, but he’d give them the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps they were going to express concern over his well-being and not Remy’s. Unlikely, but possible.

  “We wanted to wish you luck.” Morgan graced him with one of her wide smiles. “And to say thank you.”

  “You don’t need to thank me. Being family means you don’t have to.” He patted her head, surprised to find he meant what he said.

  “Watch out for Coddington’s general,” Mason said, always more serious than his sister.

  “Benson?” Max remembered him well.

  “Yeah, that’s him. Mean son of a bitch. Wears black gloves, even in the heat.” Mason must have had run-ins with the asshole.

  Max smiled grimly. “That’s because he lost two of his fingers trying to stop me from leaving.”

  For a moment, Mason looked impressed, but then his mask of indifferent anger slipped back into place. “Good. Maybe this time he can lose something else.”

  Max shouldn’t be surprised to hear the boy wish General Benson’s death. He was Coddington’s tool of violence, the one who acted on all of the bastard’s sick plans. Max didn’t want to see the man, but if he did, he’d be ready to finish what he’d started ten years earlier.

  “You two stay hidden with Foley. He’s to keep you well out of sight. I don’t want to be worried about where you are while Remy and I are on the moon.” He didn’t want to admit to being worried about them, but there it was. His emotions were running wild, and he damn sure wanted more control.

  “We will. Please be careful.” Morgan threw her thin arms around his waist and squeezed him hard.

  He didn’t have a chance to react before she scampered away. Mason looked at him and one corner of his mouth went up.

  “Don’t expect a hug from me. I ain’t that kind.”

  Max held up his hands. “Thank the stars for that. I’m not a hugging person, either. Your sister surprised me is all.”

  “The darkness never got hold of her like it did us.” Mason sighed so softly Max almost didn’t hear it.

  “Let’s keep it that way. We need people like Morga
n in the world, otherwise it would be a very dark place.” Max had never met a girl like her, and he never would again. Protecting her, both of them, was what he’d try to do. Remy could take care of herself, but he still planned on keeping her behind him as much as possible. She might kick him when he did it, but he could survive a few bruises. He didn’t know if he’d survive if she died because he hadn’t shielded her.

  It was a conundrum that two weeks ago the only worry he had was not looking like an ass when he wore white uniforms on the Polaris cruise ship. Now he had a family, a woman he loved, a bastard he wanted to kill, and a crew who depended on him to keep them all safe. The weight of the world was on his shoulders.

  He hadn’t asked for it, but it was his responsibility now. He would save them all, or he’d die trying. His life to date hadn’t been worth a spit. But because he’d had a drink in the bar on Station Twenty, now it had purpose. He had purpose.

  Max Fletcher straightened and walked to the shuttle bay where Remy waited.

  …

  Remy sat beside Max in the shuttle and checked her pistol for the hundredth time. Still loaded, still ready to fire. Gunnar had taught her how to take care of a weapon from the time she was able to hold the cleaning rod. Her pistol was in prime condition and it never misfired. The ache of missing her father grew sharp, and her throat tightened.

  The Steel Coyote was in desperate straits, and Remy barely held on. The “have nots” were circling her ship, waiting for their opportunity to pick it for a pittance and escape the simple life they led into the sky. The “haves” looked down their noses at her, an inexperienced unknown who dared to call herself a ship’s captain. She’d taken the job with Cooper to save her crew and her ship.

  Max had done it for her.

  Feelings swirled in her gut, tying her insides into knots. Remy was stretched tighter than a frayed bowstring. She had nothing and everything to lose. They didn’t know what awaited them on Haverty, and their deadline to meet Cooper’s man Rockford was hours away. The stop in Azesus had cut into the precious time they had to get to Haverty. She could hardly believe Max had gotten them there early, considering all the crazy bullshit that had happened since they’d left Station Twenty. Now that they were here ahead of schedule, they had taken the time to plan.

  She could hardly believe the sequence of events, but here they were, about to take the biggest gamble of her life. The black cases that had held the babies were stacked behind them on the shuttle, a dark reminder of the shadowed world the infants had been bound for.

  “Steel Coyote to shuttle.” Katie’s voice crackled over the comm.

  Max pushed the comm button. “Go ahead.”

  “It seems no one on the ground has spotted us. Keep the comm channel open and don’t do anything stupid.”

  “Copy that.” Remy looked at Max. “Let’s go. It’s going to take us at least an hour to get through the atmo and then another two to get to the rendezvous point.”

  “Yes, Captain.” Max would have normally said that with more than a bit of sass, but this time, he was serious. It jacked her anxiety even higher.

  “Let’s go over the plan again.” Remy needed to ground herself. Her stomach was twisted into a knot so tight bile coated the back of her throat.

  “I’d have thought you’d have tattooed it on your arm by now,” Max ground out.

  “You know I just want to be sure. Don’t be a dickhead about it.” She watched as he expertly maneuvered the ship, using the thrusters out of the ship and toward the moon.

  “It’s been a long week.” He plotted the course to enter the atmo then looked at her with a scowl. “Are you going to start talking about life and death now?”

  She snorted. “Not hardly. It’s just…I’m nervous.” Remy could have snatched the words back from the air and stuffed them back into her mouth.

  “You’re nervous. About being on a job with me. Or maybe about what might happen.” It wasn’t a question, and he didn’t look happy about it.

  “I reckon I am.”

  They neared the burn zone in atmo, and she had to save her questions for the next fifteen minutes. The heat from the terraformed atmo was incredible. The fact someone had made a machine to create such a thing astonished her. Hell, she was an old-fashioned girl, preferred the old ways to the new.

  Max kept his hands on the yoke, his fingers tight. His expression was calm, no hint of the hell they were about to bring down on their heads, not to mention the danger of landing on Haverty.

  When they cleared atmo, he checked the gauges and continued flying toward the other side of the moon. The awkward silence continued, filling the cabin slowly until it almost suffocated her.

  “Now, let’s go over the plan again.” She needed something to focus on besides how tense she was.

  Max started reciting what she already knew by heart. “We’re taking the cases down to Haverty to pass them off to this Rockford guy. We need him to confess that Coddington was behind it and what the cargo was. That’s going to be tricky, but if you push anyone hard enough they’ll confess. After we make the exchange, we’re going to take all the evidence of his slavery trade and get the hell off the moon. According to our agreement, we bring what we know about Delmar’s slave business to the Great Family and get it shut down.”

  “What happens if we run into your father?”

  “The Great Family is monitoring our comm. They will step in if need be.” He grunted. “And Coddington isn’t my father just because his blood flows through my veins.”

  “Do you think the plan will work?”

  “No, probably not.” His pronouncement made her wince. “Something is going to go wrong.”

  “Aren’t you a ray of sunshine?”

  His shoulders tightened. “I’m doing the best I can, Remy. Same as you.”

  He untied the cord around his neck and held the small pouch in his palm. “When I was a kid, my mother lived here on Haverty with her parents, but I was taken into Delmar’s household. A natural-born son to take over his business.” Max’s mouth twisted. “It didn’t take me long to figure out I was different than the rest of the people on the moon. I had anything I wanted while others had to steal shoes from the dead to keep their feet warm in cold weather. When I was seven, I saw a boy punished in the public square. They hacked off his pinky finger. I asked my father about it, and he said the boy had disobeyed his master. He was an example to himself and others to always do what they were told.”

  Remy wasn’t sure what prompted him to tell her about his life, but she kept quiet, allowing him to speak.

  “I started small. Sneaking food to others, and giving away my clothes and shoes. He spanked me and punished me by withholding food, but I wouldn’t stop. I couldn’t.” He fingered the pouch. “When I was twelve and set fire to the cotton field, Delmar hanged my mother to prove to me he had the power to do anything.”

  Remy couldn’t stop the gasp. “Oh, Max.”

  “Of course, he made me watch. He was determined to make me into his image, but I was just as determined not to.”

  He opened the leather, revealing a piece of iridescent rock that almost glowed in the meager light. “She’d dug it up when harvesting carrots. I’d collected rocks when I was little, and she always saved me one every week. Delmar threw my collection into the outhouse after my mother died. Told me to grow up and become a man. I saved this one by hiding it for two days so he couldn’t find it.” He looked up at her; the naked pain in his gaze knocked the breath from her. “It’s all I have left of her.”

  He wrapped the pouch back up and tied it shut. When he hung it around her neck, tears filled her eyes and emotions washed over her.

  “Delmar took everything from me as soon as I grew close to being happy. That included my best friend, Leo. When we were fourteen, he was shot trying to ‘escape.’ Ridiculous, since he had a club foot and couldn’t run worth a damn.” He chuffed a laugh with no humor. “I dug the bio chip out of my arm and left Haverty a few years later. I have
n’t been Delmar Coddington, Jr. since that day my mother died. I got another bio chip after I escaped and became Max Fletcher.” He leaned forward and pressed his forehead to hers.

  “Why did you tell me all this?”

  There was a long pause. Too long. “I think I’m falling in love with you, Remy. I wanted you to know everything. I’m sorry I got you into this.”

  She took a calming breath. “I’m not. I made some stupid mistakes in my life, including leaving the ship for a couple months. I, uh, thought I was in love and it turns out I was just a play toy until he got bored. I fought my way back here, and I’ve been afraid to leave it since then. I hid on the Steel Coyote after Gunnar died. I let things happen to me instead of making them happen.” She cupped his cheek. “Did you mean what you just said?”

  “Every goddamn word.”

  She managed a strangled laugh. “The part about maybe loving me.”

  His blue eyes regarded her steadily, with something she never thought to experience. “I meant it.”

  She kissed him softly. “Thank God.” Remy wasn’t ready to return the sentiment but she felt it, way down in her bones. She loved this man to a depth she didn’t know existed.

  He smiled against her lips. “You’re not easy to love, Remington Hawthorne, or whatever the hell your name is.”

  She leaned back. “Right back atcha, Max Fletcher, or whatever the hell your name is.”

  Nothing good had ever lasted in her life, and this would be the exception.

  The rest of the trip to the surface seemed to take forever. Aside from the occasional comm chatter with the Steel Coyote, they didn’t speak a word to each other, and yet there were words flying about the shuttle as if they’d been thrown.

  “There’s the landing zone.” Max spoke as they approached the first trees she’d seen on the barren planet. Beyond that lay fields of green, sparkling water, and buildings. It was incongruous with the rest of the moon to find an oasis. She would have been drawn to it, too, if she’d been a settler. Too bad there was a dragon living beneath the surface named Delmar Coddington.