Steel Coyote Page 3

  “I am a pilot.”

  Her back stiffened more, if that were possible. “This is my life, my ship, my ass on the line here. You’re just a charming stranger amusing himself at my expense. Someone who spends half his time trying to get laid.”

  Her words were cutting, sharp as the knife she no doubt had in her boot. He felt each one slide into him, harsh but mostly true. Max was more than what he showed the world but she couldn’t know that.

  “You think I’m charming? Well, then I’m doing something right. In my experience, rumors and stories aren’t the truth or even partial truths. You must know that, given how Cooper dismissed you before he’d even met you. I wanted to help you out of a tight spot.”

  “It wasn’t your business to rescue me. We’ve been through this already.”

  “Stop fighting me, Remy. I’m doing this to help you. I’ve no job and just moved out of the boardinghouse I was living in.” He wanted to move closer to her but didn’t dare. “Why is it so hard for you to accept help?”

  She shook her head. “I don’t know you, so I don’t trust you.”

  “You speak the fair truth.” He pressed his fist to his chest. “I admit I first stepped in because I found you attractive.”

  She snorted. “As if I’d believe that.”

  He turned to look at her. “You’re stunning. Tall, strong, and beautiful.”

  Remy pursed her lips. “Not believing a word of it.”

  Someone, somehow, had convinced this exquisite creature she wasn’t beautiful. He understood what it meant to believe yourself to be less than others. He hadn’t expected that with this strong woman. He would convince her otherwise if it was the last thing he did.

  “I realize you don’t know me, but I speak the fair truth, too.” He managed a genuine smile.

  She frowned. “Trust is earned, Max.”

  He was inordinately pleased she had called him by his first name. “I’m working on it.”

  Her lips twitched ever so slightly. “Work harder.”

  The dawn on Station Twenty was more like throwing a switch. One minute it was dark, the next it was bright as hell. They were too far from the two suns to get actual sunlight strong enough to illuminate or heat the rock the station was on. Instead, engineers had built underground heaters and a brightness that emanated from below ground. It gave everything a bluish tint speckled with hints of green. With the atmosphere machines pumping shit into the air to keep it breathable, it was no wonder they all didn’t glow.

  The light came on outside, nearly blinding him and leaving her in silhouette. A tall, busty, curvy silhouette that made his body twitch. She was stunning, smart, and harder than the ship she loved so much. She would also shoot him for thinking about her like that. It made him want her more.

  “Yes, Remy.”

  At this she turned, and although he couldn’t see her expression, the air between them crackled. “My friends are the only people allowed to call me Remy. You’re not a friend. At this point, you’re not even my crew. You can call me Captain or Hawthorne.”

  Hoping she’d continue to show her own flavor of fiery passion, he ignored the order. “Remy is an unusual name. Is it short for something?”

  She stepped toward him, her arm sliding down to the holster on her hip. “I have no name, only that which Gunnar Hawthorne gave me. When he found me in the refuse, I was about four. The only thing I could call my own was the rifle clutched in my hands.”

  Max straightened, more than intrigued. “A Remington?”

  “Yes.” Her voice was deceptively soft. “A nice repeating rifle as bloody as I was. Gunnar had to almost break my fingers to pry it from me.”

  She pressed the pistol into his balls, and he couldn’t stop the squeak that burst out of his mouth. His opinion of her notched up another level.

  “If you ever disrespect me or my ship, I’ll make sure you don’t work in this quadrant again. Understand me?” Her breath was minty as though she’d just brushed her teeth.

  Max flirted with danger and foolishness so often it was second nature to dive right in, head first. His palms itched to cup her face and feel how soft her skin was. Jesus, he wanted to kiss her. A lot. More than he wanted his next breath. His pulse thrummed a heavy beat with desire, with want for the woman standing in front of him yelling at him.

  It was too soon, and of course, he wanted to keep his balls attached.

  “That was your last warning, Fletcher.” She pulled away, her boots echoing across the metal floor as she left the bridge. “Next time, I shoot first.”

  Still smarting, Max adjusted his balls. The morning had only begun, and things were getting interesting. For the first time in years, he wasn’t bored in the least. In fact, he was not only aroused and anxious, he couldn’t wait to find out what happened next.

  “She is intense.” Saint appeared after the danger was over. Typical.

  “That she is.” Max grinned.

  …

  Remy stood at the square window of the cargo hold and peered outside. Ships had already started leaving port with the coming of the light. Cooper would be there soon, and she had to find a way to reconcile what she was about to do with what she wanted to do.

  She was taking a chance. A huge one. An unknown pilot, an unknown cargo, and the threat of the Corporation finding out she took an unsanctioned job. Risky move that either kept them fed for a while or landed them all in a deep, dark hole.

  “Well met, Captain. Is it time?”

  She clenched her hands. Fletcher was quiet as a big cat, sneaking up behind her. “Why are you here?”

  “Same as you, I suppose, waiting on Cooper. I went to the galley, but the old man almost kicked me in the balls when I walked in there, yelling something about coffee. I’m going to have to start wearing a steel cup to protect them. Is he always so friendly to new crew members?”

  “You’re not a crew member.” She was going to pretend he was the ship’s pilot and then jettison him off as soon as Cooper was out of sight. There was no other way—she couldn’t have anyone else’s hands on the helm.

  There was also the fact he was attractive. And charming, much as she didn’t want to admit it.

  Her world was turned upside down, but one thing remained steady. She was the captain of this ship. Remy stuck with tradition, and that didn’t involve an unexpected stranger.

  She had tried to push away the visceral reaction she had to the man. What did it matter if he was good-looking? That she wanted to touch him and possibly push him against the wall and have her way with him? It was the stress making her loopy and horny. He didn’t belong.

  And the coffee was none of his fucking business.

  He approached her from behind, his body heat mingling with hers. She smelled him, a foreign scent, unknown and unwanted, yet she found herself breathing it in. An ache bloomed in her heart. He was a stranger and, therefore, a danger. She couldn’t let her attraction to him cloud her judgment.

  This rogue thought to offer help and assumed she’d fall at his feet.

  She turned to look at him, sinfully handsome, even though he’d doubtless spent the night in one of the tiny bunks below decks. He probably only had to shake his hair and everything fell into place. Her idiotic body appreciated his looks with a rush of heat from her core.

  “I’m doing the best I can for me and my crew. While I, uh, appreciate the gesture to help me, I don’t trust easy.” She held his stare.

  “I figured that out already. I can leave if you want me to.” He sounded sincere.

  “Foley was wrong.” She forced it passed her lips. “You aren’t a pretty boy.”

  One ebony brow rose. “I’m glad you came to that conclusion. It had been weighing on my mind that you might believe it.”

  Remy had to bite back a snort. He was a sarcastic son of a bitch. No wonder he needed a Moral Compass. “I need you to get this job with Cooper. I’ll give you a hundred credits to go through with this farce, then I’ll drop you off at any station in the qu
adrant.”

  He rubbed his chin, the skin rasping on the dark whiskers. “Tempting offer. A hundred credits, hmm?”

  “Two hundred.” She could scarce afford it, but unless she convinced him to stay, the Steel Coyote and her real crew were done.

  He moved closer again, his bulk surprising her. He appeared lanky, if muscular, but up close, he was much bigger than she expected. Remy was tall, but he was at least four inches taller than her. An unusual experience and, truthfully, titillating.

  “I’ll tell you what, Captain Hawthorne, I’ll do it for a much smaller cost.” He inched closer still, until their noses nearly touched. His presence overwhelmed her, scrambled her tired brain.

  “What cost?” She hated that her voice shook ever so slightly.

  “A kiss. From you.”

  Remy had been surprised very few times in her life, but this one surpassed all those moments. Her mouth dropped open and she found herself at a loss for words.

  She wanted to kiss him.

  Her lips ached to find out just how his felt against hers, if they were as soft and as hot as they looked. Her belly burned with arousal. It had been far too long since she had kissed a man. Especially a man as attractive as Max.

  “That high of a price?” He tsked and reached for her cheek.

  She broke out of her stupor and jerked away, breaking the spell he’d woven around her. Remy couldn’t afford to be distracted for any reason. She was hanging on by her fingernails. Her goddamn fingers hurt, but she was not about to let go of the ledge.

  “If, and only if, we pull this off, Cooper’s paid us, we fly away with the cargo, then I will pay you. I will kiss you, but you will never touch me.” No one was allowed that privilege without her permission. Remy was very choosy about her paramours and didn’t risk her body or her heart. Ever.

  “I might get you to change your mind.”

  “No, you won’t. Do we have a deal?” Her throat was tight with emotions she didn’t want to acknowledge. Not the least of which was annoyance at him and herself. Followed by hunger to find out what he offered.

  He smiled, and she couldn’t say if it was genuine or designed to make her melt. Either way, she kept her expression schooled and waited for him to speak. He crossed his arms, emphasizing the wide chest hidden by the clothes he wore. The man wasn’t big, but he was tall, solid, muscular, and well made. Damn him.

  “I accept your terms. When you change your mind—”

  “I won’t.”

  His smile widened. “When you change your mind, know that my bed is always open to you.”

  The audacity of the man astounded her. Perhaps he’d spent too much time on one of the pleasure planets getting both his big head and his little head full of pretty praise about his prowess. Those skilled courtesans could make a midget believe he was eight feet tall with a magical foot-long dick. No doubt they could make an ordinary man puff up with false self-worth like this pilot.

  A small voice inside her noted he wasn’t an ordinary man.

  She speared him with a look with as much frost as she could muster. “Be quiet and stay behind me, Fletcher.” She pushed the lever to open the cargo door and waited for it to open, the pilot at her side.

  It was going to be a long, long day. An even longer day with him at the helm of her ship. She would make good on her plan to drop him off somewhere after they left port with payment for his assistance. Cooper would never know Max wasn’t really part of her crew.

  Cooper stood at the end of the dock, half a dozen men lounging behind him on a medium-size pile of crates. These were no ordinary crates. They were expensive ones with a time-sensitive lock, titanium hinges, and Kevlar skin. Definitely an unsanctioned cargo. The Corporation could arrest her for even considering taking the job. She should walk away, but pride and desperation kept her rooted in place.

  “Well met, sirs. If you want to talk, it’s safer up here,” she said to Cooper, her voice carefully bland. “We don’t need everyone on the station knowing our business.” It was out of range of the black spheres and those who might be listening.

  After a few moments, the big man shuffled up the ramp, two of his men at his heels like well-trained dogs. She felt Max stiffen beside her. Remy swore the hologram perched on his shoulder stiffened, too. Alpha males scenting another.

  Up close and in the bright light, Cooper had the kind of face only his mother could love. A scar bisected one of his eyes, his cheeks were pockmarked with numerous scars from some childhood disease, and his neck was mottled red, protruding on his enormous shoulders.

  “Glad to see Fletcher is here.” Cooper couldn’t seem to help the sneer that flew from his fishy lips.

  She opened her mouth to speak, but Fletcher beat her to it. “Her name is Captain Hawthorne. You’d do well to use respect when speaking to her.” Cold and hard, his voice was devoid of its playful tones. The damn man was full of surprises.

  “Captain Hawthorne, then. Gunnar must’ve been out of his mind to leave you this ship. You ain’t smart enough to fill his boots.” Cooper glanced behind her, disgust in his gaze.

  She decided to ignore his disdain. The ship was in great shape, if dirty in areas. “What’s the cargo’s destination?” Remy knew better than to ask what was in the crates.

  “It’s a small moon on the other side of the quadrant, name of Haverty. You don’t open the cargo, don’t even fucking touch it, just babysit it and deliver it.”

  If she hadn’t been listening, she might have missed the intake of breath to her right. Obviously, her would-be pilot knew the place. She’d not heard of it.

  “What’s the timeline?” It would take weeks to get to the other side of the quadrant.

  “Fourteen days.”

  Remy waited a few moments before she spoke. “Tight. We’ll need to burn a lot of fuel to hit it. It will cost you extra.”

  Cooper snorted. “I heard you don’t have enough fuel to take off.”

  She didn’t deny it. They’d been there a week already and only through Gunnar’s previous connections with the dockmaster were they still there. “I will when you pay me. It’ll be twenty thousand credits.”

  “Ten thousand. Half now and half when you get there.”

  “Twenty thousand. Three quarters now, and one quarter when I get there.”

  They were taking on the Corporation. Nothing was supposed to move in a cargo ship without the seal from the Corporation.

  Cooper spit a wad of phlegm on the floor of her ship. She wanted to beat him with her bare fists, disrespectful motherfucker. “Bullshit. I don’t never pay that much, and I sure as hell don’t pay it up front.”

  “Two thirds now, and one third when I deliver.” She clenched her fists and dug deep for control. Gunnar would have closed the deal by now.

  Cooper shifted his face to Fletcher. “And he’s your pilot.”

  “Of course he’s my pilot. He’s here, isn’t he?”

  Cooper glanced around the cargo bay once more. “Fifteen thousand, and I pay two-thirds to Fletcher, and the rest when you get there.”

  At first, Remy wasn’t sure she’d heard him right. Then her fury built inside her, choking her with a thousand shards of righteous anger. She wanted to release it on him, shoot the fucker dead so he wouldn’t treat any other captain like he was treating her.

  The fifteen thousand was more than she had hoped for, but she wasn’t about to let Fletcher take her pay. He’d hold it over her, blackmail her into some ridiculous game to get it. It was too much to accept. Her plan was for Katie to be the one paid, not this interloper. No one could know Remy couldn’t accept direct payment. Her darkest secret was well-hidden and unknown.

  Max stepped in front of her. “Agreed, if you pay the twenty thousand.”

  Twenty thousand was a fortune. More than they’d made in years, even with Gunnar at the helm. That kind of job, whispered but not shouted, would garner her many more jobs in the future.

  “Fine, but I’m putting this cargo in your hands.” Coop
er shook the pilot’s hand, and just like that, Remy’s deal was committed by the two of them. Without her.

  She almost exploded on the spot.

  Fucking hell.

  “Payment first, then you can load the cargo.” Max still had that steel tone to his voice, unyielding.

  Cooper pulled out his transaction tablet, punched in a few numbers, then held it up to Max’s wrist. A few beeps later, the money was paid, and the men started carrying in the crates, two by two. Cooper yelled at his men to move faster.

  She hadn’t even had a chance to call Katie and get the transaction done so the crew of Steel Coyote had control of the funds. Nope, Cooper had used the pilot’s chip without even asking. Yet another reason to make her see red. Son of a bitch.

  Max grabbed her arm and pulled her to the side. His voice was guttural and fierce in her ear. The hologram had disappeared. “I’ll give you the money, but you need to back off for now. You want this job so let it happen and give me the reins for five fucking minutes. I won’t screw you over. I’ll let you shoot me if I do.”

  Remy was caught and he knew it. The deal had been made, money exchanged, and the cargo was nearly loaded. If she protested now she’d seem like the inexperienced captain Cooper thought she was.

  After the crates were loaded and secured, Cooper’s men filed out, leaving the three of them alone.

  “You tell no one about this, especially the Great Family. You haul your ass to Haverty and don’t stop for nothing.” Cooper looked at each of them in turn.

  Remy wondered why the big man was more afraid of the Great Family than the Corporation. What she knew of them was they worked in the shadows, same as she was doing now, to thumb their noses at the giant power that controlled the quadrant. However, she knew better than anyone that power was an illusion. It could be taken in an instant.

  Cooper held out a navigational tablet. “Put your hand on here, Fletcher.”

  Max did as he was told and the tablet scanned his palm.

  “When you get there, go to these coordinates and wait for a man named Rockford. He won’t be able to release payment without your palm.” Cooper, the clever jackass, handed Max the tablet. “He’ll pay you if you’re there in fourteen days. If you’re not, there isn’t a hole you can hide in I won’t find you.” Cooper turned to Remy and leaned in close, his sour breath washing over her face. She had to stop herself from gagging. “You got me, wench?”