Read Online Dragonfly by Erica Hayes - Free Book Online Page B

other—here, have another eyeful—and folded my arms. “I don’t think so.”
    Challenge glinted in his eyes. “I could search you for it.”
    I couldn’t help glancing at his fingers. Remnants of desire lingered in my hot skin and skipping pulse, and my guts tightened. I flashed him a glare, daring him. “Not without that pistol.”
    He watched me, dark because he knew I was right. “So what, will you just sit there?”
    “Only for as long as it takes. I want in.”
    He laughed, pleasant and melodic. It made me remember kissing him, the way he’d tasted, how he’d made me ache for him.
    Anger boiled, and I glared at him. I should never have let him get away with that. “What’s so funny?”
    “ Señorita , you have no idea what you’re asking.” He stood and walked back toward the cockpit, dismissing me. He really knew how to hack at my nerves.
    I tried to tame my indignation with slyness. “Think not? I know you’re planning to break the vault the day they sign the Santa Maria pact.”
    He paused.
    I checked my fingernails airily. “I know you’re faking the deposit crypto, and I know that what’s on your chip is the operator schematic for the neurospace.”
    He tried not to show his surprise, but when he turned his eyes had narrowed. “How do you figure that?”
    “Because that’s how I’d do it. Look, you can have your chip once we get to where we’re going. I just want in. I’m good with crypto, I can help you.”
    He looked unconvinced, suspicion creasing his brow.
    I tried flattery. “I’ve seen you on pirate newscasts. That thing with the plasma futures, ripping off the Luvanenko mob? That was priceless. And I’d give my left arm to know how you broke those guys from the supermax at Bin Guska.” I let my gaze flicker away, like I was embarrassed. “Believe it or not, you’re kind of my hero. This is the biggest game of my life, my dream job. I can’t just walk away.”
    He eyed me for a moment longer, his expression dark, then silently he climbed back to the cockpit and lit the console, plasma veins glowing violet inside the glass.
    I leaped up and followed, trying to peer over his shoulder. “So where are we going?”
    “Don’t touch that.” He jabbed at the contact that set the local biochem, stimulating it to tolerate his chemistry and his alone, and the field glowed bright over the entire console like festering green fungus.
    I snatched back my hand. “Watch it, why don’t you?”
    He ignored me, retrieving his pistol and holstering it, sidestepping me, around the console toward the narrow plastic spiral steps leading to the accommodation deck. “I need to sleep. You do whatever you want. Shower and food are upstairs, blankets under the bench. But touch anything else and you’ll do worse than vomit.”
    I watched him climb, poison bubbling in my heart. Perhaps he’d live through the night, perhaps not.
    He paused with his hand on the ladder rail, and gave me that sweet little smile. “Oh, and if I have an accident and don’t wake up? You’ll never get off this ship.”
    ***
     
    I stood in the glow of flickering green fluorescence, listening to his footsteps as he crossed overhead, waiting for him to stop moving. Water gushed, drumming on plastic. He was undressing, getting in the shower. Shaking hot water through his hair, letting it run over his face, into his mouth, down his body …
    Damn it. I needed to call Nikita, report on what had happened before we got too far apart to have a real-time conversation. I glared at the slot on the console where the hyperchip would fit. It was shrouded in crawling green bugs and inaccessible, at least to me. The biochem would make me dangerously sick, but it also meant the controls wouldn’t respond to anyone but Dragonfly.
    Thanks to his paranoia, I didn’t have much to tell, but there was a strong chance that he’d figure out we were on to him and shoot me dead. I needed to send as much information as I could before that