Children of Evolution (The Gateway Series Book 2) (28 page)

"We're friends, nothing more" Padre said quietly as he watched the two walk toward the hangar. "I made sure of that."
 

Cole grunted. "The hell's that mean?"

Padre looked back as Cole popped the last of his apple core into his mouth and crunched it under his glare.
 

"I had a chance to save her brother, and I failed."

He replayed the image in his mind, as he had so many times since that day in the Wasteland. He'd reached the edge of the roof to see the damaged Hunter crouching over Michael, crippled and helpless beneath it. The Hunter was about to deliver a killing blow. Padre had only a heartbeat to act. He'd snapped a sight picture over his primary optics and fired—

"She blames you for not acting when you should have," Cole said with a nod.

Nikki and Padre hadn't spoken, not about that day. She knew the details. She'd begged them out of Elias in the days after they buried Michael. But she and Padre hadn't spoken of them. What was there to say?

"I acted," he said, letting the bitterness in his mouth taint his words. "But it wasn't enough."

Cole shifted his gaze to watch Nikki and Corso turn down the corridor to Nikki's room. "Did you kill him?"

"The Hunter?" Padre asked. "No, she did. Even if I had—"

"The brother," Cole cut him off, shifting his gaze back to Padre. "Did you kill the little slip's brother?"

"No," Padre said, seeing where Cole was headed with this. He'd run his thoughts through this maze before. It didn't help.

"But she blames you," Cole said, his heavy brow lowering.

"She must. How could she not?" Padre replied.

Cole stared at him, long and hard—the kind of flat stare that said, "You're a fool." Then he growled a low, sour laugh that said much the same. Shaking his head, he turned to go back into the galley but stopped in the doorway, one hand on the jamb. He looked back at Padre with no humor in his eyes. "You don't get a chance at a woman like that more than once in a lifetime, little man. Take it from an old man who's been there. She's not going to come to you, and she doesn't want to wrap those skinny arms around guilt. She's got plenty." Cole's hard green stare bored into Padre, a stare laced with anger that had little to do with the present.
 

"Loving a valkyrie is like nothing you've known, little man," Cole growled. "A hard fight, but worth it. Piss away your chance—you'll regret it. Know that."

Nikki

Nikki cracked another snap-flare and giggled like a little kid as the flickering blue image—this one resembling a horse—raced around her arm in a tight spiral before dissipating in a crackle of sparks next to her ear.
 

If Corso thought less of her for taking such delight in a simple toy, he was wise enough to keep it to himself. He just smiled and shook his head before sliding the last of the hinged tabs toward her with his foot. He offered the bottle as well, but Nikki waved it away as she picked up the snap-flare.

The few sips she’d already taken had done their job. She was riding a fuzzy buzz that was doing its damnedest to put her to sleep. Her body was so exhausted even the cool concrete of the hangar floor felt comfortable at the moment.

She and Corso were sitting next to the mouth of the hangar, the heavy doors open but the ivy screen closed to keep any passing boats from seeing inside. The ivy slightly obscured their view of the sunset, but Nikki wasn't complaining. The added darkness made the snap-flares show up better for Nikki, and not at all for any boats, or so she assumed.

There weren't any passing boats, of course. Not much traffic of any kind in this part of the Sound, but that didn't stop Team Paranoid from taking precautions. The lights in the hangar dropped to a minimum setting long before the sun set each evening. In fact, they had already dimmed by the time Nikki and Corso walked in an hour ago.

For Corso, watching the sunset meant sharing a bottle of rum he'd brought back from his latest job. For Nikki, it meant burning through the pocketful of children's party favors he'd brought along with it. She couldn't have been happier. This was exactly what she needed. Simple, mindless pleasure. No tests. No workouts. No training. No conversation.

"Dare I ask why you're playing soldier?" Corso asked.

Well, limited conversation.

Nikki shrugged and kept her eyes on the snap-flash. She steepled her hands, balancing the tab on her fingertips. Maybe this last one would be a bird. The thought conjured a smile. She would love to see one of these things fly.

"Fair enough, beauty. Keep your secrets. I like a little mystery in a bird."

Nikki shifted her focus past the tab to Corso's grinning eyes. Those eyes, like the rest of him, practically screamed trouble.
 

Corso wasn't pretty in the classical, chiseled way or in the shirtless poster-boy way, but that only made him more attractive, somehow. Sure, he had the whole tall and dark thing going on, and he was handsome, in an abstract sort of way, but that's not what made him so hard to resist. He had a way of holding himself, a way of moving that made him look so sure of his body, like no part of him was ever out of his control, no matter how tousled and uncaring he might appear. And when he looked at her, his eyes said he was picturing scenarios you couldn't describe without words like "yearning," "longing," and "glistening with sweat." Being wanted like that was the best kind of seduction.

Nikki was drawn to Corso like a moth to a sexy bonfire. She knew getting closer would go nowhere good, but that only made her want to fly toward him faster. Or maybe she was drawn like a bird to a window. What she saw in front of her was really behind her, but by the time she realized she'd already flown through that inviting bright blue sky, she was crashing headfirst into the disaster at the end of the illusion.

Nikki took a better look at that thought then laughed aloud at her tired brain, earning a questioning grin from Corso. She really was worn out, physically and mentally. She shook her head and looked back at the snap-flash instead of clueing Corso in.
 

A second later his honeyed laugh caressed the growing darkness between them. "Like I said, beauty. Keep the mystery. It suits you."
 

She didn't have to glance over to know that look was back in his eyes, the one that said everything he was imagining wasn't just possible, it was inevitable. No need to rush or push.
 

Maybe that's why she liked being around him. The tension was always there, a kissable energy swaying back and forth between them, but it didn't require anything from her. It was content to just
be
. In a strange way, Corso's blatant attention made their relationship easier than any other in her life at the moment. It was simple, honest.

"So, what was it this time?" she asked, glancing back at him. "Stealing daughters from warlords?"

Corso breathed a more subdued laugh and looked away. That was his tell. It meant he was about to dodge the question, as usual. Honest their relationship might be—transparent it was not. He rarely gave details about his jobs. A part of her thought she should be suspicious, or even jealous. But it wasn't the greater, louder part, the part that enjoyed their relationship as it was, obviously. This quieter part of her wondered what it would be like if they ever turned their tension into action. Neither of them was in a hurry to do so at the moment. Since the Wasteland, Corso had given Nikki plenty of breathing room in the romance department, and she was content to enjoy the space.

"Nothing so glamorous," he replied. "Bit of a cake walk, really. Simple sale to Montez."

"I thought you weren't going to work for her again," she said, seeing the reason for his evasion this time. Corso had talked about his time working for the Caribbean pirate before. Pirate
lord
was more accurate. Montez had built her organization into a power to rival a small country, and she was in the pockets of every nation or policing force in the region who might think of opposing her. Nobody would touch her, even though she played no favorites when it came to choosing which shipments she targeted. She was a hard woman—ruthless, according to her reputation. Worse than the stories, according to Corso.
 

Corso had done things working for Montez that he'd rather not remember and definitely not repeat, so he'd said once. He didn't talk about it much, but he didn't have to. Nikki was something of an expert on burying old pain. She knew it when she saw it.

"Not working for," Corso corrected. "Selling to. There's a difference."

"Which is?"

"Control," he replied. "I'm the seller. I'm in control. I go in on my terms and leave on them, regardless of how hard she tries to make me stay."

He said it like he almost believed it.
 

Nikki had half a mind to call him on the lie. She even went so far as to open her mouth to say something, but she stopped herself. If he wanted to lie to himself, or even to her, who was she to hassle him for it? Gods knew she was the last person who could throw stones.

The truth was she
was
jealous, as embarrassing as that was to admit, but not in the way he might think. She'd had a taste of what it felt like to be sought after, to be wanted by someone powerful. To be wanted by everyone, really. After the Sky City job, she and Michael had become public enemies number one and two. They'd been hunted by the cops, by Gideon and his crew, and especially by Savior and the all the forces at his disposal. As fleeting as her time in the spotlight had been, it had made an impression. Now that it was over, filling the emptiness it left behind was proving…difficult.
 

Nobody wanted her now.
 

Savior had gotten what he wanted from her in the Wasteland. Now that she'd amped his powers enough to last another few decades, she was useless to him. He'd made an offer for her to join him, of course—that much she remembered from the fuzzy time after her escape—but her epic refusal had marked the end of their relationship. He'd written her off, clearly.
 

The cops weren't looking for her anymore either. She knew. She'd walked through a chip scanner in Seattle a few weeks back just to be sure, an act that would earn her thirty kinds of lecture from the team, not to mention Michael, if they knew.
 

But they didn't know about it. Nobody did. That's because nothing had happened. She'd lingered by the scanner at the entrance to one of Seattle's better public markets, but no cops had shown up. She probably had Savior to thank for clearing any warrants she'd racked up in Sky City. Who else could have done it?

Not even Elias and the others wanted her. They tolerated her, sure—put up with her crap, loaned her money and food, all that—but they did so out of pity, not need. She was worthless to them now. They'd wanted a weapon against Savior, and she wasn't it. That weapon had died with Michael, or so she'd overheard Gideon say on the way out of the Wasteland. She was nothing—a little nobody with temper issues. Who'd want that?

"Must be nice," she said, not meaning to. Once she'd started though, she had to finish the thought or leave Corso with another question to mull. "Being wanted, I mean."

He laughed mirthlessly and rolled his eyebrows. "You should know." He took a long pull on the bottle before he looked over.

Why'd she have to start them down this path?
 

"Nobody's after me anymore," she said, trying her best to sound nonchalant. If disappointed and nonchalant sounded the same, she succeeded.

"I wouldn't say that, love," Corso said. "Those beasties out there could only come from one place. That sugar daddy of yours is still after you."

Corso knew about the offer Savior had made to Nikki, the offer to stay with him as his…something. It didn't take a master lip reader to tell what had been going on in Savior's transport before she'd jumped, and Corso had a front-row seat. He was the only one who knew, the only one she was comfortable telling. She didn't think anyone else would understand how tempting that offer could have been, under other circumstances.

Corso had a point. The aliens had to be Savior's doing, but Nikki wasn't so sure they were after her. For one thing, why would Savior go to such bizarre trouble to hunt her down when he could find her so easily if he wanted to? For another, she wasn't the only one who'd been around for both attacks. Gideon had been there too.

A growl from the darkness behind them made Nikki's heart lurch. Her imagination had no trouble putting form to that sound, especially considering where her thoughts were loitering. She shot to her feet, her battered muscles doing her proud, surprisingly.
 

Corso started to do the same but only made it halfway to a crouch before he recognized the source and relaxed.
 

"Bloody oath, mate," he said to the hulking shadow behind them as he stood much more casually than Nikki had. "We should put a bell around that neck."

Magnus Cole stepped closer into a weak pool of orange light, the crags in his face looking even more sinister in half shadow than they had in darkness. He didn't respond to Corso. He just looked around the hangar from where he stood, oblivious to the effect of his entrance, or ignoring it. His eyes stopped on the skimmer and he nodded to himself.
 

"I need a vehicle. Where are the keys?"

"I thought you guarded the bunker at night," Nikki said, her voice sounding weaker than she'd like, especially in front of Corso. But the thought of Cole in here conjured up thoughts of glowing red eyes closing in out there in the night, and shame got overruled.

"I'm no guard dog," Cole growled. "Keys."

"They're in the cabinet." Nikki pointed to the secure box mounted on the wall over one of the workbenches. "But it has a thumbprint scanner."

"Can you open it?" Cole asked Nikki in a rumble, but it was Corso who answered.

"Could do." Corso's composure was fully intact again. He leaned against the side of the transport and crossed his arms. "What's in it for me?"

"That's Sam's," Nikki said to no one in particular, her gaze drifting to the skimmer. No one paid any attention to her.