Chapter 5
When the door closed behind her, Tane keyed the magnetic lock. Then, thinking about it, she slipped the mechanical lock into place. She stood there for a moment shaking her head. "That was fun." she said to herself. The light blinking on the food dispenser caught her attention. "Good idea." She hoped the ship was reasonably well-stocked. "Bourbon, straight up."
"Lights twenty-five percent." he said, impatient for her to discover she wasn't alone. Some Marine. She cleaned up nice, tho'. Nice face, great body, but her eyes, those could be the end of a man.
"Damnit Rid. . ." Tane started. He had her shoved into the wall, hand over her mouth before she could finish. She tipped her head towards her drink. Riddick lifted his hand and she downed it in one gulp. The shine still unnerved her.
"Better?" he asked, amused. She nodded affirmative. His voice fell very low and he leaned close, close enough she could feel his breath on her face. "Did you sweep the room for bugs?" Another nod. "Good. So did I. Where have you been?"
If she moved, she'd be touching him. Tane tried not to think about it. The thought of stripping off his shirt to have a better look gave her an adrenalin rush. "I got called on the floor by the Captain."
"And?"
"I gave him a full report of the events on the Peregrine for the past two weeks, in detail, twice."
"Hmmmm." he contemplated.
"Are you going to let go of me?"
"I haven't decided. This is comfortable." She put her hand on the hilt of her Tanto and Riddick put his hand over hers. "You don't really want to do that."
"I think, when we dock at Corbic, you had better get out of the system fast. Marcus isn't someone to let loose ends go."
"What does he know?"
"I'm not sure . . ." He traced her upper lip with his fingertips and she completely lost her train of thought. "He's . . . retired Marine, he's not stupid . . . that's the problem." She turned her head enought to make him stop. "If he thinks something doesn't mesh, he will figure it out." Riddick didn't say anything. If he couldn't smell her pheromones running wild, he would pretty damn quick . . .
"What do you recommended?" he asked suggestively.
"Run." Tane wondered if her voice squeaked or if she was imagining it. She could imagine a lot of thing right about now. If she moved, if she touched him, she'd be fighting a losing battle. "You need . . . a valid ID, first." For crying out loud, are you a schoolgirl or are you a Marine? Neither anymore, stupid question.
"That's part of the business deal we need to discuss."
"Let go of me, then, and we'll discuss it."
He casually shifted his weight, avoiding her left side and broken ribs, leaning against her so they were touching from knee to shoulders. She was firm in all the right places and soft in all the right places and it had been a long time since he had gotten the opportunity to notice such things. "Were you and Johns lovers?" he whispered against her ear. Say no, because the idea of him touching you . . .
"No." she breathed out sharply.
"Were you?" he repeated, running fingers along her jawline.
"No." Tane could feel the hardness beneath his zipper and wondered if she shouldn't be intimidated. Nothing 'average' there. He had the most sensuous mouth she'd ever seen, too, and it was millimeters from hers. If this happened, there would be no turning back . . . "I'm not going to sleep with you, Riddick."
"Who said anything about sleeping?"
"Okay. Fucking your business partner isn't a very good idea."
As much as he wanted to disagree, he couldn't. Still, he pressed his mouth down on hers, nipping at her lower lip before slipping his tongue into her mouth. The scent of her was overwhelming, a mix of newly-showered and an underlying musk that was unmistakable. His free hand wandered across her abdomen, then trailed up slowly.
Tane let him, too, putting both her hands against his chest. Just in case. She tilted her head back, indulging for the moment. His mouth was tantalizing, inviting, and she knew better.
Riddick was the one that stopped, breaking from her and stepping away. "You have a funny way of saying 'no'." A year ago, he wouldn't have hesitated. Hell, a month ago. "Yea." was all she offered. Damn, if she wasn't confused on top of everything else. She was getting involved emotionally, and that was the last thing she had planned for.
"Tane?"
"I'm sorry. I'd like to take the opportunity to blame this on the morph."
"The hypo you got more than twenty-four hours ago?" he speculated. "I think you'd like to go for it but you're still to much of a Marine drone to admit it." Riddick was digging for bits and pieces. Her files were sealed, so he had to find out who she was all on his own.
"If things were different . . ."
"If I wasn't a convicted murderer?"
Her eyes narrowed. "They have been telling you that you're an animal for so long, you believe it."
"I am. You better believe it."
"You had to be, to survive. You haven't gone out of your way to kill, just for the sport of it."
"Are you so sure? Do you want to hear how Johns died?"
Tane hesitated. For the few moments it took the memory to play in her mind, she was years in the past and light years away. "He's gone, Tane. We have thirty seconds to clear the platform . . . " Johns had talked her through it. "Thirty seconds Lt. Allen, get us off this rock."
"No." She spat the word out, suprised at her reaction.
"Are you sure, Tane, because if we are going to be partners, there are no secrets. Neither of us can afford them."
"He . . . Johns wasn't the same person as before . . . before you shanked him and escaped on the Frontier. Before the . . . incident at Wexler's Station. Those things changed him, for the worse."
"Incident? Is that what they are calling that?" The Kysians set up, ambushed and slaughtered thousands of Fleet commandos on Wexler's Station. That made sense, now. Riddick figured Johns had been military at some time.
"He was there."
Riddick digested that bit of information carefully. "I need that ID, and I need someone I can leave at my back and not have to worry about. But I don't need to wonder what you're not telling me. If you cross me, you will find out how much of an animal I can be."
"I'm already in this. I lied to Marcus about you and he won't forget that. He won't pursue us out of Alliance space either, but the quieter we are about who we are, the better."
"I've known you four days and you're already running from the law." Riddick sounded pleased. "Must be some kind of record."
"Don't flatter yourself Riddick. I get into trouble all on my own." She ordered another bourbon and drank it. "If we can get out of Corbic, I can cover us. You need an ID, I need a man."
He smirked, holding up his arms. "Do your worst."
One more bourbon, and she would have . . . Tane had a vivid idea of just how good he'd be. "New Durango doesn't recognize a woman's rights to own property. Until my clients get there, I need someone, a male someone, to hold certain properties for me. In exchange for an ID you never have to worry about." She talked the talk, but she was beginning to wonder if she could walk the walk. Getting rusty, getting soft.
"What's the catch?" There was always a catch.
"It's a boarder system."
"That's no problem, at least not for me."
"Good. I'll make arrangements for a ship as soon as we're in range. I don't want to be on the station more than a few hours." Tane decided to make the rest of the trip a little smoother. "Marcus knows Johns and I weren't on speaking terms last time he was in the sector. Sneaking into my room probably isn't a good idea."
Riddick nodded. Loose ends were an annoyance, and he had a few of his own to clear up. "You said you were married."
"I was. Past tense."
"Harlan?" The flash in her eyes told him yes. "What happened?"
No secrets. "He died."
"How? Why?"
"I have the incredible urge to tell you 'none of your bloody business'." Tane told him. "But it's nothing you can't find out on your own. He died on Wexler's Station."
"That's why you quit the Marines."
She didn't have to answer. "Now you know why I don't trust anyone." They were going to make a great pair.
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Chapter 6
Marcus tapped his fingers on the consol, deep in thought. The monitor blinked on and off, on and off in response but he didn't notice it. Three pirates were dead and that was their own damned fault, as far as he was concerned. The Alliance would feel the same way, unless one of them turned up with citizenship.
Finally, one of the bridge officers spoke up. "Chief. Do you want me to send the report on the Peregrine as it is?"
"Yes, send it." He could always amend it later, if he needed. "I want her complete crew profiles downloaded also." What happened wasn't uncommon. In fact, there had been a lot of activity in the sector for months. He just didn't want to get sloppy and have to answer questions about it later. "What was the name of the transport we lost a couple weeks ago?"
"That was . . ." the com officer called up three screens at his work center. "The Hunter-Gratzner, destination New Mecca. Crew of three, full payload of forty passengers. Three survivors, all three have filed reports with the Corbic Station Port Authority."
"I want profiles on the crew and all the passengers, and the survivor's reports."
"Do you want me to request them for download, or wait until we put in at Corbic?"
He had a full schedule up until they reached port, and even then he didn't have time to be wasting on paperwork. "Wait until we put in." Marcus decided. If anything was amiss, it would wait or someone at the next Station would take care of it. "What I do want is the profile on Tane Cameron Allen, ex-CMC. Check for any updates. I want that as soon as it arrives."
"Is she under restictions?"
"No. I want to send a message out, now. Encoded, to Col. Colin Seifert, Fleet Cmdr., Sector CA-152. Request a military profile and a trace of Lt. Tane Allen." With that he'd know exactly what she had done after the two years she spent on his ship, and what she was up to in the Outer Systems.
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"You bought a homestead where?" KC laughed. The pair sat in a corner of the day room they had claimed hours ago.
"Oh, sure, you're laughing now. But when we are running supplies to the Frontier from New Durango, who's going to be laughing harder? The New Durango system isn't under Alliance law, so it isn't under Alliance taxation." Tane was sipping at her drink, Solera rather than bourbon, and keeping count so she didn't get entirely wasted.
"Taxes eat half of my pay. Can I buy in?"
"Come out, after we get things set up. Decide then." She wasn't going to discuss some of the finer points with him, not here, not now.
"What do you do when the Alliance moves in? Head out for the next free system?"
"Exactly. We've been doing this since the year after I joined the Corps. You don't think I'm independently wealthy off of Marine compensation?" Tane sat back, letting him think about it.
"Harlan was in on this?"
She nodded. "So are Wade and Kyle."
"I'll be damned." He sat back. Two of her brothers - a pilot and an engineer, both ex-Special Forces. "What about Drew?"
"He's still with the Fleet."
"You have everything covered."
"Oh, I'd like to think that." Tane had a plan for everything, or at least she tried to. Right now, she was running on empty as far as having a plan. Trying to formulate one, well that was just giving her a headache.
"Is Johns in on it?"
"No. He's too damn independent to get involved in a . . . family business."
"Have you asked?" KC wondered why she would ask him and not Johns, except that Johns had been on her shit-list for months now.
"Long time ago." she dismissed the idea. "Could you hack living away from city life? Because it's more out of the way than these little sidetrips to pick up scraps."
"Shit. I live for the night life on New Mecca."
They both laughed. Tane had seen a couple crew members from the Peregrine come in to eat earlier, and Riddick had been leaving when they were arriving. He preferred to prowl when the ship powered down for third shift. So did she, but she had made an effort to change that for the remainder of the trip.
"I'll let you know when they get out here. It could be months.
"Be careful in New Durango. No Alliance taxes means local law enforcement only. If you get into trouble, you could be in a local slam for those months until the big brothers show."
"Have you ever known anyone more careful than me?"
"Yea, with all the plans you make, you spend a lot of time holding on by the skin of your teeth. When are you going to come out of that tiny dark room you've locked yourself in for the past four years?"
"There is a huge difference between being alone and being lonely." Tane told him, finishing her drink.
"And you are both."
"When did you turn into my father?"
"Someone has to do it."
"I can take care of myself." Yea, keep thinking that.