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She smiled shyly. She wasn’t usually moved by compliments. She herself used them to manipulate people to do what she wanted. But after living with Altair gruffly ordering her around, it was nice to have someone appreciate her the way she was.
Three years was a long time to go without a romantic relationship. She could admit it. She was lonely. And Makwasreally nice to look at. His body gave off an inviting heat and smell that were hard to resist.
“Good night,” he said, leaning into her ever so slightly.
She hesitated.
It wasn’t because of what Altair had said about Mak. Anyone could see he was a flirt. She doubted she was the only girl he’d gone after in that way, but she didn’t mind having a fling. It was commitments and relationships she avoided.
No, none of that bothered her. The reason she’d hesitated kissing him was because, in that moment, she’d felt like she was betraying Altair. Andthatpissed her off. She owed him nothing!
She leaned in and brought her lips up to Mak’s, too annoyed with herself to really enjoy the moment. He opened his mouth to deepen the kiss.
“Mak!”
Mak jumped away from her so fast she almost fell over. Brent stood in the doorway to the bedroom, looking at his brother like he wanted to murder him.
“Meghan, go home,” he said.
She nodded and walked out of the room, leaving Mak to deal with the mess.
Chapter Five
Crouching to remain hidden as a man rushed by, probably in a hurry to go home, Nova felt the familiar tingling in her belly, the excitement of a job. She just wished she were on her own.
Mak tapped her shoulder and pointed to a building down the street. She didn’t really need his directions, it was the only building with doors large enough for a cart to pass through.
She nodded, waited for the coast to clear, and ran across the street lightly on her toes. Mak ran behind her making so much noise that she would be worried about being trampled by an elephant if she hadn’t known it was him. Not that she knew what an elephant actually sounded like. They were never brought over to the system from old earth, but she’d seen pictures.
She found the door he’d pointed out to her and bent down in front of the lock. The model wasn’tthatnew. Mudden was obviously behind the rest of the system when it came to technology. She’d picked this type of lock before, but itwasdesigned for anti-theft. It would take a few maneuvers. She settled into a more comfortable position and got to work, hoping Mak wasn’t so focused on watching her that he completely forgot to be the lookout.
After several minutes of trying—the tools Brent had gotten were just not as good quality as her own tools back home—she heard the telltale click and the door popped open. She pushed the door slowly and stepped inside with Mak at her heels.
He took the lead and walked further into the room holding a small flashlight in his hand. The beam of light roamed over several carts in the center, but the smell told her that the beasts they used to pull them were also kept here.
Mak opened up a small side panel on the cart closest to the door and it powered-on, making a small buzzing sound and lifting off the ground until it was as high as Nova’s hips.
“Let’s go,” Mak said.
Apparently, the beasts were not absolutely necessary. The anti-grav on the cart made it easy to pull.
Nova walked to the door and snuck her head out. The coast was clear so she gave Mak the signal and opened the door wider for him and the cart to come out.
Once in the street, they hurried to the rendezvous point, taking streets that they knew would be deserted at this time of night.
“About time,” Neil said as he stepped out of the shadows to greet them.
Together they set a brisk pace. The mine was an hour away on foot, and the shipment wasn’t passing by the city on its roundabout way to Mudden clan territory.
It took more than an hour to get to the spot they’d picked to ambush the transport. They met Brent and a few more of the rebels there.
They waited in silence for an hour. There was always the possibility that they’d changed the route after she’d broken into Altair’s office, even if they had never figured out why she’d done it. If they never showed up, they’d have to try to return the cart or their theft would be discovered, making any future attempts more difficult, but the longer they waited the more dangerous it would become to bring the cart back as people would soon be getting up to start their day.
“Here they come,” Brent whispered. Nova looked in the direction he indicated and saw two low lights coming their way.
“We stay hidden until we know how many men there are,” Brent said.
The shipment team got closer and closer.
