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“You Kalquorians love your grudges, don’t you? I thought my people were bad.” Her voice was at his shoulder.
He turned his head. Damn, she had pretty eyes. Dark and fathomless. She was close enough to grab and kiss. If he did that,at least she wouldn’t keep throwing words sharp as blades at him.
A low growl sounded behind him, just loud enough for him to catch the warning from the other Nobek.
Halmiko kept the urge to fight at bay by the skin of his teeth. He ignored the bodyguard. “Matara. Excuse me, Captain. I have nothing to say about my clanmates. Take that however you wish. If you want to keep hanging around me, do something useful like jerk me off or suck my cocks. Otherwise, leave me alone.”
Her arm moved toward him. For an electric moment, Halmiko thought she was taking him up on the option of jerking him off.
Instead, she tapped the com she held against his similar device, half-exposed in its pouch on his belt. “You now have my contact information in case you decide to be helpful instead of a bitter asshole. I’ll be in dock for another three days.”
She stepped back, and Halmiko had the irrational urge to grab her and pull her close again. “Hey, hold on.”
“Yes?” Her brow lifted again. She wore a patient but remote expression that irritated him for some reason.
“Let me give you my information too.” He pulled his com free and clicked it to share.
“Why?”
Because you’re the most interesting woman I’ve come across. Because you’ve seen more of Doljen in eight years than I have. Because he talked to you.
Halmiko said none of that. He tapped his com to hers despite her holding it close to herself, not offering it. Her distant expression never changed.
Annoyed by her lack of reaction, he told her, “Maybe you’ll be up for someone new and exciting to fuck. Your present company looks a bit worn out. Used up. My cocks are at your service.”
He thought he heard a snort from the other Nobek. The bodyguard was scarred and older, but more of the warrior type than Halmiko. A long way from used up, but Halmiko was still half-hoping for a fight. Win or lose, it would be good to punch out the burst of angst the woman had woken.
As for Bernadette, she looked him up and down, assessing. She shrugged. “You and your cocks couldn’t handle me for a single second.”
With that, she turned and walked out. The chuckling bodyguard followed her.
* * * *
“That was a useless encounter after all the years of hunting him down.” Bernadette sighed as she stomped along Station Nove’s corridor, heading to the dock where theRoguewas berthed. She passed several alcoves where the homeless denizens of several different worlds curled to snatch minutes of sleep before station security rousted them out. It was always the same on Nove: a palpable line between the haves and have-nots. A large number of the have-nots were Earther.
Nobek Kom kept pace at her side with an almost lazy saunter, courtesy of his much longer legs. “He looked stunned when you asked about his Imdiko.”
“Did he? I couldn’t tell.”
“Nobeks are trained to cover up their weaknesses. If I weren’t one myself, I might have missed it too.” TheRogue’ssecurity head licked his lips. “He had a shitload of weapons on him. Mostly blades.”
“Stop drooling. You have plenty of knives and such of your own. Doljen’s name got a reaction, huh?” She wondered if she could use that to gain Halmiko’s help in tracking the missing Imdiko down.
It had been seven years since she’d said goodbye to Doljen, six of which had been spent on a succession of cargo ships. Always on the move, always with an eye out for any hint of his whereabouts. A couple years prior, when she’d learned and earned enough to captain her own vessel, she’d been sure she’d run across him or his estranged clanmates quickly. Halmiko’s name had shown up in conversations and crew manifests she’d gotten her hands on, but the succession of vessels he worked security for failed to cross paths with theRogue. Of Dramok Tumsa, there’d been no word after Kalquor’s civil war. He’d ducked into the private sector, and his trail disappeared.
Haven. Halmiko said he was on Haven.She’d have to follow up on that.
Then, there was Doljen himself. Her former warden and lover had evaporated into thin air. As a spyship operative, his work had been necessarily secretive, but for there to be no sign of his existence beyond his dismissal from the fleet in seven years? It smacked of foul play or, as much as she hated to admit it, a man determined to remain unfound.
“It’s so frustrating,” she growled to Kom as they entered the quiet bay where theRoguewas berthed. It wasn’t scheduled for offload until the next day. Only station maintenance personnel were to be seen. “I finally luck into the same station as Halmiko, and he turns out to be worthless, except for bad come-ons.”
“Who knows? Maybe he’s an exciting fuck. He was a hell of a kurble player in his day. Halmiko’s someone you can brag about having taken to bed.”
“Seriously, Kom? What about me suggests I’d consider it?”
“You might as well get something out of this so-far pointless search, Captain.” His head swiveled on wide shoulders, taking in their surroundings. Nobeks were always on the lookout for trouble. Usually, the warrior breed of Kalquor hoped they’d find it.
“You can take him up on his offer.”
