Page 23 of Only Cold Depths
The grim, haunted look in his eyes made my own heart crack in commiseration. I stepped forward and rested my hands on his shoulders. “Neither one of us is going to end up in Holloway’s clutches. We’re going to protect each other, just like we’ve been doing. Don’t give Zane another thought.”
“He’s always been able to get under my skin, ever since we were children.”
“I thought I was the only one who got under your skin,” I teased, trying to lighten the mood.
The anger in Kyrion’s eyes flared up into something hotter and more intense. His hands settled on my waist, and he pulled me closer so that my body was flush against his. Then he leaned down, his breath skimming against my ear.
“If you want to get under me, all you have to do is ask,” he murmured.
I hummed my agreement and wrapped my arms around his neck. Kyrion lifted his head, his eyes burning like blue suns. He lowered his face toward mine. I hummed again and stood up on my tiptoes to meet him halfway—
A chime sounded. Kyrion and I both froze, our lips inches apart. I tensed, then looked over at the flashing holoscreen. “Do you think Zane is calling again?”
Kyrion let out a regretful sigh and dropped his hands from my waist. “If he is, he won’t give up until we answer.”
He moved over to the holoscreen and started tapping buttons. After a few seconds, his shoulders relaxed. “Not Zane. Daichi and Tivona.”
Kyrion entered several long codes to access the private group channel. The holoscreen flickered a few times, processing the information, then two people popped into view.
The first was a man with short black hair, dark brown eyes, and golden skin who was wearing a House Caldaren uniform, just like Kyrion and me. The second was a woman with dark brown hair, dark brown eyes, and ebony skin who was clad in a sleek gold business suit.
Daichi Hirano arched an eyebrow at us. “The two of you have certainly been busy.”
“Oh, yes,” Tivona Winslow chimed in. “The story just got picked up by the Regal gossipcasts. Multiple dead bodies found in a junkyard on Tropics 44. No one knows who killed the bounty hunters or why, but even without the battle footage from Vesper’s jacket, Daichi and I knew right away it was the handiwork of Team Truebond.”
Despite her light, teasing tone, I grimaced. I’d only taken down Rina, and only with a lucky blow. Kyrion had killed most of the bounty hunters, and if not for him, I would be a prisoner. Not much of a team effort on my part.
“They were trying to get Vesper onto a ship,” Kyrion replied.
Daichi’s eyebrow arched a little higher. “And you stopped them the way you stop everyone—permanently.”
Kyrion shrugged. “Once an Arrow, always an Arrow.”
Daichi snorted, but it sounded suspiciously like a laugh, and Kyrion’s lips twitched up into an answering grin.
I gestured over at my ruined jacket, which was lying on the table. “What about Esmina and Pollux? Did you find any info on them?”
Daichi nodded and hit a few buttons. Several documents popped up and floated over the holoscreen, along with some photos.
“Meet Esmina Reston and Pollux Lamont. I haven’t found out much about their personal lives yet, but the two of them have made quite a name for themselves as corporate mercenaries.”
“Corporate mercenaries? Fuck,” Kyrion muttered.
My thought exactly.
Almost every large corporation employed its own private army of mercenaries—skilled fighters who provided security and executed missions to increase a corporation’s resources, power, wealth, and influence. In some ways, these corporations were even more dangerous than the Imperium, Erzton, and Techwave. Those groups had rules, structures, and leadership that provided some semblance of checks and balances, but a corporation was an entity unto itself and usually controlled by a handful of people who would do anything to achieve their goals.
A few months ago, Rowena Kent had sent some of her corporate mercenaries to capture me. The mercenaries had forcibly boarded this very blitzer and shot me with a blaster before Kyrion and I had killed them. I rubbed a spot above my left hip, which ached at the memory.
When I’d taken over Kent Corp and rebranded it as Quill Corp, I’d discovered just how many mercenaries Rowena had employed. Given the regime change, most of the mercenaries had left, but I’d kept several on staff, although I didn’t trust or use them in any capacity. I’d been so busy dealing with the day-to-day running of the R&D lab and the production plants that I hadn’t had a chance to figure out what to do with my own personal goon squad. Although now I supposed they were Tivona’s goon squad, since she was running Quill Corp in my absence.
Daichi hit some more buttons, and a couple of dossiers popped up. “Esmina and Pollux aren’t your typical mercs who float from one job to another. They have their own corporation—Serpens Corp—which specializes in high-risk operations. Assassinations, kidnappings, prisoner exchanges, even hostile takeovers of other corporations. They have an extremely high success rate and are extremely well compensated for their time, skills, and expertise.”
He paused. “These are the kinds of people you hire when money is no object, and you don’t care how big or bloody a mess they leave behind.”
Kyrion muttered another curse. “Of course they are.”
I thought of the way Esmina had strolled away from the battle, easily dodging one blaster bolt after another, even though her back was turned and she couldn’t see the deadly streaks of electricity zipping in her direction. “Not much risk if you know how things are going to play out.”
