Page 15 of Shellshock

“You brought a camera with you?” she asked.

“I had a feeling it would take extra convincing to get you down here.”

“I’m not coming down. I really can’t. Anyway, aren’t we looking for a pirate?”

When they’d arrived—days ago—Lucca had asked how he expected to find said pirate, to which he’d replied noncommittally before redirecting the conversation. Caligher’s lead on his target was a mood—and his moods involved doing whatever he felt like doing.

There didn’t seem to be much science behind his bounty hunting, which explained why it had taken him over a year to find his last target. Every day was a wandering siesta—until it involved hunting humans.

“I’m taking a bath. You’re looking for the pirate,” he said.

“Oh?I’mlooking for the pirate now?” She laughed, her cheeks aching with a wide smile. “No way! You don’t get to drag me around just to make me do all the work.”

“You want a break?” She knew his next words before he spoke them. “Fly down. Visit the pools with me.” He was being just a little demanding about it.

Crossing her arms, she tapped her foot on the floor until some bold and reckless impulse took over. “I want a picture of you,” she said.

“Really?” He paused. “Will I get one in return? I’m dying to know what you look like—”

“No.”

“No?” He laughed, and Lucca found the roughened quality in his voice vaguely threatening… and almost carnal. “Wow, Lucca. That sounds fair.”

If he wanted to be pushy, she would show him pushy. “A picture of you. Give it.” He laughed at her antics. “Can I have what I asked for or not?”

He paused. Considered it. Then echoed her stalemate reply. “No.”

“Please? Pretty please?”

“If you send me one of you, I will give you anything you want,” he said.

“Damn, that’s a big promise!” she said. “Anything?”

“Anything.” She could tell by his voice, he absolutely believed himself.

“What if I look like a whale?”

“I love whales. Send it,” he said.

Dammit, Caligher.He was just so… aggressively pleasant in the face of everything she said. There was no deterring him.

She badly wanted to know what he looked like—especially if she ended up leaving his star system. She wanted at least that since she couldn’t have the rest of him. Their incomplete friendship would stay with her forever, a bright spot keeping her afloat during a strange, isolated journey.

His request badgered her thoughts.What if I just sent him one? What if this was the day I told him? If he gets mad… I’m the one in a ship. I can fly away, can’t I?

Into the abyss, only to get lost again. And then she would have to start over.

But she found herself before her bathroom mirror anyway, tablet camera at the ready. She undid her ponytail and brushed her hair out, as if she might go through with it.

There were no cosmetics on her counter. Only her own bare olive-skinned face, her slightly downturned nose, dark brown eyes, and her overgrown dark hair with split ends and nothing to gloss it up. She frowned at her lackluster reflection, wondering if Caligher would find her attractive.

A conversation with her ex-boyfriend floated to the front of her mind.

“Just gonna throw it all away, Luc?”

“No. I’ll come back. Just like I always planned.”

They’d been fighting about her going to space for the millionth time. The wedding was postponed, but Patrick hadn’t fully grieved the change to his plans.

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