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FIVE MINUTES AFTER being invited into the dwelling, Talia Jordan knew her instincts had been right, and she was faced with another innocent victim of Harris Tremaine’s ruthless actions. Thinking about the vile man who’d abducted men for his fighting arenas and about all the families he’d devastated, hers included, left an acidic taste in her mouth.
It wasn’t uncommon for the outlying planets bordering the quadrant she usually traveled to be inhabited by humans. The Earth-sponsored colonies on Haspridian were small and scattered. The three cities she’d visited since arriving with her sister Lexa a little over a day ago were comprised of families. Families who had at least one member associated with a scientific exploration group.
Besides studying the planet’s inhabitants and life-forms, these people lived off the land, being basically farmers who’d volunteered to be sent here to do so. Other than the occasional trading vessels delivering supplies, off-world visitors were rare. The locals were wary and tended to avoid strangers. Luckily, Talia had grown up in a similar colony herself, an advantage when it came to being welcomed into a colonist’s home.
“I’m Laurie,” said the woman whose home this was, her voice hitching. She appeared to be in her thirties and was dressed in worn jeans and a shirt that had seen better days.
“Talia.”
“Please, come this way.” She motioned for Talia to follow her inside.
The interior of the dwelling was comfortable but quaint. The furnishings were handcrafted out of wood, nothing synthetic or metal. So far, Talia hadn’t seen anything in the room that suggested the inhabitants utilized any of the modern technologies she’d seen on other planets.
“I appreciate you taking the time to speak with me.” Talia focused on the reason she was here, the contract she’d accepted from Harker Trask. Although tracking criminals and turning them in for posted bounties was how she survived, being in the profession was never about the money. Well, part of it was about the money. Living in space was dangerous. Weapons, supplies, and maintenance repairs on the Inferno, the ship she’d called home, weren’t cheap.
For Talia, being a tracker was so much more than collecting bounties. It gave her an opportunity to help people, those who were preyed upon and couldn’t defend themselves from the scumbags in her world. This particular mission was personal. Trask was no better than Tremaine. He was merely a tool she needed to get what she wanted. He’d supported and profited from the fighting arenas until Tremaine had double-crossed him, gone into hiding, and taken a large portion of Trask’s money with him.
She didn’t give a damn how many rivets the retired mercenary was offering to pay her, or how many lowlifes she’d have to deal with to reach her goal. She was determined to find Tremaine, and once she did, she’d avenge her parents and make him pay for taking and destroying so many lives.
Talia was a seasoned tracker. Her reputation for successfully acquiring any target she went after was the reason Trask had requested their meeting. Being able to get past his defenses and threatening to blow his facility off the face of the planet had gotten her the contract, along with a free pass to leave without any hassles.
Talia remembered the feral gleam in Trask’s deadly black eyes and knew he wanted Tremaine bad. He’d been duped, and his arrogance and pride demanded revenge. He hadn’t bothered to hide his contempt, and short of him openly verbalizing his intent, she could tell Trask wanted the other man dead, preferably by his own hand. She hoped he wouldn’t be too disappointed when she delivered him Tremaine’s corpse instead.
Talia also wasn’t stupid enough to believe that Trask wouldn’t hire others to go after her quarry. Normally, she’d welcome the competition. It was, after all, part of the business. Sometimes it could be exhilarating, other times, extremely dangerous.
In Tremaine’s case, she wasn’t letting the fates decide whether or not she’d be the one to find him. She’d been hunting him way too long to leave anything to chance. Once she’d determined where he might be hiding, she’d planted false leads on a few other planets in the quadrant to keep the other trackers busy. By the time they figured out Tremaine wasn’t in any of those locations, she’d have already found him and taken care of his sorry ass.
“It’s not a problem.” Laurie took a seat on the sofa opposite her. “What did you want to know?”
“I understand your husband is missing.” Talia settled on a small bench, one that offered the advantage of watching the entrance and keeping her back to a wall. “Can you tell me how long he’s been gone?” More than one man had disappeared in the last six months. Tremaine was behind it. She could feel it in her gut.
Laurie’s shoulders slumped, and she clasped her hands in her lap. The strain of her husband’s disappearance was evident in the darkened areas beneath her eyes. Talia’s mother had worn the same broken, deflated look after her father had been taken, and before... She pushed away the horrible reminder of how that awful day had eventually cost her both parents.
“Edward has been gone one moon cycle.”
Talia had researched basic information about the planet before she’d arrived. A regular moon cycle was a little shorter than an average Earth month. It meant Laurie’s husband had been gone approximately three weeks.
“He went hunting with some of his friends and never came back.” Laurie’s voice crackled with a stifled sob.
“What about the friends? Did any of them know what happened to him? Did they try to find him?”
Laurie bobbed her head. “Edward got separated from the group.” She ran her palms along the top of her pants. “They searched for hours, and all they found was his weapon. There were no tracks, no signs that he’d been attacked by an animal. There was just...” She sobbed again. “Nothing.”
It was the same story Talia had gotten from the other families she’d visited. The men had gone hunting, mysteriously disappeared, and never came back.
Currently, the weather here was cold, the ground frozen and frequently covered with snow. It wouldn’t be hard for someone to hide their tracks. Once she’d added the information she’d gathered since her arrival with the data she’d collected, she was convinced that Tremaine was behind the disappearances and was still conducting fights. It was how he was abducting the men without leaving a trace that was the mystery. A mystery she was determined to solve.
Prior to Tremaine’s disappearance, he’d used two ships, the Slayer and the Crusher, to move the locations of his fights. He’d been arrogant to assume that the Tarron hunters, the law enforcers governing the quadrant she normally traveled, would never catch him. While doing her research, she learned that a team working with a group of humans had rescued the prisoners on the Slayer but had lost track of Tremaine and the Crusher.
If Tremaine was on Haspridian, as Talia suspected, he was being cautious and a lot smarter about his selections. Men who randomly went missing from different locations would be considered mishaps, wouldn’t draw any attention or require further investigation.
“Do you know what happened to him?” Laurie’s raspy voice cracked with a sob.
“I’m not sure, but I intend to find out.” Talia leaned forward, placing a comforting hand over Laurie’s.
“Then there’s a chance...” Laurie’s half smile radiated hope.
Probably not. Talia refrained from commenting, not wanting to quash the woman’s belief that her husband was still alive and would return to her. If Edward had been gone for a month, he was more than likely dead.
Hope wasn’t something Talia clung to, not anymore. Reality, the harsh word she lived by, was what guided her life now. And sometimes reality bit a person in the ass no matter how hard they tried to avoid it.
“Thank you for your time.” Talia got to her feet and headed for the exit with Laurie following behind her. A small child rushed past her and wrapped her little arms around Laurie’s leg. She had mussed brown curls matching her mother’s and couldn’t be more than five Earth years old.
She shyly peered at Talia with soft blue eyes. “Are you gonna find my papa?” Apparently, the little one had been listening to their conversation. Talia glanced at Laurie, noting the tear sliding down her cheek. Damn. How was she supposed to answer that without crushing their hopes? Talia crouched in front of the child. “What’s your name?”
The child rubbed her cheek against Laurie’s leg. “Anna.”
“Anna. I can’t make any promises, but I’m going to do my best to find him.” Talia knew she would hate herself later if she had to come back here and tell the sweet little girl with the angelic face that her father hadn’t survived.
“Okay,” Anna said, giving Talia a bright smile.
Talia stood, pushed her long hair behind her shoulders, then pulled the hood of her coat over her head, using it to hide her brilliant red locks. With women being abducted by slavers, traveling alone in strange places wasn’t safe. She preferred to have the locals think she was a man.
She’d even sewn some padding into the shoulders of her long, oversize duster to make her chest look broader. Being tall and muscularly fit, along with wearing a pair of black military style boots, helped conceal the fact she was a woman. To distort her voice, she activated the modulator attached to the thin strip of leather around her neck and headed outside.
After walking half a block, she tapped the tiny comm device in her ear. “Lexa.” She waited a few seconds before she got a response.
“Here. Where are you?”
“I’m in the northeast section of the city and headed back to the ship.” A shiver slithered along the hairs on her neck, and she squelched the urge to glance behind her. She relied heavily on her instincts. They’d saved her ass more than once. Talia couldn’t see him, but she was certain the man she’d spotted earlier was still following her. This guy was good, but she was better.
She lowered her voice to keep from being overheard. “And I’ve got company.”
“Is it the same guy as before, and should I be worried?” Lexa asked.
Talia didn’t want to alert the man that she was aware of his presence. She shielded her face and kept her pace unhurried. “Probably, and I’m not sure yet.” Yet was subjective, since she was pretty sure the man was from the ship they’d detected on their scanners shortly after leaving her meeting with Trask on Tridorcian.
Not many people traveled to the isolated planet. Since the Inferno was registered as a Class C hauler, she’d assumed the other ship belonged to marauders intent on attacking and stealing her cargo. After a few days passed and the other crew maintained a safe and what they probably considered an undetectable distance, she’d modified her speculations.
Talia had a bad feeling he might be following her hoping she’d lead them to Tremaine. If she was right, she had no doubt the man would kill her once she found Tremaine, then turn him over to Trask for the bounty.
There was a slim, practically microscopic chance the man worked for Tremaine and was following her so he could report her progress. It would suck if Tremaine was aware she was looking for him. She needed surprise on her side if she had any hope of getting close to him.
She’d grown tired of being tailed and decided it was time to find out who the guy was and why he was following her. With that in mind, Talia sought out the nearest walkway between two buildings and ducked inside.
#
THIS IS A WASTE OF time. Dolok Dajaren tightened his grip, pulling the hooded overcoat closer to his throat. Though it disguised his features and hid the dark brown marks trailing down the left side of his neck, it didn’t provide much protection against the icy wind penetrating the fabric and chilling his skin. Haspridian was a miserably cold planet, so unlike his home.
His assignment to find Harris Tremaine was taking a lot longer than anticipated. He would give anything to complete this mission and return to Tarron, with its abundant foliage and warm climate. Right now, he’d even agree to patrol the perimeter fencing surrounding the hunter command headquarters if it meant finding some normalcy in his life. And warmth, lots of warmth.
His team was currently traveling under the guise of commodity traders, which meant no hunter vessel, no uniforms, no allowing anyone to recognize them or jeopardize his goal. Even though Commander Ryos Davenger had given him permission to expand his search for Tremaine outside their quadrant, his attempts to date had been fruitless. Once the owner of the traveling fighting arenas realized the hunters had increased their efforts to find him, he’d disappeared without a trace.
The last few months out of the ten he’d been searching wouldn’t have been so bad if he’d been able to continue working with Larn and Kira. Even though Larn, a fellow Tarron, had retired from the hunters, he and his mate, Kira, were a lot less trouble to deal with than her older brother, Ross.
Tarrons were extremely protective of their mates. With Kira recently discovering that she was pregnant, Larn insisted that she no longer participate in the mission. Though Dolok envied the couple’s happiness, he was glad they were comfortably settled on Ledorrion. Of course, it also meant that Burt, Kira’s father, wouldn’t be part of the team either. Once he’d learned he was going to be a grandfather, he’d decided to join them.
Sarge, Kurt, and Garrett, the other members of his crew, were tough for older human males and had been with Burt for many years. They viewed Kira as their daughter, so when Burt retired, the other males chose to go along with him.
That left Dolok with Ross. The human male was impetuous and lacked any cautionary sense. Over the last few months, he’d gotten their team, which also included Gedrin and Corran, the other two hunters under his command, into more trouble than he’d wanted to deal with. Dolok would have thought Ross’s abduction and near-death experience with the fighting arenas would have taught him to be more cautious. Obviously not, and it didn’t take Dolok long to understand why Kira regularly threatened to castrate her brother.
He snapped out of his musings and focused on the door opening on the nearby dwelling, the reason he’d been standing outside, enduring the cold. His contacts had informed him that Harker Trask, a powerful mercenary who’d retired to the outpost on Tridorcian, had posted a bounty for Tremaine. When Dolok’s team had rescued the males enslaved on the Slayer, Tremaine had disappeared with his other ship, the Crusher. He’d also taken the money from the bets, which included a hefty sum invested by Trask.
From what Dolok knew of Trask, he had a bloodthirsty reputation and wasn’t one to overlook or forgive being cheated without seeking retribution—usually through someone’s death. Once Dolok learned Trask was willing to pay for Tremaine’s retrieval, he’d kept a safe distance from the planet to monitor all off-world transmissions and any incoming visitors.
It was also rumored that Trask didn’t reward failure. Anyone who accepted the terms of his contract had to know that if they didn’t produce Tremaine, their lives would be expendable. It explained why only a handful of trackers had bothered to contact Trask about his offer. Out of those, only one person had been brave enough to meet with him face-to-face—the male Dolok was currently following.
So far, he hadn’t gotten a glimpse of the male’s face and could only assume from the way he was welcomed into the homes he visited that he was also human. He’d learned that no matter the species, wariness toward strangers was a common emotion. The male was tall, though shorter and lankier than most of the visiting males who’d trained at the facility on Tarron.
Since arriving on the planet, the male had traveled to several of the communities, meeting with one or two families before moving on to the next small city. His actions confused Dolok, and he wished he could figure out what he was doing. He was convinced the male was still tracking Tremaine, but Dolok had no idea why he’d chosen this planet and these settlements. The hunters, with their vast contacts, hadn’t received any information that would indicate their quarry was hidden here.
Dolok assumed his quarry would return to his ship and wasn’t disappointed when he headed in the direction of the landing area on the outskirts of the city. While Dolok followed, he glanced at his hands and flexed his fingers, irritated that the thin gloves covering his skin did little to prevent the cold from getting inside.
He returned his focus to the male in time to see him duck into a narrow walkway between two buildings. Dolok growled under his breath and silently cursed himself for being distracted.
When he reached the corner of the building, he cautiously leaned forward to get a better glimpse. Finding the area empty, he groaned and walked inside. The male had to be moving fast to have eluded him so quickly. Other than the gap between the buildings on the opposite end, there wasn’t anywhere else the male could have gone.
No matter, Dolok would return to the landing area and wait near the male’s ship for his return. Even if Dolok didn’t make it back to the pad in time to intercept him, Ross and the others were waiting in their ship and had instructions to track the other vessel the minute it launched.
Dolok turned around, intent on backtracking the way he’d come. He’d made it only a few steps when someone gripped the fabric of his coat between his shoulder blades, then shoved him face-first against the wall. His palms slammed into the hard exterior, buffering the impact. He could have retaliated easily if not for the flash of silver and sharp pressure he felt against his throat. Fuck, he hadn’t heard a sound. Either he was getting lax, or he was dealing with someone who possessed excellent skills.
“Why are you following me?” His attacker’s voice was deep, the tone raw and gravelly.
“You are mistaken.” He strained his head to the right, trying to get a better look at the male behind him. Though Dolok’s hood had dropped to his shoulders, all he could see was the gloved hand holding the blade.
“Try again,” the male insisted and applied more pressure with the hand braced near Dolok’s neck.
The sharp edge rested close to his skin. One wrong move—one slice—could end his life. Sometimes telling the truth had its advantages, could lull an assailant into a false sense of trust long enough to be disarmed. Dolok hoped this was one of those times. “I believe we are both searching for the same person.”
“Oh yeah, and who would that be?” The male didn’t sound surprised.
“Harris Tremaine.” Dolok felt some of the pressure ease on his back. Had the male known his team had been tailing him since he’d left Trask’s home planet? “Trust me when I say you do not want to do this, that it would be unwise to get on the wrong side of the hunters.”
“Hunters...what the...you’re a Tarron.” The male made the mistake of loosening his grip, and the gap between Dolok’s throat and the blade widened.
Dolok shifted his stance and dropped his arm, delivering a blow to the male’s ribs with his elbow. The male groaned and staggered backward. Moving quickly, he spun around and grabbed the male’s wrist, the one gripping the knife. He swept his leg to the side, catching the male across the back of his legs, then knocked his feet out from under him. Dolok followed him to the ground, keeping him in place by straddling him as they landed.
He smacked the male’s wrist against the ground’s hard surface, and the blade slipped from his hand. “I have no use for bounty scavengers, nor do I trust them.” Dolok heard the disgust in his own voice. He hated feeling the unwanted emotions brought on by his contempt for the other male’s profession—collecting criminals for profit. Not all those who were accused of a crime or incurred a monetary contract for their return were guilty or deserved what happened to them after being captured.
He grabbed the male’s other wrist and pinned it to the ground above his head. “You will tell me what you have learned and where I can find Tremaine.” Judging by the way the male’s coat covered him, Dolok had assumed he would be bigger and more muscular. He was surprised when his grip revealed slender wrists, and was even more shocked that the male’s struggles were weak, that he wasn’t putting up more of a fight.
Dolok was determined to get the answers he wanted, but not here on the ground where someone could stumble upon them. He would secure his attacker, then take him to his ship. Using one hand to keep the male in place, he slipped the other inside a pocket and retrieved his cuffs.
Before he could roll the male over and draw his arms behind his back, he was bombarded by a massive influx of sensory details. It was as if all his senses had decided to overload at the same time. A dizzying wave rushed through him, followed by a fiery heat shooting straight to his groin, making him hard.
What is wrong with me? Disgust rippled through him. He’d never experienced this kind of response to a male’s nearness before. Pushing past his discomfort, he focused on the situation, trying to analyze the cause of his strong reaction.
He shifted his grasp to keep the male restrained and pushed the hood off his face. What he uncovered wasn’t a male’s face but that of a female with thick curls the color of a ripened red fruit framing her delicate jawline. “You are a female.” He practically growled the words, taking in her sweet scent. A scent that reminded him of fresh-blooming blossoms.
“Wow, nothing gets past you, does it?” She pursed her lips, glaring at him with darkened aquamarine eyes.
Dolok was baffled that her voice still held the timbre of a male’s. To assure himself that he wasn’t losing his mind, that she truly was a female, he shifted his weight and pushed back the edge of her coat. Even with the confining fabric of her leather vest, he was able to see the fullness of her breasts. His hand grazed her rib, and she winced, a guilty reminder that he was responsible for causing her pain.
If he’d known she wasn’t a male, he would have used different means to disarm her. He didn’t think he’d elbowed her hard enough to crack any ribs, but she would have some bruising. Something he would address once he got her back to his ship.
“Hey.” She bucked beneath him, her struggles to dislodge him futile. “If you’re done copping a feel, would you mind getting off me?”
Dolok didn’t know what copping a feel meant but figured it had something to do with touching her. Though he would never force or take advantage of a female, he had to admit he enjoyed having this one trapped beneath him. He wanted to blame his instant attraction to her on the fact that he hadn’t been with a female in many months, but he knew it wouldn’t be the truth. Even with her strange voice, there was something about this particular female that called to him, tugged at the primal side of his nature. “After your recent attempt on my life, I believe we will stay here until you answer more of my questions.”
“You were following...” Exasperation resounded in her tone as she blew out a heavy breath. “Fine, what do you want to know?”
His instincts were blaring that a creature this beautiful shouldn’t have such a harsh, unnatural-sounding voice. “Why do you speak like a male?”
“I’m using a voice modulator.”
He’d heard the term before. He remembered seeing references to the outdated human invention when he’d accessed virtuals on Earth history. Dolok undid the clasp at her neck and exposed a tiny device attached to a thin leather strap around her throat.
“You need to press the button to shut it off,” she said.
He ran his fingertips along the leather until he found the tiny raised bump, then pressed it.
“I don’t suppose you’d be willing to get off me now?” Her voice possessed a melodic quality that strummed across his skin, reaching deep inside him, strengthening the connection he felt for her. “The ground is cold, and something is biting into my ass.”
The female’s candor amused him, and he grinned. A grin that was quickly replaced with a frown. Instantaneous recognition flowed through him, followed by shock. “It cannot be.” Even as he uttered the words, his rational mind battled with his primal awareness.
Though Dolok wasn’t one of them, most Tarron males spent their lives awaiting the moment, to feel the overwhelming urges, to discover their... He’d been too distracted by the female beneath him to pay attention to his surroundings, or to the shadow that had appeared on the ground next to them.
Panic flickered in the female’s gaze. “Lexa, wait.” Her warning registered too late for him to react to the sharp jab in the side of his neck.
“Enjoy your nap.” There was no missing the sarcasm in the voice of another female.
Dolok released his grip on the female beneath him, jerked his head, and clamped his hand over the dull pain. A numbing sensation drifted through his body. His muscles were being forced to relax by whatever drug she’d injected into his system. His arms, useless and weighted, dropped to his sides.
He struggled to gain control, but his efforts were futile. He grabbed for the other female, who easily stepped out of his reach. No longer able to keep his balance, he crumpled onto his side and rolled onto his back.
“That’s what you get for messing with my sister,” the other female said.
He blinked, forcing his heavy lids to remain open so he could get a better look at the figure hovering over him. The female with the vibrant hair scrambled to her knees and leaned over him. “Damn it, Lexa. How much did you give him?” Concern furrowed her brows as she pressed her gloved hand to his cheek.
Mine. It was the last cohesive thought bouncing through his mind before everything faded into darkness.
