part0043

Gattar swooped in ahead of the cruiser to the docks, cutting the Jix scouting vessel in front of it to get her beloved berth five. She waved at Craze through the windows, beaming like a coquette, blowing kisses, behaving as if she never ate chocolate laced with mind-control nanites.

Shit. Craze ran a meaty palm over his wide face, muttering under his breath. Leave it to the Fo’wo’s to invent a weapon that couldn’t be counted on. Only half a year had passed since he first fed her the contraband. And here she was to screw up his new era. Between her and the Verkinns, Craze knew it could end as easy as a wink.

“Who’s that? Your gal?”

The deep voice next to his ear made him jump. Craze whirled to find Bast standing right behind him. “What happened to hibernatin’?”

“I hear you aim to listen, so I roused myself. I decided watching you run your business would be more fun.” Knowing his pa, Craze figured Bast had no intention of observing quietly. No, he’d be sizing up the tavern for a takeover and the customers for scams.

Craze crossed his burly arms and stiffened his jaw. “Go down ‘n wait for me in my quarters.”

Bast grimaced as if something smelled really awful. “I not be no hire-on of yours, boy. I’m a payin’ customer, I’ll do as I please.”

“Scammin’ isn’t the same as payin’. You can go wait for me at my place or in my jail.” Craze tapped the stunner holstered to his hip.

Bast slapped his son on the back, jostling Craze a step forward. “Man up ‘n shoot me then. I’m not budging.”

Obstinate son of a bitch. Craze’s fingers twitched over the weapon’s handle. Juggling Jixes with a luxury cruiser full of rich tourists would be tough. Bast in the mix could spiral things toward disastrous, which gave Craze reason enough to shoot. Then there was the fact Craze wanted to wipe that smug expression off his father’s face as much as he wanted chips flooding his accounts.

The docking facility groaned and the gate hissed, marking the landing of Gattar’s vessel. Boot treads marched up the bridge connecting the vessel to the facility.

“Enough marks to share, son. Bet I get more than you.”

Craze flicked on the stunner, drew, and fired. “They is all for me, Pa. ‘N man up? How’d I do you bwatshit mudderhumpin’—”

“Craze!” His mother cracked him across the face. “Don’t shoot your father!”

Rubbing at the sting, he backed away from her. “He asked me to, Ma.”

“Bullshit.” She shoved him, her brows meeting at a point over her nose. “This feud between the two of you has gone on long enough. Apologize.”

“There’s no feud. Just some hard feelin’s.” He didn’t consider them the same thing. Fights required an exchange of barbs and hate. There’d been none. Bast never reached out, hadn’t cared to check on whether Craze still lived, had banned Craze’s pings from reaching anyone in the family. His ma and sisters hadn’t tried to contact him either. None of them showed any inkling of caring until they got a whiff of his improving business. Craze’s shoulders slumped. They were the ones who should apologize.

Gattar, Pardeep’s Jix liaison, skipped off the gate onto the landing deck. Her purplish complexion glowed, and her dark waves flowed. With a firm grip on her bluster, she blew Craze a kiss and headed straight for him. He knew that sparkling smile hid a lot of cold calculation. A couple of hardcore schemers, she and Bast were the perfect match. Craze would have to keep them apart and get them both off the landing deck before the paying guests disembarked.

Too late. The cruiser’s engines hissed, and it readied to set down in berth two to deposit six hundred tourists who had chosen to come to Pardeep and spend their savings.

He glanced down at his pa, who started to moan. The idea of apologizing scraped his insides raw, but he’d do whatever it took to protect his and Pardeep’s future. “Sorry I shot you. Now get the frick out of here. If you want me to hear why you’ve come to Pardeep, do it. I’m not kiddin’ around.”

His ma helped Bast stumble up onto his feet. Clutching onto her waist with one arm, the dastard twisted two fingers violently at Craze’s face with his free hand. “Good to see you grew some balls, kid. You going to need them. Payback won’t be pretty.”

His scalp prickled and a few of Craze’s hairs rose. He resisted the urge to pet them in front of his old man. “Payback how?”

“In an hour,” Bast said with a smirk, hobbling into the tavern with Ma.

That couldn’t mean anything good. Bast said that kind of crap to put folks he intended to scam on edge. He believed it made marks easier to set up, because they’d become so obsessed by the ominous warning, they’d never see the real danger coming. What was coming?

A hand clamped down on his shoulder. Craze whirled and came nose to nose with Gatt. She’d elongated the vine tattoo that ran under her chin and around her neck. It snaked down between her breasts.

Following Craze’s gaze, she cackled and toyed with the zipper on her silver romper. “Want to see how far down it goes?”

His fingers clamped over hers. “Later.”

“You better not be teasing me again. ‘N put that fricking stunner away or I’ll clobber you with blusters.” Her smile grew colder, and her fingers wiggled toward the other Jixes stepping off her vessel. “Or maybe you want us to scare your new friends away?”

Shit, no. Switching off the stunner, he returned it to his hip. “It’s been awhile, Gatt. Where you been?”

“I had no burning desire to see you again. Not until recently.” Her chin nodded toward the docking cruiser. “Not until I heard you was making lots of new friends.”

The six month reprieve from her greedy, maniacal grasp wasn’t long enough. Not by the whole of the galaxy plus two. Craze curbed the need to sigh by hugging her instead, hoping to throw her off her game and gain some control. “Missed you. Welcome back. Talos is still hangin’ with Ingarsse. Did she send you?”

Gatt smoothed her dark waves, studying the new and improved bar. “She asked me to meet her here.” She thrust her chin at the spotless, transparent doors. “Seems you moved up in the world.”

Craze laughed. “Movin’ up on Pardeep doesn’t mean much of anythin’.” What would mean a lot was more information on Ingarsse and her travel plans. Maybe he could glean some news of Talos out of it. “Is Ingarsse still in the Lepper?”

“They was almost out. So it sounded.” She ran a hand over Craze’s bicep. “Seems she developed a taste for your Captain Talos.” Her fingers squeezed his muscle. “Too scrawny for me. I like meat.”

Instinct urged him to push her off, but he knew that would only cause her to make a scene. In an offensive move, he put his arm around her and hugged her to his side. “So we don’t have much time before you’ll be spendin’ your every minute servin’ her.”

The Jix’s jaw dropped, then she chuckled. “You really did miss me, didn’t you?”

He wondered if Ingarsse was just as demented. He and Talos would have to do some heavy drinking together when the aviarman returned. For now, Craze planted a sloppy wet one on Gatt’s cheek and grinned at berth two.

The first tourists shuffled onto Pardeep, an older couple smelling of chips and looking it, too. Constantly touching, they strolled off the gate. They caressed and kissed, smiling warmly at Craze and Gatt, as if meeting their own kind.

Why’d everyone think he and Gatt were a thing? Ugh. Whatever made the customers happy, though. He kept a tight grip on her and plastered her to his hip. “Welcome to Pardeep. We’ll make your stay a delight. Pure delight.”

He beamed at his staff standing ready behind him. In dark brown shirts and pants, they waited to lead guests to their rooms and to hand them a complimentary mulled mead. Nahv pinged out an itinerary of activities to everyone and started up conversations with as many as possible.

The customers would be well greased and cajoled. Craze had trained his staff well. So he guided Gatt over to Rainly’s repair bay, unsealed the door, and forced her inside.

“Finally some alone time,” he said. If only he could use it to put a bullet through her head. Someday when it wouldn’t screw up his plans, he’d give her that honesty.

She licked her lips, giggling. “Seems a long absence does you some good.”

“Hmm.” He gathered her up in his arms and kissed her with gusto, running his hands over her curves, sliding his fingers beneath the material of her romper to tease. Then he let go. “Business first. Wait for me?”

Her chest heaved, and she chewed her lower lip. “Here?”

His nose almost touched hers. “If that’s what you want, or if you’d like to let some quarters, I’ll meet you there.”

Her mouth twisted to one side. “You want me to pay?”

In several ways, yes. He wet his lips and traced the line of her zipper. “If you want to negotiate a cut for yourself outside of Ingarsse’s, then yes. Rent quarters for your friends, too.”

She swallowed hard and smiled into his eyes. “Chips talk louder than kisses ‘n words, sweet lips.” She pinched his backside and sashayed out the door. “I’ll ping you my room number.”

As soon as she sauntered out of earshot, he said, “I have no intention on followin’ through with either, darlin’. My world, my rules.”

He returned to his tavern and spent an unhurried hour greeting guests, schmoozing them up, sending them free drinks, and inviting them to private soirées. Most of them had the lamest stories he’d ever heard, but he laughed as if their wits astounded him. Several tempting gals winked at him and petted his hair. He flirted back, but not too much. That was the surest way to screw up business.

When the guests grew amiable and had been properly primed for spending chips, he went down to his quarters. All the Verkinns sat inside waiting, filling his living room and making it stuffy. Not so long ago not enough folks lived on the whole of Pardeep to fill a closet. It was a change he’d wanted, he just wished it had come about with different people.

Crossing his arms, he stood in front of the elders. “So what you want? Be straight about it, too.”

“He’s mighty surly for a leecher,” somebody whispered.

“Shh,” someone else chided.

“Craze isn’t a leecher,” the elder with the most wrinkles said for all to hear. “Never was. Came out here to gain a toehold for the Verkinns at our request.”

Craze remembered Bast saying something like that. The blusters the elders had used against his ass when chasing him to the docks had sent a completely different message, though. That was the one with the most staying power over the years. It’d serve him best not to trust a word they said. “Consider me massaged ‘n gilded, ‘n say what you proposin’. I’ve a lot to do.” He checked his tab. “You’ve got fifteen minutes.”

The elder pursed his lips and lifted his jaw. “You putting the survival of the Verkinn race on a timer?”

“No, just you.” Craze chuckled at his own wisecrack and curled his tongue to say more. All the somber stares from the other Verkinns shoved the words back into his throat. He tried to clear it, switching his weight to the other hip. Dammitall. “You get kicked off Siegna or somethin’?” Oh, please no. He didn’t want them moving here.

The elder’s eyes grew moist, and he shifted his gaze to the floor. “The ganya trees turned on us.”

Native to Siegna, the forest had an immediate affinity for the Verkinns. Stories by the elders claimed the branches had coddled and sheltered them, bent to their whims and wants. So there had been no doubts about resettling to Siegna after the war. The planet was the best option for a new home, the trees welcoming them like destiny. Craze had never seen his kind without the ganyas and found it impossible to separate the two in his mind. To him they were one and the same, like suns and stars.

“Th-the trees?” He wasn’t sure he heard that right.

“The Croakers poisoned them against us,” the elder continued. “Our dearest friends closed up their trunks and shrank their branches, casting us out of our homes ‘n businesses. The Croakers chased us into the swamps. We can’t live in the mud. No customers will come there.”

It was a revenge Craze couldn’t have designed better—those who had given him the boot now had to deal with the same. He wanted to celebrate and laugh and toast fate. Until he saw the sorrow staining the cheeks of his mother and sisters. However much he hated the council and his pa, Temerity and Moxy didn’t deserve such a nasty future. Neither did his ma. “What do you want from me?”

The elder sat up, straightening the folds of his tunic. “Welcome us on Pardeep. Let us settle here.”

Shit, no. He’d help to a point, but not that. The Verkinns would sap every ounce of good and success Craze and his friends had going and siphon it into their own coffers. They wouldn’t share and would plot the demise of Rainly, Meelo, Talos, Dactyl, and Pauder, giving them all the boot along with Craze. He rubbed at his temples. “You have more ships comin’?”