CHAPTER TEN

 

Nathan watched Samuels and his two men as they crept through the quiet campsite to the imaging tent. Samuels had waited until several hours after midnight to begin this search, well past the time ordinary “inspectors” would be up and around. Their furtive approached confirmed this wasn’t a part of the “inspection” they wanted Ti’ann and Krin to know about.

There was nothing there for them to find. He, Krin and Ti’ann had made sure of that. But Nathan kept an eye on Samuels anyway. He wasn’t about to lose track of the man’s movements.

Not now. Not after the trouble Monroe was having with his ship. Nathan’s suspicions had been piqued when Warez explained the type of malfunction. It sounded a lot like the ship had been sabotaged. A very sophisticated job, too. He didn’t tell Warez or the others because without looking for himself, he couldn’t be sure—that was the beauty of the work he suspected done. To anyone who didn’t know better, it looked like an ordinary glitch. But Monroe and his people didn’t need to know about Nathan’s concerns yet. They were already too tense and having difficulty disguising that nervousness.

The only people who might want to sabotage Monroe’s ship were currently digging around the imaging tent. So Nathan kept to the shadows and monitored them. He couldn’t afford to rely on the sensors he’d set up, and while a shield secured his own ship, the other vehicles were vulnerable to tampering.

When the three had split up earlier that evening, Krin was a willing recruit to follow the other two men while Nathan stayed with Samuels—the dangerous one. Unfortunately for his peace of mind, Samuels’ next move had made it tough for Nathan to stick to the shadows.

Seeing the man chatting up Ti’ann had pissed Nathan off, and not just because he knew Samuels was picking on the more vulnerable doctor to interrogate.

He hadn’t been able to get close enough to overhear most of their conversation. When he had, it only confirmed what Samuels’ body language had indicated. He wasn’t escorting Ti’ann to dinner to discuss the inspection.

Samuels was just lucky Ti’ann had been so uncomfortable with him or he’d be dead already. It gave Nathan a little twinge thinking Ti’ann hadn’t exactly been comfortable with him at first either. But he liked to think that was for other reasons. At least, he hoped it was.

When he’d tracked Ti’ann to the imaging tent after dinner, he hadn’t been thinking clearly. What he should have been doing at that moment was following Samuels. Instead, he hunted down Ti’ann to check on her. To confirm she hadn’t actually enjoyed dinner with Samuels.

And then he’d nearly thrown everything to the wind and kissed her. She’d looked up at him with those big gray eyes, her desire plain, and he hadn’t been strong enough to leave her alone. If not for the disruption of passing people, he’d have swept her back inside the imaging tent and started on all those things he’d been fantasizing about for days.

The distraction had been enough to save him, though. He couldn’t afford to indulge his mad need for her tonight, this obsession with her he couldn’t seem to shake. Not while Samuels and his men were in camp. Not while Nathan was the only one around who could keep Ti’ann safe. However, protecting her meant keeping his hands to himself for a little while longer.

But only until he could call in backup. As he watched the inspectors give up their fruitless search and leave the imaging tent, he considered the short list of people he could trust at his back.

He followed Samuels and his men as they made their way to the new excavation site, remaining silent and carefully out of sight. Alex used to top the short list of trusted associates, but he was no good to Nathan anymore since he was officially out of the mercenary game. Who else could he trust as much as he’d trusted his former partner? He smiled in the darkness when he realized he had the perfect candidate, someone who would definitely not have to worry about hormone distraction out here. Though he’d probably spend the whole time cursing the heat. Nathan almost laughed. Yeah, BinRal would be perfect for the job.

*****

Ti’ann woke with a crick in her neck and an ache in her gut. Anxiety didn’t usually hit her until she was fully awake and out of the warm cocoon of her bed. But then, she usually didn’t lay awake most of the night worrying about landing in the middle of a political mess that could cost lives. Even when she did manage to sleep, she’d dreamt of Shifter deaths, standing before the High Court defending her actions, and watching Nathan get shot. Even the scent of Nathan’s jacket next to her hadn’t helped. In fact, in some ways, it had made her dreams worse, more vivid. She would have happily taken the more erotic dreams from previous nights.

Last night was not one of her best nights.

Rubbing her eyes, she crawled out from beneath the covers and checked to make sure the file disk from the new dig was still safely in its spot under her cot. Having that in her tent hadn’t helped. She kept worrying Samuels would sneak in and find it. Fortunately, she got to pass the disk off to Krin tonight. His turn to loose sleep.

After splashing cold water on her face, she risked a glance in the little mirror hanging above the washbasin. She shouldn’t have. The circles under her eyes looked like bruises. She sighed. Lovely. Maybe she could hide the circles behind sunshades. If she could remember where she’d left her shades.

The morning was crisp and already edging toward warm when she walked out of her tent and headed toward Krin’s, overly conscious of the disk hidden in the pocket of her trousers.

Her partner was already awake, dressed and combing through a journal when she walked in. “How’d you sleep?”

“All right.” He looked up. “You obviously didn’t. You okay? Maybe you should try and sleep some more.”

She raised a hand. “If I couldn’t sleep last night, I won’t be able to sleep this morning. Better to get to work anyway. Do you know where my sunshades are?”

He rolled his eyes, dropped his reader on his cot and went to his clothing trunk. “You really need to keep better track of these. I found them at the primary site yesterday,” he commented as he pulled her shades from inside.

“Yeah, yeah. Thanks.” She grinned and held them up in front of her face. “Are they dark enough to hide the circles?”

“No.”

She scowled at his response then shrugged. He was probably right. Nodding to her hip, she said, “Think my pocket is safe?”

His frown was not reassuring. “You can’t even remember your shades when you get focused on your work. You sure your pocket is a good idea? What if it falls out and you don’t notice? Or worse, Samuels is right there when it happens and he does notice?”

“You have a better idea? Your clothes aren’t baggy like mine, you can’t hide it on you. People would notice if you suddenly wore looser fitting pants. And we don’t dare leave it anywhere in case Samuels goes searching through the camp. You know he’s suspicious of our story about the file being erased.”

“Yeah.” He sat on the edge of his cot and she joined him. “We could always put it back in the imaging tent, hide it in plane sight with the rest of the files. He’s no doubt searched there already.”

“They’ll search that tent again.” Nathan’s voice made them both jump.

“Shit, Longfeather, how do you move around so quietly?” Krin put a hand over his heart.

She was too busy trying to catch her breath to speak. He was gorgeous. And she looked like someone had punched her in the nose.

“When this is done, I’ll teach you.” A hint of humor touched his sexy voice. “You’re right. They searched the imaging tent last night. Obviously found nothing. But they’ll go back. They searched the new site as well. They even fired up the EDU to see if it really was broken.”

“Good thing we undid mine and Glen’s tweaking. Did they search anywhere else?”

“Most of the empty tents and a few areas around your primary dig site. They didn’t make it as far as the secondary site. They tried searching the ships too but got singed on mine. That and sunrise being only an hour away put an end to their activities.”

“You were still following them?”

Nathan nodded.

“Did you get any sleep?”

“I’m calling in help today.”

She didn’t miss the way he avoided answering Krin’s question. Her eyes narrowed. When she looked closer, she saw the strain around his mouth and eyes. It was subtle, but the signs of fatigue were there.

“How long until this help arrives?” she asked. He needed rest or he wouldn’t be any good to any of them. She chose to ignore the fact that if she’d been able to follow through on kissing him last night, she’d have tried to keep him up all night herself.

“This afternoon,” Nathan answered. “I’d better warn you, he’s a Binnean mercenary from t’Clav clan. There shouldn’t be a problem, though, since you don’t have any other Binneans working here.”

“Thanks for the warning,” Krin said with a chuckle.

“Will you be okay until he arrives?” she asked.

Nathan raised his eyebrows, his look so sardonic she wanted to squirm.

“Of course,” he said, his voice subtly laced with humor again. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

“I just thought you must need to sleep sometime is all,” she mumbled, staring at the floor of the tent. “You must have been up all night following the inspectors around.”

“I got enough sleep to keep doing my job. No need to worry, Dr. Jones.”

“Fine.” She shrugged. She had an overwhelming need to leave the tent but wasn’t sure how to make her escape without humiliating herself further. She couldn’t believe she’d actually considered seducing him last night. What the hell had she been thinking? He’d spent the night protecting her dig site. He didn’t have time for a romp in the sheets, even if he might want to indulge with her.

In the full light of day, she had to face facts. She looked like death after her sleepless night. He looked as gorgeous, as sexy and confident as ever. They were not in the same orbit. And she had to stop pretending they could be.

“Looks like your pants are the best hiding place today, then,” Krin said, patting her thigh. “If the inspectors are likely to search the site more, we can’t afford to leave the disk anywhere.”

“Gee, aren’t I lucky,” she mumbled but spared Krin a half-smile.

“That’s not a good idea.” The hard edge to Nathan’s voice surprised her.

“Why not?”

“You’ve had it all night.”

“So?”

“So they may figure out one of you is carrying it after they’ve searched your tents.”

The thought of Samuels going through her tent gave Ti’ann the creeps. And she still had Nathan’s jacket. Would Samuels notice it wasn’t hers? Not that what he thought about her personally mattered, but he might say something out loud that she would have a hard time explaining. She really should give that jacket back to Nathan. Now would be good.

Except the conversation was too serious. Now didn’t seem the right time to bring up something as trivial as Nathan’s coat.

“You think they’ll try and physically search us?” Krin asked. “That’d be a bit obvious, wouldn’t it?”

Nathan looked right at her when he answered. “I don’t think Samuels is above searching in a more subtle way.”

“What?” Her voice squeaked, but it was more because he was staring at her so intensely than because of what he said.

“He may use…other methods to try and search you, Dr. Jones.”

When she finally got his innuendo, she almost laughed. “Yeah, right.”

“I don’t know, Ti’ann. Samuels has been very attentive to you. He may be trying to seduce information from you.”

“You’re joking.” She looked between the two men, shocked to see such matching expressions of conviction. “Oh come on! You two are way off here. And anyway, Samuels gives me the creeps. There’s no way he’s getting close enough to search me.”

Krin didn’t look convinced, and she didn’t dare look at Nathan to see what he thought.

“Krin, he’s not gonna make a move on me to see if I’m hiding a file disk he doesn’t even know about. Both of you are overreacting.”

“Maybe.” Krin shrugged and sighed. “I don’t like this, though.”

“I’ll be fine.” When he pursed his lips, she gave him a light slug in the arm.

His brief scowl moved quickly into a grin. “You’re not supposed to win these arguments you know? Disrupts the balance.”

She chuckled, relieved by the break in tension.

“I still don’t think you should carry the disk,” Nathan said.

“Yeah, well, we don’t have a lot of options. Unless there’s someplace you don’t think they’ll search, the best place is on one of us.”

“We could give it to Monroe, to take back with him,” Krin said suddenly, his eyes widening.

“I am not letting these files fly off with someone else,” she said immediately.

Before Krin could argue, Nathan added, “They’re not leaving this morning anyway. Another malfunction in their ship.”

“Another?” Krin asked.

“That sounds awfully suspicious,” she said at the same time.

“Exactly. So they’re staying.”

“Do you think Samuels is sabotaging their ship?” she asked.

Nathan shrugged but didn’t answer her question. She really hated when he did that.

“I can put the files in my ship,” he said instead. “It’s shield protected. They’d have to have some serious firepower to get through. And that’d be very obvious. They left everything as they found it last night. They don’t want us to know they’re not inspectors. At least, they don’t want us to have proof they’re not what they claim.”

“Your ship is a great idea. Why didn’t you suggest it sooner?” Krin’s initial enthusiasm turned to suspicion in a nanosecond.

“After the singeing they got last night, they may try to break into it today just to see what I’m hiding. I didn’t want to risk it. But if it’ll keep Dr. Jones from doing something stupid, I’ll take the chance.”

“Hey!”

“Great. Give him the disk, Ti’ann.”

“What the hell do you mean by something stupid?” She jumped to her feet and rounded on Nathan. “I resent that comment. When was the last time you noticed me doing something stupid?”

As soon as she said the words, she nearly choked on them. Of course he’d noticed her doing something stupid. Three years ago she’d done something most people would consider extremely stupid, even if she didn’t regret it. Then she remembered. He didn’t know she was that woman. Her moment of shocked panic disappeared, and suddenly she was righteous and angry again. She was actually relieved he didn’t remember her. Ha!

“Not feeding yourself or staying properly hydrated is stupid. The last thing we need is for you to get so caught up in your work you forget you’ve got the disk and drop it.”

“Listen, Longfeather.” She actually poked at him, not quite brave enough to touch him, not when she had a witness, but the gesture made her point. “I’m the one whose career is on the line here. If I fuck up, it’s my life. It’s my best friend’s life. I take that seriously.” She lowered her voice. “There is no way in hell Samuels and his men are going to get this disk from me. You got that? I’m keeping it, I’ll take care of it, and that’s all there is to it.”

For thirty seconds, the only sound in the tent was her breathing. She couldn’t even hear Krin behind her. Nathan looked like a storm ready to break. But she didn’t back down. She couldn’t now even if she wanted to. She wouldn’t be able to look herself in the mirror. She might hate confrontation, but she was not going to be belittled or written off as a scatterbrain. Not by him. Not by anyone.

Even if she was a scatterbrain sometimes.

To keep her hands from shaking, she fisted them and set them against her hips. There. That had to look defiant. She waited, nearly panting from the earlier anger and now the strain. Adrenaline ran riot in her bloodstream. If he didn’t say something soon, she was going to crack.

“Fine.” His voice was devoid of emotion when he finally spoke. “You carry the files.”

Her hands dropped like weights to her sides, leaving her shaky. She’d won. Wow. That made two arguments in a row. Krin was right. This could go to her head. She smiled because she couldn’t help it and nodded.

“Great. All settled. Now, I need to eat. Are you two coming?”

Krin was instantly at her side and ready to leave. “I’m starving. Let’s hurry. I want to get down to the dig site before Anya starts on that big block hammered out yesterday.”

Outside, just before Nathan joined them, Krin leaned close to her and murmured under his breath, “All hail the mighty wombok.”

Ti’ann snorted and clapped her hand over her mouth to keep from laughing out loud.

As they walked to the canteen, Nathan slightly out of step and behind them, Ti’ann could feel the hard edge of his glare between her shoulder blades. Mighty wombok or not, she had a funny feeling they weren’t through with their argument.