When Jax came up the stairs, he found Mr. Ichiko and Kori sitting at the small table near the kitchenette looking over a tablet while Steve was watching what looked like an episode of Star Trek: The New Adventures . Not one of the better episodes, Jax noticed. “Oh good, you’re all here.” He made a come on motion. “This is…uh, my…er, girlfriend. Naomi.”
“Your—” Kori started.
“Girlfriend?” Naomi finished, then coughed. “Girlfriend, yeah. Hi. We met a few weeks ago, one of those hookup apps.” She looked around the room pantomiming swiping on the screen of her phone. “Couldn’t get enough of him after that.” She nudged him on the side, then spread her hands apart while grinning at Kori. Jax groaned as he closed his eyes and pointed toward the forward bulkhead and the hatch leading to the head. Then he studiously examined something on the ceiling.
When the hatch closed behind Naomi, Steve paused the vid. “Girlfriend? Couple weeks? Wouldn’t that be around when…” His face had a red hue, but Jax wasn’t sure if it was an angry or embarrassed blush. Probably the former.
Jax ran a hand through his hair. “Uh, yeah. Anyway, she’ll make herself useful and won’t get in the way.” He made sure to not make eye contact with Steve.
Ichiko nodded. “Mr. Caruso, this is highly irregular.” He was trying his best to keep his scowl under control. “I hired you and a crew of your choosing. Now you are adding in a…” He seemed to be testing the word out. “…Girlfriend?”
Jax tried his best to mask the grimace he was sure he was wearing with something blander. “I understand, Mr. Ichiko. It wasn’t my intent to surprise you. I assure you, Naomi understands the need for discretion.” He glanced at Kori, who was clearly not buying what he was selling. He looked back at his client, who seemed to be thinking it over.
Ichiko inhaled. “Very well. That will have to be good enough for me,” the elder man replied, turning his attention back to the data tablet between him and Kori. He looked at the ebony-skinned woman. “Your turn.”
Kori stared at Jax for another few heartbeats before turning her attention back to whatever game she was playing with Mr. Ichiko.
Naomi walked out of the head and took in the room. Jax nodded to her, then tilted his head towards the corridor where the berths were. “Come on… honey.” The last word was clipped, and he blushed a deep red the moment it left his mouth. She followed him toward his quarters.
From the common deck, Kori shouted, “Dinner in an hour, lovebirds.”
Jax groaned and opened the door to his quarters. When Naomi crossed the threshold, she turned. “I will not be sleeping with you.” When his mouth opened, she raised a finger. “Ever.”
“I…no, that’s—” he stammered.
Her face was set in stone. “Ever.” She looked around the room, at the single unmade bed. She reached down, picking up a pair of boxer shorts from the edge of the bed, letting them drop to the ground. “Ever,” she repeated.
“I had to come up with something.” He held his arms out wide. “What would you have had me say? Hey, everyone, this is the weird chick that can hack computers just by touching them and learned too much about our job to leave behind, because who the hell knows if she’s trustworthy?”
“I mean, that’s quite a mouthful. ‘This is my friend Naomi’ probably would have sufficed.”
Jax exhaled loudly. “Yeah, no. Our client is paying us to rob someone. That someone is a criminal organization. While noble, still not legal. I didn’t want to risk him scrubbing the job, or at least scrubbing the paying me part.”
Naomi sighed and mumbled something in what might have been Japanese, Jax wasn’t sure. “Fine, but like I said, no.” She pointed to the bed. “You can sleep somewhere else.”
Jax rubbed his face. “I’ll sleep on the floor.”
“Jax?” Skip interrupted.
Jax looked at the ceiling. “What’s up?” He glanced at Naomi, who had an eyebrow raised. “Sorry. Skip, Naomi. Naomi, Skip.”
“Pleasure,” the SI replied tersely. “Jax, we’ve got company.”
“Who?”
“Imperials,” Skip and Naomi said at the same time. Jax looked at her like she’d grown an extra head, then turned his attention back to the ceiling speaker. “How?”
“They must have been loitering just outside detection range of the station. We’re thirty minutes from Kelso, and they just dropped out of a wormhole twenty thousand klicks ahead.”
“They’ve been nosing around Kelso more and more,” Jax explained to no one in particular, though Naomi assumed it was for her benefit. He exhaled. “Okay, stay in contact and follow their instructions. I’ll get everyone ready.” He opened the hatch and looked over his shoulder. “Well, come on, girlfriend.” He held up a finger. “They won’t be able to detect your glowy thing, will they?”
She scowled and pushed past him, much more forcefully than he expected a woman of five-four to be able to. “No, they won’t.”