Chapter 9
Sofia
“It’ll be fine,” Sofia insisted the next day as she got ready to leave the hotel.
She reached for her purse, but Zaraq’s hand closed around hers, stopping her.
“I need you to promise to be careful.”
Sofia looked up, locking eyes with him. The deep purple of his irises was as arresting as ever, and for a moment, she considered just pulling him onto the bed, tangling herself up in his arms, and forgetting this whole plot.
But that part of her had to be pushed aside for now. Feeling his warm hand on hers, she knew none of that would be possible if they didn’t clear his name. At least, not in the long run.
The thought took her off guard. In the long run? Was she really that committed already? It made her cough a little, as if she could hardly swallow the fact that she’d found someone she was having those thoughts about.
Straightening up, Sofia took Zaraq’s hand in both of hers. “I’m doing this because it’s the only way. Look, I’m not stupid. I know it’s dangerous. I know it’s probably even a little bit reckless, but what else have we got? I don’t want you to run forever. I’m not interested in sharing my life with a fugitive.”
At this, Zaraq smiled and stepped a little closer. He’d caught her speaking that thought out loud this time—forever, sharing their lives—and if the look in his eyes was anything to go by, he felt the same way.
That wasn’t a conversation Sofia could have right then, though. Not when their future—whatever it was and however long it lasted—depended on her putting their plan into action.
“I’ll be on the speaker the whole time,” she told him.
She touched the receiver in her ear, the one Elena had cobbled together from the helmet, and an assortment of parts she’d pulled out of her comm. The act of touching it helped Sofia to stay focused on the plan when all she wanted to do was kiss Zaraq.
“The second anything sketchy happens, get out of there,” Zaraq insisted, bringing her other hand up to his mouth and planting a kiss there instead.
“Zaraq, I’m going to some gangster’s house to do a trial as a dancer. It’s gonna be sketchy from the outset.”
Before Zaraq could protest again, she pulled her hand from his grasp, grabbed her purse, and strode toward the door. Just as she went to twist the handle, she turned back.
“Don’t worry. I’ll be okay,” she repeated. She stepped out before the look of concern in Zaraq’s eyes really did have her running into his arms.
The streets of Rikuus were seedy, and she felt a dozen pairs of eyes on her as she waited to hail a transport pod.
Her pink and mauve dress was intentionally short at the hem and low at the neck—something she’d borrowed from Carmen’s costume suitcase, though she couldn’t understand why it had been thrown in there in the first place. Probably a joke from one of her sisters when all of this seemed theoretical. Now that it was actually happening, the costumes seemed childish.
That said, the dress had ended up coming in handy, as had the blue suit and helmet, so maybe they hadn’t done too badly after all.
Her thoughts were interrupted as a particularly vile man sidled up to her and hungrily looked her up and down. She didn’t know what kind of alien he was, but his gray-blue skin, yellow eyes, and flickering tongue reminded her of some kind of snake from back home.
“How much?” he asked, his lipless mouth sneering to reveal a row of rotting, pointed teeth.
It made her skin crawl, and although Zaraq said nothing through her earpiece, she was sure he’d be fuming at the man’s words. Luckily, she’d had enough practice fending off men back on Earth. She figured the same rules pretty much applied.
“How much what?” she asked sweetly, feigning ignorance.
The man seemed not to like this, and he blinked a couple of times. Only, he blinked them sideways.
“How much for a ride, sweetheart?”
Everything in Sofia was repulsed, but she kept up the act. “I think that depends where you want to go. I guess back home a cab would cost you about three bucks a mile, but then you have to factor in the base rate, that’s about another three bucks, plus is it peak or off-peak? Right now it’s about 11:30, so that’s off-peak. You’re in luck. I guess you’ll need to convert that to Rikuuns, though, and I don’t know if you have different tariffs here.”
The man flickered his tongue again, but this time Sofia got the feeling it signaled confusion rather than salaciousness. Over his shoulder, Sofia caught sight of a pod and flagged it down.
“Well, good luck!” she called to him as she hopped into the pod and slammed the door hard. As the pod drove away, she looked back to see the man still standing there, trying to figure out what had just happened.
“That was…” came Zaraq’s voice over her micro earpiece.
“Masterful, I know,” Sofia muttered under her breath as she handed Vexis’s address over to the driver.
Zaraq spoke again. “I was going to say risky. Honestly, half of me is impressed. The other half is terrified for you. You can’t speak to everyone like that. When you meet Vexis, just—”
“Be careful,” Sofia finished for him. She said it a little too loudly this time, though, because the cabby—or was it poddy?—yelled over his shoulder.
“Hey, lady, I drive how I drive! You want careful, you can get out and walk!” He shot her a look in the mirror but didn’t make any move to stop the pod. Sofia had to force herself not to giggle.
By the time she arrived at Vexis’s doorstep, though, she didn’t feel like giggling anymore. The ride had taken her through some of Rikuus’s worst neighborhoods, and she witnessed the extreme poverty some of these people had to endure.
Children begged on the streets, countless women leaned into pod windows looking for their next john, and plenty of thuggish men guarded shady establishments. In one alley, she’d caught a glimpse of what seemed to be a drunken brawl, five or six men all scrabbling at each other and throwing wild punches, many of their faces already streaked with blood.
Sofia imagined that this must have been the world Zaraq was thrust into after his parents were killed, and her heart ached at the thought.
No wonder he’s worried about me , she thought, and a tendril of fear snaked its way up her spine. Maybe I’m getting myself in too deep.
It was too late for that, though. The cab had come out the other side of the ghettos and into the rich neighborhood, which presumably only meant that the criminals there were more successful.
She now stood at Vexis’s address, a house that was opulent and imposing. Its tall double front doors were made out of some hard, black stone and shone to a high polish. To the side of the door was a sleek silver panel, which Sofia recognized as a security pad.
With a deep breath, Sofia approached the pad, knowing already that she was probably being watched. As discreetly as she could, she held her purse closer to the silver panel, hoping the reader Elena had given her was close enough to work.
“Hello?” she asked sweetly, batting her eyelids at the camera hidden inside. “I’m here to see Vexis?”
There was no answer, and for a second, Sofia was afraid something had changed. Maybe Slikrim had changed his mind about her. But then a tiny beep sounded from the panel.
Sofia hoisted her purse up on her shoulder, silently praying that the reader had caught the door’s opening frequency. She wouldn’t find out until later, and until then, she had to play the part of an aspiring casino dancer.
The shining black doors slid open with little more than a whisper, and Sofia was greeted by a tall Rikuan man standing in a large foyer. The floor was black and white marble, the roof arched, and the walls hung with tasteful art. But Vexis himself really caught Sofia’s attention.
His pale mauve skin perfectly matched her dress, and his eyes burned black. He was almost as tall as Zaraq’s six-foot-two frame and just as muscular. His shaved head was covered in bright white tattoos, though they could have been skin markings. Sofia didn’t know enough about Rikuans to make that call.
Either way, she was immediately intimidated but fought down the urge to run. Instead, she shot him a flirtatious smile.
“Slikrim didn’t tell me you were so handsome,” she told him, batting her eyelashes at him.
Vexis let out a short laugh that sounded more like a grunt. “You’re good. I’ll give you that.”
He gestured for Sofia to follow him inside. As she walked through his huge home, her heart raced. She clutched her purse tighter, as though it might protect her.
Fuck, why didn’t I bring a weapon? she thought, suddenly wincing. She remembered what she’d seen in Zaraq’s pack that first day in the catacombs and realized that her suspicions were correct. It was a blaster. It had to be. Why hadn’t she asked him for it?
“Drink?” Vexis asked as he led her to a vast living room, equipped with its own bar.
“Sure,” she replied, setting down her purse and making herself at home on the plush gray couch with feigned confidence. “I’ll have what you’re having.”
She winked, draping her arms over the back of the couch in a gesture she hoped he found endearing. Her feminine charms were the only weapon she had at her disposal now, and while they weren’t quite as good as a blaster, she hoped they would be enough to keep her safe.
Vexis seemed to like this, and he grinned at her before turning to fix the drinks. In the silence that followed, Sofia heard a quiet voice in her ear.
“See if you can spot anything incriminating,” Zaraq told her. The amount of interference reminded her he was way back on the other side of the city. “If this guy is second-in-command, it’s because he’s earned Slik’s trust. That means he’s probably up to his neck in murders and extortions. And that might include Ryka’s death.”
Sofia nodded even though Zaraq couldn’t see her and scanned the room, looking for anything that might give her a clue. But the place was spotless. The only thing she saw was a locked cabinet built into the wall. She stared hard at it, wondering what could be behind those doors…
“You like guns?” came Vexis’s voice, and Sofia nearly jumped.
When she met his gaze again, she saw he was holding the drinks in his hands. He glanced at the cabinet, and Sofia figured he’d caught her looking. In two strides he’d joined her on the couch. His weight tipped her toward him, and she hoped he didn’t see the panic on her face.
If he did, he didn’t say anything. Instead, he held out a drink toward her. It was almost impossibly cold to the touch and to Sofia’s relief, the sensation stopped her fingers from shaking.
“I prefer dancing,” Sofia replied with a smile, trying to hide her panic at the word “guns.”
She took a sip of the drink which, in contrast to the glass, was warm, peaty, and almost bubbly in her mouth.
“Well, I like both,” Vexis told her with a seedy grin before taking a swig of his own drink. “But if guns don’t turn you on, let’s stick with the dancing for now.”
Sofia looked at him through her lashes before taking another sip of her drink. Finally, with intentional slowness, she set her glass on the coffee table, making sure she leaned down enough that Vexis caught a flash of her cleavage.
She hated that she was doing this, hated that she was letting this man objectify her, and hated, most of all, that this felt like a betrayal to Zaraq.
This is for Zaraq, she reminded herself. In some twisted way, giving this creep a glimpse of her body was all for a good cause.
“Got some music?” Sofia asked as she stood from the couch and shot Vexis a sultry look.
He grinned, his dark eyes roaming her body as he touched a hidden keypad in the couch’s arm. A slow beat came on over hidden speakers, filling the room with something close to R&B music except… alien.
Still, it was something she could move to, and she laughed internally at what she’d heard over the earpiece yesterday. The chicken dance was definitely not the only dance she knew.
Moving her body slowly to the rhythm, she let her hips roll seductively. Vexis appeared to enjoy this because he leaned back in his seat as if to better appreciate the show she was putting on for him.
Fueled by her success, she let her lips curl into a suggestive smile before raising her arms above her head. With them, she felt her dress lift up a little higher. When she turned around to waggle her ass at the Rikuan, she knew the move would drive him wild.
Apparently, she was right because Vexis practically growled at her. When she turned around again, sliding her hands over her body as she did so, she caught the telltale look of lust in his eyes.
“What do you think?” she teased, still dancing seductively to the music.
“I think you’re a natural,” he replied, practically salivating. “And I think you should try those moves out over here.”
With that, he patted his lap and spread his legs wider. It was obvious he expected Sofia to giggle, saunter over, and plant her ass squarely in his lap. Sofia, of course, had other ideas, but she was pleased to see her plan was working exactly as intended.
“Sorry, honey,” she told him, feigning disappointment. “I have to go, got an appointment. But how about you and I meet up again tomorrow? You could take me dancing.”
She flashed him a look that she knew he couldn’t say no to and bent over again to pick up her purse. This time, she lingered a little, hoping one last glimpse of her cleavage would seal the deal.
“I don’t usually let women keep me waiting,” Vexis replied, hitching his crotch, which was quite obviously bulging. “But you’re so cute I might just have to make an exception.”