Chapter 2
CHAPTER TWO
Relda Dela-Cruz was one of the most striking women Hunt Calder had ever seen.
A mass of brown curls cascaded over her slim shoulders and begged a man to tangle his hands in them.
Her face shouldn’t have been beautiful—the line of her jaw was too strong, the blade of her nose too sharp.
But combined with almond-shaped eyes of a deep nebula green and copper-brown skin, she was stunning.
Her lips were painted a vivid red designed to give a man fantasies. And her body…that gave him plenty of fantasies as well.
She covered it in flouncy skirts and that damned sash of coins that jangled whenever she moved. But her body was all generous curves and temptation, designed to bring a man’s cock to attention.
His certainly was whenever he was within a few meters of her.
“I have no idea what the Trojan Moon is,” she murmured, meeting his gaze head on.
She was tempting but she was also a liar.
She was damned good at it. If he wasn’t watching her so intently he might have missed the lie.
But during his years in the Galactic Special Forces, he’d interrogated more people than he liked to remember.
Added to that he was Predian, and his race had exceptional hearing, smell, vision, and reflexes.
He was an expert at spotting lies. And in Relda, he detected the trip in her pulse that was at odds with the rest of her.
Her hands didn’t fidget, but stroked the edge of a fat, jewel-blue cushion beside her, calm and easy.
She didn’t sweat or look uncomfortable, she was perfectly composed.
Too composed.
“So, you don’t know what this Trojan Moon is?”
She spread her slim, ring-covered hands wide.
“The only trojan moon I know is up there.” She pointed upward.
“The captured asteroid called Khan sits in one of Souk’s Lagrangian points of stability and co-orbits with the larger moon, Hilal.
That makes it a trojan satellite. It’s also home to the Phoenix brothers. ”
She sounded like a damned schoolteacher, but she was still lying.
“Yes, I know about that trojan moon.” And the infamous treasure-hunting brothers who called it home.
“But I don’t think that moon is what these men are after.
” Hunt leaned closer. “It’s my job to protect the people of Medina and that includes you and your girls, Ms. Dela-Cruz.
Help me out here. You don’t have any sort of artifacts that could be considered a moon? ”
She shrugged. “I have several orbs in my tents, for decoration.”
He eyed the silver-pink ball on a small table nearby. Somehow it had escaped destruction. “You don’t use them to…tell fortunes?”
She tilted her head, her green eyes narrowing. “You don’t believe people have the ability to see the future, Marshal?”
“I’ve researched you.” He saw a brief flare of something in her eyes before she hid it.
Curious. What did the lovely Ms. Dela-Cruz not want him to find in her past?
“You take in disadvantaged girls who’d otherwise have to turn to pleasure working on the streets.
You give them a place to stay in your home near the market.
You give them jobs working in your stalls.
I don’t think they can tell the future any more than I can.
You train them to give people exactly what your clients want, and you do it in a very lovely, staged setting. ”
She shifted on the cushions. “I know my brand.”
“Yes. You do.” He’d noticed she never flirted with him. Around any other male—young or old—she was mysterious smiles, tilted head, and fluttering eyelashes. At first, it had bugged him, because he had a powerful desire to strip her naked and wrap her long legs around his hips.
But then he’d realized what it really meant, because whenever he was with her, his acute sense of smell had picked up the faintest, most tantalizing hint of her arousal.
He found her fascinating. She pulled on so many different guises—fortune teller, businesswoman, flirtatious woman, savior of disadvantaged girls. He hadn’t worked out which was the real Relda, but he suspected he hadn’t seen her yet. His gut told him she didn’t show the real Relda to anyone.
He was also interested in the fact that when he’d run his searches on her, he’d found no reference of a Relda Dela-Cruz before she’d turned up on Souk four years ago.
Yeah, she was a sexy mystery he wanted to uncover.
But first, he had to keep her alive.
“I’m going to run searches on the Trojan Moon. You sure there’s not anything you want to tell me before I do that?”
She lifted her chin. “I’m sure.”
So, she thought he’d come up empty. Okay, beautiful, let’s see.
She stood with the elegant grace of a dancer. “Marshal, I really need to check on Alia and my other stores. I don’t want any more of my employees hurt.”
Hunt stood as well and took a step closer to her. He noted the way she stiffened. Most people would guess that she didn’t like him, but his senses picked up her racing pulse, the subtle change in her scent.
He gripped her chin and tilted her face up. “You need to be careful. Do you have a weapon?”
She raised her eyebrows.
Not a legal one, then. “Don’t tell me,” he growled. “Just keep it close and keep an eye out. I’m going to post a deputy to stay with you here at your store and to guard your house. You see anything that worries you, and I mean anything, tell him or call me.”
She blinked, and he got the impression she wasn’t used to anyone looking out for her. “Of course, Marshal.”
And there was that cool, composed tone she saved just for him. He suppressed a smile and stroked a thumb across the smooth skin of her jaw, watched something flicker in her eyes. “I wouldn’t want anything to happen to you.”
Her mouth opened. Those luscious red lips taunting him.
She leaned into him a little. With her vivid personality, she seemed taller, but the top of her head barely reached his shoulder. Her full breasts pressed against his chest, and he cursed the vest he always wore.
He cupped her cheeks in his hands. “Relda—”
The door flap opened again and Dale Westin, the deputy Hunt had sent out after the intruders, returned. Westin looked at Hunt touching Relda, his eyes widening.
Hunt cursed under his breath. He reluctantly let his hands drop and stepped back. Relda looked over his shoulder.
“Sir, no sign of the men. And I’m sorry, but there’s been an altercation at the spaceport. A starfreighter crew is brawling with the crew of some luxury starcruiser that just landed in port. The Port Master is asking for you.”
Hunt sighed. Sometimes he missed his Special Forces days. Who knew that wars and commando missions were easier to handle than the day-to-day problems on a market planet?
He shot Relda a look. “Ms. Dela-Cruz, remember what I told you.”
She nodded, all cool and calm again. “Yes, thank you, Marshal. I should get this mess tidied up.”
“Not until my forensics team do a sweep.”
She heaved a sigh. “Fine.”
She wouldn’t call him. But damned if he was going to leave her as a big, juicy target for whoever was looking for this mysterious Trojan Moon.
He’d have one of his deputies watch her here at the stall. But at night…
At night, he’d keep a special eye on her himself.
Relda straightened the cushions in her tent, preparing for her last appointment of the day.
Looking at it, no one would know there’d been a fight the evening before that had torn the place up.
Or that Marshal Calder’s forensics team had worked into the night running their high-tech scanners over every inch of it.
They hadn’t found anything helpful. Some skin cells from an aquatic who clearly didn’t have a record.
This morning she’d had the tent cleaned, the slash in the wall repaired, and she’d brought in more decorative items from her house.
With a sigh, she stopped, touching a hand to her aching temple.
Despite getting Alia healed and settled last night, and despite taking a long bubble bath, Relda hadn’t slept well.
When she had drifted off, it was to nightmares of faceless men chasing her, demanding the Trojan Moon.
But the end of each dream morphed into something different—finding herself in Marshal Hunt Calder’s strong arms.
Calder…got to her. In ways she wouldn’t let a man get to her ever again. No, the less she saw of Marshal Hunt Calder, the better.
She really hoped the idiots who’d attacked her and Alia were no longer on Souk. But she’d given up on foolish dreams a long time ago.
They’d come for the priceless artifact again.
She massaged her temples and willed the headache to dull enough so she could get through her last appointment.
Female voices at the entrance of her tent told her that her clients had arrived.
“This is silly, Eos.”
“Come on, Ria, it’ll be fun.”
Relda summoned a smile. “Ladies, welcome.” She nodded at Deputy Westin standing like a protective statue outside the tent. He’d been there all day. He gave a tiny nod before once again staring straight ahead.
She focused on the women. She recognized the beautiful brunette and tall, athletic blonde instantly. Most people in the market knew of the Phoenix brothers. The treasure hunters often purchased their supplies in the market.
Many a Soukan lady had been disappointed when the most infamous of the brothers, Dathan, had married the lovely Vedian astro-archeologist, Eos Rai.
She stood smiling at Relda, her dark hair braided over her shoulder and her floral mehndi designs visible on her crossed hands.
Her aura was many shades of pink—happiness, warmth, and love.
The other woman would be the former assassin, Ria Dante—now Phoenix—who’d married the youngest Phoenix brother, Zayn. Her face had been splashed across the news after a scandal in the Assassin’s Guild. Her aura was a deep indigo with edges of pink—relaxed and in love.
Relda got them settled with tea. “So, you’d like to know your futures?”