Chapter 3
“Captain?” Jordan’s brows were pinched with concern when I stormed up to the bridge.
“Not now.” I circumvented her entirely and stalked into my office, aggressively engaging the locking mechanism, guaranteeing I wouldn’t be bothered for a while.
An exception? What in the world had Darren been thinking?
Did he realize that by securing a phony exception for me and that—that—woman, that both of us would be ineligible for one in the future?
And why did that seem to matter so much all of a sudden? I had sworn off women a long time ago, so it wasn’t like an exception was something I’d endeavored to obtain. But the possibility of it…the fantasy of one being snatched away from me without consent, felt so heavy.
“Fuck.” I exhaled, using my palms to lean against the edge of my desk.
I took a beat. The new chief engineer—my wife, was jumbling my thoughts.
I’d spent years refining my ability to remain focused. My mind, however, had other plans, continuing to wander back to the curve of her mouth, her fingers curled around the fabric of my uniform, her warm body pressed against mine.
I shook my head, annoyed at the effect she already seemed to have on me. I needed to stop thinking about her and form a defensive strategy to deal with the mission at hand, knowing I’d now need to work around a new variable.
What were my next steps? I hadn’t felt so out of sorts in a long time, but there was no use panicking, and I wasn’t one to panic anyway—it was worse, I froze.
“I need to call Darren,” I muttered to myself.
Making my way around the desk, I pulled my encrypted comm out of the drawer, rather than my Starlane-issued device, and established a secure line. It didn’t take long to connect.
“Vaughn!” Darren’s face broke out into a smile over the video screen. “I was wondering when I’d be hearing from you.”
“Darren, how could you do this to me?” I couldn’t hold back my anger and shock.
“I take it Lark has arrived.” The corners of his lips curled into a smile.
“I don’t even know what to yell at you about first,” I seethed.
“How many times have we discussed that working solo was the optimal plan so I could remain undercover? How many times did I tell you that I didn’t need help, that I had everything under control?
At what point in any of those conversations did I give you any indication that I needed assistance? ”
Like the pro that he was, Darren let me vent, eventually working out my anger. “Finished?”
“No.” I huffed. “An exception!? You’re out of your mind! I don’t know this girl, and you expect me to pretend to be in love with her, in front of my crew? Are you trying to sabotage everything we’ve worked for?”
“You were supposed to debrief with her this morning. I’ve sent you several messages,” he noted plainly, completely ignoring all my other complaints.
I closed my eyes and rubbed my temples. I couldn’t remember which of my squadmates had taught me the trick, but it never worked as well for me as it had worked for them.
“Darren, I’m not working with her. I need her off the ship. She’s going to compromise everything.” I knew it was impossible. Just like she had mentioned in engineering, without her I couldn’t fly, but with her…
“Damian—”
“Don’t,” I growled.
What others would see as a term of endearment, to call someone by their first name, I saw as the highest of insults.
And if anyone truly knew why, they’d understand, but I refused to show that level of vulnerability, lest it be used against me.
I simply demanded the use of my surname—the only thing I had left from my mother.
“She’ll be good for you,” Darren offered softly.
I choked a laugh. Good for me? More like my absolute nightmare scenario.
She was sex on legs and was already working her way to corrupting me. I didn’t care what Darren said; I was running this mission by myself, and that wouldn’t change. I couldn’t afford the distraction, and she was nothing if not a distraction.
“Give Lark a chance. She’s incredibly experienced. You think I would send you some rookie to muck up the work you’ve already done?”
“Not going to happen.” I shook my head.
“We’ll see.” Darren gave me a knowing smirk. “Keep me posted on your progress. The encryption key will be updated every twenty-four hours. Good luck.”
The line cut before I could reply.
Bastard.
I leaned back in my chair, groaning in frustration.
How could Darren do this to me? I’d been working just fine on my own for months to weed out the mole on my crew after finding some coding that had led me down a rabbit hole and right to Meridian’s front doorstep.
I’d gone to Darren, who became convinced for reasons he’d said weren’t safe to share, that the elusive head of the criminal organization, the Phoenix themself, was on the ship, but that seemed so unlikely.
Why work their ass off on a ship when they could be hiding in a mansion on a private moon somewhere?
What was more likely was that a high-ranking Meridian agent had infiltrated my ship and was running complex smuggling routing data through my systems in the background for the Phoenix, a fact I had discovered only a month after we’d started doing runs.
Which meant it had to be one of the original crew.
At first, I’d thought someone who’d had a hand in building the ship was responsible, because I didn’t want to believe that someone on board could be a part of a syndicate that was wreaking havoc across the system.
But the ship assembly lead was a dead end, and after examining the code, I was able to see when the data transfers had started happening.
Meridian, the scourge of the system, was responsible for more deaths than I could fathom, most of which were a result of ever-increasing overdosing of their proprietary, hallucinogenic drug, Elysian.
If intelligence was to be believed, the Phoenix was the person responsible for developing and distributing the drug, which provided funding for most of Meridian.
It was no wonder so many were after the Phoenix.
Cutting off the head of the snake would likely result in the collapse of operations.
The insane bounty levied by IA certainly didn’t make them any less desirable of a target.
The Radiant, for all her beauty and splendor, was a part of Meridian’s network, whether I wanted her to be or not. So instead, I bided my time, pretended that nothing was amiss as I observed the code evolve and traced the early bits, which weren’t quite as neat as more recent pieces.
What I was certain of, after months of tracking and monitoring everything, was that someone on board was involved, as many of the data transfer logs had actions that could only be performed on the ship.
And that left me in a truly terrible spot, because my crew, despite my best efforts, had become like family to me.
I swore after Enceladus that I couldn’t let that happen again.
But it was impossible not to let Natalie’s infectious laughter worm its way into your heart, or to see under the bravado of Ethan’s big talk, the loneliness in Cassidy’s eyes, the earnestness in Rion’s tone, or the chip on Jordan’s shoulder, which rivaled my own.
But one of them was betraying all of us. And Darren knew I wouldn’t be able to figure it out myself. He was right, of course, and I hated it, and hated him for it.
I needed Lark Sterling, but I wasn’t ready to admit defeat just yet.