Chapter 49 Lacy
Lacy
Afternoon had faded into evening by the time we received the supplies from the man in the bar and had stowed them away.
“I didn’t expect you to actually buy anything.” Burn had helped me carry a load down to the engine room. Now she watched me put the parts away in their assigned places. “I thought the list was just for show.”
There’d been some argument when the rest of the team realized that I truly intended to purchase the supplies.
The price had been good, even sight unseen, and I’d rather have the spares to rig a solution than only have a broken part.
Compared to what they had earned from the delivery of the stupid shooters, what I’d spent was just a drop in the bucket.
I latched the storage unit so supplies wouldn’t go flying during sudden moves. “Oh, I was serious,” I said. “Everything on the list were parts and supplies I’d prefer to have on hand in case of emergency. Floating in space because a part broke and you couldn’t repair it?” I shook my head.
“Thanks for the nightmare fuel,” Burn said.
“You shouldn’t have to worry now. The ship has spare parts to cover almost everything. All you’ll need is a qualified mechanic to replace them.”
Burn’s hand on my shoulder stopped me when I would have walked past her to the exit. “Lacy, about that . . .”
I didn’t let her finish. “Please don’t distract me right now, Burn. We’re so close to finding my sister and I’m hanging on by a thread.”
“Okay.” She frowned. “But we need to talk.”
“Sure. We can talk. After.” I looked at her hand. She removed it reluctantly. I really didn’t need the reminder that I wasn’t the ship’s mechanic. Finn was. Finn, who had months of rehab ahead of him.
Dammit, Fortuna’s engine room felt like mine. But it wasn’t and I had to remember that.
Burn followed me back to the mess, where everyone was supposed to meet. “Are you ready for this?”
Was I ready to go on a raid to try to rescue my sister who may or may not be on this planet? Absolutely not. I’d never admit that to anyone on this team, though.
“Sure,” I said brightly.
“Liar.” Burn’s gaze held sympathy. “You can stay behind, you know. We can loop you in via comms.”
Jaw set, I shook my head. “No. I have to be there when you find her.” My dad would never forgive me if something happened to Layla because I didn’t go. I wouldn’t either.
“It’s okay to be scared,” she added. “No one on the team would think less of you. This is our job. We’re used to it. This is way out of your comfort zone, I bet.”
The shock of Burn being nice to me was too much. “I’m terrified,” I admitted, although I hadn’t intended to.
“Of what?” she asked.
“Everything. What if my sister is there? What if she isn’t? What if someone gets hurt?” I shook my head trying to snap out of it. “I feel so useless.”
“You’re not useless. You’re smart. Strong. You wouldn’t have gotten this far otherwise.”
I snorted.
“No, really,” she said. “You stole a ship, delivered highly explosive cargo, and got the strongest man I know to fall in love with you. And I’m starting to like you.”
My mission anxiety had been replaced by a whole other type of anxiety. “Wait. What did you say?”
Footsteps rang in the corridor outside the mess. We both turned, leaving our conversation hanging.
“We’re a go for the mission,” Dax said.
“Yes!” Burn pumped her fist.
My stomach churned with a mess of emotions. This was really happening. “When do we leave?”
“Within the hour.” Dax and the guys stood just inside the room. Clustered together—big, muscular, and mean looking—they could easily be a recruiting ad for the space corps. Or an ad for a blockbuster movie about the space corps.
Dax broke away from the others. My breath hitched at his approach, Burn’s words circling in my head. I was vaguely aware of Burn stepping away, but my attention was hyper-focused on Dax.
He cupped my cheek, and I leaned into it. “Are you okay?”
“Getting there,” I said.
“Want to sit this one out?”
My laugh was probably closer to hysterical than I would have liked. “I thought about it, but no. The waiting would be worse. And I need to know, regardless of the outcome.” I reached up and put my hand over his. “What’s the plan?”
He caressed my cheek a moment longer. When he turned to face the team, he kept my hand in his.
“Orion and Mercer did a little recon when they came back from the bar earlier. Guys?”
“There are a bunch of shops situated around the landing pad selling parts,” Orion began. “Some of them may even be small chop shops, but it appears the majority of the work is being done in that big hangar right outside of town.”
Mercer picked up the story. “We cased the place on our way back. There are a few guys guarding the doors. Probably more inside. They’re well-armed but not trained. We can take them, easy.”
Standing there tall and confident, I believed him.
“How do you figure?” Dax asked.
“The big guy here,” Mercer pointed at Orion, “stumbled up to the wall to take a leak and set off the alarms. The ‘guards’ surrounded us, but let us go since we were drunk.”
“Seriously?” I looked from Mercer to Orion. They both appeared dead serious. “Oh. Ew.”
Both men laughed. “Okay, so we weren’t really drunk and Orion pretended to take a whiz. We wanted to test their reaction times.”
Mercer shook his head, a pitying look on his face. “Those guys were outclassed. One of them tried to beat up Orion—show him who was boss—but he broke the guy’s nose with a love tap.”
I covered my face with my hands. “Oh my god.” I dropped them and looked at Dax and Burn. “Is that how you normally do recon?”
Dax’s smile widened and little flutters filled my belly. “You’d be surprised what falls into official strategies.”