“It’s time to go.” He curled her under his arm and she pressed into his side.
“Go where?” Elodie let him lead her away from the wounded.
“Home.”
***
WITH THE LAST LINGERINGflashes of energy, Gunner gritted his teeth and broke through the final layer of metal between him and his prey. Claws curling around the ravaged steel, he vaulted through the shredded hole.
His gaze landed on the empty captain’s chair right as the barrel of the gun pressed into the side of his head.
“You don’t want to do that,” Gunner snarled.
“Cyborg,” Juke mused. “Took you long enough.”
Gunner twisted to face the captain. “So you knew.” The man before him was unexpected compared to the others on the ship. He was clean-cut, and... unassuming, with a thoughtful, dark expression. Cool blue eyes were set in a stony face that gazed back at him curiously.
“I knew.”
“You didn’t jump ship?” Now his own curiosity was piqued.
Juke removed the gun from his temple and walked away. Gunner’s eyes followed him to the giant panoramic view of space, to the vision that lay before him. A laugh escaped him as his eyes met dozens of battleships that surrounded the pirate ship from all sides.
He knew those ships, knew them well and was a little offended that so many had shown up for a one-man job.I was doing fine, fuckers.
“Couldn’t get there,” Juke answered, bringing his attention back to the captain. “My men wanted to see me dead before your secret came out. And it came out quick I might add. Did you know that?” The man laughed grimly.
“Enlighten me.” Gunner let the rest of his jackal form recede back into his skin as he prowled across the bridge and took a seat in the vacant captain’s chair. He enjoyed the feel of his blood soaking into the leather. “When?”
“Right after you started murdering my men. Right before Ballsy fucked off. He was probably the smartest man on my ship, leaving when he had the chance. He damn near killed the entire crew when he destroyed the security feeds and I lost all visuals of my men. I would’ve figured he was dead too if the ship hadn’t alerted me to that escape pod. I knew it had to be either him or you, but I knew it couldn’t be you because why would a Cyborg leave—flee, really—from the only lead he had? To get revenge?” Juke waved his gloved hand at the window.
“That didn’t answer my question. What gave me away?”
“Your ship. Your ship gave you away.”
Gunner sat forward and rested his bloody elbows on his bloody knees. “You cracked my codes?” He was oddly unsurprised after all that had happened. Ballsy knew he was a Cyborg when Gunner had confronted him, and he’d had a weapon that had fucked with his systems. The sociopath had bypassed his security codes. “So, what was it? The correspondences? My lab? Was it the cybernetics medical unit hidden behind my armory?”
Gunner spread his legs and braced against the violent vibrations that shuddered through him as another missile hit the ship.
When it stopped Juke replied, “None of that. None of that gave you away.”
“You can’t win this battle, Captain, so why don’t you give up while you still have your life?”
Juke laughed. “They won’t destroy us. Why would they do that? They know you’re on this ship. Why else do you think we haven’t been shot into oblivion yet? They have enough firepower to erase us.”
Gunner’s eyes drifted from the ships outside to the captain. “How? Really now? What gave me away?” He was beginning to go on the defensive as he thought back to everything that happened in the last two weeks.
“How do they know? Same fucking way Ballsy and I discovered your existence here. There was a goddamned tracker on your battlecruiser. Someway, somehow, my men missed it. Even Ballsy missed it.”
Gunner should’ve felt relief that they hadn’t been able to break through his security but he didn’t. He burst out into laughter.Impossible.
Juke turned around and narrowed his eyes. “We had your ship for less than three days, Cyborg, before a militarized fleet showed up out of the blue and took out the entire organization. Dozens of ships, cargo, everything, every man was either killed or seized in a matter of hours. Gone in a day. You really think my crew wanted mutiny over a couple of murders?” Juke sneered. “Someone gets murdered every fucking day on this ship. No. Word got out about what happened. That was the reason they were after me. Fear’s a great motivator, and suddenly, they had nothing left to fear.”
Gunner’s nostrils flared and he barely registered Juke’s words. His head was still wrapping around the fact that there was a tracker in his ship.Impossible. APOLLO would’ve sensed it.He would’ve sensed it. The idea was ludicrous unless...
Gunner clenched his hands and returned his attention to the battleships outside the window.
He took a deep breath to fill his nose with the scent of his lingering blood and sweat—the lingering death that he so enjoyed. Every code was his. Every system configured and examined. APOLLO was his. Even his Gunner girls were clean—in a manner of speaking—with his own personal programming, programming no one else knew.
