“And this is supposed to make us trust you?” Merrick began circling again, closing in slowly. “You’re a spy, the enemy, and a menace.”
“I’m none of those things—unless you try to cage me.” She pounced and Merrick barely got out of the way. She clipped his jaw with her elbow. His teeth clacked together.
They both started to get a look in their eyes that I recognized from situations I’d been lucky to get out of. Blood running high. Adrenaline pumping. It was a recipe for real injury.
“All right, that’s enough,” I said sharply. “We don’t need this. We’ll find another solution.”
Suddenly, arms blurred, bodies spun, grunts came from everywhere, and the thud of hard hits echoed around the concrete and metal hangar. Merrick’s head snapped to the side, blood spraying. It took a second for his eyes to focus, but it was still faster than Sanaa expected. The two of them collided like meteors, and Sanaa went flying. She landed hard on her back and slid across the floor, her hands squeaking on the gray painted surface. She dragged herself to a stop, flat on her back, her head raised. Merrick stalked toward her.
“Had enough?” he asked, looming over her.
She grinned. “Darling, this is just the foreplay.” Rocket fast, she rolled onto her side, kicked him, and popped back up in one smooth motion.
Merrick folded in on the hip she’d just hammered. Sanaa swept his legs out from under him, and he hit the floor with a smack of skin that sounded painful. His arm lashed out, and he somehow dragged her down with him. They grappled. Sanaa came out on top, straddling him. Her powerful legs hugged his torso in a vise grip, and she jammed her forearm under his jaw, forcing his head back. “Just so you know, this is my favorite position.”
Merrick’s eyes blazed, and his lips pulled back in a snarl. He grabbed her hips and heaved her off him, tossing her headfirst over his shoulders. Sanaa tucked and rolled, coming up on her feet again. He leaped up. She spun, ready.
Kicks, blocks, punches, parries. Merrick’s cross whistled through the air next to her head, missing by inches. He let out a grunt of frustration. Gliding back, Sanaa produced a knife, waved it around, and flung it aside. Merrick watched her cheerfully taunt him, his expression stony.
“Oh look! Here’s another.” She threw a second blade aside. Then a third. Then a fourth.Where’s she hiding all those?“You would be dead by now if I wanted to kill you.”
“Why don’t you two just arm-wrestle and be done with it?” Fiona called out.
Jax stifled a laugh. I gave them both the stink eye, but something about watching Merrick and Sanaa go at each other without any real malice was oddly electrifying and almost arousing. I glanced at Shade, wondering if he was feeling the same heightened…something.
He gave me a knowing look. A hot smirk and a half wink that made my belly do a pleasant little flip-flop. Warmth stole over me.
Sanaa strode toward theEndeavor, de facto ending the contest before Merrick lost a tooth, an eye, his pride, or worse. Not a hair of her tight bun was out of place. There wasn’t a scratch on her. And no bruising that I could see, although her dark skin might hide it. “I prefer my meals in the kitchen. Thank you for your hospitality.”
“I prefer my meals without the Dark Watch,” Merrick muttered, glowering at Sanaa as she passed him.
She tossed him a grin over her shoulder. “Darling, I’m many things. The Dark Watch is only one of them.”
She hopped aboard theEndeavoras though she hadn’t just brawled with a super soldier, crouched briefly to scratch the soft fur under Bonk’s chin—and he let her—and then moved deeper into the ship. To poke around, presumably. Good thing I had nothing to hide. She already knew more about me than I did.
“Bring my knives, will you?” Sanaa called from around the corner.
I huffed, looking at my crew and taking in Merrick’s sparking-mad eyes and split lip in the process. “Well, I guess that’s settled.”
Shade’s low laugh followed me up into theEndeavor.
Chapter 10
SHADE
We’d just finished dinner when a hell of a racket kicked up at the entrance of theEndeavor. The starboard side was still wide open, along with all the interior doors, even though hangar air on Mooncamp 1 didn’t seem any better than the ship’s recycled oxygen. The shouts and pounding reached us in the kitchen and sent Bonk running for cover only a few minutes after he’d finally deigned to hop into Tess’s lap. He took off like a gray streak, leaving her hand suspended in mid-pat.
She frowned after her cat but didn’t seem worried about the hullabaloo coming down the hallway.
“What’s this pile of nuts and bolts doing in my hangar?” a male voice called out.
“I knew it.” Tess smiled. “That’s Frank—or I’ll eat everyone’s disgusting leftovers.”
“No bet.” Jax shook his head and pushed his half-eaten plate of food away from him. “You’ll win and make us do something awful.”
I wasn’t sure what could be more awful than that dinner. I’d had some revolting meals lately, but this one topped the list. The Mooncamp’s head food coordinator, Raz Romo, had stopped by earlier with some kind of meat slop in unmarked cans with no expiration date. The small guy with a buzz cut and glasses didn’t even blink at providing such dubious food for theEndeavor’s welcome-and-thanks-for-feeding-us dinner, and the crew of theEndeavordidn’t even blink at accepting it. At least fresh bread and ripe fruit from the Aisé Resort had helped wash down the stomach acid the meal had churned up.
“Bailey!” the man at the entrance shouted. “I’m coming for you, you tall drink of water.”
