Claire shook her head with a faint sort of amusement before she holstered her gun. “I have to ask... If you feel that way, why did you call me?”
“Because I wanted us to try this somewhere other than my mother’s ship.”
“Somewhere other than?” Claire’s voice rose as though she found this the most entertaining thing in the world. Reaching up to her ear, she clicked a small comm. “Diane, I’m good. The idiot really did just want to talk, so you can head back to the ship.” Claire paused, listening to the other end of the conversation for a second. “I’ll catch up to you later,” she promised, and then she clicked the comm off.
“So,” she said. She stepped into the room, and Allie tensed, waiting for her moment. Unfortunately, Claire stopped too far away. The blaster had a very limited range. Helpful when trying to quietly abduct someone—not so helpful on the ambush part of the plan. “How do you see this working? Do you plan to join theMonitor?Do you think my bed is empty, and you can just slip in there and have me take care of you?”
“I can take care of myself,” Shank said, his words clipped and terse.
“Right. That’s why you’re calling me, because you don’t want anyone to take care of you.” Claire crossed her arms.
“I can hold my own on a ship, Claire. I’m a damn fine gunner—one of the best you’ll ever have on a belly gun.”
“Until you decide you know the people on the other ship and that you’re not okay with firing on them,” Claire said. “And then we could get stopped by a government ship, and we would have to explain why we have a wanted criminal on board.”
Shank took a fast step back, feigned a quick stumble, and then righted himself. It was all so neatly done Allie wouldn’t have even recognized the deception except that she’d seen him use the exact same move on the training mats.
“Maybe your ship has screwed-up ideas about gender because you have some sex-linked stupidity gene in your family. Maybe the Lacroix men really are incapable of thinking things through. You didn’t think this through, Shank.” Claire spit out his name like it was a curse. “I’m not going to take you on as crew, not even when I have my own ship. I wouldn’t even give you a job as my favorite fuck toy. I may, however, turn you over to Command for the bounty. There aren’t any Command ships here, but our next stop is supposedly crawling with them.”
“What? You can’t turn me in.” Shank sounded honestly shocked, but as far as Allie was concerned, this wasn’t even mildly surprising. No wonder Anpaytoo hated this woman.
“Why not? You’re disarmed, tied up, and one short trip down a maintenance corridor will put you right at my ship. You can’t even call for help without bringing security down here, which would lead to the same thing—you in custody.”
Shank shook his head. “You wouldn’t do this. I don’t care how badly it ended between us, turning me over to the government... That isn’t you, Claire.”
“Clearly you don’t know me as well as you thought.” Claire grinned. “I hear the penalty for desertion is ten years of labor or fifteen years confinement. Look me up when you get back, and maybe then we can talk.”
She started toward him, and Shank backed up. He kept backing until the wall stopped him, but Claire kept coming. When she passed the hidden compartment, Allie aimed through the grate and pulled the trigger. The mesh of the grate made some of the blast rebound, and Allie hit the bulkhead, half-dazed. Luckily, Claire caught most of the impact. She flew across the room, crashed into the wall, and slid down into an inelegant heap.
Still trying to focus with her head pounding mercilessly, Allie opened the hidden compartment and came out slowly, her gun trained on Claire. Shooting her had been one of the high points of Allie’s life up to this point.
“Don’t say it,” Shank said. He turned and offered her his tied wrists.
“Don’t say what?” Allie used her fingernail to work the release catch placed awkwardly between Shank’s wrists so he couldn’t reach it himself.
“Yes, I was an idiot. Yes, I was thinking with my dick. Yes, at the time I thought she was that good in bed, and no, in retrospect she wasn’t. And yes, when I was young I had terrible taste in women. Have I managed to cover all the bases?”
“I was going to point out that I’m shocked you’re still heterosexual after her, but other than that, no, you covered everything.” Allie finally triggered the catch, and the plastic ties went slack.
Shank pulled his left wrist free and quickly ripped the cuffs off. “I can’t believe she was going to turn me in.”
“We’re kidnapping her and stealing her ship, so I’m not sure we have the moral high ground here,” Allie pointed out.
“That’s different.” Shank went over and started retrieving his weapons and taking the virtual arsenal Claire had hidden on her.
“How?” Allie demanded. Shank gave her an incredulous look.
“Grab the maintenance cart, would you?” He lifted a limp Claire by one arm.
Allie could have argued the point, but it honestly wasn’t worth it. Claire had tried to betray them. They were stealing Claire’s shit. They were just one big lovefest reunion. Pulling the modified cart into the room, Allie opened the top so Shank could put Claire inside.
“Let’s get her back to the dock and grab that ship before something goes wrong,” Shank said. Allie didn’t say anything, but she really hoped Shank had not just cursed them. With Ben gone, they couldn’t afford any more bad luck.
