Still nothing.
Then an alarm started blaring.
Oh, fuck. The bastard had set a trap. Zayn spun and sprinted back toward the entrance to the vent network.
He’d made it out of the throne room when he heard shouts and the thunder of running guards.Great. He pushed harder for more speed. The door to the bedroom was ahead.
Suddenly, a large guard sprinted around the corner in front of him. He was a Taurean with a broad, stocky body covered in gray skin and small tusks on either side of his mouth. Taureans were known for being incredibly strong.
Zayn debated. The one weakness of Taureans was they were slow. He had speed. And plenty of it.
It didn’t matter, the guard made the decision for Zayn. The Taurean lowered his head and charged.
Zayn’s body flooded with adrenaline. He wanted to run, but he held his ground, waiting for the right moment.
The guard thundered closer. Zayn pivoted and ducked around the Taurean as he rushed past.
Then Zayn sprinted. The door was at the end of the hall, calling like a homing beacon.
Laser fire sprayed the wall beside him, sending him diving to the floor.
“Don’t move.” The words were deep and slow, like the guard wasn’t used to using them.
Zayn rolled. The guard probably didn’t have a lingual implant but almost everyone knew a smattering of English, the business language of the galaxy.
The guard had his gun trained on Zayn. He raised his hands.
Okay, shit. What now?Usually, it was Dathan who did this end of the hunting work. The guy was slipperier than a slink eel in a mud hole. But piloting through the vents needed Zayn’s skillset, so this job was Zayn’s, not Dathan’s. And Zayn had no idea how to get out of this.
All he had going for him was instinct. He slammed out with his foot and hit the Taurean’s knee. The guy grunted but didn’t move.
Another blast from the laser pistol and he felt the hot burn on his thigh.
Flame-burned son of a bitch!He grabbed the knife he kept tucked into his belt. In a quick move, he tossed it. It sliced into the guard’s shoulder. The guy let out a roar and fell backward, clutching at the bleeding wound. His weapon hit the floor with a thud.
Zayn grabbed it and jumped to his feet. It had been two years since he’d handled a gun. It felt cold and hard in his hands. Wrong.
His heart thundered. He stared at the laser pistol and the past he was running from crashed in on him.
The guard groaned again, and Zayn glanced up. One pull of the trigger and this guard could tell no stories, send no one after Zayn.
But an image of big, green eyes—eyes that haunted his dreams—made his stomach tighten.
He leaped forward and slammed the butt of the gun into the guard’s temple.
It hit the hard bone there and the guard grinned. Zayn hit again, this time the man’s nose. Green blood sprayed everywhere.
Staring at the gun for a moment, Zayn decided it was time to go. He dropped it and sprinted down the hall. He burst into the same bedroom he’d passed through before. The woman was gone. He yanked open the vent, and a moment later, was climbing into his flight-pod.
The small engines hummed to life, and he shot down the vent. He leaned his body into the turns, pushing the pod to get all the speed he could.
It felt like forever, but it was only a few minutes later when the pod shot out the external vent and into space.
Made it. This far, anyway. The pod’s engines were too small for the space station to detect, so he should be in the clear. He took in a deep breath and set a course to intercept theInfinitas.
He felt blood seeping from the wound on his thigh and slapped a hand over it. He was more annoyed by it than worried. They had a medscope on the ship that would heal him up in seconds.
It was the mission that had his blood boiling. This entire hunt had been a waste of time. He slammed his other hand against the side of the pod, causing it to rock.
