Amelia met the dock worker’s gaze and offered a scathing smile. “The ship’s name isTraitor.”
“I’m not a—” Torian started to say, but Amelia looked at her then, and the words died in Torian’s throat. The captain’s eyes were blue, as startling and dangerous as the flame of Torian’s pocket welding torch, with all the matching heat.
“Traitorit is,” the dock worker said, and tapped the name into the records. Then she powered off the datapad, offered Amelia a respectful, “Good to see you, Captain,” and strolled away.
How was Torian a bystander when naming herown ship?
But that was how Captain Amelia Perrosk did business. Everyone on Colony 13 knew her, or knewofher. Already, the crowd was dissipating under her stern gaze. A few folks about-faced withsheepish expressions. Within a couple minutes, the rest of the onlookers made the same connection:Show’s over, nothing to see, Fleet business.
Except it wasn’t Fleet business.
Irritation sparked in Torian’s chest, and she crossed her arms. “What the hell, Amelia? You can’t name my ship!”
“I think I just did.” Amelia’s voice was vaguely amused. She was tall and lean, but moved with powerful grace. A tattoo’s dark ink contrasted against her copper skin, barely visible beneath the jacket’s collar. Her hair was short, spiky, and black as the vacuum of space.
In short, she wasdistractinglysexy. Torian’s anger faltered when Amelia’s lips quirked, offering a smile that almost felt kind.
Almost.
Her voice, meanwhile, was a predator’s purr. “You know, in all my years with the Fleet, I’ve never had a crewmember buy a competing starship right under my nose.”
She flicked a short knife from a sheath hidden in her sleeve. Torian thought,Oh shit, she wouldn’t actually stab me, would she?But Amelia just began cleaning her manicured nails with the tip.
Torian fumbled for something to say, but the moment she opened her mouth, the tug driver stepped into the conversation. Torian had almost forgotten he was here, but clearly he was done unhitching her new starship.
He cleared his throat. “Ah, Captain?”
Torian waited for Amelia’s response. After a beat of awkward silence, Amelia said, “I believe he meansyou, Scrap.”
Oh, shit. Torian spun on her heel, offering an apologetic smile to the man. “Y-yes? Sorry.”
“Sign here,” he said, offering her a datapad. “For proof of delivery.”
She signed. He checked the document, then nodded and stepped into the driver’s seat of his tugboat. It was a small vessel, with a tiny porthole to see through, cameras mounted on the outside, and a narrow door that hissed with pressurization. Oncehe was spaceworthy, he steered the tugboat off the dock, joining a couple other starships in the massive airlock on the far wall. The airlock’s door closed behind them, and released the ships—and tug vessel—out to space.
That left Torian and Amelia standing beside an ancient, moss-covered starship apparently named theTraitor.
So much for avoiding conflict.
“What do you want, Amelia?” Despite her best efforts, frustration seeped into her tone.
She wished she could hold anger like Amelia did—as an iron meteor, cold to touch, mottled and dense with cruel promise. Instead, Torian’s anger felt more like a molten core that dripped through her fingers, cooling instantly into brittle, unhelpful shapes.
(It was something she really disliked about herself.)
“What doIwant?” Amelia repeated the words with a venomous tilt. “How interesting that you seem to care about that now.”
Okay, that wasn’t fair. Torian scowled. “I told Opula—”
“You didn’t tellme, Scrap.”
“Can’t imagine why,” Torian muttered.
Amelia set her jaw, eyes flashing. “I gave you a year of safe employment at an absurdly high pay scale. Never in my life did I imagine you’d buy a ship and leave without so much as a goodbye.”
For a moment, Torian thought she was upset at Torian specifically leaving—that maybe,maybe, there was something lingering between them after all, and Amelia was finally ready to admit it. She hated how her heart fluttered at the idea.
But in the next breath, Amelia made it all about business. “Do you even realize what this will get you?” She gestured at the starship beside them.
