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Chapter 1

“I can do this on myown.” Georgia Tobino kept her spine straight and her hands behind her back as she fixed her gaze over Cleo Newman’s head.

“Everyone knows you’re a bad ass. But that doesn’t mean you get to go on lone assignments. High Command doesn’t pay all this money to have ace protectors on the team, just so they can kick back with a beer while you do the hard work.” Cleo rolled her shoulders, a determined glint in her eyes.

“You know I work better alone.” They’d had this debate half a dozen times since she’d joined the Apocalypse as the resident expert in animal poisons.

“And I sleep better when you don’t go all Tomb Raider on me.”

Georgia smirked. Cleo was so old-school with her movie references. “I prefer to think of myself as Jackie Chan.”

Cleo shook her head, but there was a smile on her face. As the leader of the crew of the Apocalypse, she was hot on keeping her team safe when facing dangerous animals that were strong, fast, and often deadly if you got on their wrong side.

“Yeah, you’re a superhero. But I like my superheroes back in one piece after each mission. You do that better when you have Ash looking out for you.”

Ash Cathar was the tallest, hottest, most deadly Apexian on the crew. And he was Georgia’s partner. They all had an Apexian assigned to them as part of their role as research and retrieval special operations.

Georgia gritted her teeth. The weak little human experts weren’t capable of going on missions alone because of all the big, bad aliens wanting to abduct them.

“Don’t give me that look,” Cleo said.

“What look?”

“Like you’re sucking a lemon covered in salt. I know what you’re thinking, and you’re probably right. You can handle yourself. You’ve got the training.”

“We’ve all got the training. None of us would be here if we didn’t ace weapons, self-defense, and survival skills. And no one can tune a ship like Eden.”

“She is freakily good with anything that flies.” Cleo rested a hip against the table in the briefing room they were in. “Georgia, I know your military record. And I put in the request to get you on this team when you quit your unit.”

“I didn’t quit.” She lifted her chin.

Cleo raised a hand. “When you decided the military life was no longer for you. Whatever your motive, I couldn’t miss out on having someone with military intelligence training on the team. And what you don’t know about poisons isn’t worth knowing.”

The burning anger in Georgia’s gut subsided. Cleo didn’t blow smoke up people’s butts. If she thought you were good, she told you so.

When Georgia got offered this job, she hadn’t hesitated long before accepting. Even the prospect of having an Apexian partner hadn’t fazed her. Then she’d met Ash.

He was everything your momma told you to avoid. Battle-scarred, tattooed, and with abs of a Greek god. And he fought hard and dirty when needed.

The first time Georgia saw him charge into a fight, she’d dreamed about him for weeks, remembering those solid arms swinging and the grunts as he’d raged to protect her and make sure their mission was successful.

But she didn’t need protecting. Georgia Tobino protected herself. “I still want a solo mission.”

“No. We’re not negotiating this. You knew the arrangement when you signed up.” Cleo’s jaw was set firm, and she planted her feet so she matched Georgia’s five-foot eight height.

“I can always leave. Take up freelance contracting. There’s plenty of work out there for someone with the right skills.” She didn’t want to go. This ship, for all its quirks, the funky AI that ran the place, and the dangerous assignments, was her home. If she didn’t have this, she had nothing. There was no family waiting for her, no guy back on Earth, and barely anyone around who she kept in touch with from her old life.

Cleo quirked an eyebrow. “And give up this luxury space cruising lifestyle?”

Georgia cracked a smile. “Give me this one mission. I’ll prove to you what I can do alone. If you split me from Ash, we can get more work done. And we both know Ash can handle anything on his own. You’ll get more animals secured and keep the bigwigs happy.”

“Until you get killed.”

“It won’t happen.”

“Or captured.”

A tense silence seeped across the room. Georgia bit the inside of her cheek. She wasn’t talking about that. Her time held captive by the foul, gross smelling Siblet was no-one’s business. She’d dealt with that and moved on.