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“You walk quiet,” I muttered.

“You lie fast for someone terrible at it. Stop doing that.” She fell into step beside me. “And what’s behind that door you’re trying so hard to pretend doesn’t exist?”

“It’s storage. Already said. Let me show you—”

“Sure it is.” She didn’t slow down to say it. “Keep lying, and Tambi will shred the contract and tell you to go fuck yourself. We all will.”

“Do you speak to all your clients like that?”

“Only the lying ones who put us at risk.”

“I’m not... maybe there’s some risk.”

“We’d expect nothing less for what you’re paying us, but without a full rummage around to figure out just how deadly that risk is, you’re crossing lines and messing with us. Not acceptable. Got it?”

“Loud and clear.”

“So... show me what’s behind freaky door number one. Or do you want me to beg on my knees?”

I flashed her a look. I’d love this female to beg me to do things to her. But from her expression, I’d do the begging after she kicked me in the dick and brought me to my knees. And not so I could bury my face in her sweet smell and make her scream my name.

Maybe it would be worth the pain. An angry Cass was sexy as sin.

I stopped in front of the door, blocking the frame, and for one second, I considered turning her around and walking her back to the others by whatever means that took.

“Try it.” She read the thought straight off me. “See how that goes for you and your luxury fucked up ride. Everyone who runs ship repairs on every planet and space station listens to us. You pull any sneaky crap, you’ll be blacklisted. No one will touch you, and this ship will be screwed for good.”

I could have ordered her to back off and know her place. I outweighed her. I owned the ship she stood on, and I paid her wages. Instead, I opened the door.

Resin had grown on the walls thick and pale gold, veined through with light. The walls breathed slowly, just how a chest rises and falls. Handprints marked the resin, dozens of them, layered over each other. A column of resin pulsed brighter than anything else on the ship. That was new. The last time I’d been in here, I’d been forced out and whacked on the back of the head with what felt like a metal bar.

Cass’s attention went to the handprints. Then the column. “This is the ship’s nervous system? Maybe not exactly that, but it’s the center of her feelings.” She stepped past me toward the column, her gaze intent.

The door sealed behind us, and the column split along one gold vein with a crack like ice giving way underfoot.

Cass stumbled as the floor bucked. She landed on her knees at the base of the column, her hand on it for support. Above her, a split in the wall bowed outward, straining, a slow structural groan running through the room.

“Damn, that’s hot!” Cass reared back from the column, pulling a tool from her belt. “It looks like your ship is fighting a localized containment field. If this column breaks, we’ll be in a world of hurt. And whatever is bowing that wall is coming out if I don’t get this closed right fucking now.”

A chunk of resin the size of a fist broke free and dropped. I caught it an inch from the back of Cass’s skull, heat searing through my palm as she worked her tool through the resin.

She didn’t even look up, still focused on the pulsing column. “Thanks. Now get out of my light. I need to figure out what I’m dealing with. Ouch! Mother fluffer. This thing just got grabby. Hot and grabby. Chill, angel. I’m not here to hurt you. Trust me. Trust the process.”

Horror slid sweat down my spine as the resin around her fingers re-hardened, fusing her hand to the column.

“Cass! Move before this stuff burns your skin off. It’s too dangerous to handle when the ship is this unstable.”

“Yeah, already noted the first-degree burn making my hand itch. And isn’t this why you’re paying us so much? High risk of death bonus, right?”

I went to argue, but she had me. I’d pay anything and risk any lives to have the Hollow Chorus happy.

“Back up! I got it. This isn’t my first sentient ship, and it sure as stars burn bright, won’t be my last.” There was no panic in her voice, just calculation and curiosity as she probed and tested. “Damn! The heat’s setting the surface before I can fix the seal. I need pressure on the far side, or I lose my hand.”

I put both hands against the opposite face of the column, bracing, ignoring the fierce heat blistering my fingers. The resin structure groaned and shifted under the counter-pressure.

“You need to leave this room,” I said.

“Brilliant plan. But we’re a little past making a graceful exit, big guy. I’ve just gone to third base with your ship sucking on my skin like a horny octopus, and she hasn’t even bought me dinner or said my ass looks amazing.” Her free hand never stopped moving as she wove stability into this living nightmare.