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Dirty Heathen

*Ren*

“ Y ou’ve gotta be fucking kidding me.” I snagged Karsen’s elbow and ducked down a side hall on Oraxis Station, praying that tool bag Travis hadn’t spotted me.

“Hey. What’s the matter?” Karsen pulled her arm free but blessedly followed.

No chance in hell was I answering that loaded question. “I just want to get out of here so we can head to Dionus.”

The half-truth seemed to satisfy my new crewmate. She went back to gawking at the station, eyes wide and a permanent grin painted on her face. Since joining our crew as a replacement for her sister, Karsen hadn’t missed a chance to explore whenever we stopped somewhere new.

Me? I was just trying to get in and out without running into anyone I knew. Well… more like one particular person. So far, so good.

The truth was, if this mission had been for anyone other than my boss and best friend, I would’ve never agreed to it. But after Arda gave me my ticket out of my own personal hell, I owed her. It was the least I could do to repay her for hiring me when no one else wanted to take a chance on a nobody from a tiny tin can floating in the middle of nowhere.

Karsen side-eyed me as we trailed down the metal corridors of the space station I’d once called home. “What are we looking for, again?”

“There’s a planetary landing code for Dionus. I need to grab it real quick, and then we’ll be all set.”

Karsen shrugged. “Sounds good to me.” A man wearing a mechanic uniform rounded the corner ahead, and her gaze zeroed in on his muscled arms. Then she sent the guy a megawatt smile.

I ducked my head, thankful for Kar’s flirting. His gaze slid right past me in my baggy skinsuit and glided over Karsen, devouring her curvy frame like a starving dog would a feast.

Speeding up, I snagged her arm again. “Come on. We’re almost there.”

“Sheesh. Can’t let a girl window shop?” Karsen snickered.

I rolled my eyes. Kar and I were about as opposite as it got. It wasn’t just that she loved to flirt, while I would rather gouge my eyes out with a laserspanner. She was bubbly and sweet to my surly and scowling. And Kar took great care with her appearance, her long black hair and makeup perfectly highlighting her gorgeous features. Her light-brown skin practically glowed, and her dark-brown eyes popped, framed with glittery eyeshadow.

Not me. The only paint on my face was engine grease—and I liked it that way. I mean, who needs to look cute when you spend most of your time fixing broken machines?

I stopped in front of a hatch. “Here it is.” I punched in the code, not bothering to knock.

“Is this your place?” Kar asked.

I shook my head. “Nope. My brother’s.”

Kar stiffened. “You have a brother, too?”

I didn’t miss the hint of accusation in her tone. My crewmates had been surprised to learn I had a sister the first time traveling to Dionus came up, and I told them Cassidy lived there.

Yeah, I didn’t talk about my family a lot. I’d learned long ago that sharing too much was a recipe for disaster. Anyway, no one wanted to hear the pathetic mess that was my past. “We’re not blood related. He’s more like a… foster brother.”

Her eyes widened. “Oh.”

I pushed open the door and strolled in. Demetri’s apartment was a wreck, but that was nothing unusual. My fingers itched to set everything to rights, but I ignored the urge, heading straight for his bed.

“This is… cozy.” Karsen’s nose wrinkled as she took in the haphazardly stacked piles of books, clothes, and other junk littering every surface of the closet-sized room.

“Cut the shit, Kar. It’s a pigsty. Demi has always been a dirty heathen.” Kneeling on one knee, I dug underneath the cot for the lockbox he kept his important paperwork in.

Karsen giggled. “I wasn’t going to say it…” She stopped in front of his desk and lifted a framed photo, tilting it so I could see. “This him?”

Demetri stared out of the frame, looking handsome with his sparkling hazel eyes and the light catching the dimple in his chin just right. His arm was wrapped around a stunner with long blonde curls and a shy smile on her face. “Yep. That’s him.”

Karsen turned the frame over and pursed her lips. “You look so different in this photo.” She brightened. “Oh, it’s the hair. I’m totally digging you with long hair! You should grow it out again.”

I dragged a hand through my signature short locks. A pang of regret struck me that I shoved aside violently. Now was not the time to think about why I’d worn it short for years. Or to remember the reason I cut it in the first place. Especially not here . “It’s not the hair. That’s not a picture of me. That’s my sister.”

Karsen gasped. “Shut up, Ren! Why didn’t you tell us you were a twin?”

“It’s a long story.” The lockbox clicked open, and I dug through the contents. I lifted the code triumphantly. “Look at that. We got what we came for.”

“Cool.” Karsen pouted as she set the photo down.

I knew Kar was eager to learn more about me. That was just who she was—absolutely brilliant and obsessed with learning. At just over eighteen, she was smarter than any teen had a right to be—with multiple degrees to prove it—and it was because she soaked up knowledge like a sponge.

But I couldn’t let her suck up what I had on offer. Not unless she was ready to wipe up a whole lot of decay.

I shoved the lockbox under Demetri’s bed and stood. “Let’s get out of here.”

“I get the feeling you don’t like it here much,” Karsen said as we exited into the hall.

I chuckled dryly. “You could say that.”

“Do you want to talk about it?” Kar leaned in, looking so damn earnest I almost wanted to spill.

I shook off the urge. “Nah. It’s all in the past.” Still, I’d be much happier when we were back on the Verne and we put a few thousand light-years between us and Oraxis Station.

We were headed to a world far away from this little asteroid-belt-orbiting space station. A jungle world filled with wild creatures and a humanoid species rumored to be the most uncivilized that’d achieved faster than light travel. I couldn’t say I was too thrilled with that part of the plan. Still… I’d take just about anywhere over staying here.

“Excuse me, ladies!” The familiar voice behind me instantly made my skin crawl.

Karsen started to turn, but I wrapped an arm around her shoulders and dragged her forward into the station’s docking bay. “Shouldn’t we—”

“Oh, look, there’s the Verne . Right where we left it.” I hustled across the busy bay, pulling Kar in my wake. The ugly exterior of the mid-class vessel we called home was visible outside the bay window, and I breathed out a sigh when I spotted the docking port still attached.

My heart pounded in time with the footsteps slapping the floor behind us. I couldn’t let that sorry excuse for a man catch up to us. Not today, Satan.

“Wasn’t that the chief engineer? You sure we shouldn’t see what he…” Karsen trailed off as my hand darted out, snagging a bottle of clear transmission fluid off a cart we passed.

I flicked the lid open and casually splashed the contents on the floor behind us. “Who?”

Kar glanced pointedly over her shoulder, but before she said anything, Travis yelled again. “Ren? That’s you, isn’t it?”

Karsen’s brows shot into her hairline. I didn’t slow. Didn’t acknowledge the man who clearly recognized me. Thankfully, my genius crewmate got the hint and let me drag her away. And when Travis’s footsteps sped behind us, she winced but didn’t speak a word to warn him.

Crash.

I stopped beside the docking port leading to the Verne and slowly turned. Travis writhed on the cement, clutching his back and howling in a puddle of tranny-fluid. I watched him flailing as I waited for the docking port to pressurize, and my racing pulse finally slowed.

Kar hissed in my ear, “What was that about, Ren? Do you know that guy?”

I looked Travis dead in the eyes and raised my voice, hoping the asshole could make out my words over his cries of pain. Pain that was much less than he deserved. “I didn’t hear him.”