Page 125 of Gladiators of the Vagabond Boxset

Behind me, I heard her footsteps as she hurried to catch up with me.

Her lithe body jogged easily in her bare feet, not even remotely bothered by the sprint.

I’d already made it halfway to the labs.

“Hold on, what’s crawled up your ass?” she asked when she was abreast with me.

I shortened my stride so she could better match my tempo.

“We need to know what the UAR thinks you know. As long as you do, you can never show yourself in UAR space again, and if they discover you’re still alive, they’ll put a bounty on your head,” I told her.

Right now, she was at risk aboard the Vagabond by associating with us, since we had a pretty hefty bounty on our heads.

That didn’t mean she needed to add her own bounty to that risk.

She shrugged a slender shoulder. “I know. I can’t remember what I don’t know.

Could be they thought I saw something, but I didn’t.

It’s messed up, but mistakes happen.” I didn’t think that was it; I thought it was far more likely she had seen something, she just didn’t understand the importance of it yet.

Judging by the dubious expression on her face, she didn’t think it was a stupid mistake either.

“At least we can figure out this murder thing,” she offered.

“If it is indeed a creature with some kind of stinger… it’s odd that this Miean was still alive—disconcerting, but he died of an accident at least.” Yeah, that was my thinking too.

An accident would be the preferred way for this investigation to end.

I would hate to think that any of my brothers here had anything to do with it but hadn’t come forward.

We rounded a corner, and the lab came into sight.

This stretch of the corridor had several plexiglass panels, so you could see into the lab without disturbing anyone inside.

The doorway had an airlock in case the work inside needed to remain contained.

I’d seen that there was a second, smaller part of the lab—kitted out entirely for biohazard work—with a second airlock, decontamination unit, and clean suits.

In the main lab area, Luka was bent over the broken stasis pod, an intense look of concentration on his face as he used a small device to take readings.

When we stepped inside, he jerked upright with a startled expression on his face.

His anthracite skin lacked its usual luster, and his long black hair was in disarray.

“Don’t tell me you’ve been here all night, Doc,” I drawled, propping a hip against one of the empty work surfaces as I ran my eyes over him.

It looked like he was still in yesterday’s clothes, noticeable from the rumpled appearance and the small stain on the corner of his lab coat.

He’d spilled food last night at dinner when Ziame had poked him with the tip of his tail, warning him that he should leave his reading for after dinner.

I realized that Doc, too, had gotten quieter the longer we’d been free, burying himself in his work: caring for a half-alien newborn, obsessing over that stasis pod that wouldn’t open, and now this creature on the loose—and my leg…

Luka put on that jovial, open smile of his, grinning and shaking his head.

Running one hand through his hair and getting it stuck in the tangles, he said, “Oh, is it morning already? I must have gotten sucked in.” He eyed the cluttered workbench, tools scattered over the stasis pod, wires dangling every which way.

Several Petri dishes and beakers sat on another surface, and several machines were humming in the background, analyzing.

“Did you find out what creature we’re after?

” Camila asked, smiling warmly at the Doc, hands on her hips.

I liked how her statement implied she was hunting this thing together with me.

She was standing with her hands on her hips, the soft shirt draping over her firm breasts, no bra.

I could tell from the way her nipples pressed against the fabric.

Shit, Thorin, keep your damn head on the task at hand.

They had continued talking, and I hadn’t paid attention.

“How far did you narrow it down? Down to ten? Five?” Camila said.

Luka had turned to search through the clutter on his work table, pulling out a datapad from underneath a stack of actual papers.

He started handing it over to Camila, realized belatedly that this was my investigation and not hers, and looked at me instead.

I kept watching him but didn’t reach out to grab the pad.

When Camila bounced on her toes and my eyes tracked her breasts again, she snatched the pad from the Doc’s hand and started reading, only to realize she couldn’t.

“Damn it, Thorin, you knew that, didn’t you?

” she accused me, and now I smirked. Yeah, of course I knew.

Abigail had had the exact same issue. I shrugged.

“Here, let me switch it to UAR standard for you, that’s what Abby uses.

” I didn’t know if that meant she could read it, but the four females had no trouble understanding each other in their native languages, despite the time gap, so I assumed it would work.

Her eyes lit up. “You guys got that here? That’s great.

” She watched avidly as I changed the settings on the datapad, but I made sure to quickly read the results first—because I would not be able to read UAR Standard, after all.

Three options, based on the scat, but I knew what we were dealing with at first glance.

I cursed myself for not picking up on it sooner.

As I handed the pad to Camila, I pointed at Luka.

“It’s a Riho, isn’t it? Makes sense, it’s native to Elrohira, rare and expensive.

Miean was probably smuggling one for a buyer.

” The Riho were rare, almost extinct in the wild on my home planet.

As highly intelligent predators, they were tiny, compact animals that liked to burrow and tunnel.

They were trainable, loyal, and had long lifespans, but they could also turn mean, with a stinger in their tail that held venom and a coagulating agent.

It explained the wound and lack of blood.

Camila’s eyes had lost some of their excitement as she scanned the three options the Doc had compiled.

They wouldn’t mean much to her, as none of these animals were native to her quadrant.

She shot me a mildly accusatory glare as she handed the pad back.

“Riho, huh?” she asked, and I confirmed, explaining about its stinger and how wanted they were on the black market.

I’d had a case once involving Riho smuggling, and to my surprise, I could pull up more knowledge than I expected on the creatures.

“They are diurnal omnivores, but they do prefer meat. They’re not the best pets, as they need a lot of free range; if not challenged enough, they might get destructive.

But their fur is very soft and comes in a wide range of colors, and they make for protective, loyal companions.

In certain circles, they’re highly coveted.

” I pointed at the datapad. “They like to tunnel, they have the poison stinger in their tail, it’s got to be a Riho. ”

Thinking back on the messy smuggling hatch, I was almost certain Miean had tried to keep it in there.

When he’d gone to check on it, he’d discovered it was gone.

Maybe he’d had a tracker on it, which explained how he’d located it in the wall panel, only…

The Riho had felt threatened enough to attack him when he’d tried to grab it.

Spoke volumes about Miean’s character. The rest was history.

He’d gotten stabbed and died alone in that lounge.

“Okay, you’re the expert,” Camila said, but she was now much more distracted.

Her dark eyes had focused on the wire-decorated stasis pod, staring at it with an almost vacant look.

Deep in thought. My eyes shifted to meet those of Luka; he’d noticed it too, but he shrugged and told me he’d run another tox screen on Miean to see if he could match whatever traces of poison were still in his blood with a Riho.

Relieved to be done in this semi-medical environment—though it was better than the med bay in here for me—I took Camila by the arm and started pulling her with me.

“What did you remember?” I demanded as soon as we left the labs.

She had to have remembered something; the stasis pod had triggered something in her.

She shrugged her arm free and quickened her pace, jogging a little as she tried to give the suddenly nervous energy an outlet.

“I don’t know exactly, just the shape of that stasis pod…

It’s got to be something to do with that.

I just don’t know what!” She was frustrated and upset, tugging on her long black braid.

Tempted to just drag her to my bunk for some more sex—which I was certain she wouldn’t refuse—I tore my eyes from that long rope.

No, we needed to figure this out. She was finally getting somewhere.

I had to push to make this thing unravel, so I grabbed her hand and took her back to the gym instead.

This time, it was empty; all my brothers had finished their morning routines.

I pulled her onto the sparring mat, aware of the fierce frown on her face.

“What are we doing here, Thorin? I need to remember this, not kick your ass.”

Grinning at the smack talk already happening, even though she hadn’t yet agreed to a sparring session, I shrugged out of my jacket and shirt and tossed them aside.

“This will help, promise,” I told her. It had better—at least, I hoped she’d understand when I started pushing her buttons.

Camila was all fire, just like me, and this always settled my mind and helped me think.

Once upon a time, my partner on the force had done this for me when we’d gotten stuck on an investigation.

“Show me what you’ve got, babe,” I ordered, settling into a ready stance.

She didn’t hesitate, exchanging blows and kicks.

I easily dodged, caught them with my palms, or sometimes let them land.

She was a good fighter—solid and quick—and she knew how to use her smaller body to her advantage, creating momentum to help land her blows.

I didn’t think she was holding back much, either.

“Why did they try to kill you?” I demanded, dodging a punch aimed at my sternum with a grin.

“I don’t know!” she yelled back. My long braids slid across my back with each move, while hers flared out behind her as she spun.

I was tempted to grab that thing and wrestle her into submission, fuck her here on the mats.

Geez, she’d made me into a horny bastard.

I could so easily picture her tied up across that weightlifting bench, legs spread so I could do what I wanted with her pretty cunt.

She whacked me in the face so hard I saw stars, but she was the one groaning and shaking out her fist. “Damn it, Thorin, you were supposed to dodge that one!”

I laughed; I couldn’t help myself. I totally deserved that blow for my own inattention. Not that I was going to tell her that. “Tell me why they tried to kill you. What’s up with that stasis pod? Did you see any?!” I asked instead.

With a frustrated sound, she went back to weaving and dodging, her leg coming up for the occasional high kick.

Her fists clenched tight as she concentrated, not on answering my question, but on getting in a few more good moves.

I wasn’t winded yet, but she was panting and sweat was dripping down her shirt in a V between her breasts.

The repeated exercise today was making my leg ache a little, but the rest and treatment from the day before were certainly holding up.

“You saw something!” I told her, dodging another of her blows and this time reaching out and tapping her sternum with my closed fist. Just hard enough to wind her a little more, but not enough to really hurt.

“You know something!” I repeated. “Did you see what was in their hold? Did you look through a porthole you shouldn’t have?

” She grunted, pulled up her leg, and managed a solid kick against my left knee, surprising me.

I went down, the weakened muscles crumbling instead of holding together.

As I thudded to the mat, I saw the surprised look on her face.

Which, I had to admit, was kind of hot, that “O” shape her pretty mouth made.

Despite the sudden flare of pain through my damn leg, I rolled, making sure I landed right.

Taking advantage of her surprise, I had her on the floor and beneath me in seconds.

This time, she didn’t fight me when I pinned her wrists above her head.

She spread her toned thighs in welcome instead, cradling me between her legs.

“The EV suit…” she panted, up against me, “We need to check its camera feed. Maybe I didn’t see it, but maybe my suit recorded it!”