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“I knew this would be hard but I didn’t anticipate all the complications I’d have to deal with,” he said.

“Oh, so sorry for being an inconvenience.”

“No you’re not.”

“Not even a little.”

“That’s alright, you’re going to give me that data stick and save me a boat load of credits, so it’s actually a win-win.”

So, you’re here to buy the data stick. Interesting.

“And why would I do that?” I asked with a chuckle.

He leaned in toward me.

“Because I poisoned your drink, Agent Vaughn.”

A stiletto shot out of the compartment in my left arm, the reveal of my implants hidden by his body. But before I could press it to his stomach, the man gripped my hand and stopped me. The reflexes combined with the strength of his grip told me he also had implants on his hand.

“I’ll give you the antidote in exchange for the data stick. We both go our merry way,” he whispered, breath warm against my cheek.

“No.”

“I’d hate for a woman as beautiful as you to die over GUP bullshit.”

He thinks this is a sanctioned mission. Maybe I could use that.

“You really want my colleagues up your ass? They’re a lot worse than me.”

His smirk was far too handsome and if we hadn’t been in this situation I’d probably be on my way to fucking him on his break behind the building.

I wasn’t really all that worried at the moment.

I could feel my cyber systems deploying nanites to take care of the foreign substance. I just had to wait them out.

“And I can make it worth your while,” I continued. “Keep you out of my report and pay you handsomely to forget I was here.”

“I can handle your cronies, and I really don’t need the credits. Now, you’ve got about six minutes until the poison incapacitates you. Then another four before your systems start to shut down and yes, I did compensate for the nano units in your blood stream that filter out poisons.”

“How the fuck did you…?” I snapped my mouth shut, cursing myself.

He laughed, a deep, raspy sound that was as sexy as it was annoying. Once again that sense that I knew him tickled the back of my mind.

“You know it’s encrypted right?” I asked, mind racing with options. “And if you don’t have the correct code it will erase everything.”

“And you’ve got it, right?”

“I do.”

He frowned down at me, assessing whether or not I was full of shit.

It could have an encryption; if the Valtoshan had half a brain, he would’ve definitely done that.

Considering how easily I’d gotten my hands on the data stick, I doubted it.

But for some reason, this guy, with all his obvious skill at observation and planning, believed it was a possibility.

“Look,” I said, fingers playing with the lapel of his bartender’s jacket, “we can make a deal that’s beneficial to both of us. Why don’t we go to my shuttle, you give me the antidote, I take the encryption off the data and we look at it together?”

“Why would you do that?”

I shrugged.

“You’ve got me over a bit of a barrel. And I’m not above a little friendly competition to get what we’re both after.”

I was testing him to see if he even knew what was at the end of this information or if he was just another information broker.

His eyes bored into me, and I could feel them searching mine, trying to read my mind. I kept my expression schooled, revealing nothing.

“Alright,” he agreed finally. “But if you try anything—”

“You’ll let me drown in my own blood as it coagulates in my lungs, I got it.”

“Shit, that’s dark. I was gonna say I’ll maroon you on this shithole of a moon but…okay, sure, let’s go with yours.”

I rolled my eyes and let him lead me toward the exit, which was to the left of the dance floor.

I was counting on the slight chaos of the packed area to provide the perfect reason for me to stumble so I could pick the bartenders pocket for the antidote.

I was, after all, poisoned. It would be completely normal for me to be a bit wobbly on my feet.

Then when we reached the outside, I would incapacitate him and be on my way.

We were just about to step onto the dance floor when I spied a familiar Valtoshan on the stage to the right of the singer. He was standing with the manager of the establishment and they were scanning the room. I ducked my head, but not before the drunkard spied me.

“Shit,” the bartender said. “Let’s move.”

We had to get out of here quickly if we didn’t want to get caught, which meant my plan would have to wait until we were on my ship.

My internal sensors were telling me that the nanites were having trouble cleansing my system of the poison, and that my heart rate was beginning to accelerate.

My palm was also getting sweaty, and my mouth was horribly dry.

The Valtoshan and the manager were moving toward us through the crowd of dancers and two large males, who hadn’t been there before, were standing at the exit.

The bartender and I both looked behind us, toward the serving exit, that would take us past the kitchen.

It was on the other side of the room and we’d never get there before the manager did.

“Come on,” the bartender said, yanking on my arm.

“Let me go, it’s not like I’m going to run. And we won’t make it to the back entrance.”

“We’re not going there,” he motioned to the red door, still holding my arm.

“There’s no exit back there.”

I slipped my hand into his pocket and gripped the antidote.

“Yes there is, but we need to get to it before—”

“Stop right there, thief!” someone shouted.

I was sure we were busted until two blaster shots rang out at one of the booths in the back of the establishment.

A Human and Talosian fell to the floor, their friends now starting to draw their blasters and fire.

Apparently I wasn’t the only person here to take advantage of someone tonight.

But as luck would have it, I managed to get my fingers around the vial in the bartender’s pocket during the distraction.

The result of the firefight, however, was panic among the patrons of the bar.

We’d been on the very outskirts of the dance floor and now were caught up in the swell of frightened customers.

The bartender’s grip loosened and he was ripped away from me just in time for me to hold up the vial of blue liquid in triumph seconds before someone slammed into me and it fell to the floor, thankfully not shattering.

My clutch followed as someone else pushed me down to the floor.

I reached to snatch the vial, and noticed that my clutch had fallen open.

When I went to grab it, a heeled shoe kicked it and out went the data stick.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw the bartender diving down toward the silver data stick at the same time a glossy black shoe kicked it.

By now there was a fist and blaster fight taking place behind us between the security staff of the bar and the group that had started this whole thing.

The manager was trying to calm everyone down and people were running around, screaming as they tried for the exits.

I was crawling on the floor after the blue vial when I spied the data stick.

My finger grazed it as someone ran and slipped on it.

The stick went flying through the air and I caught it with a yelp as someone’s feet became tangled in the skirt of my dress and I was thrown off balance.

My hand hit the floor and the stick fell.

“No, damn it!”

I rolled, my skirt ripping and I got to my knees with huff.

I tore the skirt the rest of the way off, grateful that I’d designed it to break away easily.

Underneath I had a pair of red shorts, and the cool air felt divine on my burning skin.

My internal sensors were starting to warn me of impending unconsciousness and my vision was now starting to go blurry.

I saw the blue vial a foot away and dove for it. Just as my fingers were about to curl around it the bartender snagged it and he let out a yell of triumph.

“Let me have that!” I yelled above the din.

“Gimme the stick!”

“It’s loose, I don’t have it!”

A flash of silver caught my eye and I rolled once again. Just as my fingers closed around the stick, a heavy body landed on me, trying to pry it loose from my hand.

“Antidote!” I demanded.

“Stick!” he answered.

We both grunted as we wrestled in the middle of the remainder of the panicked crowd. My heart was racing so fast I could feel it in my throat, my eyes refused to focus and a tiny red light was flashing in my cyber optic circuit.

“Please,” I tried, turning over underneath the bartender, “I need…the antidote.”

He was half on top of me, hands on mine above my head, our chests heaving against one another. It would be downright hot if I wasn’t begging him not to let me die.

“The stick,” he panted.

“You’re such a…fucking bastard.”

I head butted him and he slid off me with a yell.

He did not, however, drop the vial. I rolled away from him and toward the nearest booth where I opened a compartment on my left arm’s cyber unit and deposited the data stick.

I instructed my internal AI to download the data immediately and store it in my backup drive as well as my main.

If anything happened to me, the backup would be sent to Kier, my half Atavarian brother. He’d know what to do with it. I hoped.

I looked down through eyes that were going in and out of focus and spied a black, boxy blaster on the ground by a dead Human male. I grabbed it quickly before staggering to my feet. The moment I turned around and pointed it, there was that damn bartender, also holding his blaster at me.

“Looks like we’re back to square one,” he said, bloodied lip quirking up into a crooked smile.

“Looks like.”

My AI let me know that the data had been downloaded and I instructed it to delete the stick while leaving a rather nasty virus in place of the information. As that was processing, I stared at the asshole who had caused me so much trouble tonight.

“Deal still stands,” I said.

“I suppose we don’t have a choice.”

“I guess n-not.”

“Except you’re in no condition to make it out of the building, much less to your ship,” he said.

“No thanks…t-to you,” I blinked several times, my hand shaking.

“Trouble seeing?”

“Fuck off. Now let’s….I need that…so…” the compartment on my arm opened once the AI had completed her task and the data stick fell onto the floor.

It looked as if I’d dropped it and I leaned against the booth, only half pretending to be so bad off.

“Oh, look at that,” he said, bending to pick it up. “It seems fortune favors the—”

“Asshole?”

“Precisely.”

He tossed the vial at me and I barely caught it. I popped the top and tossed back the grossly thick antidote. The bastard was about to run when I stopped him.

“Give me your…name, s-so I know who I’m going to kill.”

He stopped, looking back over his shoulder with a pause before grinning at me.

“I guess you’ve earned it,” he turned around. “Sherrod Vasquez, nice to meet you…Zephyr Vaughn.”

“Likewise…except you’re a dead man.”

“I’ve heard that before and for your own sake, don’t try. I’ve left a long enough trail of bodies.”

“Bet mine’s bigger,” I said with a shiver as the antidote worked.

He let out a longer laugh and shook his head.

“I think we could’ve been good friends.”

“Something tells me you don’t have friends.”

A flicker of sadness raced across his face before disappearing.

“Touché.”

And with that, he turned and ran for the red door instead of one of the exits.