Page 24 of Tempting Jupiter (Arena Dogs #2)

Chapter Sixteen

“Hey beautiful. Can I buy you a brew? Tavern’s open.”

The too close voice startled her.

She’d pulled her hair back in a loose ponytail. Her slacks, tunic, and coat were all worker-gray. She’d hoped the serviceable style would discourage men like that one from approaching.

It had been her only choice. She had no way to know which aliases Roma would have connected to her. Her own identity had been the only one she felt safe in.

Fee left the noise of the market’s main thoroughfare behind and strode quickly toward the next most popular lane on the station—the treasure handlers. She needed answers and her money, now.

She turned the corner and slowed. All of her senses screamed at her.

Something was off. She walked forward eyes straight ahead until she’d passed Billy’s offices and reached a corner.

She turned again and then stepped into the first doorway.

A hungry-eyed money-lender sat behind a desk.

Just beyond the middle of life, the woman had left her hair naturally gray despite obvious signs of other cosmetic treatments.

A slender man, not more than 20, sat at her side and two burly enforcers lounged in ancient chairs, backs to a wall.

The enforcers were the kind of big that came from popping cheap growth pills.

She doubted either of them could get out of their chairs before she could get to their boss and put a blaster to her head.

Not that she wanted to. She smiled. “How much to sit in one of your chairs for fifteen minutes?”

The lender steepled her fingers and smiled a smile that never went beyond her lips. “Name’s Celia Morris. No need to bring credits into it.” She waved a hand toward an empty seat near the door.

The man at Morris’s side froze, a pleasant expression gracing pretty features—a slender nose and a firm chin.

Feeona returned Morris’s smile. “I need fifteen minutes with no interruptions.”

Morris sat back more deeply into her chair. “Of course.”

Fee activated Bug with a thought. The small mechanical creature tickled as it uncurled from around her throat and launched into the air. She opened the door for Bug to fly out, then closed it and settled into the seat.

She closed her eyes and tapped into Bug’s vision.

At least three men in the area near Billy’s place stood exactly where they’d been when she’d passed them.

They were waiting for her. Damn. How had they gotten to her account so fast?

She had dozens, all carefully protected and tied to different identities.

How could they have found the one account she would use?

She waited until someone opened Billy’s door then Bug slipped inside. It flew over the heads of the tellers and down the narrow hall to Billy’s office. He was sitting with his feet propped on his desk, talking to a hologram standing in the space next to him.

Bug landed on the toe of one of his nice dress shoes. Billy froze for a moment then abruptly ended his call. Bug’s auto-safety features kicked in to keep it safely in the air when his feet dropped to the ground with a noisy clatter.

“Shit. You can’t be here.”

She landed Bug on his workstation and tapped into his speakers. “Strictly speaking, I’m not there.”

Billy scooted closer and lowered his voice. “As good as.” He poked a finger at Bug and the AI flicked Bug’s wings as a warning. “This thing can’t have that much range. Truth be told, if you’re on this station, you’re too damn close.” His voice had lowered word-by-word until it was a fierce whisper.

“I need my funds and the account is frozen. You’re supposed to be a strictly independent treasure. No government interference. Not Alliance, not planetary, not even the station government. That’s why you have my business.”

“This isn’t government interference. It’s Roma. And they have more money than any government. Money means power. You know that.”

A sudden heaviness hit her belly. “Are all the accounts frozen?”

Billy’s face scrunched and he tapped his fingers on his desk. “All the accounts I know about.”

That was it then. Billy had helped her put her protections in place. There was only one account he didn’t know about and that one never had more than a few credits.

His fingers tapped the desk again. “They have your electronic fingerprint. They own every piece of information about you. You need to get off this station and out of this sector.”

Stone and Barney must have talked. Damn them for not being good enough to get away.

There was a limit to how much they knew.

She didn’t trust anyone with everything, but Stone had known her a long time—he was an old acquaintance of Roland’s.

But under one of Roland’s many false identities.

She stopped a moment to consider Stone’s fate.

Had he sold her out right away or had they hurt him to get the info.

With the harm already done, she hoped he’d found a way to profit rather than get himself tortured or dead.

“To leave, I need funds.” The men in the hall hadn’t identified her. Had she ever been caught on vid as herself? Would they eventually make that final connection?

“Sorry. I can’t help you.” Billy sat back and sagged in his chair. “They say you have something of theirs and they want it back. They’re very determined.”

Her breathing accelerated and it got harder to focus on her connection with Bug. “That isn’t an option.”

“For God’s sake, Fee. Give them what they want. Or get the hell across the border with Gollera.”

She considered a dash for the border for a split second. They were at the ass end of human controlled space. There were two sector-borders in the vicinity: Gollera and Delvinci. But neither were an option for her. She had plans she couldn’t change.

“I can’t.” She had to find another way.

Billy scrubbed his hand over his face. “Nothing is worth dying for.”

That’s where Billy was wrong. There were a lot of things worth dying for.

She launched Bug into the air and got it carefully out of Billy’s office before handing control back to Bug’s artificial intelligence. Bug would return to her without further instructions, because Bug was the best remote AI of its size money could buy.

And there was her answer.

Her eyes fluttered open to Morris’s face, less than a meter from hers. Feeona jumped in her seat, heart pounding.

The money-lender’s round hazel eyes, set in a narrow face, were cold an assessing.

“You okay, dear?” She straightened and inched back. “I was getting worried.”

Feeona was still breathing hard from the anxiety her conversation had caused. She met Morris’s eyes. “I’m fine.”

The woman shook her head. “Can’t fool a money-lender, dear. Accessing people is part of the job. Who will take the money and run? Who is good to their debts? You, I’d say, are in a bit of trouble. Something I can do to help?”

Feeona’s instinct was to get away from Celia Morris as quickly as possible. But, then what? “What makes you think I’m in trouble?” The money-lender wouldn’t need any skill at reading people, if she’d connected her to a station-wide manhunt.

Celia lifted an arched eyebrow. “Aside from the panicky breathing?”

Feeona grimaced. “Yes, aside from that.”

“You’re in money-lender row and hiding out in my shop. You are hiding, aren’t you?” Morris waited for a response and for once nothing snappy came to mind. Fee was totally screwed.

She deflected the question. “What do your instincts tell you about what kind of risk I am?”

Morris returned to her seat behind her desk and leaned back. “Ah, so it is a financial problem. I’d say you’re the type to be true to your debts. But not currently in the position to do so. No, you wouldn’t be a good bet for a loan.”

“My accounts are frozen.” Fee explained. “I have the funds. I just can’t get to them.”

The young man watched their interaction, face still blank as a doll. Why did he look familiar?

“Well, I’m a simple money-lender,” said Morris. “I don’t employ these two,” she gestured to the hulks. “For their code hacking skills. I might not be the most ethical lender in the row, but I don’t break the law.”

“I didn’t mean to…”

“In your situation,” Morris pointed a finger at her. “We lenders rely on collateral. Have anything worth value you can leave with me?”

And that quick they were back in the vicinity of her only option. “My remote.” She said it flat out. Like it was no big deal. Like the thought didn’t knot up her belly.

The money-lender snapped her fingers at the goon standing near the door. He pressed the control and the door swung inward.

Bug zipped in and landed on Feeona’s shoulder.

Morris leaned forward to take a closer look. “I had some business with a fella who had one of those. Not exactly like that one. But I have an idea how much it’s worth.”

Bug’s wings flapped and then it circled Feeona’s throat to form a decorative piece attached to the slender chain hanging there. She’d given the command before it was in her consciousness.

Bug was a part of her and she could only tolerate the thought of giving it up, because the alternatives were even worse. But she’d only be leaving it as collateral with a chance she could get Bug back.

Morris reached for a com pad. “I can see by that look, you’ve decided. I know a surgeon.”

“A surgeon, wait, I—”

“You were thinking I’d hold just the remote for you.

” Morris laid the pad back on her desktop.

“This model requires a matched neural control implant for smooth operation and data transfer. The match is hard coded. It can’t be controlled from an external interface or from any other implants.

If you don’t make it back, for reason’s not your own, where would that leave me? ”

“I don’t have time for surgery.” And if she had the implant removed, it was unlikely she could ever get another. Even with the best surgeon, there would be scar tissue.

“Life is about tough choices. I understand, if you’re not interested.” Morris returned her hand to her desk and her fingers moved in a rhythmic pattern against the com pad. A smile slinked into place. “Good news, the surgeon can do the surgery immediately. If you decide that’s what you want to do.”

Fee died a little inside, but she wouldn’t betray Jupiter and that was the only other option. “I’m sending you the details now. You’ll set up a holding account for me and transfer the money directly into the account after I let you know. You’ll have to keep my identity off the record and—”

“You let me worry about the accounting.” Morris’s fingers never stopped moving. And she’d already messaged back a counteroffer on price.

Fee frowned.

“I’ll be covering the surgeon’s payment,” said Morris. “Rush work isn’t cheap and you’re in a hurry, right?”

Roland had told her never to trust a money-lender. Make sure they’re making a good profit and that’s the best bet you have to keep them from turning on you. Fee would take the offer. “You’ll need to arrange to get me back to my ship after the surgery. Some secrecy will be required.”

Morris smiled. “Don’t worry, I’ll handle everything.”

Fee didn’t like extending trust to a stranger, but what choice did she have? The cargo waiting for her on Petro-5 was too precious to lose.

Yeah. She was screwed.