Icy Heat

 

Twenty-eight days left, Aidan thought, standing outside Warwick’s door. She didn’t want to do this, but she’d exhausted her mind trying to come up with a plan that didn’t involve him. A headache screeching in her frontal lobe begged her to go back to her transport and lie down.

  Warwick lived on Sector 9, an ice planet with two things—a prison and a trading station. Reed Landrig had taken over the station as his own unofficial fiefdom. Since Warwick did quite a bit of contract work for Reed, he’d moved here.

  Warwick owed her a favor and even if fear drove her to her knees and made her throw her guts up, she would have to call it in. For a moment, she pictured the knife sticking out of his leg and shivered. He hadn’t seemed to even notice. Her gut had told her to never call in this debt, to get as far from him as she could before it was too late.

  Taking a deep breath before his door, she admitted to herself that she wasn’t scared of him exactly. Well she was, everyone was, but there was more to it than just the usual fear. When War entered a room, every piece of her body focused on him and her fingers trembled, although she worked hard to hide it. As an Enforcer, he had to inspire fear or he wouldn’t be able to do his job. But she knew her response was more than others felt.

  Warwick left her confused and off balance and she’d promised herself she wouldn’t have any more contact with him. Which was all well and good, except here she stood outside his door.

  Part of her hoped he wasn’t home.

  She knocked.

  The door swung wide on the first fist-fall, and she pitched forward into the room, not anticipating that the portal would be opened at all, let alone this quickly.

  In one motion, someone caught her, lifted her into the house and shut the door with a bang.

  Aidan stumbled, then steadied herself against the hallway wall.

  Turning, she used the moment to catch her breath and study the man who watched her.

  Warwick stood like a wall of towering muscle. As he had when he’d hired her, he wore his customary black from head to toe, except for his right hand, which was bare. The strong, calloused fingers drew her attention. She had no idea why she had the urge to touch him, but she did. Forcing her attention elsewhere, she noticed he wasn’t wearing his usual helmet, and she saw his dark brown hair for the first time, trimmed close to his head.

  The mask both frightened her and aroused her curiosity at the same time. She’d often wondered over the last few months what it hid and how he’d come to wear it.

  She took a deep breath to steel herself and inhaled his scent. Old leather and danger curled around her.

  “Well, well, Aidan.” His voice shivered up her spine as it had before when no one else was around. It carried an intimate quality that replaced the harsh gruffness she heard when he spoke to others. “In the neighborhood and thought you’d stop by?”

  She straightened, shoring up her skittering nerves. “I’ve…” She cleared her throat and started again. “I’ve come to call in that favor you owe me.”

  He tilted his head. “Interesting.” He waved with his gloved hand towards the room at the end of the hall. “Let’s sit down. I have a feeling we’ll need to talk a bit.”

  Aidan forced one foot in front of the other, while the skin on her back shivered as he shadowed her down the hall.

  The room was surprisingly small. The furniture old but comfortable. Thick rugs covered the stone floor. At first she didn’t realize the whole room was rock, but then she caught a glimpse of gray quartz through the thick drapes on the walls. A large, high table took up over half the space. Unable to help herself, she moved to it. She should be thinking about her brother, but curiosity overwhelmed her good sense. She wanted to know how Warwick lived.

  Aidan’s mouth dropped open at the sight of what one of the scariest Enforcers in this universe had been doing.

  He’d been playing a game of Kings and Leaders, his pieces laid across a collapsible board as big as she was tall and as wide as she would be if she held her hands out from her sides. Someone had painted landmasses and water across the grid. It was a game of intense strategy. When she gave it some thought, she realized Warwick had to be intelligent or he wouldn’t have survived so long in his occupation.

  “You came for a reason, Aidan?” War prompted from close behind her.

  She circled the table to put some space between them, dropped her bag and shrugged out of her heavy coat, tossing it over a chair. “I need to call in that favor.”

  Warwick rested his left hand on the board. “So you said.”

  Taking a deep breath, she ignored the scent of him. “Are you going to Landrig’s One Day celebration?” The event, meant to honor the One Day Rebellion which brought the Inter-world Council to power, would last at least a week, if not more. She would only need a few precious, well-timed moments to complete her task, but first she had to get inside Reed’s stronghold.

  His fingers jumped, but otherwise she couldn’t see any reaction from him.

  “I’ve been invited.”

  “I want to go with you.” She tried to make her voice as empty as his.

  “Why?”

  “Does it matter?”

  “Yes.” His answer came out on a growl.

  Aidan had debated what she would tell him and had decided to keep all the details secret. After all, he often worked for Reed and she doubted he’d help her steal from his employer. Now she could see from the way he stood that she had to tell him something.

  “I’ve been hired to recover something from one of the guests.”

  “What?” The single word was harsh and clipped.

  “I’m not quite sure.” She picked up one of the board pieces and ran a finger over the carving of a king. “I know what I was told it is.”

  “And?”

  She’d be as truthful as she could. “It’s supposedly only a toy, a child’s amusement.” She shrugged.

  “But you don’t believe that?”

  “No.”

  Warwick placed his other hand on the table, bringing him closer to her. “Someone’s got a hold on you, don’t they?”

  Aidan wondered why she hadn’t thought of him as intelligent before. She’d been too caught up in his outside packaging. “Yes.”

  “Who?”

  “I won’t tell you.” She wasn’t stupid. Even she’d heard that War wouldn’t work for Balten. She didn’t know why they didn’t get along, but she wasn’t going to reveal that she was under Balten’s thumb. Warwick wouldn’t help her if he knew.

  “Come on, Aidan. You know as well as I do that anytime you pay a blackmailer, they’ll just keep coming back for more.”

  “In this case, I have no choice.” She watched him with interest. She’d never seen him agitated before, yet here he was, dragging his right hand through his hair.

  “If you aren’t going to tell me who, you need to at least tell me why.”

  That was fair, she supposed. “My brother’s run up gambling debts,” she began.

  He cut her off. “Then pay them. You have the money.”

  Aidan’s internal alarm system let out a trill. How in the hell could he be so sure? She did have enough, but his tone of voice told her he knew it for a fact. How would Warwick know how much money she had?