A Surprise Favor – Chapter 30

The intruder steps forward into the light, his movements silent and deadly. I freeze, wishing I could disappear. Just poof and be gone. His cold eyes scan the room before lingering on me, holding me in place.

“You’re not going anywhere,” he says in a low voice that sends shivers down my spine.

Shit. I’m here unarmed, and my friends and family behind me are at risk. With a bounty on my head, I will never really be safe again. This is insanity. I’ve been naïve to think I’ll just keep going without being stopped.

The man strides forward, his movements fluid and sure. His eyes never leave mine; they suck the warmth from the air and my body shakes. I’m frozen. I should run. I should hide. But his gaze is piercing and holds me in my spot.

He stops a few meters away from me. I can see him clearly now; his face is stern, and his skin pockmarked. He’s armed with a gun tucked into the waistband of his trousers.

“No one moves.” His accent is exotic, but I can’t place it. “I’m taking you, and no one is stopping me.”

My heart races as I stare at him, my mind searching for a way out of this situation. “No,” I say, my voice shaking. “Get the fuck off my ship right now before you regret it.” I don’t know where the false bravado comes from, but I’m glad for it.

The man smiles, sure of himself. He knows he has the upper hand.

But I’m not playing with a full deck, and I’ve been known to cheat.

I hear shuffling behind me, and I hope people are getting away to safety, though I’m too scared to look for myself to make sure.

“Skylar,” he says firmly, “you can come with me and stay alive, or you can fight and be dead. But either way, I’m getting that bounty.”

I swallow and try to keep more protestations silent. This is not a man I can argue with, though I should really try. My life depends on it.

“I’m not going with you. You’ll have to take me by force.” My heart rate soars, and my upper lip sweats.

He smirks, his eyes locked on mine.

“Fine by me,” he responds, his voice still low and full of menace. “And if you give me a hard time, I’ll have no option but to kill you. It’s the same amount of money, either way.”

I knew Dominic was capable of a lot of things, but not this. Hiring a hitman to kill me is beyond the pale.

Cressida was right. I am up against something huge here. Something I can’t control.

“What about my family and network?” I ask, holding back the tears that brim in my eyes.

“I don’t care about them. You’re the only one the bounty calls for.”

A flash at the opposite door catches my attention a split second before my instincts kick in.

Nina appears in the doorway with a gun raised and fires on the intruder. I duck to get out of the way, falling back as chaos erupts in the room. The man dives for cover behind the table, returning fire as he does so.

Behind me, Lia screams, and Nisrine calls for everyone to run.

“Go! Get out of here!” I shout towards them, flattening myself to the floor and throwing my arms over my head.

The intruder lunges for me, trying to get his hands on me. I kick at him, striking his arm enough to delay him. Nina shoots at him again, and he spirals backwards, blood bursting from his shoulder. His hand hits the ground, and his gun flies free.

“Run!” Nina yells at me.

I scramble to my feet and try to grab his gun. If he doesn’t have it, he can’t fire on me. Both of our hands reach it at the same time.

“Fuck off!” I yell at him, grasping the gun and leaning my weight into pulling it from him. His grip begins to slip, his fingers covered in blood from his two injuries.

But he’s smart. He swings me around and puts me between Nina and him. Seeing an opportunity, he keeps one hand on the gun and uses his other to pull a knife from his jacket.

Fuck. I am way out of my league here.

“Move,” Nina calls out from behind me. “I can’t get a clear shot!”

The intruder uses my pulling momentum and falls towards me, sending me scrambling backwards. I fall on my ass and let go of the gun. He slashes out at me with the knife; air whistles past my ear as his swing goes wide. Nina fires again and misses, but he ducks and dives for cover.

I make a break for it, heading towards the door where Nina stands, her gun still raised. She grabs me by the arm and shoves me out into the hallway.

“She’s out!”

I turn in time to see Declan and Kalvin at the opposite door with guns raised. No. No, no, no. My heart is beating wildly now, and panic has caused my breathing to stutter to a stop.

Declan and Kalvin hurry towards the intruder, guns raised. Kalvin fires once and hits the man in his other shoulder. The intruder raises his gun, but pain stops him from getting off a shot. Before he can do anything, Declan’s gun is at his head, and Kalvin takes the intruder’s gun. The man slowly lifts his hands.

“Tell me why we shouldn’t kill you right now.” Declan backs off, his gun still raised.

“Don’t kill him!” Nina shouts. “We can use him.”

Declan and Kalvin stand together, keeping their guns trained on the man. The intruder, realizing he’s outnumbered and outgunned, stands up.

“Please,” he pleads, “just let me go. I won’t come back. I swear it.” His eyes dart to the knife he left on the floor. “I’ll leave, and you’ll never see me again.”

Don’t trust him! The words are on my lips, but I don’t want to distract anyone. Declan and Kalvin are not trained killers. This man is.

Declan relaxes a bit, his gun drooping in his hand.

The man dives for his knife one last time. It flies from his hand and pierces Kalvin in the leg. Kalvin cries out in pain, blood soaking his pant leg quickly. The man lunges for Declan, but Declan takes aim again and fires a shot, striking the intruder in the head.

Silence.

All I hear is the echo of the gun shot and my ragged breathing.

Declan drops the gun to his side and stares at the man. “For fuck’s sake. I was aiming for his arm.” The pain in his voice runs deep. Nina closes her eyes, and her shoulders sink in disbelief.

I finally let out a long shaky breath, and my body relaxes. Declan killed the man, but he saved my life.

He saved my life.

Getting to my feet, my legs wobble. My hands are shaking as I think about what just happened. A man has died on my ship. We have fired guns on my ship! What madness have I gotten myself into? This is totally fucked up, but I’m so grateful for Declan. He took the hard way out. It was the only way to ensure our safety.

I approach him slowly. His eyes are trained on the dead man, his hand by his side. Slipping my fingers into his, I release his grip on the gun, take it from him, and hand it to Nina.

He sighs. “Motherfucker.”

“It’s okay. We couldn’t ever risk him coming back,” I tell Declan, leaving him for Kalvin.

Kalvin groans as he pulls the knife from his leg. “If he wasn’t going to do it, I would have.” He pants and lies back on the floor. “Jesus Christo, that hurts.”

I roll up his pant leg and use the extra fabric to put pressure on the wound. “I think you’ll be okay.”

Takemo and Saif appear in the doorway. Takemo’s eyes train on the pool of blood coming from the dead man. “This is not the worst thing in the world to happen.”

I tip my head back and stare at the ceiling. There’s a dead man on the floor of my ship. Kalvin is injured, and now I have to worry about what to do with the body. What else is going to happen today?

I sniff up, open my eyes, and see a bullet hole just to the left of the light. Yeah, that’s going to be a problem.

Tipping over my wristlet, I try to access something, anything, but it’s all offline. There are local nodes outside of this ship, but nothing is reaching us.

Time to take control.

“Lia!” I call out and she pokes her head in the door. “Grab the first aid kit and come take care of this.”

She nods and leaves.

“Okay. This is what we do.” I turn around and nod to Nina. “You go secure all the weapons. Carlos?” I call out. He sticks his head in the door, eyeing the dead man on the floor before looking at me. “As soon as we have this body wrapped up and the mess cleaned up, you’ll bring us back online, but not before. All the security is off, so none of this was recorded.”

“Right.”

“Guys,” I say to the men around me, “we clean this up and put him in a bag. Once we’re in space, we get rid of him.”

Takemo raises a hand. “I’ll find a waste management vehicle we can put him in.”

Well, his job is finally coming to good use.

“He’ll end up in the sun with the rest of the trash.” Takemo nods once. “Where he belongs.”

“No,” Declan says, piping up. “We should turn him over to the police. He tried to kill us several times. I’m sure he must be a wanted man.”

Lia joins me and takes over with Kalvin’s medical care.

“Are you sure about that? This could land you in custody. I…” Emotion clouds my voice and tears spring to my eyes again. “I don’t know if I could get by without you.” His eyes meet mine. “And not just because you’re my attorney now,” I say with a chuckle. A small smile graces his lips. “You’re a part of my life.”

“Same.” He sighs and gestures to the man on the floor. “But my instincts tell me we should alert the authorities about this… and that there’s a bounty on you.”

I reach out to him but stop. My bloodied hands are not suitable for touching. He sees my gesture and steps up to me, leaning in to kiss me on the forehead.

“We’ll figure it out,” he mumbles against my skin.

My heart breaks. This was not the vacation I wanted.

I leave the room and Nisrine is waiting in the hall. “You’ll need to find all the bullet holes. Make sure we didn’t puncture or hit anything important.”

She nods. “For what it’s worth, I agree with you. Send him into the sun with the trash. No one will ever miss him.” Her hardened expression holds my eyes. She’s dead serious. She spent decades on ships. I bet she’s dealt with this sort of thing before.

“It’s an option.”

Cressida and Ricardo Nine approach me, but I hold out a hand. “Best if you don’t go this way. Plausible deniability.”

Cressida smirks. “Not like I want to tell anyone about this. I don’t even want anyone to know I was here.”

Ricardo Nine nods. “We’ll keep it between us.”

I’m just about to suggest Cressida and Ricardo Nine leave when I hear pounding on the cargo bay airlock door. Who could that be? Everyone who’s supposed to be here is here except for Marcelo. Is it Marcelo? I thought we were going to rendezvous in orbit.

Cressida narrows her eyes as she looks in the direction of the noise. “Expecting someone?”

“No.” I point forward. “Both of you can wait in my quarters until I figure out what this is about.”

I make my way through the ship to the airlock door, peer through the window, and the police are on the other side. My heart sinks as I realize what this means: we have no choice. We’ll have to tell them what happened with the dead man in my lounge.

I take a deep breath before opening up the airlock door. I have to hit the latch with my foot to avoid getting blood all over it. The police officer on the other side takes one look at my hands and shirt, and his eyes widen.

“Miz, we have reports of gun fire coming from this ship. Are you or anyone inside hurt?”

I raise my hands and turn them front to back. “Well, I guess you’d better come in.”

He lifts the side of his jacket to access his gun.

“You won’t need that,” I say, stepping back to let them in. “The man who came to kill me is already dead.”