Page 1 of Smuggler's Beauty

CHAPTER ONE

Hinky.

That was the best word to describe the current job Aiden was on.

It wasn’t just that the client had been stingy with information regarding her motives. As far as Aiden was concerned, her business was her business. He had all the data he needed to breach the ship without setting off any security systems thanks to Vinnie’s data packet.

It was more the way she’d conveyed the information. One crumb at a time.

“Gig of the century,” she’d said. “Heist of a lifetime.”

And then she’d reeled his whole crew in with a ridiculous retainer. Credits upon credits tumbling into their escrow account like loose slot machines turning over on a lucky push of a button.

The crew of theRising Dawncouldn’t afford to say no to a payday like that. They all had their debts, their nests to feather, their indulgences that required a ready flow of cash.

But now, as Aiden looked at the ship he was about to board, he knew what it all added up to.

Hinky.

The ship they were tasked with breaking into was supposed to be an abandoned research vessel. Vinnie had claimed it was chock full of discarded medical tech she could sell at a premium to any of the planets refusing to bend the knee to the Galactic Planetary Collective. Those planets maintained their independence, but at the expense of access to the GPC’s vast resources.

Such supplies could turn a fat profit, fast.

And a fast payday was very appealing to Aiden right now. The more swiftly Tariel was out from under his absurd divorce settlement, the better. Then Aiden could finally tell his moms that he needed to get off theDawnwithout letting down his family.

“Can you zoom in on the hull?” Aiden asked Cairn.

His pilot nodded and pushed a few buttons on the control panel. The image cleared. Cairn took the opportunity to unwrap a pineapple hard candy and offered another to Aiden.

“Am I crazy or is that one hell of a paint job?” Cairn asked. He squinted his blue eyes at the screen, straining to make out the finer details of the medivessel’s hull.

Aiden shook his head, his overlong brown hair flopping over his green eyes as he focused on the ship. Its hull looked worn at first glance, but the stippling effect was apparent when you took a second — or third — glance. The ship had been expertly camouflaged to look as if it had been floating around in space for the last half century. There were faux scrapes along the sides of the hull; sponged on rust-colored paint imitated corrosion around the entry port. There was even a substantial three-dimensional dent on the port side.

“I’m vaguely concerned about the quantity of artificial pineapple in your bloodstream, but otherwise you’re prettystable.” Still staring at the ship, Aiden took a pineapple candy and popped it in his mouth.

The moment he placed the wrapper on his thigh, it started to levitate, bouncing gently up and down as Aiden absentmindedly used his telekinesis. It was something he did when he was thinking, manipulating small objects the way some people clicked pens or tapped their feet. Unintentional fidgeting that helped clear the mind by keeping the body busy.

“Why would anyone take the time to disguise a ship like this and then leave it unprotected in open space?” Cairn asked.

“Hiding in plain sight is usually the right move if you want to go undetected. Your wife is always telling us to be more subtle. Could be the camouflage keeps scavengers at bay.”

Cairn grinned and crunched down on the candy and waggled his bushy red eyebrows at Aiden.

“True. And her advice has saved our collective asses more times than I can count. Veronique knows subtlety.”

“That she does. It makes it doubly strange that she married you,” Aiden said with a grin, “but she knows subtle.” Looking from the ship to Cairn, Aiden sighed and dragged his hand roughly down his neatly trimmed beard. “This feels wrong, Cairn. Vinnie didn’t give us nearly enough intel.”

The ship was where it had been promised to be, it just wasn’tasit had been promised. How bad was the rest of the intel? Would the codes even work? His candy wrapper dropped to the ground. Cairn swiped it off the floor and placed it with his pile of candy detritus.

“Aye. But she also gave us a shit ton of money up front.”

“That she did.” Aiden nodded. He paced the few steps the cockpit of the small jump ship allowed, tugging on his beard as he mulled the details their benefactor had given them. “Why the hell would shedothat?”

Disgusted with the lack of space, he threw himself back into the co-pilot’s seat.

“We’ll never know until you get into that boat and see what’s what. Could be she’s in some weird prank war with an eccentric weirdo. Could be there really is an abandoned cache in that ship that will help her line her pockets. So call it, kid. You going in or are we cutting our losses?”

Aiden glared at Cairn. He snatched a candy from the bag Cairn had propped on the bridge, unwrapped it and sent the clear packaging into the air. Several more wrappers from the pile in front of Cairn joined his, creating a clear, floating, pineapple-scented Ferris wheel. He felt a little petty satisfaction as Cairn failed to contain a shudder at his casual use of telekinesis. Humanity on Earth had only started exhibiting extrasensory phenomena about a generation ago, and Cairn was still uneasy around it. It made visiting planets where psychic phenomena were commonplace a challenge for the maintenance of the pilot’s poker face. Still, he never complained when the credits landed in their accounts.