Page 87 of Smuggler's Beauty

She twisted her neck back, presumably to steal a kiss, and Aiden felt her freeze in his arms. Her head was at a strange angle. He followed her gaze to the open doorway and understood the sudden cold plunge in her attitude. With a final squeeze, he loosened his grip on her waist.

“I think you’ve had enough breakthroughs for one day,” he said. “You need to recharge and rest. We need to drop Mathias off tonight, but I think the moms are going to make dinner before we send him back to 14 And.”

“I wouldn’t mind a break,” she said. “What do you have in mind?”

Aiden grabbed her hand and pointed to a small fleck of soil. “Dollface, you’re filthy. We must get you cleaned up and into something more comfortable.”

“Who am I to argue with facts?”

“I do find it best to bow to the evidence in cases like these.” He patted her thigh, and she got off his lap. Hand in hand, they stepped out of the storage room to head back to their quarters when the security klaxons started to bellow.

CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

Evelyn racedbehind Aiden as he took off toward the bridge, alarms blaring and lights flashing.

“L.I.N.D.A., zoom in on that ship,” Cairn was saying, fingers flashing across his control deck. The view screen showed a small blob moving in the distance. The computer amplified the image, blowing up the blob into a detailed rendering of a ship. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Aiden pale.

The rest of the crew and Mathias rushed onto the bridge in twos and threes. Evelyn saw Veselko flip a switch and expose a panel that looked to be the controls for the ship’s defense system.

“Ship is registered to the Mystic Morsels company.”

Nannette glared at Mathias. “Didn’t see this coming?”

He was staring into space, eyes fuzzed.Seeing.

“Well, they’ve found us. Any ideas how?” Aiden asked, turning toward Lillian. She was scrolling through a tablet furiously. Evelyn watched Cairn bring up the shield settings, maxing them out as the ship on the screen got closer.

“Likely there was a bug in the comm call. Shouldn’t have gotten through; I patched that hole in the last system update,” she muttered. “Ivan’s not that savvy.”

Tariel looked sheepish. “I may have, uh, not updated my communicator.”

Lillian glared at him over the top of her tablet. “Excuse me?”

“May have?” Elenor sputtered.

“It always wants to update when I’m about to do something else. So I click the ‘later’ button and go back to whatever I was doing.”

“If we all die because you’re addicted to communicator games, I will find you in the afterlife and stalk you forever,” Lillian said, pointing her tablet at him menacingly. “I will follow you with a spectral kazoo and give you the most humiliating theme song imaginable for all eternity.” She shook her head before going back to typing on her tablet.

Evelyn bit her cheek to stop from laughing at the threat. Aiden was hunched over next to Cairn, discussing evasive maneuvers. TheDawnlurched, changing directions abruptly as they attempted to lose their pursuers. Cairn’s hula dancer bobbled furiously from its mount on the helm.

“Can’t we just jump?” Nannette asked.

“Need to prime the system. We’ve plenty of fuel, but it’s going to take a few before we’d be able to spin up that engine, plus a shit ton of math and chart verification to make sure we don’t wind up colliding with anything,” Cairn said. “I’m programming a path to confuse their ship’s systems so I can go do all that bloody calculating and get us out of here, but it’s going to take a beat.”

Evelyn bit her lower lip, her eyes on the view screen. The ship had corrected course and was following the turns theDawnhad made while trying to make up the distance. She felt a warm hand grasp hers and turned her head to see Veronique.

“He’s really quite good at this,cher. Don’t worry,” she said.

Evelyn nodded. She’d never doubted any of their abilities. They were obviously capable and resilient. One couldn’t successfully smuggle under the eyes of the GPC for years without getting caught otherwise. But Aiden and Veronique had been very wary of this Pearl person, and Evelyn didn’t think it wise to take their concerns lightly.

As she stood and stewed, Aiden called out coordinates, doublechecking Cairn’s preset evasive plans with him.

Evelyn’s stomach was churning, the constant jostling of theDawntaking a physical toll while the looming ship on the view screen took a mental one. The combination was a dreadful lullaby, and she was drifting into a state of melancholic peace as she berated herself for getting the crew into this position.

One more fucked situation that’s all my fault.

The entire ship jolted as the first strike hit the shields.