Chapters (48)
- Cover
- Dedication
- ONE
- TWO
- THREE
- FOUR
- FIVE
- SIX
- SEVEN
- EIGHT
- NINE
- TEN
- ELEVEN
- TWELVE
- THIRTEEN
- FOURTEEN
- FIFTEEN
- SIXTEEN
- SEVENTEEN
- EIGHTEEN
- NINETEEN
- TWENTY
- TWENTY-ONE
- TWENTY-TWO
- TWENTY-THREE
- TWENTY-FOUR
- TWENTY-FIVE
- TWENTY-SIX
- TWENTY-SEVEN
- TWENTY-EIGHT
- TWENTY-NINE
- THIRTY
- THIRTY-ONE
- THIRTY-TWO
- THIRTY-THREE
- THIRTY-FOUR
- THIRTY-FIVE
- THIRTY-SIX
- THIRTY-SEVEN
- THIRTY-EIGHT
- THIRTY-NINE
- FORTY
- FORTY-ONE
- FORTY-TWO
- FORTY-THREE
- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
- ABOUT THE AUTHOR
- Copyright
My heart flip-flopped right along with that shiny bit of silver, but my reflexes held true, and I snatched it out of midair. I closed my fingers over it, willing my breath to return to normal as Liam casually blanked his screen, but not before I got a glimpse of what it contained.
“Those are my comm logs!” I grabbed him, swung him around, and slammed him against the wall before he drew any of his fancy weapons. I’d been suspicious of Liam from the beginning, but now . . . “You’re spying on me, and you’re going to tell me why!”
TWENTY-ONE
LIAM SIGHED, SINKING ONTO THE crate. “It’s not what it looks like.”
“No?” I drew my hands into fists, shifting my weight subtly. He didn’t look ready to attack, but he was strong and lithe, and he carried those weapons. If he reached for them, I had to move first. “Because what it looks like is you using my comm unit to send Omnistellar my location and collect the bounty.”
His brows drew together in irritation. “They don’t need my help. You said it yourself, sweetheart. Omnistellar knows where you are, and they’re on their way. They don’t pay for information they already have.”
Right. Exhaustion catching up with me. I heaved a sigh between clenched teeth. “Then what the hell are you doing?”
He hesitated, then shrugged. “I’ve intercepted some of their comms. They really wanted that alien tech.”
“What do you mean?”
“What do you think I mean? Omnistellar’s lagging. Mars Mining is up-and-coming with the dome technology. Omnistellar is the unquestioned king of the prison yard, but that’s not enough to keep them on top of the pile forever. They need new technology. New advancements. They want to focus on their interstellar travel arm, keep advancing. The alien ship provided a golden opportunity to do exactly that, reverse engineer the thing until they had a way to travel beyond our solar system. Do you know what it would be worth? Controlling that kind of technology? Being the first corp to travel beyond Jupiter?”
I did know. And I understood that Omnistellar didn’t exactly have humanity’s best interests at heart. I wanted to question Liam, demand more information. As if reading my mind, he held up his hands. “That’s all I’ve got. They didn’t exactly send me a briefing. Everything I learned is from intercepted comms. I’ll tell you this much, though: they were banking on that alien ship. They aren’t happy it got blown up, and they’re willing to do whatever it takes to get it back.”
I shook my head. “They can’t. We destroyed it. Right?”
“Whatever it takes,” he repeated, staring right at me with those strange piercing eyes. He drew the words out slowly, and I got the sense he was saying something I wasn’t getting.