instinctively to rub at the scar on his neck. Then wished he hadn’t as Rico’s gaze homed in on the gesture.
“No, not fucking really,” Milo said. “What do you want?”
“Just checking in. And sending your girlfriend’s books.”
Milo growled.
Rico grinned. “And I’ve got some news on those people you asked me to look up.”
Dr. Yang’s family. Maybe he could get some leverage and get the woman off Destiny’s case. “And?”
“They’re dead. At least they’re not where they’re supposed to be. I presume you’re up-to-date on what happened with the recent murder investigation and the dead crew members’ families?”
He was aware that some of them had been changed for other people. Initially they’d believed their places had been sold to the highest bidder. It was amazing what people had been willing to pay to get off the dying Earth. Now, though, it seemed more likely they’d been substituted for people of Kinross’s choosing.
“I hadn’t gotten around to checking out the rest of the crew families,” Rico said. “Didn’t seem a priority with the Trakis One gone. Turns out your Dr. Yang’s ten-year-old daughter is six-foot-tall and has a beard. I woke the man up and with a little persuasion, he told me that he’s in the employ of your new best friend, Luther Kinross.”
Why did that come as no surprise?
Milo was betting there was a whole army spread throughout the fleet. How easy to just not wake up the crew members, and they’d never be aware that their loved ones had been dumped to make way for Kinross’s soldiers.
“A mercenary?” he asked.
“Well, he called himself a soldier of the New World Defense Force. Sounds better, I suppose. We checked the rest of the crew families on board and it’s the same story. There are eight ships left, thirty crew members per ship, three family members per crew, and ten rotations. That’s a good number of soldiers.”
“What did you do with them?”
Rico shrugged. “Left them asleep for now.” He gave a feral smile, showing the tip of one sharp, white fang. “I’ll leave them for when I’m feeling hungry.”
Milo shook his head but didn’t comment. They’d taken their chances and lost.
“What are your plans now?” Rico asked. “When are you coming back? There’s only a small window if you want to return via the shuttle.”
At this time, the planets’ trajectories meant that Trakis Two and Trakis Four were relatively close together and just approaching the point where they were the closest they ever were. After that, the distance would increase and soon would be out of the range of the shuttles. At that point, they would need to get a lift back. And if things got messy with Kinross, that might not be an easy thing to organize.
“Right now, we’re taking chocolates and other goodies to Milo’s girlfriend,” Dylan said. “Hey, we’re prioritizing. Then later tonight, Milo is going to take a look and see what Kinross is hiding under his castle.”
Rico’s brow rose. “He has a castle?”
“Yeah, it’s called Camelot and it has turrets and a round table and everything.”
“Sounds like I’d better start practicing my curtsy. Okay. Let me know what you find. We need to understand just how much of a pain in the arse this guy is going to be.” The screen went blank.
So Dr. Yang’s family were no more, but he wasn’t going to jump in and tell her…just yet.
First, he had to find out how he could best use that information.
Chapter Twenty
“If it is one’s lot to be cast among fools, one must learn foolishness.”
—Alexandre Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo
Destiny had stayed inside the tunnels since she’d seen the men. She didn’t want them to find her. Not now. Not yet. She’d curled up in one of the big chairs on the bridge of her spaceship and read.
She’d read Escape Route, a mystery written just before the fleet had left Earth, and then she went back to romance: It Had to Be You by Susan Elizabeth Phillips. And she’d lost herself in the words and the magic, when she heard someone call her name.
“Destiny.”
Recognizing Milo’s voice, she jumped to her feet and hurried out and down the ramp. He stood at the bottom with Dylan beside him and she felt suddenly shy. She’d been reading too much sex!
He held out a bag. “Food.” As she opened it, the scent of sugar and other delicious things wafted out and her stomach rumbled. He also handed her a small flash drive. “Books on how spaceships work,” he said.