Secret Santa Surprise: Book 29 in the Kindred Tales Series - Evangeline Anderson Page 0,70

always been an untrustworthy asshole, though Pierce had to admit for the amount of the contract on his head, he might turn his own self in—that was, if he thought he could get out of it alive. And that was looking more unlikely by the minute. Pierce returned fire, noting his light pistol was getting pretty low on charge. He was already outgunned, if he didn’t find a place to lay low pretty quick he was going to be deep fried as well.

He glanced up at the building he was crouching by—looked like some kind of a factory. Osiris was famous for manufacturing most of the luxury goods in the galaxy, so it was probably a sensu-couch plant or a luxury hover-mobile assembly line. But what they made inside didn’t matter to Pierce, what did matter was that there would probably be lots of shadowy corners to hide in until his contact turned assassin gave up and left.

Another laser blast passed over his head. Damn—they were getting closer. Rather than shooting back, Pierce crept quietly around the side of the huge building, letting his fingertips trail along the rough plasti-steel surface of the wall as he searched for a door in the dark Osiris night. He found one just as another blast passed over his head and jimmied the lock without too much difficulty even though he couldn’t see what he was doing. Natural mechanical aptitude, that’s what he had. Of course, using it to get into places he shouldn’t instead of in honest trade was one of the things that had gotten him into the mess he was in now.

As he eased the door closed behind him and entered the dim interior of the plant, Pierce reflected that maybe it was time to get out of the urban areas of the galaxy and head someplace more rural—someplace with a quiet, relaxed attitude and no people to recognize him. After all, it wasn’t like he loved living in the big, dirty cities he usually found himself in. It was just that most profitable crimes took place in the city rather than in a cornfield on a snug little moon at the ass end of the galaxy. You had to go where your business took you—that was Pierce’s motto.

There was another blast of laser fire outside but it sounded farther away this time. Good, maybe Shie-lu and his thugs had been thrown off the scent. Speaking of scent— Pierce took a whiff of one of his armpits and wrinkled his nose in disgust. He’d been running since his shuttle kissed dirt on Osiris and he hadn’t even had time for a shower. He wasn’t a guy that minded getting dirty on occasion, but it would be nice to get a chance to clean up. As soon as he got out of this, he promised himself, he was going straight to the Pleasure Baths on Bast Six where there were plenty of friendly whores and lots of opportunities to bathe with them.

Of course, a man couldn’t settle down with a whore and lately Pierce had been thinking about that. Not that he wanted to settle down, of course, but he was getting kind of old for the life he was living right now—always on the run, always hopping from one payday to the next one step ahead of the law and only half a step ahead of the thugs who wanted his hide. It would be nice to find someplace quiet with a willing woman and just relax for a while.

There was another blast outside and he backed up, eyeing the strange shadowy forms of the unfamiliar machinery looming around him in the darkness. The whole place had a weird, chemical smell that he didn’t like one bit. Pierce sniffed the air—vat- grown flesh—that was it. So maybe this factory wasn’t just making sensu-couches or luxury hover-mobiles.

Most of the known galaxy’s sex toys and marital aides were also exported from Osiris. Maybe he’d stumbled into one of those places where they made cybernetic whores for the super rich. Although, how a man could stand to screw something that had grown in a vat of chemicals was beyond him. Pierce wasn’t overly picky about his women—they only had to be warm, willing and friendly—but he drew the line at artificial pussy. That was just going too far, even if a man was desperate.

He stepped backward again and bumped into a long, rectangular box that looked a lot like a coffin. A shiver ran