Break Out - By Nina Croft Page 0,10

back to my shuttle for a moment.” She stumbled to her feet. “I forgot to—”

She closed her mouth as he continued to stare at her out of those crimson eyes. Who, or rather what, had eyes the color of blood?

He reached out a hand, placed one finger on her shoulder, and pushed her down.

Skylar collapsed onto the chair but decided that wasn’t so bad. She doubted her legs would have held her much longer anyway.

Closing her eyes, she tried to remember her training. What to do if caught. What to do if facing torture. Unfortunately, nothing was coming to mind.

Concentrate.

She could turn off her pain receptors, but not many people were capable of that sort of neural control and it would give her away. Unless she could pretend she was feeling pain, but somewhere along the way she’d lost faith in her acting abilities.

So, keep the pain receptors on? That didn’t seem such a good option either, but probably the higher chance of success. While she didn’t like pain, she could deal with it.

Taking a few deep breaths, she pushed her fear to the back of her mind.

She knew they wanted the money. She’d seen the greed in the captain’s eyes. She just had to hope that they wanted the money more than Rico wanted—

Again, her mind refused to finish the sentence. After all, she didn’t actually know what he wanted.

He licked his lips, ran his tongue over one sharp white fang, and stepped towards her.

Okay. She didn’t know, but her mind was doing a good job of guessing. Or a bad job.

She shook her head, took another deep breath, and sat up straight. She studied him quickly. His whole figure radiated tension, and a predatory hunger lurked behind his eyes. She had to find a way to diffuse the situation. What would work?

“So,” she said and was proud of how normal her voice came out, “this problem… Are you going to tell me what it is, or are you just going to stand over me and drool?”

Surprise flashed across his face. He grinned again, and this time some of the lethal energy eased from him. The atmosphere in the room changed instantly, and he stepped back, sank into the chair opposite, and rested his booted feet on the small table between them. He didn’t put the glasses back on but sat regarding her, head cocked to one side.

She held herself still, running a relaxation mantra through her mind, and finally her fingers uncurled and her breathing returned to normal.

He raised an eyebrow. “You’re a cool one.”

“Is there any reason I shouldn’t be?”

“Oh, plenty of reasons.”

A shiver ran through her at the dark promise in his voice.

“The problem?” she prompted.

He shrugged. “I don’t believe a word of your story.”

“Why?”

He ignored her question. “And you’re way too cool for someone who must suspect she’s in big, big trouble.”

Cool? She couldn’t remember being this frightened—ever. Maybe she was a good actress after all.

“What makes you think I’m lying?”

His eyes ran over her, lingering on the swell of her breasts. “Believe me, I’ve met a few space tramps in my time, and you do not fit the mold.”

What’s wrong with me?

She bit her tongue to keep from asking the question.

He sat up and leaned toward her. “Who are you working for?”

“I’m not working for anyone.”

He sighed. “Look, we can make this relatively pain-free. Or—”

He paused dramatically, and Skylar rolled her eyes. “Or what? You’ll torture me?”

“Actually, I was thinking more along the lines of eating you.”

Instead of fear, that thought conjured up some rather interesting possibilities, and she squirmed in the seat. “Ugh,” she said in case he’d noticed.

He laughed and relaxed back in his chair. “Who are you working for?”

Skylar sighed. There were some occasions when only the truth would do—but was this one of them?

“Okay, I lied,” she said. “But not about everything.”

She hesitated. She knew interrogators were more likely to believe you if they had to work for the information.

“Yes—?” he prompted.

“I do want you to extract a prisoner from Trakis One. And they have scheduled him for transfer to the mines in ten days. But he’s not my boyfriend.”

“Who is he?”

“My brother.”

He frowned. “Why would you lie about that?”

“Because I didn’t think you would take the job if I told you the truth.”

“Honey,” he said, “boyfriend, brother, it makes no damn difference to me. And you’re making no sense but you’d better start soon.”

“He’s not a bank robber.” She paused again.

“Dios mio,” Rico muttered. “I think I might torture