the edge of the door and smiled. “Can I help you?”
“I’m looking for Nina.” His voice was low and clear. “Someone said I’d find her here.”
“Someone like who?”
“An artifact dealer up on Centennial Hill. Janos.”
Word that she was looking for work must have spread fast. “Janos must not like you very much. Showing up at someone’s house uninvited is considered pretty damn rude in this business. It gets people shot.” Or worse.
He reached into his back pocket and slowly drew out a palm-sized data tablet. “Trust me. What I have on here is worth it.”
Dealing with him was a gamble, which was unfortunate, because she’d never been able to resist a good gamble. “What’s your name?”
He paused for half a beat. “Garrett.”
“Then come on in.” She swung the door wide and stepped back. She watched him assess his surroundings, taking in all the exits, available cover, potential weapons. He studied the open kitchen, the seating arranged in the living area, the back hall, and the stairs to the loft overhead.
Definitely a soldier.
“I was about to have dinner.” She headed toward the kitchen again without turning her back on him. “Would you care to join me?”
His gaze flicked to the bowl of soup. “Thank you, but I’m not hungry.”
“Coffee, then?” Nina offered politely.
“No, thank you.”
“Are you sure? It’s real.”
His brow furrowed. “It’s not necessary.”
Most people in Five Points hadn’t tasted real coffee in so long they would have tripped over themselves getting to the carafe. But this guy was unmoved. “Not impressed, huh? You must be doing all right for yourself. So what are you, Garrett? A smuggler?” She arched an eyebrow as she sat down at the table. “A soldier?”
“I’m a guy with a score that’ll make the Crypt look like pocket change.” He placed the tablet on the table and slid it toward her.
Nina caught the tablet before it slid off the edge, and kept her smile in place. Not many people outside the recovery business knew about the Crypt. Hell, it had been lost and forgotten even before the Flares, before all the satellites had gone dark and power grids across the nation had been fried to a crisp.
The Crypt of Civilization was a time capsule, an assortment of items and books on microfilm that had been gathered and interred in the early part of the twentieth century. It had taken Nina two years to find it and one more to surreptitiously empty it. The money she’d made from selling off most of the artifacts had bought her this building, and digitizing the microfilm had kick-started her information library.
She didn’t try to hide the fact that she’d pulled that job, but she didn’t advertise it, either—and she wasn’t about to talk about it with a stranger who couldn’t quite manage to scrub off the smell of military police.
Instead of activating the screen, she held the tablet out to him. “Not interested.”
The furrow between his brows deepened, and a frown curved his full lips. “You’re not even going to look?”
“I may be a thief, but I don’t deal with liars.”
“What, exactly, do you think I’m lying about?”
“I didn’t say you were lying. I said you’re a liar.” She blew on a spoonful of soup to cool it. “I see where the distinction might be confusing.”
His jaw clenched. Frustration flared in his eyes as he stared down at her, chasing away the last of his feigned harmlessness. Of course, since nothing in her life could be easy, he was even hotter like this. A little angry. A little flustered.
Slow heat began to unfurl in her belly as she stared back—until the soft brush of boot soles on the loft landing broke the spell.
Nina spoke without looking up. “Who is he?”
“Captain Garrett Knox.” Maya’s voice was ice. “Leader of a special squad called the Silver Devils. Protectorate golden boy. The TechCorps’ favorite bully. Can I stab him?”
“You’re too far away.” Dani stepped out of the shadows of the back hallway, a pistol in her hands. “Besides, Captain Knox is leaving now.”
The man stiffened, pivoting to put his back to the wall. His gaze jumped from Nina to Maya to Dani, lingering on the pistol. Then he slowly raised his hands in a placating gesture of surrender. “Your intel is out of date. I may lead the Silver Devils, but we left the Protectorate.”
The throb behind Nina’s eyes was either irrepressible curiosity or the beginnings of a headache. “Entire squads don’t leave the Protectorate, Captain.”