The Complete Razia Series, page 60
"No!" Razia insisted, hoping that Lizbeth's make-up was enough to cover the blush.
"Lyss, did something happen?" Sage said, suddenly sounding concerned. "Did he try—"
"Leveman's no," Razia shook her head. She lowered her voice and gave Ganon a mind-your-own-business glare. "I…guess I was…seeing him for a while."
"What?" Sage's cry of surprise echoed clear across the room and Razia hissed at him to quiet down. Sage, however, was anything but calm. "Did you sleep with him?"
"Who in Leveman's are you, Lizbeth?" Razia barked but she couldn't escape Sage's piercing glare. With a heaving sigh, she shook her head. "No. We just…made out a bit. A couple of times."
"How many times?" Sage pressed.
"As many times as it's none of your damned business. Why are you so interested?"
Sage was locked in a battle of across-the-room glares with Relleck. "Are you still seeing him?"
"No," she said darkly, following his gaze and narrowing her eyes. "Apparently when I'm on probation, I'm no longer attractive to him."
Sage's face softened a little before he tossed one final dirty look and rude gesture to Relleck, who returned it with gusto. "You're always attractive."
Razia picked up her champagne again and downed it, hoping the bubbles would quickly ease her embarrassment. "Like I said, it wasn't anything…real."
"Good." Sage smiled and adjusted his arm over the back of her chair.
Appetizers arrived, cutting off the awkward moment and conversation, and soon after soup arrived. But two glasses of champagne had loosened the tension in Razia's shoulders considerably, and she actually began to enjoy the conversation with the guys at the table.
Sage, in particular, made an art out of poking fun at the members of his crew who had been downing champagne as fast as it was poured. Razia, not eager to get completely toasted, was still halfway through her third glass while Sage's remained empty.
By the time dessert rolled around, Ganon's voice could be heard from the entire room.
"So I'm in the room with this girl, and she won't suck my dick!" Ganon bellowed. "I said, 'Look sweetie, I did my part, and you gotta do yours.' She won't do it, so I says, 'Yeah, it's probably for the best, cause it's a choking hazard'!" The drunks at the table roared while Sage simply lifted his eyebrows in patient amusement.
Razia took a dainty sip of her water. "Isn't that the warning they put on small toys?"
A chorus of "Ohs" boomed from their table, and from a couple nearby groups that had heard the exchange. Ganon stood and bowed to Razia before guffawing loudly as he plopped down and nearly fell out of his chair.
"I like you," Ganon said. "I retract what I said before. You're welcome on the ship any time."
"That's a big deal," Sage explained solemnly to Razia, who laughed. "Ganon's drunken approval is hard won."
"I can tell," Razia said, nodding to where he was leaning over to the next table and making friends.
"Want another one?" Sage asked, looking to Razia's glass.
"Nah." She looked over at the runners' table. "Think it's time yet?"
He looked over to Ganon and smirked. "Yeah, because pretty soon, I'm going to be doing toilet duty with this one." He shook his head. "And yet tomorrow night, he'll be two shots in before dinner."
Sage helped Razia to her feet, and although the champagne blurred her brain slightly, her feet still stung with every step. She adjusted her dress and steeled herself. "Let's do this."
Sage offered her his arm, but she ignored it, preferring to walk on her own two feet. She was so focused on not tripping that she found herself in front of the runners' table before she knew it.
When Dissident noticed her standing there, he shrank down in his seat, looking visibly annoyed that she was even there. The other runners, however, seemed amused.
"Sage Teon!" Protestor chirped, clapping his hands together. "Did you bring us a present?"
The other runners began to chuckle and Razia's heartbeat quickened with worry. Glancing over at Sage, she saw he was relaxed and jovial, and it put her at ease a little.
"I have a proposition for you all," Sage said. "It seems that I'm in the market for a new runner."
Dissident choked on the chocolate pudding he was shoveling into his mouth, and the other runners suddenly looked interested. Sage was considered Tauron's protégé (Razia shut down her burgeoning feelings of jealousy), and any runner that counted him in their web had bragging rights. At least, that's how Dissident always played it.
"Sage, my boy," Dissident coughed, downing more of his champagne. "What's this all about? I've excused your dues for a year and—"
Razia wasn't sure where to direct her glare. Her dues were nearly the cost of a planet excavation.
"Yes, but you haven't done the one thing I've asked of you," Sage said, glancing at Razia. "Take her off probation or I'm going to another web."
"I'll take you, Sage!" Contestant cheered. "Relleck has been getting on my last nerve lately. It'll be nice to have such a—"
"But you have to take her too," Sage said, cutting him off. "Off probation."
Silence descended on the table, more from shock than from consideration, and Razia began to panic. She glanced at Sage again, and he still seemed unaffected.
"She has captured nearly half of your top pirates, and she's got knowledge of Dissident's pirates to be able to pick them off without any problem. You know that she's tenacious. You know she's not going to stop until she finds the bounty. She's found some of the least findable pirates in the universe, including your son." Sage pointedly glared at Insurgent, who ducked lower in his chair. "So how's about it?"
"Sage, she's…" Contestant began. "I mean, look at her. If you were offering her for a night or two, I'd say yes."
Her mouth fell open and beside her, Sage grew red with anger.
"Leveman's, Contestant, have some damned decency," he growled. "She's standing right here."
"I wouldn't say no to a night either," Insurgent drawled and shared a cackle with protestor. "Perhaps if she lost the scowl and the chip on her shoulder."
"And that dress," Protestor chirped.
"You are disgusting," Sage said.
Razia opened her mouth to speak, to fire off some witty comment or acerbic barb to put them in their places, but her mind drew a blank. She stood there in this ridiculous dress, in these ridiculous shoes, before with the four men with the power to give her what she wanted. And they were laughing at her.
She spun on her heel and rushed away. She needed to get fresh air, she needed to get out of this room where the humiliation and the embarrassment were choking her. Spying an open balcony, she disappeared through the curtains, not taking a breath until her hands landed on the cold stone overlooking the lower buildings and the rest of the dark pirate city.
"Lyssa!" Sage had followed her, and sounded winded. "What in Leveman's was that?"
She said nothing, looking out into the quiet city.
"Come on." Sage joined her on the railing, much as she'd joined him at Lizbeth's parents' house. "Let's go back in there and—"
"You heard them, Sage," she whispered. "This was never going to work. Nothing…nothing's going to work. Ever."
"What is with you lately?" Sage asked. "You used to laugh at this shit and now it's like…" He looked back to the room. "You should have mopped the floor with those idiots."
She closed her eyes and rubbed her face, feeling make-up under her fingertips. She wanted to rip off her skin and throw it off the balcony.
"Lyssa, talk to me. What's bothering you?"
"I just…" She had the truth on the tip of her tongue but couldn't force it out. Not in front of Sage. "This was a mistake. A terrible, stupid, moronic—"
"Standing up for yourself and what is right is a mistake?" Sage grabbed her by the shoulders and turned her to look at him. "Not taking that bullshit they dish out is a mistake?"
She remembered Lizbeth's words. But how was she to demand respect from someone who didn't even treat her like a human being?
For so long, she had felt that being a bounty hunter was her calling, but she had tried everything she could think of to make headway and she'd failed. Heelin had said this was what she was passionate about, what she'd been doing since she was a kid. But then again, it was only chance that she had even met Tauron. Perhaps she'd been seeing something that wasn't even there.
"Do you think this is what I'm supposed to be doing?" she asked quietly.
Sage turned to look at her like she had two heads. "What kind of a dumbass question is that, Lyssa?"
She shrugged. "Why do I even want to be a bounty hunter in the first place? Nobody else wants me here." She closed her eyes, hoping to keep her emotions inside. "Even Tauron didn't think I could do this."
Sage's hands covered hers, and when she opened her eyes, he was staring into them. "Tauron always thought you could do this."
"How many times did he drag me back to the Academy? He was happier when I left. I should've never come back."
"At first, sure."
"You said it took him a while to let me stay on his ship."
"Oh, come on, I was just being…stupid."
"No you weren't. You were being honest. And I should have been more perceptive." She looked down at the street some six stories below. "All of my success has been nothing but dumb luck. The only reason I became a bounty hunter in the first place was because Tauron chose me instead of my brother Heelin."
"That is absolutely not true. Tauron wouldn't have let you hang around if you weren't useful, trust me. Didn't he give you a pirate log-on? Didn't he let you hunt all of his bounties?"
"Yeah, I'd hunt them and he'd make me sit on the ship while he captured them," Razia said, looking at her hands, still covered in Sage's. Hers were tiny in comparison.
"Because…" Sage breathed out through his lips. "Because he was afraid someone was going to…if you got knocked out…and…" He trailed off, disgusted at the very idea. "But he never doubted you." He half-smiled. "Didn’t you tell me that? When you care about someone, you protect them?"
His words rang hollow for her. "I wish I could believe you."
"If he didn't believe in you, then why did he put that bounty on you?"
She snorted. "All five hundred credits of it…"
Sage dropped her hands and turned to lean over the balcony. "That's all he had left in the one account that hadn't been frozen," he replied, his voice strained. "The ship was surrounded and there was no way…it was one of the last things he did before…well…"
A chill traveled down her spine and spread across her body. The particulars of how her bounty came to appear on her account, she'd never asked about.
"And yeah, it took Tauron a while to realize the kind of person that you are, what you're capable of," Sage said. "But once he did, he believed in you, and so do I."
She glanced up at him, wondering why it meant so much to her that Sage believed in her.
He looked back into the room and shook his head. "And they'll figure out out one day."
"One day." She laughed. "One day is what I've been planning on forever. And right now, today sucks."
"Well tonight, you are here at the Pirate Ball with me," Sage said, reaching up to tuck a wayward strand of hair back into place. "And you're going to march back in there and prove to them that you're every bit as amazing as you are. And if I know you, and I do, you won't be down for long. You always figure something out."
"Do you think Vel would let me kidnap him again?" she asked, finally able to crack a smile.
"There's my girl," he said, his hand still hovering on her cheek. Suddenly, everything in her body began to ring like alarm bells. He watched her with that strange expression, the one that made her insides burn like molten lava. Breathing was now difficult, and even more so when Sage seemed to be inching closer.
Bam!
They sprung apart and she covered her heart to keep it from flying out of her chest. But, the noise continued from inside the room, and took precedence over whatever awkward thing had just happened between them.
"What in—" Sage was able to see clearer into the room than she was, and whatever he saw scared him. He yanked Razia into the safety of the darkness.
"What's going on?" Razia asked and then a familiar voice floated out the balcony.
"Round them up. Handcuffs on all of them. No, they're drunk, won't be too much trouble."
Jukin.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Jukin was there. At the Pirate Ball. Where most, if not all, of the universe's most wanted pirates had been drinking heavily for the past two hours.
"Fan out, surround them! I want handcuffs on everyone in the next five minutes or it's your ass."
Razia's heart stopped in her chest as reality snapped into focus.
This was bad. Very, very bad.
"Sage," she whispered, his body still pressed against hers protectively. "Sage, we need to get out of here."
"My guys are still in there." He sounded far away, his eyes glued on the bright room. When he moved to leave her and walk back into the room, Razia grabbed him by the wrist and yanked him back to her.
"What are you doing? You can't go in there, they'll arrest you!"
He stopped tugging on her hand. "Let me go. I have to get them out of there."
"Sage, there's fifty officers in there," Razia said, squeezing on his wrist tighter and digging in her heels. "You can't possibly—"
"So what, you want me to just leave them in there? Leave them to Jukin?"
"Sage, we can't even…we'll figure something out." She tugged on him again, praying that he would see reason. Visions of Sage on the dais at Leveman's Vortex swam in her head.
"We will get them out," Razia said, though she had absolutely no idea how or why or what. "Please. We have to go now, before they come looking out here."
He looked torn between his crew and leaving, and she prayed to the Great Creator that he would see reason. The seconds passed and he wasn't moving to safety, and she began to panic.
"Sage, please. I can't…I can't lose you." His face shifted like he suddenly heard her. "Please."
He reached a hand to her cheek, gently stroking it. "You won't lose me, I promise. But, Lyss…"
"We'll get them out, but we can't if we're—"
"I know." He took one long lingering look into the room, his thumb still rubbing her skin. Conboy Conrad yelped in pain when one of the officers threw him to the ground to handcuff him.
Then without another word, Sage stalked over to the edge of the balcony and leaned over, glancing around. He waved her over and she joined him, her eyes glazing over when she realized they were six stories off the ground.
"There's a balcony down there," Sage said, swinging his legs over the edge of the railing. Before she could respond, he slid off and landed gracefully on the balcony below.
"Sage…" she said, glancing behind her. The Special Forces were still busy with the pirates in the room, but soon they'd come searching outside.
"Lyss," Sage called up to her, "you can do this."
He wasn't that far away, his arms outstretched to catch her. But she envisioned herself slipping out of his grip, missing the balcony entirely. Her palms began to sweat against the stone and she glanced behind her again.
"Lyss!" Sage hissed. "It's okay, you can do this." He shrugged off his suit jacket and held his arms up towards her. "I'll catch you, c'mon!"
She took a shaky breath and hopped on the edge of the balcony, kicking her legs over. She tried to ignore how far the ground was below, but she couldn't tear her eyes away.
"Lyss!" Sage's voice shot upwards at her.
Squeezing her eyes together, she pushed herself off the edge and clenched her jaw together so she wouldn't scream. But as soon as she let go, she was in his arms, cradled against his chest. She opened her eyes as he placed her on her feet and cupped her cheek.
"You okay?" he whispered, tilting her head up to look at him.
"Yeah," she said with a curt nod.
"I heard a noise out here!"
Before Razia could react, Sage yanked her against the wall, out of sight of the balcony above. Razia was sure that her heart was going to give away their location as loud as it was pounding.
"I'm just checking out here, give me a second." Opli was on the balcony. She heard his polished boots clack against the stone, coming to a halt at the edge of the balcony. Razia panicked, wondering if she and Sage had left a sign that they had been out there.
"Sir, did you find anything?" Razia didn't know whom that voice belonged to.
"They aren't here."
Razia exchanged a wide-eyed stare with Sage. He shook his head and slipped his fingers through hers. The small gesture slowed her heartbeat somewhat.
"Are you sure they came?"
"His crew is in there, and he never goes anywhere without them," Opli said.
Razia tightened her grip around Sage's fingers, needing him to not say or do anything stupid. His face was twisted in anger, but he made no sound.
"Sir, we have all the others."
"Captain Peate specifically asked me to make sure they were arrested," Opli said. "Especially the girl."
"We'll get them."
"I know we'll get them. But now I have the unpleasant task of informing Captain Peate that we don't have them now."
Their conversation died down as the two officers disappeared back into the main room. Razia exhaled the breath she'd been holding. She cast a nervous glance at Sage, who was still gnashing his teeth in anger.
"Those bastards," he whispered. "What in Leveman's did we ever do to them?"
She tugged on their still intertwined fingers to get his attention. "We need to get away from here. Go somewhere safe and regroup."
Sage let go of her hand and walked to the edge of the balcony they were on, waving her over. "Look, there's a fire escape on the next level down. We'll be able to dip out into the alley from there and get out of here."
"The building is crawling with U-POL," she replied.
"Then we'll just have to be quick." He took her hand again and pulled her into the dark room attached to the balcony. Boxes of stemware and place settings filled the room, some opened, some not. They slowly crept toward the light on the other side of the room, careful to stay out of sight. Sage stopped just short of the door. He waited a few breaths then poked his head out. He nodded to Razia and tugged her down the hall to the next room over, where they would find the fire escape.
