Final Protocol Read online

  A hand came up behind me and shoved me into the tube and then Garner crowded in around me.

  As it sucked us up into the air, I bowed my head, my hands braced on the smooth, clear ’stene surface.

  I’d get through this.

  I’d done it before.

  I’d even do this job, I thought, just because doing it took me away from Jakor. Maybe this would be the last one. Maybe when it was done, I’d guide my transport into the nearest star and end it, swift and easy. Or I could just fuck with the wiring on my transport, dump the oxygen supply—I knew how to do that. I’d killed one of my targets that way once. It wasn’t a pleasant way to die, but I didn’t need pleasant. I just needed it done and final.

  Anything to be away from here, forever.

  The tube opened up and Garner slid past me.

  I stepped outside and slowly lifted my head. Darkness greeted me. This…this wasn’t good. Heart hammering against my ribs, sweat trickling down between my breasts, my shoulder blades, a dull memory worked its way free. It was an old memory; more than a decade had passed since that day. The first time I truly remembered much of anything…including the man who awaited me somewhere in the darkness.

  He owed me money. But he was too afraid to face me himself…so I’m taking you instead. You’ll have to serve in his stead…

  And here I was. Still serving. Still trapped.

  It would end when I made it end.

  Twelve years. It was enough.

  Yes. I’d do this final job, and then I’d find a way to end this. I’d either find that botanist, or I’d find my own end. Either way, I’d never return here, to this place, ever again.

  A shimmer of gold moved in the darkness and I turned my head, saw him.

  Swallowing the lump in my throat, I managed to form words.

  “Hello, Gold.”

  Chapter Three

  “Garner.”

  That was all Gold said.

  A moment later, I heard the sibilant hiss of the tube as Garner left us alone. A bead of sweat formed on my nape, rolled down my back under the close-fitting tunic I wore. Inside my black gloves, my hands were damp, slick with sweat. My heart raced.

  I hated to feel fear, especially fear of him.

  My eyes adjusted to the dim light just in time to see him coming out of the deepest shadows toward me, an elegant figure of gold and black. His beauty was almost surreal, cheekbones high and carved, his mouth sensual but with a cruel slant to it. Fitting, since he was one of the cruelest bastards I’d ever met.

  His hair fell loose around his shoulders, brushing the silk tunic his wore, the shimmering gold a stark contrast to the darkness of his clothes. His hair was a few shades paler than his skin, almost the same shade as his eyes—golden. Under those clothes, everything about him was golden. Hair, eyes, skin, all golden, like kir, the potent liquor brewed in the back alleys in this quadrant.

  The kir was safer though. You might end up so intoxicated that you’d get robbed blind and never remember anything of the past night, but with Gold? You could lose your soul—and you’d remember, regret every single moment. And sometimes, you’d lie awake at night, burning to feel it again, even as you hated yourself for it.

  I knew it from experience. He was an addiction I’d suffered from for more than ten years and I still hadn’t been able to kick the habit. I’d do it soon though. This would be my last taste. And maybe he’d make it easy. Maybe he’d be in the mood to bring me pain on his own. That made it easier. Pain was so much easier to ignore than pleasure.

  Today, he wore all black, the fine silk clinging to a long, lean body, stark in its simplicity, and foreboding, if you knew enough about him.

  Gold was a fickle bastard, and a showy one.

  He dressed to suit his moods, and it wasn’t unusual to see him strutting about like one of the peacocks you could see in the New Earth zoos, populated with animals from Old Earth. Just like the exotic birds, he liked color and flash, going with bright hues that set off his extraordinary eyes and gleamed against bronzed skin. More than a few people had mistaken his affinity for luxury and taken him for an easy mark. More than a few of those were dead.

  Today, he wore all black and it served as a warning.

  But when he met my eyes, he smiled.

  I didn’t let myself move. Didn’t let myself respond. Part of me still hoped I’d get out of here without hating myself all over again.

  “You failed me, Silence,” he murmured. He reached up and stroked a finger down my cheek.

  “I explained the circumstances,” I said, keeping my voice steady.

  “Hmmm.” He slid a hand around, his fingers idly probing the spot at the nape of my neck. To some, it might look like a lazy caress. To me, it was a dire threat. The bioseal was buried there, inside my brain matter, locked within me.

  His hand fell away and he looked over my shoulder.

  And even though he’d done this more than once, even though I’d suspected he’d do it again, there was no time to brace myself.

  The biotronic system was too fast to evade, and in a heartbeat, I was trapped in what looked like a gossamer web but felt like bonds of ’stene. As it tightened around me, I sucked in as much air as I could, expanding my rib cage. Once, he’d done this and it had wrapped around me so tightly, I’d thought I’d smother.

  But that wasn’t his torture today. It stopped when it had me restrained, and Gold went about stripping my weapons away.

  Biotronic arms slid out from behind me, grabbing the weapons from him and whisking them away. He found every last one, including the garrote I’d tucked inside my collar, every last dart I carried on me and the stunners. There was a small glass vial of poison and he took that, holding it up to the light and studying it before turning it over to the biotronic arms. In moments, he was done and I felt stripped bare.

  I’d rather have weapons and be naked when I had to deal with him than have no weapons and face him like this. Bound and trapped.

  “One might think you didn’t feel safe coming to see me,” he said, studying me from under the thick fringe of his lashes.

  “Safety is an illusion with you.” I clenched my hands into fists. If I could get free, I could kill him with my bare hands. I knew how. He’d seen to that. Even though it wouldn’t be as easy as I’d like, I thought I could do it.

  His eyes glinted as he lowered his head. A smile curved his lips. He knew what I was thinking.

  The bastard.

  Evil, smug bastard.

  His hands came up, pushed into my black hair. He tangled the short strands around his fingers and tugged, pulling my head back until I looked up at him. “You are as safe with me as you choose to be.” A faint line appeared between his brows, a sign he was communicating with the biotronic system.

  The fabric of the clothing I wore was sturdy, designed to hold up to blades, burns and beatings. But it wasn’t meant to withstand the power a biotronic force could exert, and my body jerked as the tunic was torn away.

  “How safe do you wish to be, Silence?”

  I closed my eyes.

  Sometimes, I could just let myself float away. Sometimes, he even let me, content to just make use of me, because he could, to make a point.

  The hand in my hair tightened, a slow, subtle warning, while his other hand settled on my side and slid upward. “Look at me, Silence. Look at me now.”

  I resisted and he sighed, the warm caress of his breath drifting over my skin.

  “You must always push me.”

  A moment later, his teeth sank into my lower lip, a punishing bite that thrilled me and sent heat racing through me even as it hurt. As the taste of blood filled my mouth, he trailed his lips up over my cheek. “How far will you push me tonight, Silence? I already want to break you.”

  I lifted my lashes, looked at him through them, tried to hide the h
ate and the hunger that warred inside me. “You’ve been trying to break me for more than ten years. Why should tonight be any different?”

  To my surprise, he laughed.

  “Indeed.”

  He eased back and went to his knees in front of me. It was Gold who stripped my trousers away, the close-fitting material that all but clung to me like a skin. He worked it down over my hips, paused to kiss the prominent bones there and stopped when he reached my knees, where the ’stene cords kept my legs bound together. “Like this,” he murmured, rising to stare at me. “I think I want you like this, bound, not quite naked, and glaring at me. All that hate in your eyes. You won’t let me break you…not completely, will you?”

  I looked away, sucking in ragged breaths and trying not to react. I couldn’t stop it. My skin burned. My nipples were tight. My heart hammered against my ribs and everything inside me felt liquid and ready.

  Except my mind.

  Closing my eyes against what was happening, I forced my limbs to go tight, curled my hands into fists so I didn’t give in to the urge to reach out. It didn’t matter that I was bound and I couldn’t touch him unless he let me. He’d know if I even tried to reach for him, and he’d see that small surrender.

  When he came up behind me, I bit my lip to keep from making a sound. The ’stene bindings contracted and shifted and I was forced to bend, kneeling before him with my pants still trapping my thighs together. “I’ll fuck you like this, over and over,” Gold said, stroking one hand over my ass. “You’ll beg. Whether you beg for more or beg me to stop, I don’t care. You’ll beg, and you’ll remember who you belong to, Silence.”

  His hands closed around my hips and I pressed my brow to the floor.

  Beg him to stop…now.

  I opened my mouth, but then I felt the head of his cock teasing my entrance and a gasp lodged in my throat. My traitorous body stole my breath as he rocked back and forth over me, against me, sliding slickly over the mouth of my pussy, and then I cried out as he surged deep.

  “That’s it,” he said, his voice cool and unaffected. One hand fisted in my hair and jerked me up until I was plastered to his body. “Scream for me, Silence. Let me know you’re mine.”

  “No.”

  “Yes.” He slid his other hand around, pinched my clit.

  The sensation cut into me, tore through me. I bit my lip to keep from letting the cry break free this time.

  “So stubborn…”

  His hands dug into my hips as he lifted me, yanking me back to meet each hard, driving thrust. Hot, vicious pleasure rose inside me. I fought against it, struggled to disconnect myself.

  I didn’t want to feel pleasure. I didn’t want to enjoy the way his cock stretched me, filled me. I didn’t want to love the way he hurt me—

  His thumb pressed against the entrance to my bottom. I groaned, despite my determination to keep my reactions hidden, and he chuckled. “Scream, Silence. Beg me. Moan.” He bent low over me as he pushed his thumb inside and rotated it. “Break…”

  And I did.

  Once more, I broke for him.

  While inside, I wept for myself.

  I didn’t look at my reflection. I couldn’t stand the thought of it. It might be days before I could stomach it, so I’d avoid it as long as possible. There was a soft hiss behind me, and I tensed as Gold moved into the bathing chamber, joining me as I finished drawing on the clothing he’d left out for me.

  Everything fit like a glove, and the cut…the material was far finer than the basic gear I preferred. I planned to burn every damn thing that touched my skin.

  His hand slid up my back, settled between my shoulder blades. I could feel the weight of his gaze boring into me, willing me to look at him.

  No. He’d forced me to look at him enough during the night. The memory of the past hours were seared into my mind. Every inch of me felt gloriously bruised and the aches would linger with me. I’d loved every second of it, even as I hated myself. Just as he’d wanted.

  “Are you ready to go into detail about the job?” I asked, keeping my voice flat.

  “Hmmm.” He tucked his face against my hair and I went still as he breathed me in. “I like the way you smell coming out of my cleanser. You have my scent on your hair, your skin. Do you still ache from me?”

  I didn’t answer.

  He sighed and nuzzled my neck. “I have scratches that go all the way down my back. I will carry them for days. I love each one.”

  I thought about the knife I had tucked into the belt. He’d returned my weapons, and unsurprisingly, the clothes he’d given me were designed to carry the weapons like a dream. I could draw that knife, spin and slit his throat. Blood would fountain. He would try to scream, but I would cut him too deeply. If I timed it just right, if I moved fast enough.

  Maybe. I was fast, possibly faster than him by now. It had been years since we’d fought and he rarely left his little aerie here. He kept his body physically fit, but did he still have the cunning, the speed he’d need to stop me?

  I didn’t know. I ached to try.

  One thing stopped me.

  I imagined I could feel it pulsing in my brain.

  His hand slid down my back and the other moved to join it. As he jerked me back against him, tucking my bottom against his pelvis, I curled my hands around the counter, setting my jaw. No reaction. I was done. In the cold, hard light of day, I knew I couldn’t do this again. Humiliation and disgust all but ripped me apart.

  I was almost ready to die before I gave in to him one more time.

  Almost.

  My hand itched, burned to pull that blade.

  “I see it in your eyes.” His voice stroked against me like candy-coated poison.

  I jerked my head up, and although I didn’t want to look at him, or myself, I found myself doing just that, staring into his eyes, bright against his golden skin.

  “There…I see it, right there,” he murmured. “Do you know how arousing it is, to know how easily I can make you burn for me, while in the very heart of you, you want nothing more than to kill me?”

  “Most men don’t find it arousing to have a woman think of murdering them while they are in the middle of fucking them.” I kept my voice flat, tried not to show any sign of how I felt inside. It wouldn’t really be murder. Not in my mind. He’d held me prisoner for years, holding my life in the palm of his hand, controlling whether I lived or died. He’d used my body against me and laughed at me when I’d fought him and he’d taunted me with all the times I hadn’t bothered to even try to fight. I had to get away from him, even if it meant my own death. I knew this—I just hadn’t worked up the courage to go through with it yet. When I did, though, I knew it wouldn’t be murder. Out of all the lives I’d taken, his would be the one that wouldn’t haunt me, because I had to kill him in order to know true freedom.

  Not just from him.

  But from myself and the chains he’d wrapped around me, body and soul.

  “I’m not most men though, am I, Silence?” he asked, forcing me to turn and face him.

  I kept my fists clenched. I wouldn’t react, not until I was ready to take that step. He leaned in, pressed his mouth to the curve of my neck, just above where the tunic molded to my skin. I felt his hand, sliding from the curve of my hip to my waist, and a moment later, he had one of my knives in his hand.

  Then he caught my left hand, my weapon hand, in his and forced the blade into it. His eyes glinted with a queer light as he lifted my hand, guided it to his chest. “Do it, then,” he said, a challenge in his voice, in his eyes. “Do it, Silence. Use the blade. Go for a stunner and put me at your feet so you can take your time with me. Or are you uncertain if you can actually take me?”

  My breath caught and held as our gazes locked. I felt stripped bare, exposed. I’d never hated that feeling more than I did in that moment. “Do it,” he said
again, his voice a beguiling, seductive whisper.

  “If I ever decide to come for you,” I told him, making my decision. I twisted out of his reach, breaking free far more easily than I’d ever done in the past. Something that might have been surprise showed in his eyes, but it was gone before I had much more than a glimpse. “I’ll do it at a time when you never see me coming, Gold. That is a promise I’ll give you.”

  Something almost wistful appeared in his eyes and he reached up, stroked my hair back from my face. “But that is just the thing, my precious one. I’ve been waiting for you to do it for years now. I’ll keep waiting. You will do it sooner or later…or try. And I’ll have to kill you. I can tolerate near anything from you, but the day you try to kill me is the day you die.”

  “Promises, promises.”

  “If you’ve got a death wish, just make your move. I might even be lenient and make your death easy.”

  “Lenient.” I shook my head and edged out from between him and the low, narrow counter. I wasn’t going to remain in there, trapped with him another moment. “Why don’t we discuss this job? I’m low on some of my supplies and I might need to make a run before I leave. It’s offplanet, yes?”

  Chapter Four

  I studied the schematics his coms had cast around us, my skin crawling for reasons I couldn’t elaborate. Maybe I should have killed that old Ariste.

  All of this was happening because I’d pissed Gold off.

  He always managed to find the worst jobs for those who’d caught the edge of his temper, and this one…it was going to turn out bad.

  “You realize the Ver system is one of the most secure systems, right?” I shifted my gaze and studied Gold through one of the more transparent images and saw the faint smirk on his lips. “And they are still extremely backward. Most of their women are not allowed to work outside the home. To do so requires special permission from their ruling council. A woman traveling through the system must notify the authorities and get a special permit. Just being a female moving through the system is going to catch notice. I’m going to stand out.”