23. Lisa

“We got a request in from bay six forty-nine,” Beth says as she reads from the comm pad. “A ship captain needs someone to look at their coolant system.”

I lift my head from where I’ve had my nose buried in a glitching display board. “One of our regulars?”

Beth shakes her head. “No, someone named Erenec Fel. Looks like a merchant, pretty clean, nothing suspect comes up about him when I pull up his name. He’s willing to pay in advance so he can get repairs done as soon as possible.”

I sigh and look at the display at my table. “That’d be great except I’ve got to get this back to Tryla in the next thirty minutes before she has to take off.”

My assistant shrugs. “I can finish the repairs and get it back to her if you want to start working on this other guy’s ship.”

“Are you sure?” We could certainly use the money.

She laughs. “Yeah, I’m sure. I’ll send him a message that you’re on your way.”

“Thanks, Beth.”

I grab my tool kit and head out for the docking bay. Luckily, the shop is only a few blocks away, and I soon arrive at the bay the request came from. The ship is a bit bigger than I expected and looks a little beat up.

“Hello?” I call out. The ramp is down, but I don’t see anyone nearby.

Walking up to the ramp, I call up into the ship again. “Hello? I’m Lisa. I’m here to take a look at your coolant system.”

“Yes, Lisa, my apologies,” a deep voice calls from somewhere inside the ship. “I’m currently holding a few live wires at the moment and am uncertain what will happen if I put them down. You can come in, though.”

I let out a small groan. I hate it when clients with no mechanical talent try and fix things themselves. It always just leads to more repairs.

Marching up the ramp, I head in the direction of the voice. The ship is much like the outside, wide open and beat up. It looks like it needs a lot more repairs than just a coolant system. Maybe I can convince him that he needs Beth and me to do more work for him.

There are a lot of passageways throughout the ship. “Captain Fel?”

“In here.”

I go through a hallway and am about to enter the side room when I freeze. The engine room should be on the other side of the ship which is where the coolant system would be. Why is the captain messing with wires in a different room?

An alarm goes off in my mind. “Captain Fel, I think I forgot my welder back at the shop. I’ll be right back.”

I turn on my heel and quickly begin walking away when a rough hand grabs my arm and yanks me back. I let out a scream, grab a hammer from my belt, and swing at my attacker. He catches it and wrenches it from my grip.

He laughs. “You’ve got some fire in you. I can see why Ozadus was so tempted to leave everything for you.”

My blood turns to ice. This is Ozadus’ old boss, Zaraq. I know it intuitively, and it settles in my gut like a boulder.

I swallow hard and force my face into neutrality. “What do you want?”

He huffs. “I think it’s obvious. I have you, and Ozadus will come to get you.”

My body begins to tremble a little. “And then you’ll kill him?”

“No,” the crime lord says through gritted teeth. “As much as I would love to, he’s too valuable. Ozadus has always been my best, and he will be my best again.”

I let out a humorless laugh. “Then you’re a fool. Ozadus will never work for you again. He’s past that life. He’s seen that he can make himself a better one away from you.”

“I just need him to keep doing the assignments I give him,” Zaraq says snidely. “And with you as my bargaining chip, I know he’ll be most cooperative.”

I feel a little unsteady as I realize what he intends to do. He’ll keep me as his hostage for however long he wants. Ozadus doesn’t have to like what he does for Zaraq, but he just might do it to keep me alive.

Maybe he won’t though. Maybe he’ll realize staying with our daughter and making a life with her is more worth it than I am.

Even as the thoughts enter my mind, I know they’re faulty. I’m his fated mate. I’m the reason he quit a life of crime at all. The reason he tried to be a better man and a father.

No, he won’t just leave me here in the hands of Zaraq. But I can’t let this monster know that.

I lift my chin. “He won’t come. He’s smarter than that.”

“Correction, he was smarter than that,” Zaraq spits. “But you’ve tainted him. Let’s just hope it doesn’t affect his ability to complete the assignments I have for him. Though with you on the line, I’m sure he’ll be properly motivated.”

I scoff. “So what, you’re just going to tell him you supposedly have me and then send him off? He won’t do anything until he knows I’m alive. Which means you’ll have to tell him where you are.”

Zaraq lets out a laugh that sends a chill down my spine. “That’s the idea.”

He snatches my comm pad from my waist. “I’ll just use this to get a hold of him. He’ll know that I have you since I have your comm pad, but he won’t know where I have you.”

And with that, he’s dragging me to the aft of the ship. He slides open a door at the end and shoves me roughly into the engine room.

“I think this will do nicely for now. Oh, and just in case you had any ideas of escaping.” Zaraq holds up my tool belt in his hand.

My eyes widen, and I frantically pat my waist and confirm that he did indeed steal my belt. Shit. I hadn’t even noticed when he took it off me.

He smirks. “You can scream all you want back here. I made sure this room was soundproof. Now be good so I can keep my word to Ozadus and keep you alive in one piece.”

Zaraq shuts the door. I rush at it, banging my fists against it. I pry at the edges and kick and scream, but that door stays closed to me.

I run my hands through my hair, my mind racing at the speed of light. How can I get out of this?

Then, blessedly, I remember that my tool belt wasn’t the only place I store my tools. There’s simply never enough space just inside one belt. Beth makes fun of me for stuffing things in my boots and jacket, but now it just might save my life.

Rummaging through my clothes, I pull out everything I’ve got. Wire cutters, a small wrench, gloves, electrical tape, a few nuts and bolts, and a stylus. My mind whirs as I try to piece together what I can do with what I have.

Undoubtedly, Zaraq has already sent the message to Ozadus, and he is on his way right now. Somehow, I need to either break out of this room and escape or warn Ozadus of where I am.

I’m in the engine room. I could try and disable the engine. But I don’t have the proper tools for that. I’m more likely to blow it up, which, given how cramped this room is, would also mean that I blow up too. Not a good plan.

I look around the engine room, and my mind sparks with an idea. This class of ship has the controls to a lot of the electrical lines that run throughout the ship here. The design was worked out of most modern ships because if the engine exploded then that meant everything electrical would go down, too. But this ship is anything but modern.

Gathering my tools, I go over to the side wall and pry open the switch box. I pull on my gloves and take out my wire cutters.

I need to time this just right. If I act too soon, Zaraq will know I’m up to something and put a stop to it. Act too late and there’s no point in sending a message to Ozadus.

So I look over the wires and formulate a plan. Zaraq won’t want Ozadus poking around the ship so he’ll most likely keep him in the front entry of the ship. He won’t want to do business outside the ship either for fear of being seen.

I start looking for the electrical line that would lead to the main entry. If I can flicker the lights in a pattern Ozadus will recognize, he’ll know I’m still in the ship. And I know he won’t do anything for Zaraq if I’m in reach.

Now it’s just a waiting game. I calculate how long it will take for Ozadus to reach the docking bay from the house and conclude that it could be anywhere from ten to twenty minutes from now. Too big of a time frame.

Then I realize there’s a way to tell for certain. This ship has proximity alarms. If I can get those to work, I’ll know when he’s near.

After doing some quick and dirty rewiring, I have activated the proximity alert but disabled the alarms to every part of the ship except the engine room.

I smirk. Thank you, Zaraq, for making this room soundproof so even he won’t know what I’m doing back here.

Suddenly an alarm blares, and I nearly jump out of my skin. Ozadus is here.

I shut off the alarm and get to work on the lights. Once I have what I hopefully need, I take a deep breath and begin flickering the entry lights in a pattern Ozadus told me he learned on one of his courier missions.

Not wanting to attract too much attention, I only send the code twice before stopping. Now, I just have to hope he got it.