7. Lisa

Iput my feet on the edge of my chair until my knees are up against my chest. I cradle my warm mug in my palms, the bottom sitting on my left knee.

Time doesn’t really exist out here in the depths of space, but internal circadian rhythms do. And mine says I should’ve been asleep hours ago. This caffeine is going to be of no help in that regard. I just know after drinking this mug, I’ll be wired and alert for at least a few more hours.

Which is fine.

Ozadus and I have been talking together for hours now, and I’m not ready to end the fun just yet. He’s lounged in the captain’s chair, casually leaning back with one leg crossed over the other’s knee. He’s so animated when he talks, and I can’t help but get lost in his body language. The way he leans and pivots in time with the action he describes draws me into his stories.

“And that’s when I told him, ‘Walk away or I’ll finally give you something between those dull eyes of yours.’ I was pretty proud of that one.”

I shake my head. “But you didn’t actually kill him, did you?”

Ozadus smiles knowingly at me. “No. He walked away. Guess there was some amount of brain matter in that skull of his after all.”

And that’s what has me the most intrigued about him so far. In every one of his stories, no one dies. He threatens them and even causes a little physical harm now and then, but he never crosses the line into murder.

I’m almost certain he’s lying in that regard. He’s more than happy to regale me with the stories of his various criminal adventures, but he always draws the line at murder. It’s like he wants me to see him as daring and dangerous, but not too much.

It’s like he already knows me so well.

“Alright, your turn,” he says, waving his hand towards me.

“My turn?” I say with a laugh. “How am I supposed to follow up you robbing a hotel while it’s hosting a security conference?”

Ozadus shrugs. “Try.”

Again, I shake my head. “I’m a mechanic. My stories are more technical. With way lower stakes.”

“Indulge me.”

“Well, alright.” I sigh, wracking my brain to try and come up with anything halfway interesting to tell. “Oh, I know. So, this one time, an Odex guy walks into my shop. He’s practically sobbing. He’s downright begging me to look at his ship immediately even though I have three orders ahead of him. He’s so pathetic that I finally relent and follow him to the ship. It’s a super basic two-seater, you know the kind.”

“Of course. Barely worth the effort to hijack it.”

I roll my eyes. “It’s there he tells me he’s, get this, late for his fucking wedding!”

“You’ve got to be kidding me.”

“No!”

“Who would want to marry that man?”

“And the electrical systems on the ship fizzled out and failed, so he couldn’t contact the bride’s family about it. As far as they know, he got cold feet and ditched their daughter.”

Ozadus laughs. “As much as an Odex’s feet can be cold.”

I snort, recalling their fur-covered bodies. “Right. So I get inside and hear this low, rhythmic rumbling sound. The engine is completely off, nothing should be making noise. But it continues, and my mind starts reeling. Like, does this guy have enemies? Is that an external sensor someone placed in here?”

“Or a bomb.”

I shiver, having never thought of that myself at the time. “So we trace it to the engine, where I have to go anyway, but then we see the hood is bumping up and down, too.”

Ozadus lowers his brow. “I’m on the edge of my seat.”

“The Odex guy gets behind me. He’s shaking head to toe. I unlatch the hood, find a big stick, and slowly open the hood…”

Ozadus stares at me in complete silence.

“Have you ever seen an Odexian frump rat before?”

He frowns and shakes his head.

“Imagine it’s about this big, with spiny black hair, and a really long snout. And it looks up, stares at us, and lets out this ear-breaking screech!”

“There was a creature in the engine?”

“Worse! There was a creature and four of her babies!”

Ozadus lets his head fall back as he laughs at my old customer’s misfortune.

“She chewed through the electric cables to use them for her nest! They somehow made it through that whole journey alive. So, I called an animal rehab center to collect them, patched the wiring, and sent my dear, sniveling customer on his way. And then…”

Ozadus smirks. “There’s more?”

“I get a thank you note two weeks later asking if I have any single friends he can meet.”

The two of us descend into fits of laughter. I barely escape spilling my drink on my pants.

“That girl dodged quite the plasma bullet,” he says.

I nod and smile wide. “Your turn again.” I take a sip of my drink as he sighs.

“Another story? You mean you aren’t bored with me yet?”

I want to tell him I don’t know how I ever could be. He’s not just charming and intelligent, he’s sweet, too. He takes a genuine interest in me and my life. He’s nothing like the bad boys from my books. He’s so much more, that much is obvious now. The more he lets me in, the harder I find myself drowning in his presence.

Please don’t bring me up for air.

“Not at all,” I finally say.

Ozadus stares out of the front viewing window for a few moments before looking back at me from the corner of his eye.

“Alright, here’s a good one.”

I sit up straighter, ready to listen.

“About a year ago, my boss handed me what we in the industry like to call a do-or-die mission. See, sometimes the boss wants to know how loyal you really are. So he’ll assign you something that could get a normal man killed. Something you both know will take all of your skill and ability to come back alive, and then he waits and sees what you do.”

My jaw drops open. “Do some guys run away?”

“Oh, yes,” he replies with a nod. “Weak guys. Ones who didn’t deserve to be a part of the business anymore.”

“What was your job?” I ask, feeling the slight prickle of adrenaline I am starting to relish.

“To kill the man who ran from his.”

I gasp. A genuine, wrenching twist of fear turns my stomach.

“What was he supposed to do?” I ask.

“I don’t know. I didn’t get to find out what the guy’s job was. It didn’t matter. He chose life over loyalty, and that meant death. But he was also dangerous and well-armed. I had to be careful. I spent weeks tracking him down. He was slippery, but eventually, I found him. Completely by accident.” The corner of his mouth twitches up. “The idiot, for all his attempts to hide, simply walked onto the same metro train that I was on.”

My eyes go wide, sweat beading on my forehead. I thought there was no way this story was going to end the way it so obviously was.

“I thought it was too good to be true. That he had a doppelganger or twin, but no. I could barely see, peeking out from under his sleeve, a tattoo listed under his identifying information.”

Ozadus points to his wrist. “A rifle covered in barbed wire. I knew it was him. I couldn’t make my move on the train, though. Even if I succeeded, I’d be trapped with witnesses galore.”

“What did you do?” I ask, my lip quivering. Reality was sinking in hard.

“I waited until he reached his stop, followed him, and pretended like I tripped into his back. It was so simple to slip the energy knife into his spine.”

I gasp.

“It cauterized the wound immediately, so there was no blood. I helped him fall onto his back, acting like he was having a heart attack. I asked the authorities to call an ambulance and, after making sure he was dead, I slipped away.”

My heart pounds in my chest. He wasn’t just some petty thief, no, he was the real deal. He was a criminal, hardened and willing to get his hands dirty to finish the job.

I should run. That’s what any sensible girl would do. I should take his offer to drop me at the next station and call a shuttle back home. I should walk away from all of this and go on like it never happened.

But I can’t. Because this is the most excitement I’ve ever had in my entire life. And there’s no way I can go back to it now.

“For what it’s worth, I didn’t take any pleasure in doing it,” Ozadus says as if trying to placate me. “It was his life or mine, there wasn’t much choice. And if I hadn’t done it, someone else would have.”

“You did what you had to,” I say, a small smile creeping onto my lips in spite of myself.

He looks me over as if trying to put together a tricky puzzle. “I like to avoid the messiness of death whenever possible. It complicates matters and ruins the fun. But, for some reason, I thought you should know. Sometimes my line of work gets complicated.”

I wonder why he thinks he needs to explain himself to me. It’s almost like he’s scared I’ll run away and turn him in.

No, not scared. I don’t think this man has ever been afraid of anything in his life. There’s something deeper in there. I can see it in his dark brown eyes when he looks down at me. There’s something worse than fear in there. Something possessive and consuming.

I want to know what it is.

“So, are you sure you want to continue on this journey with me?”

I smile wide and nod. “Absolutely.”