Spies Like Them
“Alrighty!” said Mickey brightly as he walked onto the bridge. Barrett was already camped out in the pilot seat, with Alexa and Eagan standing nearby. As the mechanic got closer, he continued with his report: “Princess should be all set for y’all to get in and get outta there quick. I tried to make her extra quiet-like, too.”
Eagan nodded. Honestly, he knew that the shuttle would have been fine to use before Mickey tinkered with it. He also knew that Mickey would take any excuse to try and improve on his work, especially on the shuttle. So all the captain said was, “Good. Thanks, Mickey.”
A few steps away, Barrett was dutifully repeating whatever Alexa had explained to him about flying the Archangel. This was certainly not the first time Barrett had taken the reins for piloting — but for some reason, Alexa was feeling a bit protective, despite the fact that the Archangel was actually supposed to just stay in a locked orbit around the planet. But that was if everything went according to plan, and how often did that happen on this crew?
So if Barrett rolled his eyes one more time, Alexa was going to throw him out the airlock.
“Lex!” laughed Mickey, stepping over to rescue Barrett from the slap that Alexa looked like she was about to give the large man. Mickey slung his arm around the pilot’s shoulders, giving her a small squeeze. “Relax, baby. You’re gonna be gone for, what, a couple’a hours? It’ll all be fine. You just focus on havin’ fun on your super cool spy adventure.”
By then, Eagan was grinning, though it was more from just watching the crew — his crew — interact than it was from what Mickey had said. Although what Mickey had said was pretty good, too. “I don’t know if I would call it spying,” the captain chuckled. After a short pause, his grin stretched to its usual wolfish width, and he added, “But I don’t know if I wouldn’t call it spying either, so I don’t think I can say you’re wrong.”
The look Alexa gave both the boys was dry, but the sigh that escaped her nose after a few moments told them she was relenting. Okay, fine. They would only be gone for the day, possibly into the next morning. That much Alexa could admit was a bit relieving. Still, she looked at Barrett and said, “You’ll call if there’s a problem.” Definitely not a question.
“Yes ma’am,” answered Barrett, but the way he smirked at her did not match the respect that should have been present in his words.
“Hey, that’s my line,” said Eagan and stepped toward the others. Pointing at Barrett, the captain put on a very dramatic look of stern command. “Call if there’s any problems, Solomon,” he said, affecting a deeper voice than usual.
Now, Barrett’s smirk was a full grin, and beside him, Mickey was laughing. Barrett lifted a hand in a salute and told the captain an enthusiastic, “Yes sir!”
The boys were smiling around, having quite a time — and Alexa had already walked away from them. By the time they noticed, she was walking off the bridge, rolling her eyes to herself. Eagan chuckled, gave the boys a few more orders for safety (that were at least a touch more serious than before), and then jogged out to catch up with the pilot.
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Minutes later, the shuttle was exiting the Archangel’s cargo bay and heading down through the atmosphere of the planet Balor.
The closer they got to the planet, the more lavish it looked. Most of the planet was covered in water, save for the stretches of gleaming silver buildings, the luxurious hotels and apartments on the planet. Occasionally there were quick flashes of man-made beaches filled with blindingly white sand. This small moon had been colonized and cultivated with the exclusive intent of being a resort planet. Everything was gleaming and expensive, very obviously a destination for only the richest of the rich and the most famous of the famous.
And here approached Alexa Sinclair and Eagan Aldaine, unofficial space pirates and novice spies.
Mickey’s shuttle was basically a tin can, but because it was Mickey’s shuttle, it ran like a dream. It was small, but Mickey had done what he could to make the interior cozy. The control console sat at the front of the pill-capsule-shaped craft, and on one wall was a padded bench that could seat another person, maybe two people if they were willing to snuggle up.
But Eagan didn’t want to sit on the bench, even if he had it all to himself. Especially if he had it all to himself.
His height made it so his curls brushed the roof of the shuttle as he stepped up to the pilot console. Leaning one hand on the armrest of the pilot chair, his other hand on the backrest, he bent to press a few kisses to Alexa’s neck.
The pilot couldn’t help her smile, though she did have to speak up with a voice that was just a hint more teasing than her usual dryness: “I’m flying, Eagan.”
He smiled against her skin. “If I waited until you weren’t flying,” he pointed out, “I’d never be able to kiss you.” His voice was amused, yes, but it was more. It was happy.
Keeping one hand on the steering controls, Alexa reached her other hand up and lightly grasped Eagan’s chin. She spared a look up at him, long enough to pull him in for a single but solid kiss. After which she smirked a bit and said, “Down, boy.”
Eagan’s grin widened, though he quickly forced his face into a pout. Still, obligingly, he moved to perch himself on a blank panel of the console rather than assaulting the driver with affection. He would stop kissing her, okay, fine. But he reached over to take her hand, apparently entirely unconcerned with the fact that she might be able to fly better with two hands. Alexa didn’t mention it either; she could fly like this just fine. She was steering smoothly with the one hand even as Eagan was saying, “I just figured we’d take advantage of the time alone, right?”
She threw him a quick look, one eyebrow in a brief arch. “We’re usually alone,” she pointed out smoothly. And that was true: more often than not, the two of them could be found on the bridge together, Eagan occupying the co-pilot seat rather than the captain’s chair.
“I mean really alone,” he said. “Not Mickey could show up any second alone.”
And that was true, too: Alexa and Eagan usually tried their hardest to keep their hands to themselves unless they were sure everyone else was sleeping or occupied, lest one of the other crewmembers wander in and find the pilot and the captain holding hands or making out. The rest of the crew was blissfully unaware of any budding relationship on the bridge. At this point, it was just less messy to keep their trysts a secret. In truth, Alexa and Eagan didn’t mind the secrecy; they were both private with their internal lives anyway. Still, the prospect of some time where it was just them — if even only for a few hours — was undeniably appealing.
It was because of this that Alexa relented. Well, it was mostly that. It was also because Eagan’s puppy-dog eyes were killer and she could hardly ever refuse them. “We can find time,” she said simply, and her reward was the bright grin that lit Eagan’s face. But because she was the responsible one, she had to remind her impulsive wolfman, “We just need to focus on the job first.”
Eagan waved his free hand, and Alexa could read the motion as well as if he had actually spoken the message aloud: Whatever, that will be fine, don’t worry. That motion was a part of Eagan’s daily routine with Alexa and Grace around. He always got the job done, didn’t they know that by now? “It’ll be a piece of cake,” he said, leaning back a bit, letting their connected hands rest on his knee. “Just get in and watch some rich couple to see if they’re double crossing Gecko.”
Their employer was one they had worked with once or twice. Gecko — they did not know his real name, or perhaps that was his real name — was a genial sort of fellow, the absolute nicest crime boss any of them had ever met. Gecko was Terran, or he looked Terran… except for the fact that he was four foot tall if he was an inch. His proportions were all just fine, it was just that he was shrunken, like someone had put him in a dryer and left him in for too long. Even petite Alexa and Grace looked down at him when they were all standing, which was probably why Gecko spent most of his time in a specially-designed chair.
As either a cause of effect of his name, Gecko also wore very dapper but almost exclusively green clothes. This, mixed with his upbeat attitude, gave him the distinct air of being a leprechaun. It had thrown Grace for a loop upon first meeting the small man.
But this time, Gecko had called on them for more of a favor than a job, though the tiny man was enterprising and thus rich and would still pay them well. All they had to do was some surveillance on a swanky little resort moon. No big deal.
Right. Because nothing ever went wrong on simple jobs.
They swooped down lower to the planet, practically skimming the surface of water that seemed too blue. Soon they were arriving in the spacious landing pad behind a huge building that gleamed so light a silver it was almost white, reflecting the glittering blue water that surrounded it. The building itself was built onto a hovering platform, suspended a few dozen feet above the water below. Objectively, it was beautiful. Subjectively, it made Alexa nervous. This place was too shiny and open, and it made her feel exposed. Would she and Eagan even seem like they belonged in a place like this?
She should have known better than to worry about that. Any place Eagan went, he could make it seem like he belonged there by simply throwing out one of his wide, disarming smiles. This time, as always — because knowingly or not, she would follow him to the ends of any earth — she would follow his lead.
Once in the lobby, Alexa was put slightly at ease regarding sticking out like a sore thumb. They had dressed in a sort of business casual style, relaxed but dressy enough to look like two rich people on a holiday. The packed bags helped; though they were not actually planning on staying the night here, they had thrown some clothes in a couple small suitcases. Standing near the wall, in their casually fancy clothes, their luggage resting next to them, it almost looked like they were supposed to be there.
“Okay,” Eagan was saying, voice low as he glanced around. Gone was the relaxation from earlier in the shuttle. Now he was fully on the job, his posture tensed and alert, his eyes undeniably canine in the way they darted about, taking in details and faces. They had been given pictures of their marks and an estimated time for their arrival, but that was it. Gecko had been frustratingly vague. “He said they should be getting here soon. Not sure when. I suppose we just… see where they go when they get here.” Dammit, he was a captain, not a spy.
Alexa, similar to the wolfman, was not relaxed, though she might have seemed so to a casual observer. She leaned with a shoulder against the wall, a datapad in her hand that she kept glancing at, as if she were checking some last-minute details before they went to the check-in desk. While she seemed casual, her eyes also flitted around the room every few minutes, her muscles ready to spring at any moment. Not that she expected too much trouble right now, but… well, when on a job with Eagan Aldaine, it never hurt to sort of expect trouble at any given moment. Besides, they had been standing around for five or ten minutes; they would need to do something soon, lest they draw suspicion.
Not that this thought stopped her from glancing up at Eagan, watching him rather than the room for a moment or so. He was distracting; Alexa wouldn’t deny that. “We could make out to pass the time,” she commented dryly as her eyes turned back to her datapad.
A grin broke over Eagan’s face before he could stop it — but it disappeared a moment later, before he could accept her generous offer. “Hey,” he said and touched her elbow, motioning discreetly toward the doors as he himself looked away from them.
She followed the motion with her eyes. Sure enough, there was a couple now walking across the large, lavish lobby. A woman and a man, both several years older than Eagan but in notably good physical shape. The woman was platinum blond; the man had dark hair with some distinguished streaks of gray. They both wore elegant clothing and carried elegant suitcases, and they glided elegantly across the lobby toward the check-in counter.
“Definitely them,” Alexa said, throwing a look down at her datapad. Neither she nor Eagan looked up again until their targets moved away from the check-in counter, striding instead toward a set of ornate elevator doors. Alexa’s eyebrows made a brief furrowing movement before her face smoothed once more. “What now,” she said, glancing at Eagan. Seriously, was there a spy manual they hadn’t yet received?
Eagan considered for only a moment before saying, “Now we… check in?”
Moments later, they were walking across the lobby. Alexa made a show of finishing up something on her datapad before putting it into her bag, which Eagan then swiftly picked up for her. They moved to the check-in counter, where, as soon as possible, Eagan set the bags on the floor and leaned on the counter in a casual manner, a better pose to allow him to throw the man behind the counter a friendly smile. “Hello,” said Eagan pleasantly.
The man looked up, and upon seeing two more guests, he smiled. It was a rare smile, not simply an ‘I-work-in-the-service-industry’ smile, but a smile that seemed fairly genuine. “Good morning!” he greeted, and it sounded like he really believed it. Glancing back and forth between the tall man and the much shorter woman, the concierge smiled again and said, “Another honeymoon suite?”
This made both Eagan and Alexa pause for a moment. First of all, honeymoon suite? Second of all, another? It took them a second to process, but once they had, it clicked easily into place: this man assumed they wanted a honeymoon room, possibly because they looked recently married, but more probably because he had just given a honeymoon suite away to a different couple.
More specifically, the couple that had just departed from the counter. Most specifically, the couple that Alexa and Eagan had been hired to trail.
Eagan’s hand reached over and grabbed Alexa’s hip, dragging her quickly over until she was nestled into his side. Luckily, given Alexa’s penchant for wearing that mask devoid of emotion, she was able to keep her surprise (and the way her stomach flipped pleasantly) from showing on her face at all. She understood the plan intuitively, but it was still a bit unprecedented. She was getting more and more used to how cuddly Eagan truly was — but never in public
“Is it that obvious?” asked Eagan, throwing his very widest smile down at the pilot under his arm before he turned once more to the concierge. “Oh, and we’re not the only ones?” he continued with a glance at the elevator for effect, even though their targets had long since been swallowed by one of the lifts. “Hey, do you have any suites like theirs? They looked like they appreciated the finer things, and, well—” He motioned down at Alexa and grinned a wolfish grin. “—as you can see, I appreciate fine things, too.”
Alexa rolled her eyes. It was only partially an act. She wondered briefly if Eagan seemed a bit too into this part.
But the interaction was convincing to the concierge, who saw the flirting and the eye rolling as just silly newlywed foreplay. “Let’s check,” he said, even adding a conspiratorial wink. He turned his eyes to a screen hovering just below his side of the counter and tapped at the translucent rectangle a few times. “You’re in luck! The suite just next to them is open. It’s virtually identical to theirs, just flipped.”
“Sounds perfect!” said Eagan cheerfully. “We’ll take it.”
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As soon as the door of the honeymoon suite closed, Alexa fixed the captain with a dry look. “A honeymoon suite,” was all she had to say.
Eagan threw her a grin that worked pretty well at eliminating any objections she might have been about to make. “Gets us in a room next to them, at least.” He threw the two bags onto the middle of a bed that looked almost bigger than Mickey’s shuttle. Okay, maybe not quite, but it certainly seemed it, with as tall as the bed was, made even taller by layers of stylish blankets and pillows. “Besides,” he said, turning to her with a grin, crossing to her in a few long strides, “only the best for our honeymoon.”
It would have brought another eye roll from her, but she didn’t have time before Eagan was capturing her in a kiss. This time, she had no objections; she had told him they would make time, after all. They could spare a few minutes. Somehow, Alexa ended up against the wall, her arms wrapped around his neck, fingers tangled in his hair, his hands warm where they splayed around her waist.
Only after a good several minutes of making out did Alexa make any effort to extract herself from the kiss. Despite her best efforts, she was slightly breathless when she said, “Gecko might not be happy with you spending all his money for a room we won’t even use.” After all, the wealthy little man was footing the entire bill for this job; he had given them no explicit limits. And they weren’t even planning on staying in this room for the night.
With an easy smile and shrug, Eagan answered, “I think Gecko likes my gumption. Besides, check out that bed. Are you sure you don’t want to use it?”
That was tempting. That was very tempting. After all, now they were in a room instead of a shuttle, with a bed that was enormous and looked amazingly comfortable, and Eagan was giving her that smile that got to her so easily it was almost alarming. It took every single ounce of her willpower to say, “The job.”
A dramatic pout crossed Eagan’s face, though that melted soon enough once he remembered what job they were actually on. They got to do spy things! He kissed Alexa once more for good measure before darting away from her, over to one of the suitcases on the bed. He opened it and pulled out a small metallic disc, about four inches in diameter and an inch thick, like a metal hockey puck. He strode over to the wall they apparently shared with the targets of their mission. Eagan put his ear to the wall before doing anything with the device. Perhaps this would not have worked had he not been equipped with Lycanth hearing, but since he was, he could make out two voices speaking in the next room, and it made him grin. Definitely the right wall.
Alexa had crossed to the bags as well. From her own bag she pulled the tablet at which she had been pretending to look while she and Eagan loitered in the lobby. When she glanced over and saw Eagan with his ear pressed to the wall — exactly like a dork — she only shook her head slightly. “Isn’t that why we brought the device,” she remarked flatly as she switched on the tablet.
There was another grin thrown her way before Eagan pulled away from the wall. With the press of a button, the circular device in his hand gave a short, soft hum before settling down again. The only indication that it had been switched on was a thin green line now illuminated around its circumference. Looking at it, Eagan was once again impressed. The thing looked like an actual, professional spy gadget. It was smooth and clean and nondescript enough that no one would know what it was just by looking at it. Maggie and Owen had really outdone themselves.
He lifted the disc and placed it against the wall, where it stayed stuck even after he removed his hand from it. A moment passed.
“... should work fine,” suddenly came from the datapad in Alexa’s hands, the words spoken in a woman’s voice, not overly loud but loud enough to break the silence.
Neither of them jumped, but it startled both of them a bit, and Alexa turned the volume down slightly. “It works,” she said rather unnecessarily. She tried not to sound impressed. The cool voices now coming from the datapad were actually coming from the next room over, the conversation picked up by the device on the wall and transferred to the tablet, where it was also recording.
Alexa took a seat on the bed — and was immediately distracted by how soft it was. It was like sitting on a cloud. Even as light as she was, she sunk into it, the mattress forming to her body. “God,” she said, almost sounding offended at how nice this bed was.
Laughing a bit, Eagan leapt over to the bed, leading with his shoulder so he landed horizontally. The force of the landing was enough that Alexa was bounced several inches off the mattress. When she landed on the mattress again, a smile was playing on her lips. He was having too much fun with this… but she was having fun watching him have fun, so she wouldn't mention it.
“Everything is in order,” said a male voice from the datapad speaker. “We’ll meet him tomorrow at the gala and make the trade.”
Eagan had settled in a bit, his head propped up with his hand. He raised his eyebrows, though, at the most recent development. “Gala?” he repeated, glancing up at Alexa. “Did Gecko mention anything about a gala?”
“Gecko didn't mention much of anything,” she reminded.
Together they listened for any other details the targets might reveal, anything more comprehensive about their plan. If the conversation laid everything out about how these two were going to sell Gecko’s property or otherwise screw over the tiny man, Alexa and Eagan could just pack up and return to their ship. As long as they got recorded proof of the plan, they could hand that over to Gecko, let him handle his rogue agents, and call this a job well done.
Such a thing did not seem imminent. After this brief mention of the gala, there was no more talk of a job. Actually, there was not much talk at all.
Eagan shrugged after a few more minutes of uneventful surveillance. “Okay, so it looks like we’re going to a gala.” He glanced up at Alexa. “Did you pack a dress?”
“No.” A moment passed, then, in reply to the perplexed look on Eagan’s face, she sighed slightly. “Grace packed a dress. She packed three dresses. She has a bit too much fun treating me like a dress-up doll.” The doctor picking out fancy clothes for the pilot was anything but unprecedented.
The news made Eagen burst into laughter. “Good,” he said, and when Alexa arched an eyebrow at him, he added, “she has better taste than you.” When Alexa punched his arm, it obviously had no power behind it, but he still acted like it hurt. He rolled so he could reach down off the bed to rifle through the bags he had kicked to the floor. Moments later, he was speaking into a comm device: “Captain to bridge!” Try as he might to be professional, it was obvious he was speaking through a grin.
It only took a second or two before Barrett’s cool voice was answering, “Hey, Captain. How are things looking down there?”
“Looking like they’ll go longer than we expected,” Eagan reported. “We’ll be staying the night here. Hopefully we’ll get this sorted out quickly tomorrow. I assume you can handle things until we get back.”
“I’ll do my very best,” came the painfully dry response.
Grinning anew, Eagan added, “Oh, and tell Grace we get to go to a fancy dress party.” A pause, then he corrected, “On second thought, don’t tell her that. She’d come down and crash the party if she knew.”
“Excuse you.” That voice was definitely not Barrett. It was definitely Grace, and as much as she tried to sound annoyed, she couldn’t hide the hint of excitement. “How dare you. I would not crash a job. How irresponsible would that be?”
Eagan and Alexa had thrown each other a whoops look, but as Grace continued to recount the ways in which she was annoyed, the captain just ended up rolling his eyes. “Gracie,” he cut her off eventually, “why are you even on the bridge?”
This time, she truly did sound annoyed: “I was checking on Barrett. He’s been up here all day, and SOMETIMES PILOTS NEED TO SLEEP AND EAT.” A few moments of radio silence, then, less annoyed and more uncertain, “Alexa’s in the room, right?” Because she didn’t want to have to repeat that mini-rant if it turned out Alexa wasn’t even there.
A smirking Eagan handed Alexa the comm, and she shook her head as she answered, “I’m here. I heard you.”
“Good!” exclaimed Grace, easily reclaiming her tone of righteous indignation.
Alexa blamed her next move on hanging out with both Mickey and Eagan far too much, but she couldn’t deny her sudden urge to push the doctor’s buttons. She said flatly, “I’m sure you’ll have so much more luck with Barrett than you do with me. He’s been so cooperative in the past.”
The sound Grace made was distinctly her own, a noise of unfathomable exasperation. “It’s a wonder you and Eagan get anything done. Aren’t you too busy having contests over who can be THE MOST INSUFFERABLE?” Of course, she was all talk, and though she clearly sounded annoyed, she couldn’t hold onto it too long. (She may have been fueled if she could see the proudly insufferable grin on Eagan’s face, but since she couldn’t, the protest seemed to die.) A moment passed again before she returned, this time much quieter, as if she were trying to mumble secretly through the comm: “Alexa, what dress are you wearing?”
It almost made the pilot laugh. Almost. “Aren’t they all basically the same dress,” she said, only halfway saying it to rile Grace up some more. Also, though, she truly didn’t know the difference between the finery.
There was that offended noise from Grace again. “No, they are NOT the same,” she declared, utterly indignant. “One is gray, and one is navy, and one is black. The gray one has lace for the back and—”
“Yes.”
“Yes… what?”
“The gray one. I’m wearing that one.” When she glanced over, Alexa was unsurprised to see Eagan burying his face in a pillow, his shoulders shaking with laughter muffled by the silken pillowcase. Even as Alexa nudged him scoldingly with her foot, she was smirking as well. This was admittedly silly in the best possible way.
Gone was the indignance from the doctor on the other side of the comm link, replaced instead by excitement as she exclaimed, “Good! That one’s beautiful. Trust me, you’ll look great. Okay! Have fun at the fancy party! Don’t do anything stupid.” This last part was emphasized — but really, Grace was expecting at least one serious injury, because this crew was a damn magnet for that sort of thing.
Grace had apparently handed the comm back to Barrett, because it was his casual voice that finished up the transmission: “Yeah, see you two when you get back.” And with that, after Eagan had pulled himself together, he threw a goodbye back to them before clicking off the comm. The ship could page them if something was wrong.
“They’re all weird,” Alexa stated in her usual dry fashion.
It made Eagan laugh as he shoved himself off the bed and tossed the comm onto the bags beside it. He was already working at the buttons of his shirt; he had been all gussied up for far too long by now. “Yeah, they are,” he agreed, sounding rather affectionate about it. The crew was unconventional, but it was his. It was theirs. But that was enough of that. “A gala tomorrow,” he said musingly. Then, with a mischievous smirk, he glanced back at Alexa and added, “And a whole night before then.”
She would have rolled her eyes if she hadn’t been focusing on the tablet. “They still might say something of value,” she pointed out. The volume had already been increased again, and she was listening to it, though there wasn’t much to hear. Small talk, mainly. In fact, it took only a minute or so of listening to determine that, despite the couple’s honeymoon suite, the two targets probably barely knew each other. Their conversation was mundane and cordial at best; they were probably no more than business associates.
Whatever concentration she had was broken when Eagan flopped onto the bed in a seated position next to her, jostling her and the tablet about. “Grace was right, you know,” he said, because that was something he would usually only admit so freely when Grace was not in the room. “You really should get some sleep.”
Alexa didn’t even bother replying, only throwing him a dry glance before looking again at the tablet. She had actually been better about getting more regular sleep lately, but there was spying to be done right now.
Except… was there? Eagan shook his head at Alexa’s dismissal of the sleep idea, but he didn’t press the issue, instead focusing on the tablet. And sure enough, it took him only a minute to pick up on the scant nature of the targets’ conversation. Nothing of value was happening, and he doubted it would pick up anytime soon. Besides — the tablet recorded for a reason.
In a smooth movement, Eagan had grabbed Alexa and pulled her closer, catching her in a deep kiss. For her part, Alexa wasn’t complaining; if there was no spying to be done, then she had no excuse to keep her hands to herself. It had been hard enough to restrain herself until now anyway.
An hour later, they were sprawled haphazardly across the too-comfortable bed. The fancy sheets were tangled around them, and they were tangled around each other, sweaty and breathless and satisfied. After a while, Eagan smiled against the pilot’s bare shoulder. "See," he murmured, "it would have been silly to spend the night in a honeymoon suite and not have a little honeymoon."
Alexa hummed a small, "Mm." it could have been an agreement, it could have been a drowsy equivalent of a laugh, or it could have been just a noise of contentment. Whatever it was, Eagan loved the sound of it.
But when she made no noise for a minute or so after that, he lifted his head, craning his neck to see her face. The sight of her eyes closed and her face relaxed made him smirk lightly. Leaning to her ear, he teased, “Are you sleeping?”
She had to press her lips together to suppress a smile. That had been happening more and more often lately, and suppressing was getting more difficult. “Maybe I would be if a wolf weren’t whispering in my ear,” she said flatly, rewarded by Eagan’s chuckle in her ear. A short pause followed, after which Alexa’s eyes opened quickly, her brow furrowed. Turning her head to look at her wolfman, she said, vaguely accusing in a playful sort of way, “Were you trying to get me to sleep.”
Eagan’s smirk broke into a grin. “Not entirely,” he said, and then added, “and only if it worked.”
This time, Alexa couldn’t stop her smile, and she half-heartedly tried to hide it behind the back of her palm. It had worked, actually.
And since Eagan could read her like a damn book already, he smiled at her in return, kissed her shoulder, and pulled her to him, into a more comfortable position for actual sleeping, nestled in his arms. Tomorrow, they would finish their job, they would go to a fancy party. Tonight, they would sleep. Restfully. Peacefully.
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Of all the places for a gala, this was perhaps the most fitting. The ballroom was big enough to practically be its own building, attached to the main hotel by a few elevated walkways. The walkways were encased in glass so well-dressed gala-goers could peer out over the glittering water of the planet as they walked across to the event. From this vantage point, it was almost possible to see the curvature of the horizon on the small planet.
Inside the ballroom was even more lavish. From the walkways, a classic grand staircase led down into the actual ballroom. Every surface of the room was polished to gleaming, and the air was filled to bursting with low, elegant music and the scents of richly spiced meats.
It made Alexa uncomfortable.
She didn’t like open spaces or solid ground, and this was plenty of both. This room was too well-lit and too lavish, and even in her form-fitting gray dress with the lace back that Grace had picked out for her, the pilot felt entirely out of place. Far from making her self-conscious, though, it made her rather irritated. Were they just expected to mingle and try to convince people they actually belonged here?
Luckily, naturally, Eagan had the solution. They soon had drinks in their hands, and Eagan’s hand was on the small of Alexa’s back as they weaved through the crowd, and that was more distracting than it should have been. He did clean up amazingly well, didn’t he? Not that Alexa had much time to be distracted before Eagan was pulling out a chair for her at a table.
It was a poker table. And sitting at the table were their targets.
Eagan settled in beside her, immediately putting on a grin and striking up a conversation with the dealer as the small, purple-skinned, blob-like being dealt in the two newcomers. He soon moved his attention to the couple on which he and Alexa had been spying. The targets were (rather unsurprisingly) not receptive to Eagan’s exuberant friendliness; they answered his attempts at conversation with clipped responses, if anything at all, though Eagan did not relent, instead extending his friendliness to the entire table. Everyone else was appropriately charmed by him.
Either because of Eagan’s distraction or in spite of it, within three rounds, most of the table’s chips were in front of Alexa.
“She’s very good at poker,” said Eagan cheerfully at one point, taking a drink of his third drink. He had abandoned the poker a few rounds ago; Alexa could handle it, and he could sit back and watch. Alexa could use that blank face of hers, that natural poker face, and Eagan had the excuse of being her ‘good luck charm’ to stick around.
The target couple — the dealer had called them ‘Mister and Missus Gold’, which was the sorriest cover name Alexa had ever heard, and she had heard many — were not happy. With each hand they lost, they seemed to puff up like bread rising in a too-hot oven. And yet, they stayed. Round after round, they requested to be dealt in once more.
It told Alexa and Eagan what they needed to know: this was where the couple needed to stay for whatever drop they had planned.
Sure enough, after the sixth round, Mister Gold seemed to notice something across the room. He nodded to himself (or to someone across the room), and then he leaned to murmur something into his wife’s ear. They began to stand, the woman throwing an icy look at Eagan and saying stiffly, “It’s been a pleasure.” She could not have sounded more disingenuous if she had been paid to sound so.
Eagan looked up as if he had not been paying attention to them at all. “Leaving so soon?” he asked, smiling in a way that seemed friendly but was actually quite smug. His hand stayed on the chips before Alexa, which he had been casually counting.
The woman did not respond, already gliding away with her ‘husband’.
Once they were gone, Alexa threw a glance to Eagan, who caught her gaze easily and leaned to her. “He told her that the drop was a go,” he reported quietly. That hearing of his was truly amazing sometimes.
Alexa responded by saying to the dealer, “Fold.” She laid down her cards as she got to her feet. “I’ll meet you after you cash in,” she told Eagan, knowing full well he wouldn’t simply wait for her to return. But she would go first, to scout. Eagan was a wolf, and that was impressive, but stealth was Alexa’s game.
The Golds had slipped off toward some side door leading out of the ballroom, and Alexa followed at enough of a distance so as not to arouse their suspicion. Before going through the door, she focused on a small, sleek black band on her wrist. It looked like a bracelet — but with the click of a small button, she engaged a microphone. It would send a recording to the tablet back in their room, even if the bracelet was harmed. Just for some extra security.
Slipping through the door, Alexa found herself in a long, gleaming hallway, with doors splitting off every few meters. It only took her a few moments of slinking down the hallway before she heard voices behind a door, where she stopped, putting her bracelet up against the cold metal.
“... exactly as we described,” a woman’s voice was saying, the same voice that had just spoken to Eagan at the poker table. It was slightly muffled by the door, but the tone was distinct. “We just recovered it.”
“And Gecko?” asked a high, tinny voice that Alexa didn’t recognize.
The woman answered smoothly, “He is none the wiser. We replaced the artifact with a forgery before we returned it to him. He believes he has the original, but this is the actual artifact.”
A moment, then the high voice returned, “It is extraordinary. But the price you are asking—”
“Is more than fair,” the woman cut him off with the icy tone she had used to address Eagan. “It is what the artifact is worth in its original state, plus interest for the labor, and some extra for deceiving Gecko. I’m sure you are aware how dangerous that was for us.”
The tinny voice was answering, but Alexa had all she needed: recorded proof that this was all happening exactly as Gecko had expected. All they had recorded would be more than enough to let Gecko deal with his traitors. Alexa turned to go — only to find a hand crashing against her collarbone, throwing her back against the wall, the hand sliding to wrap around her throat and lift her up a bit.
Mister Gold was glaring down at her. “Who the hell—” he began.
She didn’t give him the chance to finish before she was driving her knee into his groin.
The hand around her throat released, allowing her to drop a few inches to the ground, where her hand found the wall behind her for balance. It took a gasp for her to recover from having her air supply cut off for a few moments, and unfortunately, though Gold was wheezing a bit, he was already standing up from having doubled over from the kick. He was recovering remarkably well for someone his age. Alexa actually had time to consider whether he was even as old as he looked.
Not that it mattered. What mattered was that he was advancing on her again. Alexa tensed, ready either to fight or fly, even she wasn’t yet sure which.
There was no time to decide. Just as the man looked ready to launch another attack on her, a blur appeared to full-body tackle the man. Eagan was not in full beast mode… but he was damn close. It gave him a significant upper hand in beating the guy senseless, anyway.
Alexa would have taken the time to ogle her wolfman, but before she had the chance, the door beside her was sliding open. The woman and client had finally decided to see what all the ruckus was about. Alexa didn’t hesitate, she just punched the person closest to her.
It was the client. He and the artifact stumbled back into the room.
However, the woman had her payment, and that was apparently all she needed. She spotted her partner getting the beatdown from what looked like a wolfman, and the client was struck down right beside her, and rather than help either of them, the woman turned and tried to make a run for it. She didn’t get too far, though, before Alexa’s hands grabbed the back of her dress and threw her face first against the wall.
By the time the woman was catching her balance and turning around, Alexa was catching her with a hard right hook. The woman fought back — but not quite hard enough. Alexa was built and bred for this, a trained killing machine, and though she barely managed to restrain herself from killing the target this time, she came close enough. The target was on the ground and unconscious within a minute.
When Alexa turned, her breathing hard and her hair a mess, she saw that the male target was also out cold some ways down the hallway. It only took her a moment to see Eagan stepping out from the room where the client was now also unconscious. The captain’s wolf form was already fading.
This was probably a good thing, considering that Alexa was on him in an instant, grabbing his collar and pulling him down so she could kiss him hard.
Considering that Eagan was just as on fire with adrenaline as Alexa was, this was a fine turn of events for him. For a while, they simply stood there among unconscious bodies and made out like it was their job. Somehow, eventually, it was Eagan who managed to reluctantly pull his lips away from hers. “Job,” it’s his turn to remind, but from the way his hands gripped her waist, it was clear his resolve was waning.
“Job,” was how Alexa replied, all heavy breaths and fingers gripping Eagan’s biceps. She knew he was right; they needed to restrain the targets, needed to call Gecko, needed to finish the job. But she wouldn’t let this happen before she pulled him down, kissing him once more, hungrily, before pulling away again and saying, “Fine. But… quick.”
He nodded eagerly to that. They would be quick about it. They would secure the targets, secure the artifact, and vacate. And that would be that. For the job, at least.
----------
By the time they stumbled back to their honeymoon suite, they couldn’t keep their hands off each other. Eagan somehow managed to close the door with his foot, since his hands were already working at the zipper on Alexa’s back. He had just managed to get the damn thing unzipped when Alexa tore her lips away from his, their breaths coming in deep, ragged gasps.
“Eagan,” she said, and that low, hoarse quality of her voice drove Eagan’s lips forward again. She dodged backwards to evade the kiss, but she was smiling despite herself. Still breathless, she said, “They’re expecting us back at the ship.”
A moment passed where they just stood there, mere feet away from the large, luxurious bed, Eagan’s hands around Alexa’s hips, her arms twined around his neck. “Do we have to?” It took a lot of effort for Eagan to keep from whining — and he still didn’t quite managed to stop the pitiful note in his voice.
Alexa pressed her lips together, not quite managing to suppress a smile. “We already stayed a day longer than planned,” she reminded him.
He didn’t answer, not yet, because he was too busy having a stroke of absolute genius. Without consulting Alexa, he stepped over to the bedside table, easily dragging Alexa along with him, ignoring her amused-sounding protestations. While he stole another kiss from her, he reached over, groping around the small table (knocking over something that sounded breakable in the process) until he found the comm he had left there.
Into the comm, he said, “Captain to bridge.”
Moments later, the comm buzzed with an answer: “Bridge to captain! I repeat, bridge to captain! Over!” Though Owen and Jasper’s voices were technically identical, the goofy, upbeat quality of these particular words gave away that this was Jasper speaking. For further proof, there was a soft laugh from somewhere away from the microphone, followed by Maggie affectionately saying that Jasper was the biggest dork in the universe.
Eagan was smiling. Alexa was smiling, too. “Listen,” said Eagan into the comm, and though his smile was uncontrollable, he was able to keep his voice restrained to a commanding cadence, “it looks like this job is going even longer than we planned. We’re going to need another night down here. Think you guys can handle it up there without us?”
It was Maggie who answered this time: “We’re good, Captain! Barrett’s just taking a break, so he asked us to watch the bridge, but there ain’t been any problems! Are you guys okay down there?”
Okay was an understatement. While Maggie had been talking, Alexa had pulled Eagan in for another kiss; now that they had another night, why hold back? Eagan just barely managed to pull himself away so he could answer Maggie, “We’re fine. Turns out, spying is a lot slower than you would think. We’ll keep you updated, but plan on us getting back tomorrow.”
Maggie began to answer, but with a quick movement, Eagan had turned the comm off and tossed it back on the bedside table. It only took one more motion for him to pick Alexa up and throw her onto the bed, drawing a rare laugh from the stoic woman before Eagan was leaping to join her on the overstuffed mattress. They would get back to the Archangel — but not tonight. Tonight was theirs.
