Aces Over Queen (The Drift Book 8) Read online

  Aces Over Queen

  Susan Hayes

  Contents

  About The Book

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Epilogue

  More Sci-Fi Romance from Susan Hayes

  About the Author

  About The Book

  To win their queen’s heart, this pair must risk it all.

  Royan Watson lived by three simple rules: No regrets, no relationships, and no slowing down. No exceptions. Then steady, reliable, and sexy as hell Owen Connors crossed his orbit, and Royan’s rules went out the airlock.

  Astek station is in chaos, and Tianna Astor has been sent to set things right. But no briefing or data files could prepare the ice queen of Astek Corp for the secrets, lies, and temptations she’ll find out at the edge of civilized space.

  Aces Over Queen

  SUSAN HAYES

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  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.

  All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental. It is fiction, so facts and events may not be accurate except to the current world the book takes place in.

  Copyright © 2019 Susan Hayes

  Aces Over Queen (Book #8 of the Drift Series)

  First E-book Publication: May 2019

  Cover Design: Melody Simmons ~ ebookindiecovers.com

  Editor: Dayna Hart

  Published by: Black Scroll Publications

  ISBN: 978-1-988446-45-5

  Dedication

  I am blessed to be surrounded by supportive and loving people. My Mum and Dad, who always believed in me even when I didn’t believe in myself. My friends, Karen, Cheryl, Dee-Dee and Rebecca who are always there when I need a friendly ear. And Irene, my amazing boss who has been there since the beginning of this adventure, encouraging me every step of the way.

  Thank you.

  Prologue

  Out on the edge of civilized space is a rag-tag collection of space stations and platforms known as the Drift. It’s a haven for the hunted, the lost, and those seeking second chances. The people who live there hail from every species, class, and corner of the galaxy, but they all have one thing in common: they don’t belong anywhere else.

  There’s nothing beyond the Drift but wild space and an asteroid belt full of ore-rich rocks. The asteroids are mined by hundreds of vessels and their hard-working crews. When the ships deliver their haul to be processed, those crews hit the infamous bars, casinos, and pleasure houses that are the Drift’s primary source of income…and only source of entertainment.

  It’s a world of its own. One where corporations rule, the laws are flexible, and everything is for sale, for the right price.

  * * *

  Welcome to the Drift.

  Chapter One

  Tianna loved the freedom of traveling. It was one of the few times in her life she could relax and be herself. Given the magnitude of her new assignment, this trip to the Drift might be the last time she could relax for quite a while. Knowing that, she’d requested as small a crew as possible - a flight team and two members of Astek’s private security force. Ideally, she would have managed the trip solo, but there wasn’t a snowball’s chance in a supernova her father would allow it. Things were too unsettled, too dangerous. The corporations were on uneasy footing. Old alliances were being questioned, the body count was rising, and trust was in short supply.

  According to her father, trust was the reason she was headed to the edge of known space to take control of Astek Station. Cornelius Astor might doubt his daughter would ever be ready to take over his beloved business, but her loyalty was unquestionable.

  She set aside her mug of tea and stood, indulging in a slow stretch to ease the knots in her neck and shoulders. She’d spent the better part of the day in her quarters, reading everything she could about her new home - Astek Station. By the time she arrived, she intended to know everything she could about the station, the people who worked for her, and the ones who might be plotting against her, her father, and the family business.

  “Tink, please send a request for a new set of blueprints of Astek space station to be drawn up and finalized before I arrive. The ones on file are more than two years out of date.”

  “Sending request to executive services, Astek station.” The cheerful, airy voice of her virtual assistant replied.

  “Thank you, Tink.” It drove her father to distraction that she had named her digital assistant after a character in an ancient children’s story. It made him even more cross-eyed that she spoke to Tink like it was a sentient being.

  “Is there anything else, Tianna? You have worked through your usual mealtime. Shall I order a meal to be delivered to your quarters?”

  “That sounds perfect. I’ll have my usual, but with a double slice of cherry pie.”

  “I believe the food dispenser is out of cherry pie. Would you like to substitute apple, instead?”

  Tianna wrinkled her nose. “I’m going to be very grumpy if there’s no cherry pie until we get to the Drift.”

  “Noted. Checking inventory now.” There was a momentary silence. “I’m sorry, Tianna, because of the change in departure times, some supplies did not make it aboard on time.”

  She sighed. “Apple pie will be fine, thanks. And you have nothing to apologize for. I’m the one who changed our departure time. My father’s paranoia made it seem like a good idea. He even had the pilot file a false destination so no one would know where we were headed.” He’d said he was worried about her safety, which was hard to believe. He rarely worried about anything. Her father was always calm, controlled, and deliberate. The only time she’d seen him show any signs of emotional distress was the first time she woke up after her accident. He’d been there, sitting by her bed in a rumpled suit, haggard with worry.

  There’d been an echo of that same concern in his eyes when he’d called her in to give her this assignment. “This is going to be dangerous, Tianna. If I could keep you here, I would, but there’s too much at risk. I need someone I can trust overseeing things there.”

  And according to her father’s first rule, family were the only ones you could trust. That’s why she was headed to the far side of the galaxy. He made it clear every day that he didn’t believe she was ready to take over Astek, but all this instability gave her a rare chance to prove herself.

  Her father might not love her - she didn’t think he was even capable of that emotion. But he did care for her in his own way. She knew that. If he didn’t, he wouldn’t have risked everything he’d built to keep her alive after the accident.

  Recollections of the battle she’d waged to recover from the crash made her body ache with remembered pain. “Tink, run a shower for me, will you? I should have time before my meal gets here.”

  “Your shower is now running. Your meal will be ready in fifteen minutes. Would you like me to inform you when it has arrived?”

  “I would. Thanks, Tink.”

  Tianna stripped off her clothes as she walked, dropping th
em on the floor just for the amusement of watching the housekeeping bots scuttle out of their charging stations to tidy up the trail of abandoned clothing.

  The moment she opened the door to the sanitation room she was enveloped in a cloud of fragrant steam. Oranges, she guessed, with a hint of something spicy underneath. Tink selected the scents using its database of aromatherapy information, and always seemed to find the right fragrance to suit her mood.

  She stepped under the stream of hot water, letting the heat penetrate her body. There was always a strange moment when her artificial parts took a few extra moments to warm up, and she could feel the difference, a slight chill in her limbs and at the back of her skull. The sensation passed quickly, but it served as a daily reminder of how close she’d come to death. She was more, and less, than human now. A medical miracle with no legal right to exist.

  Cybernetic limb replacement was legal, but what was done to her was so much more than that. She didn’t even know exactly what they’d done to her. All records of her surgeries were faked to protect everyone involved, and her father had locked the real files away. For all she knew, they’d been destroyed. If anyone learned what had been done to her, her father would go to jail, and so would everyone who had rebuilt her, using illegal methods and banned technology to save her life and turn her into something unique, and less than human.

  She ran a sudsy hand down her body, doing a silent inventory of her injuries. The surgeons had done immaculate work, leaving her skin with barely a scar or blemish. The real changes were invisible from the outside. Her bones had been shattered. Her organs ruptured, her limbs crushed and mangled beyond recognition. The skimmer crash had left her with catastrophic injuries.

  Unsurvivable. That’s what they’d told her father when she’d been brought in. But she had survived. All it took was money, connections, and a corporate tycoon who would rather break galactic law, as well as the laws of nature, than lose his only heir. What she might have wanted had never even been a factor.

  When the first explosion tore through the ship, she thought she was having a flashback to the crash. The impression only lasted a split second. When the second, larger explosion hit, she was tossed around the tiny shower space, slamming into the walls several times before crashing to the floor. It couldn’t have been more than a few seconds, but she experienced every moment in slow-motion. She was airborne. The lights flickered. Impact. Airborne again. The lights went out. Warning alarms screamed. A flash of red. Impact again. Pain. Fear. Another moment of flight. She tumbled again, crashing headlong into something. The tumbling stopped. There was silence.

  When Tianna came to, she was floating. Disoriented and dazed, she reached out wildly, trying to find something to connect with in the dark. Her hand hit a wall, still warm and slick from her shower. Shower. She’d been showering when...something happened. Something big and explode-y.

  “Fraxx,” she swore, her voice a welcome break in the silence. “Tink, if you’re there, I could use a status report.”

  The braided gold band on her left wrist buzzed slightly, confirming Tink’s presence. “I am here, though in a diminished capacity. The ship’s AI is offline. I am operating on backup power and have limited abilities. I am unable to give you a full assessment at this time.”

  “Forget the full assessment. Tell me what you know. How bad is it?” Tianna felt her way out of the shower, no easy task when there was no gravity or light source.

  “The ship is adrift. I am unable to detect any energy output on any deck.”

  “Life signs?”

  “Scanning.” Tink was silent for several long, terrible seconds. “I am unable to locate any other life signs in the immediate vicinity. My sensor range is minimal, however. It is possible…”

  “We both know that’s not likely.” The crew was gone. Killed by whatever had taken out her ship and left her adrift in a crippled wreck.

  “What happened?” Something brushed by her face in the dark, and she flinched, swatting it away out of instinct. When her hand touched soft fabric, she realized it was only a towel and grabbed it. She couldn’t do much at the moment, but she could get herself dried off.

  “I have limited data, but it is eighty-nine percent likely that the ship experienced multiple explosive decompressions in a short time period.”

  “You mean the ship blew up. How did it happen? No, scratch that. It doesn’t matter right now. How long can I survive given the current situation?”

  “I do not have enough data to make an accurate calculation.”

  “Dammit, Tink. Give me your best guess. How long do I have?”

  “You have less than twenty hours’ worth of breathable atmosphere. Life support is offline, but it will take some time for the temperature to drop to dangerous levels.”

  Fraxx. “Has a distress beacon been activated?”

  “Affirmative. The beacon is automated and functioning normally.”

  “Then I guess we better hope someone answers that beacon before I run out of air or freeze to death.” Her father’s choices might have saved her life, again. A normal human would die when the temperature dropped too far or the carbon dioxide rose too high. She wasn’t human, though. Not anymore. She was a cyborg with a body loaded with military grade nanotech whose only purpose was to keep her alive.

  In the years since the crash, she’d always played it safe. No more risks. No adventures. She hadn’t tested her medi-bots against anything more dangerous than the occasional flu virus. Today, they’d have their work cut out for them. And if she lived, she was going to have to thank her father for saving her life, again.

  Royan Watson leaned back in his seat and uttered a sigh of contentment. This was where he was happiest: in the cockpit of the Sun Sprite with all of space stretched out in front of him. He had almost everything he wanted. A fast ship, the galaxy to play in – now if he could convince Owen that they were meant to be together, life would be perfect.

  His new security officer’s footfalls rang out on the bare metal deck, announcing his return.

  “Everything is quiet and secure back in the cargo bay,” Owen announced.

  “I should hope so. Our entire cargo is livestock embryos in cryo-stasis. If things weren’t quiet back there, we’d have a lot of explaining to do to the colonists waiting on this shipment.”

  “And a lot of mess to clean up.” Owen’s placed a hand on Royan’s shoulder, his thumb brushing the back of his neck in a brief caress. “Just so we’re clear, my shiny new contract does not include cleaning duties. I’m here to protect the ship, its cargo, and you, in that order.”

  Royan uttered a dramatic sigh. “This is what happens when I leave employee contract negotiations to my sister. I am clearly the most valuable asset on this ship and should be at the top of that list.”

  Owen chuckled. “Last time I looked, Zura owned this company. We just work for her, remember? And while it’s not in my contract, she made it pretty damned clear that keeping you in one piece was high on her list of priorities. Apparently, she doesn’t have much faith in your ability to stay out of trouble.”

  Royan considered protesting, but there wasn’t much point. Given a choice, he’d fly straight into trouble nine times out of ten, and they both knew it. “I don’t care why she lured you away from working security at the Nova, I’m just glad you’re here.”

  Owen squeezed his shoulder, released it, and moved back. It was a dance they’d been doing since they’d left Astek station for a series of deliveries that had kept them moving for the better part of three weeks. They’d have a moment. A look, a touch, or a whispered word, and then Owen would move away again. It was making Royan crazy. “You admitting you need help staying out of trouble?” he asked.

  Royan spun the chair around to look over at his friend and one-time lover. After their one night together, Owen had retreated. Their friendship was still intact, and the attraction was still there, too. Fraxx, the attraction between them was enough to rival a black hole, and it had only gotten s
tronger since they’d fallen into bed. The problem was, Owen didn’t trust him. Fair enough. But how could he prove he could do better if he didn’t get the chance to show it?

  “Me admit to needing help? Never. But flying solo gets old. I like having you around. You’re a lot more fun to talk to than the ship. No insult intended, Sprite.”

  The ship’s AI responded in the low, sultry female voice Royan had programmed into the system the moment he’d taken possession of the Sun Sprite. “I understand. I am not programmed for recreational activities, including conversation.”

  He patted the wall closest to him. “I know, sweetheart. But you’re still the best ship I’ve ever flown.”

  Owen cocked a brow and sighed. “You really can’t help yourself, can you? You have to flirt with anything that shows the slightest sign of sentience.”

  “It’s part of my charm.” Royan stood and walked over to Owen. “It works, too. On everyone but you.”

  “That's not true.” Owen’s blue-gray eyes darkened as he locked gazes with Royan. “You know that’s not true.”

  “Then why are you sleeping in the crew quarters instead of with me?” And there it was, the topic they’d been dancing around since the day Owen had walked onto the Sprite as a member of the crew.

  “Because that’s not where we are.”

  Royan grabbed the collar of Owen’s shirt and pulled him in close. “Then where the fraxx are we?” This was the closest he’d been to Owen in weeks, and it wasn’t close enough.