Falling for Sky (Cyborg Seduction Book 11) Read online

  “Where is your attractive female?” Hoover arched his eyebrows.

  “Taking a nap. She didn’t need to listen to any more.”

  Tweak nodded. “We hear a lot of bad things. Good decision.”

  Sky took his seat. “Any traffic about the Markus Models?”

  “Nothing,” Hoover sighed. “It’s odd. The one recent distress signal that they were mentioned in wasn’t them. It makes me wonder what they are doing to keep occupied, since they haven’t killed anyone lately.”

  “Probably picking their next target,” Tweak guessed. “We did get an update. The Bridden found a group of six pirate ships half an hour ago. We might not have to travel all the way to the Gambit System.”

  Sky’s heart raced. “Are they engaging them?”

  Tweak shrugged. “The Bridden is watching them and the Varnish is calculating the risks. We should hear soon if they believe they can safely attack that many ships and win.”

  Hoover scowled. “I hate the idea of having pirates onboard. I went to a station a few years ago masquerading as a pirate, and another one approached me. He wanted to know if I’d seen any women we could kidnap to ‘breed’ with. Which of course meant rape. You should have heard him explain how excited it made him when they fought and screamed. I wanted to gut him on the spot.”

  Sky didn’t want to think about what would have happened to Mick if he hadn’t gotten to her in time. “I don’t plan on letting my wife near any more pirates. She can stay in our quarters while I interrogate them.”

  Tweak nodded. “I don’t blame you.”

  “They might frighten her.” Hoover leaned back in his chair. “Are you certain you don’t want to reconsider adding males to your family unit? Human females aren’t as strong as cyborgs. She might like the extra protection and comfort. I’d be willing to hold her when you’re not around.”

  Sky glared at him. “It’s never going to happen.”

  “Just checking.” Hoover ducked his head. “I’m going back to scanning reports now.”

  Tweak flashed Sky a grin and lowered his head, focusing on his own screen. “I’m smart enough not to ask. You’ve made your feelings clear.”

  Sky went back to work, contacting one of the colonies on another planet in the Yornton System. A female responded to the hail. He usually flirted on the rare occurrences when he got to speak to women, but the urge wasn’t there. It didn’t feel right. He was a married man now.

  The female worried about the military demanding food from them, too, if Earth started sending out battle cruisers. She said the colony’s inhabitants were more afraid of the military than a cyborg attack. Sky felt bad for her.

  “I’ll be happy to go save her,” Hoover muttered.

  Sky shot him a warning look and ended the communication as soon as it was possible without being rude. He checked for updates from the other ships…and softly cursed.

  “What is it?”

  He answered Tweak. “Stag is engaging the pirates.” He stood. “I’m going to the bridge.”

  He hurried there and entered, finding Flint sitting in the captain’s chair. He appeared tense. The male glanced at Sky, not showing any surprise at seeing him.

  “What’s the plan?”

  “The Bridden will remain shielded while the Varnish pretends to be crippled by slowing their speed when they’re within sensor range, and then Stag plans to turn as if they are running. It should make them seem like an easy target.”

  “Then what?”

  Flint stared at the monitor ahead of him. “They’ll fight if the pirates engage them. Stag plans to take out the engines on one of the ships and lead the others away from it. He can easily outdistance them if need be. The Bridden will then dock with the damaged ship and board it to attempt to capture some of the pirates.”

  Sky nodded. “It’s a solid plan.”

  “If it works, and the other five ships abandon the damaged one. We’re two hours behind them, but we can increase speed if things go wrong. I wish we were closer. Stag insisted he and his crew could do this.”

  “Stag and his crew can do it.” Sky had faith in them.

  “I’m worried about the Bridden. We can’t afford to lose a shielded shuttle right now. It’s too important. Not to mention the loss of life we’d suffer.”

  “Teg is onboard. He can remote-access their systems and take over the crippled ship. I’m not worried about losing them or that shuttle.”

  Flint gripped the armrests of the chair. “What if there are cyborgs on that ship? Do you think they’ll attack?”

  Sky had no answer. “I hope not. It wouldn’t be logical. They should feel relief at discovering they aren’t alone.”

  “It will make me feel shame if cyborgs are working with pirates.”

  Sky nodded, silently agreeing with Flint. Pirates were crazy, and women weren’t safe around them. To team up with someone without any honor was indeed shameful. He understood that to do so, any cyborgs would have to be desperate…but everyone had their limits. Cyborgs held themselves to higher standards than most species.

  Tension mounted on the bridge. Waiting to get updates was difficult, and no one spoke until Onyx contacted them twenty long minutes later.

  “We have three prisoners.”

  Sky responded before Flint could. “Is everyone on the Bridden well?”

  “Yes. We’re fine. No causalities on our part. It was easy to dock with them. Teg took over their computer and silenced their alarms. I doubt they’ll even realize we were there unless they miss the three pirates we grabbed. Our prisoners are unconscious and will remain that way. We’re heading to you.”

  “Have you heard from Stag?” Flint looked tense.

  “Yes, and we’ve monitored them on sensors. They had to destroy four pirate vessels. It appears the pirates had upgraded their engines and were able to keep up with the Varnish. He had no choice but to take them out.”

  Another call came in. It was Stag. The male’s face showed on the monitor—and he appeared pissed. “We destroyed four of their ships and damaged the fifth. We attempted to board to take some of them alive, but the bastards used their thrusters to slam into the debris field from the other ships. They did it on purpose.”

  Sky was shocked. “They committed suicide?”

  Stag nodded. “That’s what it looked like to me. We tried to gain control of their computer but they manually shut it down and steered into the field. Crazy fucking bastards. There are no life signs on what’s left of it. That wouldn’t be much.”

  Flint turned his head, holding Sky’s gaze. He arched an eyebrow.

  “That’s not normal behavior. Just like on Zippo Station.”

  “Fuck.” Flint faced forward. “Did the Varnish sustain damage? Do you need a tow?”

  “We’re in one piece and no one was injured. There’s nothing that we can’t wait to repair once we’re home. We will head there now if you don’t need us.”

  “Contact the council first, but we’re fine.”

  “Stag out.” He cut the coms.

  “We’re on our way to you with the three pirates. Onyx out.” They also lost the signal from the Bridden.

  Flint contacted security to let them know to ready the holding cells. Then he addressed Sky. “I’ll have a medic look at them first, and I’ll let you know when they are cleared to be interviewed.”

  “Interrogated. Until then, I’m going to spend time with my wife.”

  Flint nodded.

  Sky left the bridge. He wanted to see Mick and let her know what was going on. He entered their quarters to find her lying on the couch watching an entertainment vid.

  She sat up and grinned. “You’re back! I missed you.” She jumped off the couch and rushed to him.

  He opened his arms, grinning. It was nice to have someone welcome him. He kissed her when she put her arms around his neck and then swept her off her feet, carrying her toward the bedroom.

  “I missed you, too. I’m about to show you how much.”

&nbs