03 Solar Flare - Spark Series Read Online Free PDF

fine.”
    Happy for the excuse to leave, she left her
tablet on the workbench and took her time walking to the kitchen.
That was easy to do with her limp. Her feet were still bothering
her today, even though the rain had stopped. The old breaks
throbbed with pain that spiked into her calves and knees. It made
her grumpy.
    It had been barely four months since she’d
been forced to let Dr. Vhanee remove the bones of her hands and
forearms. The pain of the old injuries had been crippling, inflamed
with the toxin her tormentor had used to increase her pain. It had
turned her joints swollen and deformed before her twentieth
birthday. The misshapen bones had been replaced with synthetic
bone, with old nerves and muscles grafted on top. Thanks to skin
regeneration, there was no trace of scarring where they’d filleted
her arms open, but it still made her uneasy to think about it.
Sometimes her hands felt cold.
    She’d couldn’t face the thought of going
through another operation for her feet; not yet, anyway.
    Azor was smart enough not to comment on her
limp as she returned and handed him his drink. Gem nagged her
enough as it was. She picked up her tablet.
    “Thanks.” Azor nodded to the tablet. “Any
good mail? I noticed the screen,” he said by way of
explanation.
    She raised a brow at his nosiness, but
thought nothing of it. After all, her family was full of people
peering over her shoulder. She’d been known to do the same. “Yes,
actually. I’m going to meet someone I met online at a club
tonight.”
    A faint frown shadowed his eyes. “Are you
taking a girlfriend? It wouldn’t hurt to have backup.”
    She gave him a dubious look. “This isn’t a
stakeout. I’ll be surrounded by people. If I don’t like him, I’ll
leave.”
    He shook his head. “You’re attractive enough
that you shouldn’t have to resort to meeting strangers online.
There must be a group you can join…or something.”
    She looked down her nose at him. “Yeah,
because that wouldn’t be pitiful, would it? Look, I’ve already
humored Gem by dating all the men she’s pushed at me. This can’t
possibly be worse than some of the dates I’ve put up with.” She
didn’t add that Azor was the only single guy Gem knew who hadn’t
been tapped—probably because Gem knew her sister would flatly
refuse to have anything to do with him. Prolonged exposure to him
just made her…tense.
    Take now, for instance. To her memory, she’d
never spent so much time alone with him. She could feel herself
growing edgy. If it went on much longer she knew she’d start trying
to provoke him. It was an instinctive reaction to the disquiet he
made her feel.
    He wiped his hands on a rag and held one out.
“Give me your com. I’m going to put my home number and pager on
quick connect.”
    “I hardly think that’s necessary.” Her grip
tightened. She really didn’t want him to have it. She wasn’t ready
for the intimacy of quick connect.
    His hand didn’t waver, and his gaze held
steady. After a moment she sighed and handed it over. It was just
easier. “You’ve been working too hard.”
    “I have good instincts. Besides, you have a
habit of getting tangled in ugly things.”
    A muscle jumped in her cheek. “That was not
my fault.” Mostly. She could admit to giving in to blackmail, but
she hadn’t invited their former brew master, Jean Luc, to mix drugs
into his exports. When Azor and his team had come sniffing around
The Spark, looking for drugs, she hadn’t hindered the
investigation. Of course, she hadn’t helped, either, until she’d
been tortured nearly to death by a thug intent on gaining Jean
Luc’s secrets.
    She’d kept quiet to protect her sister Xera,
but had come out the loser. There were times when silence wasn’t
worth the price. They’d had her full cooperation after that, though
she’d had to give her confession through a fractured jaw. The
memory of the pain, the helpless weeks in a hospital bed, and
later, the months in a