Not the Man She Thought Read Online Free PDF

to
run a check on the com equipment. A few minutes later, the rest of the crew
followed. As they filed out of the room, Rade was extremely aware that his
first officer was looking at him. Kellen had been with him since the beginning
and Rade couldn’t ask for a better second-in-command, but when the older man
had something on his mind, he wasn’t afraid to speak it. Obviously, now was
going to be no exception.
    “You were a little hard on the crew about the girl, don’t
you think?” Kellen asked as he reached for another slice of bread.
    Rade’s mouth tightened. “The girl is a stowaway and they’re
treating her like she’s an honored guest. Did you see the way the men were
looking at her? I’ll be lucky if I don’t have a mutiny on my hands.”
    His first officer smiled. “She is very beautiful, I’ll give
you that, but I doubt we have to be worried about a mutiny.”
      “Maybe not. But
for all we know, she could be a Federation spy.”
    “Her?” Kellen lifted a brow. “You don’t really believe that,
do you?   
    Rade swore under his breath. He didn’t know what he
believed. It wasn’t every day he found a stowaway on board, but of all the days
she could have picked, this was probably the worst. Against his gut instinct,
he had just agreed to take on a job that had the potential to get him and his
crew all killed.
    “Regardless if she’s a spy or not, she’s trouble,” he
snapped. “And the sooner she’s off the ship the better.”
    Kellen frowned. “You don’t plan on taking her all the way to
Marlon Prime, then?”
    Rade gave him a hard look. “I never said I would.”
    The other man’s frown deepened. “Unless you plan on stopping
somewhere in between, that means dropping her off on Seguu.”
    Rade said nothing for a moment. As the first stop on their
run, Seguu would be the logical choice, if it weren’t a complete hellhole. He
didn’t even like Dev getting off the ship when they docked there, and though he
couldn’t care less about Laken Andara, he couldn’t bring himself to dump her
off on a planet like that.
    Realizing that Kellen was still waiting for an answer, Rade
shook his head. “No. That cesspool is no place for a woman like her. We’ll try
and make up some time so we can drop her off someplace better.”
    That seemed to satisfy Kellen and they both ate in silence
for a time before the other man spoke again.
    “You seem to be getting yourself all worked up about this
girl. Granted, she’s a stowaway, but harmless from what I can tell. Is
something else bothering you?”
    Rade frowned. He had downplayed the risk involved with the
job they were going to Marlon Prime to do, and for a moment, he wondered if he
should confide in the other man. The words were on the tip of his tongue, but
for some reason he couldn’t. Not yet. So he shook his head.
    “No. Everything’s fine.”
    He hoped.
     
     
    * * * * *
     
     
     
    Laken had gone directly back to her cabin after she’d left
the mess. What she’d said about being tired had been true and with little else
to occupy herself, she decided to take a nap. As tired as she was, thought, she
couldn’t sleep, and ended up lying there staring up at the ceiling.
    Though she knew putting up with the hateful Captain Karsten
and his crap would all be worth it once she was in Mallin’s arms, she couldn’t
help but feel a little guilty about stowing away on board the cargo ship. Not
because her presence annoyed the hell out of its captain, but because she had
left Tellune without a word to anyone, not even her mother. Whatever Laken’s
relationship was with her father, she had always been close to her mother, and
Laken knew she would be frantic when she discovered her daughter was missing.
Laken wished she could get a message to her.
    Laken’s brow furrowed as an idea suddenly came to her. That
jerk Karsten may have smashed her com, but there were other ways to communicate
with the outside world. Swinging her legs over the side