Shades of Treason Read Online Free PDF Page B

grabbing her arm and yanking her off the sleep-slab. Her neck popped from the whiplash, then she was shoved facedown over the data-table. Her nose pressed against an image of Trevast’s corpse.
    She tried to move away, but Rykus held her down. Trevast’s body was more real than the one from her dream. She could almost smell it, could almost feel the blood congealing between her fingers.
    “This is cruel, Rip.” She hated the way her voice cracked.
    He pressed down on the back of her head, preventing her from turning away. “You don’t want to see your handiwork? I thought you’d enjoy it. They found you bathing in their blood.”
    Her heart hurt, physically hurt. Back on the shuttle, she’d crawled across the slick floor to Trevast. He’d still been breathing, still been able to talk, to tell her not to decrypt the files for anyone. Will destroy the Coalition , he’d said. Then he’d grabbed her shirt and whispered, Fashions. Fight.
    Trevast’s mind had been muddled by his impending death. He’d merged together their previous argument over her not-quite-regulation camouflage and an order for her to fight. She’d demanded he fight, and she had tried to save him. She would have saved all of them if there’d been a way, but the others were already dead, and he was too weak. He’d lost too much blood.
    Rykus’s grip on her neck tightened. “He had a family. You met his wife, even gave his five-year-old son a present for his birthday last month. That’s what Lydia said when she was told you killed her husband.”
    The table image changed, and she stared into the glazed eyes of Kris Menchan. Kris .
    “He was the newest member of your team,” Rykus continued. “He graduated three months ago. You were his mentor. Taught him a lot of the things I taught you: how to drop-kill surveillance systems, how to subdue captives. But you didn’t teach him how to avoid a knife in the back, did you?”
    “Go to hell, Rip.”
    Ash wouldn’t cry. She never cried.
    She managed to twist enough to hook her left foot around his ankle. She kicked forward, forcing him to shift to maintain his balance, then she dropped her shoulder and slipped out from under him.
    Rykus’s time away from Caruth hadn’t diminished his ability to kick ass. He evaded her spin kick and the fist she aimed at his chin. Her next move slipped through his defense, but only because he allowed it. He took the blow on his chin, then used his close proximity to swing the blade of his right hand into her shoulder, sending a jolt of sharp pain from her neck to her lower back.
    Her knees gave out. She rolled when she hit the ground, but Rykus didn’t pursue her.
    “On your feet,” he ordered.
    She complied but circled away from him, giving her body a few seconds to recover. She’d sparred with him before, but never when she felt like this: angry, frustrated, and burning with the need to beat the ever-living hell out of something.
    “Did you betray them for money?” he demanded. “You were close to bankrupt two weeks ago. Now you have a year’s salary in your account. Did the Sariceans pay you?”
    Rage scalded her veins. She wanted to tell him where he could shove his accusation, but she’d tried to tell others the truth, that she lived on very few credits each month and sent the excess money back to her home world. She’d blacked out before she spoke a syllable of the explanation, and the investigators hadn’t been able to trace the money. None of it ended up in legitimate bank accounts. She sent it to Glory’s precinct bosses. It was bribe money. She paid the bosses to leave the Coalition’s humanitarian aid workers alone.
    Those aid workers had saved her life and her soul. Ash did everything in her power to do the same.
    Rykus took a step forward, stopping beneath the not-quite-hidden security camera in the ceiling. He must have noticed when she glanced up because he shook his head.
    “It’s not going to happen, Ash. I ordered them to stay