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looked at the screen. Damen had them pointed right at the sleek ship, engine wide open. The blue sky boundary beckoned a few kilometers past the Erillian.
    Uneasiness wormed through her chest.
    “Does anyone else think playing midair collision games with a known mercenary is a bad idea?” she asked.
    “They won’t fire on us,” Damen said. “Not when they know you’re aboard.”
    “They have tow capability.”
    “They’d have to disable our engine,” he protested.
    “Which has already happened once.”
    “And they didn’t lock us down when it did,” he countered. “They can’t risk killing you.”
    “No! They can’t risk catching me. I am not their objective any more than I’m yours. They want my father. They will fire! It’ll be to cripple, so that we’ll have to declare an emergency and make a run!”
    “How could they know we wouldn’t run you and them straight to the Dagger ?” V’kyrri demanded.
    “They don’t,” she replied. “They only have to watch for what happens after you do. Everyone knows that when Admiral Seaghdh interrogates someone, he gets the answers he wants. They’re counting on you to do the hard work of finding my father so they can steal him from you once you do.”
    Damen bit out a curse, his tone grim. “Then they don’t get to follow us. Shut down the shields.”
    He was disabling the defenses? Jayleia boggled. “What?”
    “Done,” V’kyrri answered.
    She glanced between the ruthless expressions on their faces and shuddered. “Look. I’d rather you didn’t hand me over to them. The captain of that Erillian Aggressor is messed up. You guys may be kidnapping me, but at least you’re sane.”
    Damen flashed her a feral grin, his gray eyes glittering. “Do you have enough data to support that analysis?”
    Her breath stopped in her chest and heat suffused her from head to toe.
    He turned away. “They’re hailing.”
    “I’ve got your answer,” V’kyrri replied. “Go.”
    Her console pinged. She glanced sideways at it and guessed at the significance of the flashing indicators. “They’ve established a target lock!”
    The subtlest vibration beneath her feet warned her that another engine had fired. It shrieked to life. She clapped her hands over her ears. It didn’t help. Damen’s spy ship leaped for the stars. They screamed over the top of the Erillian Aggressor, so close that every muscle in her body clenched in anticipation of collision. As if it would have made any difference.
    “Shields!” Damen yelled.
    V’kyrri slammed a control.
    Staggering g-forces crushed her to her seat as the ship lurched. She may have blacked out. Pain seared her chest. Her muscles couldn’t overcome the stress of gravity weighing on them. She couldn’t breathe.
    Then she could. Air slid noisily into her burning lungs. It took a moment to realize Damen and V’kyrri had fared little better. She heard them gasping. Slowly, she realized her eyes weren’t malfunctioning. They’d left Chemmoxin’s atmosphere. Black space, relieved only by distant stars, filled the view screen.
    “What the Three Hells was that?” she demanded between gulps of air.
    “Data to contradict your sanity assertion,” Damen replied.
    It irked her that he’d recovered much faster than she.
    “You bounced us off their shields?” Jayleia demanded, trembling from a belated flood of epinephrine.
    “I blew their defense generator when I did,” Damen said.
    “Twelve Gods,” she muttered. “Isn’t that move illegal because it’s easier to get yourself blown up than to disable an enemy ship?”
    “Yes, it is.”
    “I thought you needed me alive. My mistake.”
    “I’d begin an interrogation, but I can see it wasn’t that effective a scare tactic.” Damen tossed a sly grin over his shoulder at her.
    Her heart clenched at the caress of his approving gaze. “Never do it again.”
    He chuckled.
    The contagious sound flushed liquid warmth through her body and she found herself smiling in