Read Shades of Dark for Free Online

jacket and dark pants, or a tuxedo, looking every inch as elegant. And sexy as hell.
    His frown swung upward into a lopsided grin. “I’ll buy one if you’ll take it off me.”
    My face heated. “You shouldn’t be peeking!” I chastised, but my mouth curved as I said it. Embarrassed by fantasizing over my own lover. Another form of stress relief.
    “I wasn’t peeking. You were sending. Very directly.” He arched one dark eyebrow.
    I sighed, bring my emotions back under control. “Let’s get back to the problems at hand. Gregor. My brother. What Drogue can or cannot do.”
    Something cascaded lightly through me—a gentling, a suffused glow. If love could be morphed into a physical element, this would be it. It was strength and yet it was vulnerability. It was all-encompassing and yet it was freedom. It was a wall of protection. It was wings of trust and faith.
    It was Gabriel Ross Sullivan, answering the questions I couldn’t ask. Not that everything would be okay, but that everything in his power would be done, and we’d face whatever outcomes there were together.
    “As bad as it is to know Gregor is working against us,” Sully said quietly, “it does provide answers to a number of issues I’ve not been able to figure out to this point. The good part is that he is in our control and outnumbered. That’s why, instead of giving in to this overwhelming desire I have to flatten him against a bulkhead until he can no longer breathe, I’m going to watch him, read him—at least for the next few shifts. Let him think he’s safe because I’ll learn what I need to know.”
    It was a dangerous game, but Sully had never shied away from them before. “I thought that Farosian ship knew this was the Karn, ” I said, restlessly tapping my fingers on the desktop. “But now I bet Dalby was told to look for the Darvo Tureka .” Sully’s bogus ship IDs were damned-near impenetrable. It made more sense that Gregor had given the Farosians the name we’d be traveling under.
    “I’ll take that bet and raise you ten. Not only was she given the Tureka ’s name but she’s been supplied with our coordinates at key points.”
    Like when I grabbed the data off that beacon. Something must have been sent at that time.
    “We need to look at every transmission Gregor’s sent or received since we left Dock Five,” I said, calmer now, feeling my Fleet training kicking back in. Spies and enemy agents were entities Fleet had dealt with for generations. “And anything sent from any terminal when he was on duty.”
    “How long will that take you?”
    “An hour, maybe two if he used a code I can’t break and I have to ask you for help.”
    That Sully grin was back. “Are you sure you can afford my fees?”
    I lobbed my lightpen at him.
    He ducked. “You’re cranky. You must be hungry.” He swiveled his chair around then stood. “I’ll go hit up Dorsie for a couple of baked bright-apples.” He turned for the door then swung back and, leaning over the narrow desk, cupped my face with one hand. His mouth covered mine, heat and passion spiraling through his touch.
    He broke the kiss with obvious reluctance. “I will do whatever it takes. Believe that,” he said, his voice a deep rumble.
    I knew he would. But I waited until the door closed behind him before wondering—with not only Tage and Burke to contend with, but now the Farosians too—if it would be enough.

Gregor was a damned fine pilot. He’d been with Sully for at least seven years, though where he’d been before that Fleet either couldn’t or didn’t care to find out. I didn’t know if Gregor was his first or his last name, or a moniker he simply bestowed on himself when he went AWOL. Of that last fact, I was fairly sure—over and above the fact that he bragged about it. He had a way of doing things that were Fleet-issue. I recognized them because I was one too.
    So I broke into his personal files the same way I would any Fleet officer’s, knowing where