Read Thief for Free Online Page A

feeling of obligation swept him. By her honor, he stood here now. By his honor, he vowed to repay her even if he couldn’t afford her outrageous price.
    “Deal.”

Chapter Six
    When Kraft woke up, she saw a gun metal gray ceiling crossed with exposed plumbing, duct work, stabilizer struts. A ship? The air tasted sharp and antiseptic. She touched her body. She didn’t have any blades and barely had any clothes. Below her, she found a cold metal table.
    Shivering, she took a deep breath and tried to read the table. Confusing images and emotions assaulted her—blood, pain, fear. Overriding them all she felt one word, safety, echo in her mind.
    “She’s coming around.”
    Kraft rolled her head toward the lyrical voice. Her blurry vision finally focused on a tiny woman with strawberry blond hair and a sleek, cat-like face.
    After speaking into the wall com, the woman gazed back at Kraft with naked curiosity and approached. “How do you feel?”
    When the woman leaned over her, Kraft shoved her away and leapt off the table. She grasped frantically for a weapon because she felt too shaky to fight hand-to-hand. Yanking open a drawer, she found a scalpel and brandished it.
    “I’m not going to hurt you.” The woman held up her hands and backed toward the open infirmary door.
    “You got that right.” Kraft looked down. “What the hell am I wearing?” She kicked off the ridiculous beaded slippers, flexed her feet and got her bearings for a fight. “Where am I?”
    “In the infirmary,” the woman, a doctor, said.
    “I grasp that part, I mean where in the Void—”
    “You’re on my ship.” Jace entered the room with his gun drawn.
    Confused, disoriented, the last month a total blur, Kraft felt the scalpel tremble in her hand as the ravages of powerful drugs coursed through her veins. Her gaze and hand wavered between the targets the doctor and Jace offered.
    “I let you go.” Kraft tried to comprehend what was going on. “Why are you doing this to me when I let you go?”
    “I’m trying to help you,” Jace said. “Put down the scalpel.”
    When she hesitated, he pointed his gun right at her head. The ancient Sod Buster clicked with a resounding boom when he pulled the hammer back.
    “Stand down, Captain Kraft. Don’t make me kill you to protect my crew, because you know I will.”
    Kraft struggled to understand the confusing images clouding her mind. She had vague memories of blood and horror. Death like a stench she couldn’t ever run from. The scalpel clinked to the floor as she lifted her hands.
    “By my honor, I stand down.”

    “Are you decent?” Jace asked through the closed door.
    “Bit of a problem.” Kraft tugged at another lacy shirt that barely covered her bellybutton.
    “What’s that?”
    “None of this fits!” Kraft discarded the shirt and realized it was the last one. “Captain Lawless?”
    “Yes?”
    “I’m asking an awful lot, beggars shouldn’t be choosers and all, but, can I have something of yours?” Besides Heller, Jace was the only person on the ship with clothing that would fit.
    “So you can read it?”
    In her current condition, she didn’t think she could read a book, let alone anything else.
    His knock against the metal door resounded in the empty storage room. “Are you going to answer me?”
    “What if I could read your clothes?”
    Without a word, he walked off.
    Naked, Kraft waited in a room now strewn with shirts and skirts. She appreciated Payton and Charissa’s offer, but most of their clothing flat-out didn’t fit her foot-taller frame.
    She heard Jace approach. He tapped twice with his knuckle then opened the door just enough to drop a bundle of clothes.
    “Try those.” He pulled the door shut.
    Kraft picked up a homespun cotton shirt, thick and heavy, dyed in the spring with yarrow root. Youthful hope radiated from soft yellow contours and handcrafted wooden buttons. When she slipped the shirt on, Jace’s scent surrounded her. He hadn’t worn