An Unexpected Debt Read online

  She chuckles. “Well, we’ll have to see if I can ever offer them something valuable enough to keep me on the payroll. Let’s go inside.”

  I open the door, and Jinzo stands in the front hallway with Ilaria, Vivian’s first daughter, in his arms. She squeals for Vivian, and Vivian goes right to her toddler. I breathe a sigh of relief as I see the two of them happy together. Vivian is under a lot of pressure and has been for years. She could use a break. Ilaria babbles away in her short phrases, and my heart squeezes. She’s already a precocious two years old and putting everyone to work. I want that someday. Can I even have that?

  “Ms. Skylar, I have your first candidate ready for inspection,” Marcelo calls out from the sitting room.

  Speaking of pressure…

  “Oh, I want to hear about this one,” Vivian says, handing Ilaria back to Jinzo.

  “No, no. You stay with her,” I insist, pushing Vivian back. “This will be boring.”

  “Nonsense.” Her smile broadens. “In fact, I bet we’d all like to hear about this new man Marcelo thinks would be perfect for you.” She flutters her eyelashes. “I’m sure he’s divine.” She draws out the word into several syllables.

  “You are so dead to me,” I say between my clenched teeth.

  She throws back her head in a fit of laughter, and Jinzo smiles. Well, at least I’m good for a laugh, and it’s nice to see Vivian happy, even at my expense.

  I flop onto the couch in the sitting room. I smell of smoke, but it’s not an unpleasant fragrance. I loved camping at far-school when I was a teenager, and the smell of smoke reminds me of campfires. Campfires remind me of the other students, too, and time spent laughing and telling stories into the wee hours of the night. I can close my eyes and see them all, but I mostly see Saif Bhaat, my constant companion at far-school from ten to sixteen years old. We fell asleep around the campfire together many times. Sigh. I wish I had never lost touch with any of my far-school friends.

  “So, this is who I have picked out for you,” Marcelo says, sitting next to me and handing me his datapad. He could share the profile with me via my wristlet, but this way, everyone can lean over and read at the same time as me. Vivian leans over the couch’s arm, and Jinzo and Gus peer over the top of my head. I reach back and squeeze Ilaria’s foot before I pay attention.

  “I’m not sharing names or occupations of your men until you meet them in person. I want nothing coloring your first impressions except what I have researched and they’ve provided.”

  I scan my eyes down the document before I get started.

  “Comes from a prominent Rio family. He’s a second son, and he’s active in the family business.” I nod my head. All good things. “The family business has a presence throughout the Duo Systems, on all the major planets.”

  Hmmm, that must mean they trade in goods.

  “That’s perfect,” Vivian says. She reaches out to scroll on the datapad, and I smack her hand away. “Ow.” She laughs.

  “Blah blah blah,” I continue. “He works out. He’s creative. He has his own money, too, not just what the family provides.”

  “That’s important,” Jinzo says, shifting Ilaria to his other arm. “You’ll want someone who can either invest in your business or invest in the family. If he can’t do either, then it becomes a problem.” Jinzo nods to Gus, and Gus nods as well.

  He’s not wrong about that. Miguel is the only man who came into my mom’s network with his own money. My father was poor and did the bare minimum for the family until he ‘retired.’ The rest? Dominic works for my mom, but it’s such a simple job, he might as well be bumming off of her. Communications Director means he answers calls and screens everything Mom has to deal with. A teenager could do that. Juan does most of the cooking now, and he would have raised Cameron and Nolan, his two sons… if Dominic hadn’t convinced him I would do it instead.

  I clear my throat. “He’s looking for someone independent and skilled at their own job. Someone with strength and a will to get things done. That’s very me.”

  I scroll down the dossier until the words I’m looking for pop up.

  “She needs to be willing to ask for help, but she should not be a pushover. She doesn’t let other people take advantage of her, but she knows her limits. Marcelo notes, ‘This is important because he must protect his family business at all costs.’” I look up at Marcelo, and he doesn’t seem perturbed by this.

  “A pretty good fit, wouldn’t you say?” he asks.

  I try to swallow through my dry throat as I scroll up and down the dossier. I meet the physical criteria for this man as well. I’m not too tall, I have curves, and I take good care of myself. Hell, I survived being marooned in the desert, so obviously, I’m doing okay.

  But the negatives? Doesn’t let other people take advantage of her? I’ve never admitted it out loud to anyone — not to Marcelo, not to Vivian, not even to my own mother — but men have taken advantage of me my entire life. I tried to fight it with Mom’s consorts, but it only ever cost me. Eventually, I had to concede and just… Well, just let it happen. Though they never laid a hand on me, I still had to do their bidding, whether I wanted to or not.

  My heart beats at double speed in my chest, and my fingers shake.

  “Yeah, a great fit,” I respond, my voice cracking a bit.

  “You okay?” Vivian asks, standing up. She glances at Gus.

  “Totally.” I suck in a quick breath through my nose and push the anxiety into the back of my head. “I think I could use some water. That smoke made my throat dry.” I clear my throat more aggressively, and Gus takes that as a cue to get me a glass of water. I gulp half of it down before I hand the datapad to Marcelo.

  “I think we’re on the right track,” I say with confidence I don’t feel. Fake it, Skylar.

  Marcelo’s smile is wide, and a stab of pain rips through my chest. I should confess everything, my whole life’s worth of mistakes, right now, to everyone. I’m a complete and utter failure, and no one has any idea. I’ve hidden it for so long, it doesn’t feel real. It’s a secret I thought I would take to my grave, but I don’t know how much longer I can last with people not knowing.

  “Is he the one who’ll be my date for this charity auction?” I ask, standing up. I have too much energy now to sit anymore.

  “Yeah. He’s set aside a few days around that time, assuming that you may want to spend more time with him than just the auction.” Marcelo holds up his hand. “Completely optional. I have a good feeling about this one, especially seeing as how he came to my notice. But if it doesn’t work out, you can leave him behind, and I’ll make the apologies.”

  I nod and turn my face to the window to hide my ambivalence. I have a creeping sensation that things are about to change, and not just this business of finding the men for my relationship network. The back of my neck tingles, and I rub it away as I try to pinpoint the moment things changed. Maybe it was my graduation party? Maybe it was the moments in the desert? Maybe things have been changing for longer than that. I don’t know.

  “I set aside dinner for you two in the kitchen,” Jinzo says, snapping me out of my thoughts. “I’ll take Ilaria up to bed, and you can eat.”

  Vivian gives Ilaria a kiss good night. “I’ll be up to rock her after I eat if she’s not already asleep,” she tells Jinzo.

  “I’m happy for you.” Vivian comes to my side and slips her arm through mine. “A Class Three license, a successful family company, a Flyght side hustle, and now you’ll be dating and meeting men for your network too. I wish there was more I could do.”

  “You already do enough,” I assure her. “You’re my family,” I stress. “Just being here with you is enough.”

  She has no idea how much her love and support mean to me. It’s basically all I have, and I’m in danger of losing it every damned day.

  4

  Asteria squeals and opens her arms to me for a giant hug, and I gratefully melt straight into her. Hugs are so hard to come by. I’ll take anythi
ng I can get.

  “I’m so, so happy you’re here,” she says, pulling back and holding me at arm’s length, “and I’m so, so sorry I couldn’t make it to Ossun for the big party.” She pouts. “Trust me. I would rather have been there than here helping clients.”

  “I know.” I let her slip her arm around mine and lead me forward. “It was good to see your mom at the party,” I say, leaning in to whisper, “though I would have loved it if she had stayed home with the clients and you had come instead.”

  “It’s my job now.” Her voice pitches up, and she rolls her eyes. “Mom would love to retire most of the busy jobs to me, and I can’t say I blame her. She has barely seen her husbands and consorts in the last few years. I think she could use a break.”

  We amble through the Lee home ship, and I continue to marvel at this behemoth. Jinzo Lee, Vivian’s number one, is Asteria’s younger brother, and his family has run Lee Shipyards for generations. The Lee home ship is where he and Asteria grew up, and it was my home base for most of my time in flight school. Not that I got here all that often. Maybe once a month when I couldn’t stand to look at my cabin at flight school any longer. Asteria has a Class Four license, one better than my Class Three, and she helped me study and prepare for exams. I couldn’t have gotten my license without her.

  While I was studying and schooling, Jinzo and his team were putting the Amagi back together for me after the military commandeered and stripped it for parts a little over two years ago. Past tense ‘putting together.’ The Amagi is ready to fly now.

  Basically, the Lees saved my ass, and I owe them my life, but they would never collect on that debt. That’s not the kind of people they are. I would do anything for them, though. They put their ship and their lives on the line for us so many times. So many of us would be dead right now if it weren’t for them.

  “Your mom deserves a really fucking long vacation.” We both laugh because we know it’s true, but Ms. Lee would never admit to needing it.

  “Don’t we all,” Asteria says.

  She has no idea.

  We walk through the ship, stopping at the mall of shops to pick up lunch and eat it at one of the observatory windows. People along the way talk to Asteria or wave to her. Some day this ship, this huge fucking ship, will be hers. If I didn’t adore Asteria, I would be supremely jealous.

  Okay, maybe I’m a little jealous, anyway.

  We unwrap our sandwiches at the table and stare out the window at the local traffic zooming in and out of the shipyards. This is one of the few places in the universe where you can see so many ships at once. Many of them are derelicts or in pieces, sold to the Lees for a small sum. Others are docked here and maintained by the Lee Shipyards crews until their owners need them again. Security is tight, and the area is safely away from the nearest jump ring. No one approaches without being seen.

  “How are your men doing?” I ask, sitting back in the seat and crossing my legs. I sip my iced green tea while she nods and opens a bag of crispy chips.

  “They’re all good. Happy. The kids are running around somewhere.” She waves her hand vaguely at the ship, and I laugh. “What? They’re like feral beasts.”

  “There are some days I can’t believe you have kids.”

  Asteria is a marvel. She’s petite, smaller than me. In my family, Vivian’s side got the tall genes. I barely graze Vivian’s shoulder. Asteria has a style all her own. She wears black pretty much exclusively, either with black combat boots or black flats with a skirt. Her short black hair sweeps over her eyes, and she is rarely without a shine of pink lip balm. And this is how she commands this ship. People do not care how she’s dressed. They care how she acts.

  That’s the kind of pilot and captain I want to be.

  “Trust me. I can’t believe I have kids either,” she drawls.

  We both laugh as we pick up our sandwiches and eat them.

  “Speaking of men, Marcelo was here not too long ago. Stopped by to say hi as he was passing through the system. I gave him a preview of the Amagi. He was excited for you.”

  I can’t keep the smile off my face. “I can’t wait to see it all done. It’s been a few weeks, and I know the biggest changes were going to happen at the end of construction.”

  The Amagi had to be rebuilt almost from the inside out. It had to be towed off Neve because it couldn’t hold air in. My smile fades quickly, and anger burns in my belly.

  Asteria leans away. “I know that look. Try not to think about it. The ship is yours again, and it’s almost perfect. Plus, remember what we talked about.”

  Asteria doesn’t say it out loud because many people disapprove of guns and weapons. I used to be one of those people until the military hijacked my ship. And knowing that there are more pirates and hijackers out there every day (a lesson I painfully learned in flight school), there is only one thing for me to do.

  Arm the Amagi to the teeth.

  But, you know, subtly.

  “I remember,” I say, lifting my eyebrows. “I have my feelers out, and I’m going to take care of it.”

  “Good.” Asteria nods once.

  We dig into our sandwiches and move the conversation along to the other random stuff we both love — movies, dramas, and men, of course.

  I try not to think about how my life got so far off the beaten path in the last few years. I’m still single. My ship is in space dock. And I’m wondering how I’ll reconcile using a weapon if my life or my crew’s lives are in danger.

  Yeah, try not to think of it, Skylar.

  “It’s only fair that you go first,” Carlos says, gesturing to the airlock. “Captain Skylar.” He stresses my new title, and I sneer at him.

  The funny thing is that I have never wanted to be a captain. All I’ve ever wanted to do is fly. And I thought I could divide out that duty by giving it to Vivian, but I should have known that would never last. Vivian is a planet dweller. She loves her green grass, brown dirt, and big blue sky. I have only ever lived in ships. I love gray corridors, the feel of a ship’s air supply brushing against my cheek, and speed, baby, speed.

  “Cut that shit out,” I say, chuffing him on the shoulder. “I remember when you were a pimple-nosed kid, barely thirteen years old, and now you’re giving me shit?”

  He blows on his nails. “It’s my strength.”

  Lia rolls her eyes.

  For the last three years, these two have been inseparable. And now that they’re both nineteen, they’ve turned into quite the adults.

  When I hired Carlos six years ago to run the tech on the Amagi, he was like an excited kid at all times. He was so skinny, I often saw his ribs when he went shirtless. Now, he’s filled out from working on Vivian’s farm, getting fresh air and good food every day. He takes up a lot more space than he used to. His arms are muscular now, and he’s gained quite a few centimeters of height since we last flew together. He has a tan, and all of his acne has cleared up. Someday he’ll make some woman completely miserable, I’m sure of it.

  Lia hasn’t changed much. She went back to work on the farm, too, for a while, but then she also took an accounting course while she waited for the Amagi to return to service. She commuted to classes from Vivian’s farm for a year while helping out with the cooking, farm animal husbandry, and babysitting when she could. So, not only will she care for our onboard animals and hydroponics systems on the Amagi that Vivian designed, she’ll also handle all the accounting for Flyght and eventually the family business when I take the reins from Mom in a few months.

  “Strength is right,” I say.

  I sigh as I dog the connection from the shuttle to the Amagi. The shuttle pilot looks over at the console and gives me a thumbs-up before I swing open the door.

  Walking into my ship now is like coming back home to a place you haven’t lived in for years. Everything looks the same, except different. Newer, brighter, cleaner. It’s like seeing an old friend who got a boob job and a facelift. You like the new look, but you’re suspicious of what it took to mak
e it happen.

  I sniff the air and nod. At least it smells like the Amagi, metallic with a slight tinge of ozone.

  “There she is!” Jinzo steps out of the auxiliary cargo bay with Ken by his side. “Welcome home,” he says, sweeping his hands over the cargo bay.

  “Wow, guys. This looks amazing.” I turn around and take it all in.

  Everything in here is new, considering the military was taking off the side panels when we liberated the ship. Heck, even the staircases are new.

  Jinzo and Ken descend the stairs, and I hug them both. I remember when I used to dislike Ken many years ago when he and Vivian had started dating. I always pegged him as a moocher, and I was so wrong about that. And Jinzo? I wasn’t sure about him either in the beginning. Stepping back and looking at them both, I call into question all of my previous decisions about people. Am I a really poor judge of character?

  But then I did okay choosing my friends, like Carlos, Amira, and Asteria.

  So maybe it’s just romantic decisions that elude me. Even when those romantic decisions are for my cousin and not for me.

  “Come on,” Jinzo says, jerking his head to the side. “Let us give you the grand tour.”

  “Carlos, I’ll take you straight to your den of technology, as Vivian likes to call it,” Ken says, gesturing Carlos forward. “I’m pretty happy with the way we laid everything out in the room.”

  Carlos narrows his eyes. “We’ll see about that.”

  I let them go and smile at Carlos’s back as he retreats away from us. He’s very particular about how his computers are set up.

  “I’m going to go check out the crew quarters,” Lia says, angling past us and running up the stairs. I wonder if she’ll choose the same room she had last time.

  “So,” Jinzo starts, and his hesitation is clear as he rocks back on his heels, “you’re going to need to hire an engineer to run everything we’ve implemented in here. There’s no way you’ll be able to maintain this ship on your own like the last time.” He clears his throat.