Bianca D'Arc by King of Clubs Read Free Book Online Page A

rather,
the gaps in it—coupled with the way she’d handled this situation so
far, led him to believe there was a lot more to Lila than met the
eye.
    “About what?” She kept her voice pitched low
enough not to be overheard.
    “About what you did between your first job as
a magistrate and your marriage. There’s this huge gap in your file,
Lila, and I begin to suspect they left the most interesting parts
of your past out.”
    “You’ve read my file?” she asked quickly,
following up just as quickly with a hand on his arm, squeezing
gently as he helped her around a bulkhead. “What am I saying? Of
course you’ve read my file. You would have been stupid not to. But
you realize by telling me this, you’ve basically confirmed my
suspicions about your presence here, right?”
    He sent her a pleased smile. Yeah, she was on
the ball, his Lila. Sharp as a tack and sensible in a way that was
very appealing to him.
    “Showing you this backdoor was already an
admission of sorts.” He shrugged as if it didn’t matter that he’d
extended his trust, but they both knew it was a very big deal. In
this game, trusting the wrong person could easily mean not only
betrayal, but death. “I figured it was time we started working
together fully instead of just dancing around the edges. We both
know something’s going down on this station in the near future.
Tonight, you were targeted by one of the suspect group. The shit’s
about to hit the fan and I think we’re the only ones aware of the
problem, in a position to do something about it.”
    He stopped, turning to face her as they
arrived at the final hidden hatch. Her gaze was serious, her head
tilted in consideration.
    “Winters is… a friend of the family would be
the best way to describe him, I guess. I worked for him in those
intervening years before I got married. You work for him now, don’t
you?” Admission and challenge. Parry and attack. Chip liked her
style.
    “Let’s get inside before we go any further.”
He knew they were safe enough in this well protected tunnel, but he
wanted the security of the bar for what came next.
     

Chapter Five
     
    He closed the hatch behind them and Lila was
surprised at where the back tunnels had led them. She recognized
the server bot storage area right away. The bay was mostly empty
now as the bots were all out in the bar, doing their various
cleaning cycles. She’d thought the entrance used by the bots would
be too small for a person, but looking around she realized he
hadn’t used the bot entrance at all. No, they’d come through a wall
panel that looked just the same as any other, except this one
opened on silent, invisible hinges.
    “Obviously, this entrance is best used when
the bots are busy outside,” Chip explained as he led the way out of
the storage area.
    Lila didn’t comment as she followed Chip
through the back area of the bar, straight into the rooms she’d
only entered once before. This was Alex’s private apartment. While
Alex was away, Chip had moved in and set up shop here and she could
see only subtle differences from the way it had been the last time
she’d seen the main living area. For one thing, all the reading
material had been moved off the central table and put away
neatly.
    Some loose wiring had been left out, along
with a small toolkit. Perhaps Chip was making modifications of his
own to the security system, she reasoned.
    He directed her to the long, well padded
couch. It had been a harrowing few minutes and it was good to sit
someplace safe and quiet and just… be.
    Chip puttered for a moment in the galley
while she collected her thoughts. When he returned, he was holding
two cups of coffee. He handed one to her and she took it
gratefully.
    When he sat beside her on the couch, suddenly
the large piece of furniture seemed too small, but his big,
protective presence was welcome. Especially as she recalled the
strong thoughts Beezus had been broadcasting about his plans after
he ambushed her.