Gambit by Kim Knox Read Free Book Online Page A

“Second attempt to leave the train, pretty.”
    Chae stood and took his leash, urging Daned to his feet. Her gaze darted around the carriage and found others standing, but none had the hairs on the back of her neck standing on end. She didn’t take comfort in the fact that her instincts weren’t screaming at her. The sky track consisted of fifteen carriages. Suits could be hiding anywhere.
    Juddering to a stop, the carriage flung back its doors and the cool night air of Baruun Urt swept into the space. There was only a hint of Darkhan Uul’s toxic air, the taste of Baruun Urt instead pushing the odor of slick metal to the back of her throat. Sharp light cut across the station and Chae strode down the platform, Daned at her side.
    She wanted to focus on staying alive and her straining nerves encouraged it because, shit, she didn’t want the unexpectedly bitter taste of him being payment in her thoughts.
    “We’re still being followed.” Daned’s whisper burned raw against her ear and she shivered. “One, maybe two.”
    “Chae Beyon!” Her name echoed over the platform.
    “That’d be them,” she muttered as she broke into a run.
    Hot air, thick with the stink of the sky track’s engines, gusted around her legs in a rising gray cloud. With a deafening scrape of metal, the transport shot away from the platform. Weapons’ fire burst against the stones, heat surging over her boot heels. She cursed and willed more speed into her legs.
    “Fucking. Earning. My. Crystals.” She bit out the words as shots hit the floor and flared up sparks from the stones. More shots impacted the arch of the protective barrier, showering her unprotected head with beads of hot rock. “You didn’t say anything about people shooting at me.”
    “Don’t be naïve, Captain.”
    “I would have still liked ‘Hey Chae, people will shoot at you with fucking big-ass guns.’” She swung right, dragging Daned into the bright interior of the first open lift. She slammed the doorplate and pulled out her gun. Her heart beat hard, her breath short and raw. Seconds crawled and she kicked the wall. “Come on!”
    The sudden silence had her backing away from open entrance of the lift. Its shield rolled up, a haze growing over the shadows of the platform.
    “Captain Chae Beyon!” The flash of a muzzle and then a dark-suited man threw himself at the lift. He hit the security screen with a low grunt, cursed and took aim.
    A blaze of white burst over the shield and Chae staggered back, biting back a curse. Heat rushed at her and she fought to breathe. Her knees buckled and her backside hit the metal floor.
    “Captain.” Daned pressed his hand to her shoulder. “Take it slow.”
    “I don’t get shot at anymore,” she said as the lift juddered and started its slow descent. “I get sarcastic customs officers, ones on the take…or the make. But they keep their weapons holstered. Hell, I got used to not having my life threatened. It was nice.” She pushed her spine back up the wall. They weren’t out of trouble. The lift gave them only a few minutes’ breathing space. Her boots creaked and the sliver of black crystal dug into her calf. “Is your black crystal legal? Or is all this just bullshit?”
    “As Govan said, there are a number of warring Families.” Daned threaded his fingers through his dark hair, smoothing it back. He paced the short space of the lift floor. “Our prince is simply one of nine.”
    “And so now Families are wiping each other out?” Chae shook her head. “Never mind. I don’t care. My mother always said the Ladaians were insane. Hidebound and completely crazy. She promised that would not be my fate.” She pressed her finger to her ear, the sharp whine of the activating tech making her wince. Zayin had to be in range. “Can you hear me?”
    “Welcome to Baruun Urt.”
    Chae let out a hot, relieved breath. He sounded exactly like Aleph, and the similarity was strangely comforting. “I’ve brought unwanted