Free In the Devil's Nebula (Phoenix Adventures #2) by Anna Hackett Page A

wouldn’t be good for their mission. You
couldn’t take all your emotions with you, or they’d get you
killed.
    Without thinking, he followed her.
    Moments later, he stood in the doorway to
their spacious gym, watching her move.
    She’d switched her casual clothes for
form-fitting leggings in electric blue and a black tank that molded
to her skin. She was moving her arms through the air, bending her
knees deep and doing sweeping movements that looked like a cross
between martial arts and a dance. The graceful moves were almost
hypnotic.
    Then she spun and kicked high in the air
before moving back into the slower, controlled moves.
    “You just going to stare?” She turned
slowly, leading with her hands, palms open, her gaze hitting
him.
    “What is it?”
    “The Guild call it taiji.” She turned again,
lifting a leg, extending it up in an awesome display of
flexibility.
    “I imagined you doing cross-fighting.
Something deadly, high impact. You used to like that.”
    Ria stilled, her arms dropping to her sides.
“I’m not her.”
    Idiot . “Right. I’m sorry.”
    She started the moves again, this time with
a little less grace.
    He stepped out onto the mats. Damn, he
wanted to make it right. “I figured the Guild would prefer
cross-fighting.” The mixed style of fighting used elements taken
from all the galaxy’s different methods of hand-to-hand
fighting.
    “They teach us. I can show you if you’d
like.” Her smile was sharp. “One kick and I could break your
neck.”
    Right . “I’ll take your word on
it.”
    She moved her hands, her body bending like a
slim tree in the wind. “Taiji isn’t so much about killing, it’s
about settling the mind, balancing your energies.”
    “Sounds very Old Earth.”
    “It has its origins there, although they’re
murky now. We don’t know exactly where it came from.”
    “So, you’re feeling the need to balance your
energies?”
    She looked over her shoulder. “Yeah. Being
hunted, stealing things, and dealing with you, it’s left me a
little…out of balance.”
    He stepped toward her. “I came here to
apologize. I didn’t kiss you because you remind me of Vik. I
just…wanted to kiss senseless a hot woman who I’d just enjoyed a
brilliant hunt with.”
    Ria stopped and stared at him. “Jesus,
Phoenix, you have no pretty words do you?”
    He shrugged. “I’m just a simple pilot.”
    She huffed out a breath. “There’s nothing
simple about you. And for some crazy reason, it works for me.”
    He smiled. “I rub off on everyone after a
while.”
    She gave a choking laugh, then the humor
bled from her eyes. “I’m not just angry at you. I’m angry at myself
because there’s something I haven’t told you.”
    His muscles tensed. Damn. Now what?
“Okay.”
    “I dream about you.”
    He blinked. What?
    “I mean—” she clenched her hands together
“—your face is in my dreams. It started a few months ago. That’s
why I came to you. Not just to help me steal the derringer.”
    Zayn’s entire body tensed. Vik. It had to
be.
    This woman was Vik.
    ***
    Ria hated confessing to him. Not because
she’d lied but because he would just continue to believe she was
someone else.
    She saw it all over his face. The bright
spark of hope.
    Her heart contracted, hard as a stone.
Someone else wanting her to be something she wasn’t. The assassins
wanted her to be a killer and Zayn wanted her to be Viktoria.
    Why did no one just want her for her?
    “There’s some explanation for this, Ria.”
His words were slow and steady. Like he was worried he’d make her
skittish.
    She’d told him because it was the right
thing to do and because maybe it would stop this inexorable drag
she felt toward him.
    Zayn Phoenix would always see another woman
when he looked at her. Ria couldn’t let herself forget that.
    “Maybe there is. I suspect the only way
we’ll find out is inside the Guild Headquarters.” Suddenly she was
angry. Angry at Zayn, the Guild, at the perfect