Free Mercenary Courage (Mandrake Company) by Ruby Lionsdrake Page A

quality. “Fleet doesn’t tell me nothing. If you were smart, you would have asked them .” He smiled at Ankari, as if he had said something cunning.
    Ankari was surprised Viktor did not bash his face into the wall a few more times for his insolence. Had she been in his position, she would have been tempted.
    “You got anything else you want to tell me?” Viktor leaned harder against the man’s back, speaking into his ear. “Something that would give me a reason not to kill you right now?”
    “Your woman is hot. I’d paint a shuttle pink, too, if she’d let me screw her. I like the way you handle that pistol, girl. You get tired of Mandrake, you come see me. You—”
    This time, Viktor did slam Sherkov’s face against the wall. Not multiple times, the way Ankari had wanted him to, but once was all it took. The drugged captain’s eyes rolled back into his head, and as soon as Viktor stepped away from him, he collapsed to the mat.
    “That was a waste of time,” Viktor said with disgust.
    “At least you got a good workout.”
    He grunted. “Did the fight last long enough that time? For you to admire my brawny grace?” His words came with a self-deprecating wryness, as if he believed he had been anything but graceful, and he touched his swollen eye with his knuckles.
    “Yes, but next time, I’d appreciate it if you stopped at some point to take your shirt off. I admire brawny grace even more when muscles gleaming with sweat are rippling beneath the lights.”
    That only brought another self-deprecating grunt, as if he could not imagine anyone wanting to admire that.
    Ankari smiled and stepped toward him, lifting her fingers toward his injured eye, but she refrained from touching it. That could only hurt. “Why don’t we get that room? And an icepack?”
    “I would be amenable to that. And taking my shirt off, as well. Other things, too, if you’re still interested.”
    Her smile broadened, and she winked at him. “I’m always interested.”
    • • • • •
    “King-sized bed, his and her sinks, two-person shower, personal coffee station, and holodisplay loaded with a billion free movies,” Ankari announced as she and Viktor waited for the elevator. “Will that do?”
    “What’s a two-person shower? As opposed to a one-person shower?” he asked.
    “Something much larger than that coffin in your cabin, I hope.”
    “We’ve gotten two people in there.” Viktor had been wearing a dour expression since they left the gym, but a slight smile curved his lips now.
    “Yes, and I have the bruises to prove it. The knobs are at an unfortunate height, and the less said about the positioning of that soap dispenser, the better.” Ankari showed a three-dimensional display of their room above her tablet, tapped the bathroom door, and the view whooshed inside to show off the big glass-walled shower. “This has two heads, one for each person.”
    “We wouldn’t be close to each other.”
    “You would be welcome to come visit my shower head. And I could visit yours.”
    Viktor’s smile stretched wider. “You’re always welcome to visit my head.”
    Before Ankari could share an appropriately naughty reply, two gray-haired monks in brown robes stepped up to the elevator beside them. They were in their sixties or seventies, and one quirked his eyebrows at Viktor, apparently having been an audience for his last statement. Unflappable as always, Viktor did not reply, either with words or his eyebrows.
    The elevator chimed, and Ankari and Viktor stepped inside, the monks following. She wondered if they had been at the gym or if they had other business on this floor. She vaguely remembered one of the directories showing Buddhists, Christians, and druids all having temples or churches on the station. The monks stood to one side of the elevator, and Viktor and Ankari claimed the other.
    “Do you need to check in with your men before we can go... shower?” she murmured. Even though Viktor had scoffed at