Free The Tracker's Dilemma: (A Mandrake Company Science Fiction Romance) by Ruby Lionsdrake

up.
    “Have you told Dr. Keys about your new abilities?” Tick asked.
    “I mentioned it, but I think her sister is more interested.” Hemlock held his arm out, his palm facing downward toward the dice. They lifted from the deck, and he plucked them from the air, then dumped them back into the cup. “Wish I’d had some powers like this when I was a bounty hunter.”
    Powers. There was that word again. As if he considered himself some superhero from one of Striker’s comics.
    “Fewer of those bastards who blew up our world might have escaped,” Hemlock said, his hand curling around the dice cup, his green-eyed gaze growing intense.
    “Is that who you were hunting?” Tick asked. “I hadn’t heard that.”
    “Spent the last ten years at it. Sometimes for pay, sometimes not. There weren’t a lot of wealthy Grenavinians who were off-world when it happened. I took other jobs on the side, to keep fuel in my tank and my ship in the air, but mostly, I was researching the assholes responsible and avenging our people whenever I could.” His fingers tightened around the dice cup. “Didn’t you ever want to do the same?”
    “Sure,” Tick said. “After it happened, I was more pissed than a tiger dumped in a river with his legs tied together. Didn’t know who was responsible, though, other than the military. A big organization to target.”
    “There were key players in the military and the government. I had someone helping me do the research, until she—” His grip loosened on the cup. “Lost her last year in a fight with Fleet. Lost my ship too. Never lost my desire to avenge the deaths of our people, but it was harder after that. I couldn’t get the money together to find another ship, and I wasn’t as good at research. It was hard to find someone else who was, someone else who still cared.” He closed his mouth, his jaw tightening noticeably.
    “That why you applied to join Mandrake Company?”
    “Yup, heard the captain took assignments to irk the government sometimes. Heard about the finance lords he’d killed.”
    Tick knew the captain had only killed one finance lord—the assassin, Sergei Zharkov, had dropped the other—and that it had been to protect Ankari and her business partners rather than out of a desire for revenge. Oh, he’d taken some assignments over the years to help Grenavinians, but he always seemed too practical to get into the revenge business. Tick wasn’t surprised it had ended up costing Hemlock his ship and a friend, or maybe more than a friend. Tick couldn’t fault him for his choices, could even understand them, but wouldn’t have made them himself.
    “Just wish he was more interested in targeting those bastards.” Hemlock glowered down at the deck. “I suggested a mining outpost owned by the man who built the weapon that destroyed our planet. He wasn’t interested.”
    “Revenge isn’t real profitable, and it gets men killed.”
    Hemlock grunted neutrally.
    The shuttle wobbled, and Tick gripped the armrests, his gaze lurching toward the view screen. They had flown closer to the planet, the curve of the horizon disappearing. The greenery had disappeared, as well, now hidden beneath a blanket of swirling gray clouds. They had also flown past the terminator between day and night and were looking down at the dark side of the moon.
    “Best buckle in,” Jamie said from the pilot’s seat. “Looks like Ms. Keys’ first set of coordinates is going to take us down into a storm.”
    Ms. Keys did not appear nervous—she leaned toward the view screen, as if she could pierce the clouds with her eyes and spot their destination—but Lauren groaned.
    Tick couldn’t blame her. The first time she had visited the moon, it had been during a storm and at night, with two groups of mercenaries trying to capture her. Mandrake Company had been one of those groups of mercenaries, before the captain had figured out that the women weren’t criminals and that the bounty on their heads had