Free Make or Break the Hero (The Hunter Legacy Book 4) by Timothy Ellis

He walked up to the
bed. "Firstly, my apologies for my failure. It never occurred to me that
anyone still used projectile weapons. The scans missed the walking stick.
Second, my continued apologies for not having a security escort when you left
your ship. I'd been informed of the previous attempts on your life, but we'd no
warning of any likelihood of an attempt here. I should've considered it anyway.
Third, we're still tracking down your assassins, but Santiago Senior is the
most likely suspect. The ID on the corpse is obviously false. According to
records, Santiago vanished from the Australian sector months ago."
    He must have left before I left Outback,
and not returned.
    "You should be happy to know, as of a
few hours ago, you no longer have a bounty on your head. It appears the Bounty
Hunters Guild has been informed that none of the previous bounties can now be
paid. I think you can assume that the Santiago family won't be causing you any
more trouble."
    I sighed. I'd never wanted the trouble.
Given the choice, I'd have been home begging to be allowed to fly once in a
while. The arrogance of stupid people never ceased to amaze me. If they'd only
left me alone, I'd have settled down on Outback Orbital after the first attack,
and would still be there, immersed somehow in the family business.
    "You can keep the guns you took from
the first assassins. I had them adjudicated to you." I nodded. "The
recordings of the first assassination attempt vanished. So there's no official
record of you taking any illegal action. Not that we were going to follow that
up anyway. Your actions shocked a few people on the oversight committee, but I
showed them the vid of you being attacked by that Mercenary team, and they took
my point. Your shooting put a damper on the celebration by the way. It didn’t
last very long after that. There's been a press release saying you were not
badly injured, and should be released from hospital tomorrow."
    "Thanks," I said.
    He left, promising to have a subtle
security presence around me, until I was back on my ship.
    The girls hugged me gently, and resumed
their seats.
    "Did you get any sleep last
night?" I asked.
    "Some," replied Amanda. "We
took turns on the door, while Alison held your hand."
    "I did not!"
    We all laughed. Alison and I both regretted
it.
    I accessed the station system for the local
'tool man', and ordered a new suit belt, with three boosters. I was promised
almost immediate delivery. I removed my existing belt.
    "What's up with your belt?" asked
Aleesha.
    "Almost dead," I said. "Eleven
percent, and not regenerating."
    "Ouch," said the twins together.
    "Don’t remind me."
    I lay there against the pillows for a
while, in silence, eyes closed. I did the release for Santiago Senior, and
coughed myself into a higher state of pain for the next ten minutes. A nurse
came in, saw my face, and gave me another pain killer.
    The girls watched me the whole time, but
said nothing.
    The local 'tool man' turned up himself,
carrying more than the expected four packages. He unpacked my new belt, but
paused before he handed it to me.
    "Admiral," he began. "Those
of us who live and work on this station owe you a great deal. But for you, we
would all likely be dead now, or marooned dirtside with no livelihoods."
He held up the belt. "This is something I've been tinkering with for a
long time. One of the big drawbacks of the standard suit is it can't handle the
momentum of a hit. The hit itself is what it's designed to deal with, but
people often suffer injuries from the landing after the hit, as well as the
bruising of the hit itself. I understand one of your hits yesterday threw you
across your cargo bay?" I nodded. "I've been working on this problem.
I've solved one of the issues, but the new suit has not yet been released for
sale, as I wish to solve both first."
    "Which one did you solve?"
    "The momentum issue. This suit will
take a hit from a Meson Blaster, and the momentum is shifted down the suit