“We finished running the additional security scans last night. The problem is going to be traveling outside our monitoring areas.”

Carl nodded at Cruncher’s assessment and took another bite of food. He glanced around the table at his crew and considered his options. They couldn’t close up shop while they waited for a resolution of the issue with Ramiro. No matter what he decided, their productivity would take a hit.

Xantham leaned over, swiping a fruit stick off Jinx’s plate. She glowered at him and snatched it back, bopping him on the head in the process. Ignoring their antics, Carl turned back to Cruncher with the intention of continuing their conversation. He fell silent at the older man’s expression.

“Hot damn.” Cruncher’s jaw dropped.

Carl looked up to see Kayla striding into the room. With a cheerful “Good morning,” she flashed a smile to the group and headed toward the cabinet that stored their prepared meals.

Carl swallowed and couldn’t help but gape as she bent over the cabinet. Her shorts hung low on her waist and hugged her curves seductively. The small top was low cut and accentuated her breasts while leaving her midsection bare. Oblivious to the reaction she’d caused, she pulled out one of the breakfast meals and programmed the computer to heat it.

“You’re going to have to beat off the potential recruits if they get a look at her.”

Carl eyed her appreciatively, silently agreeing with Cruncher’s comment. It was more than her appearance though. There was such an effortless sensuality to her movements. Something about her captivated him, and judging from the reactions of the other men in the room, he wasn’t alone.

Elyot was close to drooling, and Xantham nearly fell out of his chair trying to get a better look.

Jinx looked at the men in mock disgust. “You know, I don’t remember getting that kind of reaction when I wore the same outfit.”

Xantham’s eyes didn’t leave Kayla. “Much love to you, Jinx, but you don’t have a body like that.”

Jinx rolled her eyes, taking a large bite of her fruit stick. Carl cleared his throat, and Xantham had the grace to look abashed. Kayla brought her food tray to the table and sat down.

“Sleep well?” Carl leaned forward, watching while she uncovered her plate.

Kayla nodded. “Yeah. Those privacy dividers are nice. I didn’t mean to sleep so late.”

He gave her a reassuring smile. “Don’t worry. You haven’t missed anything.”

“Oh, thanks again for the clothes, Jinx. I’m hoping Veridian will be here this morning with my things.”

“Yeah, thanks for the clothes, Jinx,” Xantham echoed, putting his head in his hands to gaze at Kayla.

Jinx kicked him under the table. He jerked upright and grimaced at her. Jinx turned back to Kayla and smiled. “Anytime, Kayla. Ignore Xantham. He was dropped on his head when he was a kid.”

Kayla arched a brow, then looked at the faces seated around the table. “So where are Lisia and Zane? Did they head to the ruins?”

Jinx looked slightly uncomfortable and so did the men. “Uh, Lisia wanted to get out of camp for a bit. They’re running the perimeter to check for security flaws.”

Kayla cocked her head. “Oh?”

Before Jinx could reply, Carl pushed away his plate and changed the subject. “Kayla, I have some commlink appointments this afternoon, but before that we’re going to run some preliminary tests on the new equipment. If everything is quiet with Ramiro, we’re planning on going underground tomorrow to see how some of these new toys handle. You interested?”

“Are you fucking kidding me?” she exclaimed, acting shocked he would even consider the alternative. “I’m in.”

Xantham gave a dreamy sigh. “The face of an angel, the body of a goddess, and the mouth of a ruin rat. I think I’m in love, Boss.”

Jinx smacked him in the back of the head, causing him to yelp. “Excuse us.” Jinx stood and grabbed the back of Xantham’s shirt to pull him away from the table. With an apologetic smile, she said, “I think Xantham needs to go take a cold shower.”

Carl shook his head at Kayla’s look of confusion, while Cruncher and Elyot both laughed.

Elyot stood and dumped out the empty plates before turning to Kayla. “I’m going to be working on the system maintenance while you guys are testing. If you get some time later, Kayla, I’d love to see what you can do with some of the locks. Zane wouldn’t shut up about it the other day.”

“Sure.”

“Sounds good. I’ll see you a bit later.” He waved and headed out of the room.

Cruncher finished eating, stood up, and dumped his plate before looking at Carl. “I’ll start prepping in the tech room while you two finish your meals.”

Carl nodded and turned back to Kayla. She glanced around at the empty room and observed, “It sure cleared out fast around here.”

He watched her pick at her food for a moment. A strand of hair fell across her cheek, and he resisted the urge to tuck it behind her ear, not knowing if he’d be able to stop touching her once he started. “Sorry for not waking you. I thought you’d enjoy sleeping in today since we didn’t have anything on the schedule.”

In an effort to keep his hands busy, he reached into his pocket, withdrew her commlink, and slid it over to her. “You left your commlink in the tech room. I would have returned it to you last night but didn’t want to wake you.”

“Thanks.” She flipped it open and read through her messages. A small frown marred her features. “Well, it looks like you were right.”

“About what?”

“V says someone from Ramiro’s crew contacted Leo last night asking about us. Leo told him we were both gone and staying at your camp now.” She took another bite of her breakfast, chewing while she finished reading the message.

Carl’s jaw tightened at the news. It wasn’t any more than what he had expected, but it still pissed him off. “Veridian is okay?”

She flipped her commlink shut and pushed away her plate. “Yeah, he should be here in an hour or two.”

Carl stood up. He’d feel better once Veridian had arrived. Both Kayla and Veridian fell under his protection the moment they agreed to work for him, and it was a job he didn’t take lightly. “If you’re finished eating, let’s go check out the new equipment. I know you’ve been dying to get your hands on it.”

Kayla nodded eagerly and dumped her plate. He led her into the tech room where Cruncher had pulled out some of the new sensors.

“Great,” Cruncher said when he saw her. “Kayla, grab that one there and see if you can configure the uplink to our system. Then you can start calibrating it.”

Kayla knelt to pick up the unit he pointed out. There was no hesitation in her movements as her nimble fingers ran across the monitor to locate the specific uplink frequency. She scrolled through the data until she detected the frequency and then initiated the connection.

Cruncher motioned to Carl, letting him know he wanted a private word. “I’ll be right back.”

She gave an absent nod, completely engrossed in her project. Anxious to learn what Cruncher had found, Carl followed him into the next room.

When Cruncher was sure Kayla was out of earshot, he said, “I managed to touch base with my contact in Ramiro’s camp. Minko has been working with Ramiro for several years. He was more forthcoming than I expected. I don’t think he likes Ramiro much.”

“What did he say?”

“He said Pretz was a good guy. Solid. Brought in a steady stream of profit and could work locks like no one he’s ever seen. They were trying to recruit his brother, too, but didn’t have much luck.”

Carl rubbed his chin, glancing toward the tech room. “Did he say anything about Kayla?”

“Not by name,” Cruncher admitted. “He said Pretz was head over heels for some ruin rat. I got the impression it caused some problems with Ramiro.”

“Did he know anything about how he died?”

Cruncher shook his head. “Not much. Ramiro discovered Pretz had fallen through two levels in one of the cleared sectors. It surprised everyone since Pretz wasn’t careless and those sectors had already been cleared. Minko said he never found out why Pretz was in a cleared sector on his scheduled day off. But Minko saw the body, and it was mangled pretty badly.”

Carl frowned. It was unfortunate, but accidents sometimes happened in the ruins. The fact he was in a cleared sector was suspicious though. “Thanks, Cruncher.”

“No problem, Boss.” Cruncher leaned forward, lowering his voice even more. “There was one more thing though. The day after Pretz died, Minko said Pretz’s girl showed up and demanded to see Ramiro. He said she was a hot little number with dark hair and a lot of attitude, which sounds a lot like our Kayla. Ramiro took her into his office, and the next thing everyone knew, the Aurelia Data Cube had been stolen.”

“So the timing fits,” Carl mused, glancing at the door where Kayla was working. “It sounds like I need to have a talk with Kayla. I think we’re missing a pretty big part of the story.”

Cruncher nodded, folding his arms across his chest. “Sounds that way. I’m not sure how well it’ll go over, talking to her about it though. Ruin rats don’t like discussing their private lives, especially with traders. It doesn’t matter that she’s part of the crew now.”

“I’ll figure something out,” Carl promised. The alternative wasn’t acceptable.