Hammer Down: Children of the Undying: Book 2 by Moira Rogers Page A

and violence. It always came back to one or the other.
    Hailey’s breath hissed out, sharp enough to jerk Zel’s attention back to her. Lorenzo was half on his feet before she held up one finger in obvious threat. “Back off, he’s just kicking.” Her hand pressed tighter to the swell of her belly, and her eyebrows drew together. “I hope.”
    “Bad timing.” Lorenzo swore. “This is all bad timing. What has Trip uncovered?”
    “I’ll ping you both with the files. Overview?” Zel held up his fingers and ticked off the members of Devi’s crew one at a time. “The man’s Tanner. A thug, pretty much, but a legal one. Trained by the government, did what most of them do when they get bored or want more money—found a crew to ship out with. The woman is Juliet Ruiz, not much there. Never caused trouble, but likes weapons. A lot. The girl, though…”
    Over half of the file Trip had put together had been on Cache alone. Troubled childhood, early indications of being too smart and too precocious for anyone’s comfort. Trip hadn’t been able to find out who, if anyone, had trained her, but Trip’s education hadn’t exactly been textbook, either. The best network techs seemed to be that way—homegrown, dangerous, and generally recruited or killed before they hit twenty. Trip had found safety in an outcast town that needed his expertise, and Cache had done the same when she’d signed up with Devi.
    Zel shook his head and gestured to the tablet. “Her real name’s Marinella, but she has a dozen aliases and travels under a fake ID as Polly. They all call her Cache. She got snatched on a haul a couple years back, wound up exiled with a bad chip. Lost her hearing due to nerve damage caused by infection. If it weren’t for her, the whole crew would be so legit they’d shine.”
    “Which begs the question,” Lorenzo murmured. “Why haven’t the rest of them ditched her yet?”
    Hailey quirked one eyebrow, giving Lorenzo the exasperated look she usually reserved for recalcitrant teenagers. “What happened when you went to check on her?”
    “Boss lady gave me a death glare and told me not to ever climb in the girl’s head again. She didn’t threaten me, but she didn’t really have to. Very protective.” He shrugged. “They could be an item.”
    Oh, that was an unpleasant twist to Zel’s fantasies. Not that he couldn’t enjoy the idea of two women crawling over each other, but it was too easy to remember Cache’s terrified weakness, a weakness that roused instincts more interested in violence than sex.
    Not that he could admit that to anyone. “They could be. Either way, she’s protective as hell.” He thought of the words she’d used. Throw someone like Cache away. “I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s made plans to go off the grid if she has to.”
    Lorenzo considered it. “A move like that, if you’re going to do it smart, takes as much information as it does money.”
    “Maybe she’ll share.” Hailey considered Zel for a moment. “We need information, don’t we? If Nicollet has made their move?”
    “We have some.” But not enough, never enough. “I could ask—but things might get tense if they think I’m holding them to interrogate them.”
    “Things are tense anyway,” Lorenzo argued. “And maybe for good reason.”
    “Maybe,” Hailey agreed. “But why borrow trouble? Offer them help refueling. We have resources to spare, and maybe she’ll be a little more open if she’s on familiar ground. Goods for services, Zel. That’s what a hauler’s life is.”
    His head was starting to throb, and it made him snappish. “So maybe I can—”
    The door slammed open. “You fucking bastard.”
    Zel didn’t remember vaulting over his desk, but he must have because his boots hit the carpet a heartbeat later. He curled his fingers around the hilt of his knife and rose, his body squarely between Hailey and the intruder. Lorenzo reacted more slowly, but the door barely had time to