Stowaway by Becky Black Page B

the Link back into his pocket. So he wouldn’t get to say good-bye to Raine either. Shame. He’d have liked to see the big lug again before he left. Knowing that Raine and his people were supervising the loading and unloading of cargo crates and covering all the exits worried Kit. They might foil his plan. The squad was good—he had to give Raine kudos for training his people well—so Kit had to get his timing right.
    “Once breakfast cleanup is over, I’ll head straight down to pick up the supplies,” he said.
    “Want me to come with?”
    “I can manage. Gracie…thanks.” He smiled at her when she looked at him questioningly. “Just kind of realized I hadn’t said it, but you’ve been really good to me since I arrived. It’s been fun working with you.”
    She smiled and looked away. “Oh, look at me; you’re making me blush. Come on,” she said as a couple of people came into the dining room. “Back to work.”
    * * *
    Raine dropped into his office later that morning to check a couple of things and grab a coffee. He sank into his chair with a sigh. This day was already too long. This time spent docked at the station while they collected the ore containers and the workers was always the busiest part of the whole trip. After they left, things usually settled back into a routine, though certainly a busier one than they’d had so far. Kit’s appearance had been the most excitement they’d had during the first leg of the trip in a long time.
    Where was Kit now? He checked the tracker program. Down in the storage containers. Raine glanced at the time. About right. On days he collected supplies, he went down there after breakfast cleanup.
    He closed the program. Finally he’d started to gain some control over his ridiculous physical reaction to Kit—mostly by not seeing him. He’d let Warner handle the check-in interviews for the last few days, and his life had been more tranquil for it. He didn’t have to spend an hour getting his emotions back under control after Kit left.
    He’d do his best to keep on avoiding him for the rest of the voyage. They’d run into each other sometimes, but he could avoid being alone with him in this office. Even with the door open, Kit seemed to fill and dominate the intimate space. How, exactly, Raine didn’t know. He took up less space than Raine. It must be the scent of him, calling to Raine on some unconscious level. And there was the constant provocation. Yes, that could fill the room too, fighting for space with Raine’s mixed-up anger and desire.
    Did they even need the check-ins anymore? Kit was following the rules. He hadn’t gone anywhere off-limits. Yes, they could probably discontinue the check-ins. He could spring a spot-check on him every so often, and obviously, if anything suspicious showed up, he’d question Kit.
    But it appeared he could be trusted. Maybe there had been some kind of mistake or frame-up as he claimed. There could be a perfectly good explanation, even for the money they’d found in Kit’s hiding place. If Kit was innocent and he came to trust the crew of the Dawn , he might open up about what happened. If he was being railroaded, they could help him. The captain would do her best for him if he kept on being a good crew member. She rewarded hard work and loyalty. Even so, Raine should stay away from Kit—for the sake of his peace of mind.
    Okay, he thought, glancing at the clock, coffee break over. Back to work. He stood up, dumped his mug by the door to take back to the galley later, and then hesitated. It might be better to take it when he knew Kit was still down in the storage container and they wouldn’t run into each other.
    An alarm sounded from both his terminal and his Link. He grabbed the Link from his pocket, knowing the alarm, denying it in his mind, wanting to be wrong. He wasn’t.
    The computer had lost the signal from Kit’s tracker.
    * * *
    It took Raine six minutes to get from his office to the place they last had a