The Two Towers by Jamie A. Waters

She caught Veridian's worried look and tried to give him a reassuring smile. There wasn't much she could do to extricate the two of them from the situation. They'd have to roll with it.
    She heard the voices in the hall and recognized Ramiro and his right-hand man, Vex. In Kayla’s opinion, they were both creeps.
    The door slid open, and Carl and Ramiro entered, followed by Cruncher and Vex. A look of confusion crossed Ramiro’s face when he saw Kayla standing in Carl’s office.
    Ramiro stood a few inches shorter than Carl but was considerably wider. He wasn’t overweight, but simply massive. His dark hair was cropped extremely close to his head and his arms were covered with tattoos. He reminded her of some of the pictures she'd seen of tanks from the pre-war era, both in stature and personality.
    Vex was a bit taller and thinner than Ramiro, but his brown hair was slicked back away from his face, rather than cut short. His dark eyes narrowed dangerously when he saw Kayla. Neither one of them had much love for her.
    “Heya, Ramiro,” she said cheerfully, giving him a little finger wave. “It’s been awhile, hasn’t it?”
    “You little whore,” Ramiro sneered, his face twisted in rage.
    Before anyone could react, he leapt across the room. He grabbed Kayla’s arm and yanked her off the desk.
    “Get your slimy ass-grabbing hands off of me,” she shrieked and kicked him. He backhanded her across the face.
    Pain lanced through her cheek and she stumbled backward, falling to the ground. Carl and Veridian both tackled Ramiro and wrestled with him. Cruncher grabbed Vex and held him back.
    Kayla scrambled to her feet and rubbed her throbbing cheek. Working her jaw, she glared at him. “What’s the matter, Ramiro? Forget to remove your anal probe?”
    Veridian and Carl both managed to subdue a raging Ramiro. He glared at her with venomous hatred. She considered blowing him a kiss to piss him off more but then decided that might be akin to suicide. Carl held up his hand and said loudly, “That’s enough, Kayla. Ramiro, I’ll let you go if you can manage to keep your hands off of her.”
    Ramiro pulled away from Carl and demanded, “Why are you protecting this little bitch, Carl? If you think you can trust her, you’re a fool.”
    “She’s a potential recruit.”
    “Bullshit,” Ramiro sneered. “She’s screwing with you.”
    Carl pulled up her contract on his monitor and pushed it toward Ramiro.
    “I’ve already made her an offer. See for yourself.”
    Ramiro stared at the screen and his eyes narrowed. “She hasn’t accepted and this doesn’t change anything. She owes me. I intend to collect.”
    “I don’t owe you a thing. The Aurelia Data Cube was mine!”
    “You stole it from my sector,” he snarled.
    “You cleared those tunnels,” she shouted, clenching her fists. “It’s not my problem your crew couldn’t figure out if their ass was on fire with a flashlight and a three-way mirror.”
    “Wait a second,” Carl interrupted. “You cleared the tunnels, Ramiro?”
    Ramiro crossed his arms. “You’re a trader, Carl. You understand how things work. Maybe my crew had already finished in that sector, but that was my sector. I offered her a generous finder’s fee for the data cube. She refused and then walked into my base and stole it.”
    “You lying sack of shit,” Kayla spat. “Your ‘generous offer’ was five hundred credits and me flat on my back while you tried to figure out how to pilot my speeder.”
    Carl’s eyes narrowed. “Is that true, Ramiro? If you said those tunnels were clear, you know she was damn well within her rights. As painful as it may have been, the data cube was hers.”
    Ramiro turned to Carl in disgust. “You would take her side over another trader? She’s nothing but a piece of ass.”
    Carl’s face hardened. Understanding crossed Ramiro’s face.
    “Ahh, I see now,” he sneered. “You’re hoping to get a piece of her. So how much are you offering to pay