Pixie Hazard by Archibald Bradford (top young adult novels .txt) 📕

I’m on point. You watch our backs. Demarco is involved in whatever the fuck this is.”

Maria frowned but choked back the sudden rush of questions that flooded her mind, instead falling back into her trained role.

“Copy Skip.”

Having managed not to vomit, Bryan was in something of a fog, his delightful afternoon having turned into a nightmare.

It was all he could do to follow the terse orders of the pair of veterans as they worked their way through the station.

They arrived at the dock to find Demarco and a half dozen of his goons in a standoff with two redheads holding the airlock. Davie and Eva hadn’t had time to don their combat armour, but their repeaters were held at the ready.

No one was pointing their weapons at anybody else, but that could change in short order.

Demarco turned at Donnie’s approach, his expression one of disappointment.

Bryan tried and failed to hide behind Maria.

And neither she nor her captain missed it when, for the briefest of moments, Demarco’s eyes fell on the kid and lit up with greed.

“I thought we had a deal Captain. This isn’t how you do business.”

After sharing a quick glance with Davie and Eva to ensure they weren’t going to do anything untoward, Donnie shook her head at the tubby criminal.

“No, it’s not how you do business. I don’t sell kids and I don’t cut deals with pirates.”

There was a pause as he tilted his head.

“Wait, if it isn’t how I do business, but you don’t sell kids... is that right?” He looked to one of his men; “You know, grammatically speaking?”

“Think it’s a double negative Mister Demarco.” The man said flatly without taking his eyes off Eva.

Donnie huffed impatiently.

“What the fuck ever dickhead, you know what I meant.”

Demarco’s eyes narrowed and his lip curled up as he sucked his teeth again.

“Again with the insults. You should have taken the money Nelson.”

She very deliberately gestured at his pelvis with the tip of her shotgun, where his hand was gripping a custom pulse-pistol in an equally custom holster.

“You should walk away while you still can. This shit goes down, you drop first.”

His lip twitched in annoyance as his eyes flicked to her gun.

Simply put, against such a weapon the six men he had with him meant little, and that was without even counting her three marines.

He lifted his hand away from his pistol and wagged it in the air with a bit of unnecessary flair to show he was unarmed.

“Funny thing, my friends with the Juan Corporation just revoked your docking clearance. You and yours are done on this station. I hope you know that.”

She felt Maria shift at her side as the blonde voiced her opinion.

“Shithole anyways.”

“Doesn’t even have an arcade.” Eva agreed blandly.

Donnie ignored them, though her reaction was much the same: a nonchalant shrug.

“Mung isn’t the only place in the galaxy that sells gas Demarco. Now get the fuck away from my ship.”

The crime-lord smirked at her before gesturing to his goons to take their leave.

“One of these days Nelson, someone is going to wash your mouth out with something foul, and I’m going to buy them the most expensive bottle I can when they do.”

All venom, no velvet.

A tense couple of minutes later and he and his men were gone from the docking bay, Donnie and her crew’s guns held tight the whole time.

Right as the airlock closed behind them, Billy came over the coms.

“Skipper, I just got off the horn with Mung Central, we’ve been rather pointedly asked to leave.”

“Right, tell them we’ll be disembarking shortly. Then leave the cockpit to Eniella and meet us in the airlock. There is something we need to take care of before we leave.”

She turned to face Bryan, who suddenly looked a mite nervous.

Chapter 27:Spill yer Guts

They’d barely gotten inside when, at Donnie’s unspoken direction, two redheads tackled Maria, allowing the captain to grip Bryan by his shirt collar and slam him into the bulkhead.

“Alright kid, no more bullshit, no more games, and no more hiding behind Maria. What have you gotten us mixed up in?”

“Captain!” Maria protested as Eva deftly put her into an armlock with her sister’s help.

“Let’s you and me stay out of it Sledge so the skipper can do her thing.”

It was a rare thing indeed for the volatile redhead to be the voice of calm.

Bryan’s hands were gripping Donnie’s instinctively, ineffectually trying to free himself from her grip.

“I-I swear, Captain, I don’t know!”

“Bullshit!” She slammed him into the bulkhead again; “Every shitbird on that station wants your ass in a sling, and you are going to tell me why, or I swear I will hand you over myself!”

Maria struggled mightily against Eva and Davie, but was ultimately unable to free herself from the seamless twins.

“God-dammit you leave him alone Donnie!” She roared.

“Enough! Settle down Maria! And let her up you two!” Billy barked before turning to the captain; “You give him up it’ll be over my dead body.”

“It’ll be over all of our bodies if those Junkers catch us!” Donnie snarled back; “Now everyone whose name doesn’t start with ‘Captain’ shut the fuck up!”

Bryan had tears of fright streaming down his face, his head turned away from her severe glare.

“Kid, look at me.” Donnie said between grit teeth as she sued for patience; “Bryan, look at me.”

It took a minute but he finally did, he opened his mouth to say something but she shook her head before he could.

“You’re about to lie to me again and you are way too young to try. Tell me everything, or I put you back through that airlock and let the chips fall for you.”

Billy crossed her arms over her