A Tale of Two Airships (Take to the Skies Book 2) Read Free Page A

announced.
    “What’re we waiting for?” Isabella winked and with a fluid motion began climbing down the ladder towards the dock. Her tan ringlets gleamed in the sun as well as the metal hoops in her ears and the silver circles jangling around her wrists. Before following, I inventoried the weapons and coinpurse weighing down my belt. No time like the present.  
    “Be back soon.” I locked eyes with Geoff.
    He groaned, a gorgeous half smirk on his face. “Don’t you dare jinx it, Bea.”
    Grabbing him by the back of the neck, I tugged him forward for one last kiss. With the sweet taste still stinging my lips, I flashed him another blinder of a grin before following Isabella. The rope bit into my palms, and the sun beat against my back, warming my skin. Damn, the day was beautiful. The sea breeze rolling through the place kicked around the scent of rotten fish, an instant reminder of where we’d berthed. Good old Shantytown, home of rat piss and even worse, Brits.
    I sucked in the foul air, stepping onto the weathered boards of this old port with a creak. These areas were cluttered with the same filth and dirty napkins as our criminal gems, key difference being their posh accents. And manners. A shudder rolled down my spine.
    Granted, the places we’d be going, I doubted we’d see much of the genteel life. I preferred avoiding them anyway. Redcoats pissed me off, and the stuffy rich folks who populated this country made me want to hurl. Almost as much as the extravagant assholes on our side of the ocean. We were meeting our contact at the Rusty Scupper though, and from what I’d heard the joint landed us in familiar ol’ dive bar territory.
    Matilda weighed down my side as she should, and I tapped my foot on the planks while waiting for the rest of the crew to hurry along. Mordecai snuck past me on the docks—the man placed stealth into a whole new category—and so we just waited on Jack and Spade. Our newbie took his time finding each meticulous handhold while none of us had the heart to tell him it didn’t matter.
    “Darling, I’m sure the ladies love the way you give every detail that much attention, but we’re waiting down here,” Isabella called to Jack, who flushed in embarrassment and almost fumbled. I pressed my lips together, holding back my laugh. He scurried the rest of the way down, and Spade followed with ease.
    The folks by the rail waved us off, and I caught a wink from Geoff. I heaved a sigh as the harbormaster raced up to me with a clipboard in hand—even the menial jobs became mine when Morris passed, including all the money handling. One more reason Geoff happened to be the perfect first mate. The short, weasly harbormaster barely reached my shoulders, and his sour frown was infectious. I swiped my card, dispensing the necessary credits and tried to ignore the small number of the balance on the holo.
    “Let’s get going. Sooner we meet with the contact, the sooner we can get this job underway.” Even in the broad sunlight, I kept my hand at the ready to jump to my pistol or my coin purse. Never knew what sort of rabble wandered through the streets, and I didn’t trust these dented and split cobblestones any more than I trusted my hometown’s.
    “I’ll meet back here later.” Spade’s brows knotted together as he nodded farewell and set a quick pace. Within seconds, he made his way down the boardwalk towards the first wooden shop signs peeking into view.
    I followed the same path, leading the rest of my team past the line-up of ships. As we strolled by a small vessel with the word ‘Fireswamp’ printed on the side, folks glared at us from the rails. Their crew had been on the bounty list for a while now, however, we weren’t here to cause problems for pirates like us. My plan entailed a simple job and simple reward with minimal trouble. While I’d never heard of our contact, Grenadine Sommelier, before, we’d verified the source, and the offered bounty flashed some pretty