SFR Brigade Presents... Cold Revenge

Check out the great story snippets from other SFR Brigade authors.

Here's my contribution - a snippet from Cold Revenge, book 5 in the Fall of the Altairan Empire. And as a bonus, I'm giving away copies of Nexus Point, book 1. Use coupon code AA47G.

I opened my eyes with an effort of will. Everything from my shoulders down screamed with pain. My knee wouldn’t bend. If I took shallow breaths my ribs didn’t creak and protest. I wrapped my arms around my stomach and looked up.
Sitting at my table, drinking from my mug, was an older man. He had an air of suave gentility that didn’t fool me for a second. He looked over at me and smiled.
"Take the ship up," he said to someone behind me in the cockpit.
I turned my head with an effort that sent more pain through my middle. Three people I didn’t recognize were in the cockpit. The engines throbbed in time with my knee. They were flying my ship. Rage overcame pain. I got up and threw myself at the man in the navigator’s seat.
The thugs dragged me back and beat me some more.
When I could think again, I was back on the bench and the ship was well on its way to the jump point. The man at the table was still sipping from my mug and watching me with a cold and toothy smile.
"That was stupid, Captain," he said.
"Where are the rest of the crew?"
"Safe enough. For now."
"Where are they?" I started to stand and but thought better of it when the thug nearest me stepped closer and raised his fist.
"Your concern is most touching. Show her," he said to the thug nearest the cabin doors.
The man opened Jerimon’s cabin door. The thug looming over me jerked me to my feet and dragged me across the lounge to look inside the cabin. Clark and Jasyn sat on one bunk, Ginni held Habim’s hands as they sat on the other bunk. The cabin door slid shut. The thug dragged me across the lounge and dumped me on the bench.
"Where’s Jerimon?" I said through teeth gritted against screaming in pain.
The man smiled, stretching his thin lips wider.
I turned quickly and looked back in the cockpit. Jerimon sat in the pilot’s chair, my chair, he was flying my ship. I was going to kill him, slowly and painfully. Just not right then.
"Who are you and what do you want?" I flung it at the man like a challenge.
"You know who I am, if you think hard enough," the man said. "You cost me fortunes, Dace. I’m here for revenge."
I scrounged desperately through my memories. Who could he be? The list of enemies I’d managed to accumulate was depressingly long. And those were only the ones that I knew. How many more did I have that I didn’t know about?
"Don’t tell me you have no idea who I am," he said and frowned. I preferred that to his false smile. "Does the name Belliff mean anything to you?"
My heart sank. The Targon Syndicate had finally caught up to me.