Broken & Hunted

by Charissa Dufour

  She took a deep breath.

  At least she wasn’t back on Earth, lugging packages for Mr. Asselstine in the hot desert climate of Johannesburg. This is better, she told herself repeatedly as she followed the crew away from where the enormous freighter was berthed.

  She had spent the entire day cleaning the galley and preparing small meals for the engineering team that would be staying on board to repair the ship—with clear, hand-written instructions for each meal. It had been a long day of scrubbing, but she was glad to have done something useful. And she liked Vance. He was quiet, peaceful company to be around.

  Another blush colored her cheeks as yet another dock worker stared at her bare feet. Bit reached up and pulled a few of her dreadlocks free to hide her face. They didn’t need to see her, just her feet, to have something worth staring at. After all, she was dressed in men’s shorts that reached halfway down her shins and a t-shirt three times too large for her, none of which kept her warm. A shiver ran up her spine as another blast of cold air hit her from one of the connecting tunnels.

  Ward Port was a massive labyrinth of tunnels with the occasional duroglass window giving her a glimpse of a docked ship. Dotted throughout the maze was the occasional sitting area, filled with people waiting for something Bit couldn’t fathom. Near the sitting areas were small venders, selling fruit or grilled meat or juice mixes. The dealers called out their prices, trying to outbid the vender next to them.

  Bit’s eyes ranged over a long row of venders, landing on a man standing near a display of fresh fruit. His brown hair was combed flat and his face was covered in matching stubble, his lips pulled down in a glower. He wore a dark green windbreaker that looked years out of date over a thick fleece sweatshirt with the collar popped up to protect his neck.

  The man’s gaze quickly shifted from her to the fruit stand. Bit frowned as she turned back to see where the crew was. They had outstripped her and she scurried to catch up, slinging her pillowcase over her shoulder. A wash of bodies cut her off from the crew and Bit jostled her way forward, determined to keep track of them. She scurried headfirst, elbowing people out of her way until she came to a junction that split into six different corridors. She skidded to stop, completely lost.

  The crowd thinned as people broke off down the various corridors. Bit glanced down each hallway, frantically looking for a crowd of men swathed in matching red jackets, but they were nowhere to be seen. Bit peeped over her shoulder, her stomach dropping into her knees as she spotted the man in the green windbreaker casually sauntering toward her.

  Bit dashed into a random corridor, determined to put some distance between herself and Mr. Windbreaker. She scurried down the corridor, finding another crowd and losing herself in it. Bit forced herself to slow down, her breathing coming in rapid gasps as she walked at the same pace as the mob. She didn’t want to stand out any more than she already did. Between her rags and her bare feet, her fellow travelers were giving her plenty of attention.

  As the crowd meandered their way down the long corridor, Bit noticed a small alcove tucked into the wall where luggage carts waited to be used. She slipped through the crowd and ducked between the two rows of carts, folding herself up and hiding behind the last cart. She peeked out from her hiding place and watched the crowd wander past until she spotted her infamous tail. He stopped and glanced up and down the long hallway, still on the hunt.

  Bit clamped her teeth down on her lower lip, determined to stay silent. How could this be happening to her? A thousand possibilities raced through her mind, but only one made sense.

  Mr. Asselstine wanted her back, and he would to go to any length to drag her back to Earth and his employ.

  Bit tipped her head back until it rested against the wall and squeezed her eyes shut. The constant fear that hovered in the back of her mind surged forward, taking the place of all others. Suddenly what the crew members thought of her or what position they would create for her on the ship no longer mattered. All of it felt petty compared to the fear of returning to her former boss.

  She stayed huddled behind the luggage carts, occasionally peeking out. After a few minutes, the man in the windbreaker walked away, his gaze still darting here and there, still searching for her. Bit stayed where she was. She didn’t know where her tail was heading and didn’t want to accidentally run into him again. Besides, she didn’t know how to find the crew again in the enormous labyrinth of the port.

  Finally, when her legs began to cramp, Bit forced herself up and out of her hiding place. She waited until the hallway was momentarily clear and slipped out, walking down the hallway as though it was an everyday occurrence to slip out of a luggage-cart storage alcove. She walked back to the six-way junction and glanced up at the signs.

  Surely, with a little help, she could figure out where the crew had gone. All she had to do was stay clear of her stalker.

  The signs were simple enough to read, even with her limited education. The signs displayed which docks were down which hallways—A1-A7 to the right, A8-A14 to the left, and so on.

  Though she knew the crew was taking a transport ship down to the surface, she had no idea which dock the transport ship would be leaving from. Suddenly her simple plan felt impossible.

  Bit glanced over her shoulder, scanning the ever-shifting mob for a green windbreaker. When she didn’t find one, she went back to staring up at the sign. To her disgust, it hadn’t changed—I was still completely useless.

  Bit was just about to look around again when she felt a large hand clamp down on her shoulder. She jumped, turning as she looked up into the face of the man with the windbreaker.

  “There you are,” he said with a sickening smile.

  Bit didn’t respond but took off in a mad dash, the man’s strong fingers digging into her bruised shoulder as he tried to keep her under his control. She ignored the angry protests of the crowd as she barreled her way past the slower moving pedestrians, trying to put as many bodies between herself and the man in the windbreaker.

  She turned down another corridor, then another, hoping the more she lost herself, the more she would lose him. As she rushed around another corner, she collided into a chest.

  Bit gasped for breath, her pillowcase still griped tightly in her first. “I’m so sorry.”

  “Bit!” exclaimed the man she had rammed into.

  She looked up to find Jack staring down at her.

  “Where have you been? Half the crew is scouring the port for you.”

  Bit glanced back over her shoulder. The man with the windbreaker stood a few feet away, nonchalantly examining a sign that displayed the departure times for a transportation company.

  “I… uh…”

  Should I tell him? she wondered as her breathing slowly settled down.

  “I got separated. I got lost.”

  Jack quickly wrapped an arm around her shoulders, giving her a squeeze. “Thank goodness we found you. C’mon. This is our transport. We’re booked for a flight in about an hour. Sit down. I’ll call the crew back.”

  Bit took a seat next to the large pile of luggage. Jack pulled out a small, short-range comm. device and dialed in the right frequency.

  “This is the captain. We found her. She’s safe. Over.”

  Within just a few minutes, the crew returned. Most of them gave her a happy greeting—a simple high five or a painful slap on the back, forgetting her bruises from the pirate attack.

  Nolan returned with a fruit smoothie in hand and ignored her, no doubt annoyed with being sent off to help find her. According to Jack, he was dismissed once his feet hit solid ground. Vance returned a moment later and took the seat next to her, settling down as though he intended to nap. Bit smiled at the mountain of a man. At least he didn’t present a threat of any sort.

  Oden appeared and gave her a wide grin. “Let’s not do that again, eh Little Bit? You scared me to death.”

  She forced a smile to her face, ignoring the fact the man with the windbreaker continued to hover in the seating
area across the wide corridor from where the crew sat, watching her every move from behind a recently-purchased magazine.

  “My bad,” she replied.

  A moment later, Blaine arrived, out of breath with sweat rolling down his neck. “Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine.”

  “You sure?”

  “Yes. Just got lost,” she said, sticking to her lie.

  “No one hurt you? You sure you’re okay?” he asked, worry lining his face.

  Bit wanted to be annoyed with him, but the truth of his concern made it impossible. She glanced around the waiting area, spotting her stalker. Strangely enough, the man wasn’t looking at her. Instead, his dark eyes were on Blaine.

  “For the last time,” she said, forcing herself to sound calm, “I just got lost.”

  Blaine collapsed into the other seat beside her.

  Bit felt her heart begin to race. Can’t he just leave me alone? She had said her peace back on the ship, and she didn’t feel up to repeating the drama, especially with Mr. Windbreaker watching her.

  Blaine leaned back and gave her a tired smile, saying nothing. It was turning into a game of chicken—who would speak first?

  After a few minutes of silence she broke down and spoke. “What? Did you need something?”

  Blaine shook his head. “Nope.”

  Bit glanced back at the rest of the crew. Some were watching them but most had pulled out pads to read on or closed their eyes to snooze.

  “Then why’d you come over here?”

  Blaine shrugged. “Just wanted to sit with you. Is that so wrong?”

  Bit stared at him wide eyed. “Uh….” She couldn’t think of one coherent thing to say—not after the evening she’d had. It seemed rude to yell, “I’m not interested in you! You’re wasting your time!” but she hadn’t ruled it out.

  “I know you think you pushed me away, but I’m not going anywhere,” he said just above a whisper.

  Bit glanced around again. She spotted the faintest hint of a smile on Vance’s face as he lounged on her other side, but beyond that the other crew members had moved on to their own interests.

  “I thought I’d made myself pretty clear, I’m not interested.”

  “I wouldn’t say that. You made yourself clear that you are angry about me kissing you in front of the crew… and you are right, I was very wrong to do that. I’m sorry. It was very inappropriate of me to kiss you like that. Our first kiss…”

  Blaine paused as Vance heaved himself up out of his seat and sauntered away, suddenly leaving them alone. Blaine leaned forward, bringing his lips to a mere inch away from her ear.

  “Our first kiss should have been a private moment, just between the two of us. I should have waited until we were alone, maybe after a training season. Maybe I would have brushed the hair out of your eyes and slipped my hand behind the nape of your neck, then kissed you gently, waiting for you to reciprocate.”

  Bit swallowed as her mouth filled with moisture. Her heart was racing and she feared he would see her pulse in her throat. She kept her eyes focused straight ahead. Maybe if she focused on the threat of Mr. Windbreaker her body wouldn’t react to the images Blaine painted for her.

  “Then I could trail soft kisses along your jaw and down your throat, until you were ready for me to kiss you properly again. You’d seek out my lips with yours, pressing them more firmly against my mouth. Your hands would wind around my neck, pulling yourself up against me, and I’d wrap my other arm around your body…”

  He trailed off, and Bit swallowed again, her mouth suddenly too dry.

  “Instead, I wasted our first kiss,” he said in a surprisingly matter-of-fact tone as he lounged back in his seat, “and I’m sorry for that. Please forgive me.”

  Bit glanced at him, startled by the sudden change in his voice, much less the scene he had just described. He smirked at her.

  “Fine. I forgive you.”

  “Thank you.”

  “This doesn’t mean I’m interested.”

  “Sure it doesn’t. But I also remember what you said when you were on those pain meds.”

  Bit glanced down at her bare arm. The long cut no longer had a bandage over it, but it was still red and puffy where he had stitched it up. It would be an impressive scar.

  “That hardly counts,” she sputtered.

  “Oh? It was then that none of your fears or worries inhibited you from telling me how you really felt. It was then that you told me about your sister.”

  Bit felt her eyes grow round with surprise. I told him about my sister?

  “Don’t worry. I haven’t told anyone. Just remember, Little Bit, what I told you that day: not all men are jackasses. My goal is not to impregnate you and desert you like that man did to your sister.”

  Blaine reached out and caressed her cheek. Bit flinched, trying to pull away from his touch. Unlike before, Blaine ignored her fears and finished the caress.

  “I care deeply for you, Bit, and I’m not giving up until you figure that out. If you reject me after you’ve realized that you’re worth loving, so be it, but until that message has sunk in, I’m sticking around. Deal with it.”

  Bit stared at him as though she was staring down a grizzly bear. He gave her a sad little smile before climbing to his feet and joining the other men. He pulled out his pad and began poking it, just as so many of the crew were doing.

  Bit sat, frightened and alone. She could practically feel Oden’s eyes on her. Pulling her pillowcase to her chest, she huddled in her seat, determined not to look at any of the crew, or at the man stalking her from the across the corridor.

  Why do they have to be so determined? she wondered.

  What Blaine said was a load of baloney. She wasn’t worth all this effort, and they had proven that time and again in other areas of her life on board the ship. If she was truly worth their attention she wouldn’t still be running around barefoot, with her hand-me-down garments stored in a pillowcase. The two conflicting messages warred within her, bringing her to an unsettling conclusion: they didn’t care for her—they just wanted her body, just as Douglas had wanted her sister’s body.

  Bit was accustomed to not being cared for by her owners. Mr. Asselstine, her last owner, certainly hadn’t cared for her. She had enough bruised and broken bones to prove that. But he also hadn’t pretended to care either. It had been simple with him. She knew where she stood with him.

  She felt hot tears press against her eyes as she watched the crowds pass by on their way to a different docks, momentarily blocking her view of her stalker. Thankfully, the men were engaged in their own activities, reading, napping, or talking. Slowly, their voices came into focus.

  “You’re just angry ‘cause I’m succeed where you’re failing,” quipped Blaine.

  Bit wanted to turn and see who he was talking to, but forced herself to wait.

  “You think this is succeeding?” came Oden’s voice.

  “You don’t?”

  “Depends on your goal. If your goal is a relationship with her, then maybe. If your goal is to fight the ghosts hidden in her past, then no… you’re failing miserably.”

  Bit squeezed her eyes shut. She didn’t like them talking about her. She liked Oden’s awareness even less. Blaine didn’t respond and the general murmurs of the crowd rose over any sound coming from the two men.

  Despite the soft hum of the crew talking and the ever shifting bodies surrounding her, Bit suddenly felt completely alone. Her only company was the man watching her from across the crowd, and he was worse than being alone.

  She knew she was spending the long holiday with Calen and Jack and their family, but the prospect didn’t fill her with excitement. She didn’t feel as though she was joining her family for a long weekend, not that she knew what that felt like.

  Bit nestled down in her seat, pulling her bare feet up and tucking them under her backside, her bundle tucked in between her legs. She wrapped her arms around her knees and tried to make herself as small as possi
ble as she wrapped her body around her meager possessions.

  Why does life have to be so complicated? she wondered.

  Once, back when she had been dominated by a cruel owner, she had been the master of focusing only on the present moment, letting the next moment come when it chose to, never fretting about what might or might not happen. Her worries wouldn’t have the least effect on tomorrow’s outcome, or so her sister had often said.

  Now, though, now she couldn’t help but think about the next day, because each next day was different from the last. And the more changes that were flung at her, the more frightened she became. Bit felt her own self-loathing settle onto her shoulders. She didn’t want to be afraid of the unknown, but every “next moment” felt like a mystery.

  Change was never for the better… until Calen came along and won her in a game of poker.

  Bit felt her lips tug upward into a half smile.

  Things aren’t perfect, she admitted to herself, but they are a helluva lot better than they were even a month ago. After all, she hadn’t had shoes back on Earth either. Suddenly Bit felt very silly for all the bitterness she had felt towards Jack and Calen for not getting her properly fitting clothing.

  Bit sat up and rubbed her face, making certain any tears were gone before anyone could notice. Just as she settled her dreadlocks back into a thick knot at the base of her neck, a loud thunk announced the arrival of their transport ship.

  “Transport ship 32-63-827 now boarding.”

  Bit stood up with the rest of the crew and watched as Mr. Windbreaker also rose. He crossed the corridor and settled into the large mass shuffling toward the entrance of the transport ship, just behind Blaine who had raised his comm. device to his ear to listen to a quick audio message. Bit felt her heart begin to race again. Was Mr. Windbreaker really going to stalk her with the entire crew surrounding her? Bit tried to calm her fears, reminding herself that the crew and the security team would do anything to keep her safe. Sadly, her thoughts did little to slow her heart or ease her fears.