Malik added a grin to his chuckle. “I’ll let you educate him all about that, sweetheart.”
“What do you prefer?”
He tugged her close, his voice dipping low as he answered, “I like bare, but we can work you up to it.”
Her mouth dropped open, and his laughter turned heads.
Still grinning, he led her—speechless, her body humming with sudden arousal—to the console where he paid with a thumb scan on a touch screen. After the green light appeared, indicating the purchase had been approved, he gathered her bags in one of his big hands, and caught her much smaller one in the other. Then, he guided her out into the crowded pod.
He paused, looking left before he turned right. “I think the food market is on the next level up.”
Someone bumped into her, and, before Dani realized what happened, Malik crumpled to the floor with a thud. She stared at him a fraction of a second before she bent to see what was wrong. A sharp pain stabbed her neck and stopped her midway. Malik’s prone form wavered in front of her eyes. Everything started spinning and she started to fall, except something hard caught her around the waist.
“Nighty-night, little princess,” a male voice uttered low. “Next stop, home to Daddy.”
***
Fifteen more minutes.
Leaning against the cargo bay doors, Jaylin watched the gauge tick upward. The primary fuel cells on the Renegade were uradion-based, a radioactive material found on only four of the thirty-seven alliance planets. Easily mined and requiring only a small amount to power the engines in his medium-sized cruiser, it meant it was also cheap, considering it had a half-life of at least one thousand years and wouldn’t have to be replaced in ten times his lifetime. All combined, it had become the most relied-upon energy source for space travel.
Unfortunately, the fuel cells weren’t all they required. The spherical thrusters which enhanced maneuverability used standard combustible fuel stored in tanks. This slow-burning energy source had to be replenished every few months. He’d expended more of it than usual while eluding the unidentified space craft on their tail. It also powered their cold shields—a technology he wasn’t willing to travel without. The conversion process from the spaceport stores to the Renegade took over an hour, however, and was about as much fun as watching hair grow.
Next time, Malik stayed and he played escort to their beautiful third.
He checked the gauge and time remaining—thirteen more minutes.
After he finished refueling, he planned to join Malik and Dani. Imagining her modeling her new clothes, something snug and formfitting or flowing and feminine, was enough to require adjustment of his suddenly snug trousers.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Jaylin started. Instantly alert, he moved to the control panel, and activated the external viewers. Cursing at what he saw on the screen, he pressed the emergency button and opened the cargo hold.
“What happened?” he barked, as soon as the interlocking sliding doors separated enough to reveal the two security guards holding Malik’s limp form. He moved forward, cupped his brother’s jaws, and eased his head back. With his thumbs, he raised his eyelids—both almost black with the pupils widely dilated. Jaylin scanned his neck, rolling his head to the side as he searched for what he suspected he’d find—a puncture mark. After checking his pulse, which was slow, but steady, a growl rumbled in his throat.
“He’s been tranqed. The woman with him,” Jaylin demanded of the guards. “What happened to her?”
The two, thick-necked Roukars looked at one another and shrugged. Known for their strength and size, not for their brain power, as a species they were followers, gravitating to service jobs, better at taking orders than giving them. “He was alone when we found him,” the bigger, uglier one said.
“Bring him inside,” Jaylin ordered while moving back to the control panel. He brought up the data screen. “What is the code for your security feeds?” When he heard a thud, he turned in time to see his brother’s head connect with the hard floor. “Careful with him, dammit.”
The smaller one, although twice Malik’s size, muttered meekly, “Sorry, Captain.”
“Feed code?” Jaylin demanded once again. He entered the numbers he was given and waited for the Renegade’s computer to connect with the spaceport. “Sector?”
“8-3.”
As the video ran, he watched his twin and Dani exit a shop. Next, a single attacker came out of the crowd, incapacitating Malik first. His blood boiled as the assailant jabbed a needle into his brother’s neck, and did the same to his woman. Human by the looks of him, the man caught Dani before she fell, put his shoulder in her belly then slung her across his back and disappeared. Jaylin became further enraged that he did so without earning a second look from the hundreds of patrons milling around them.
“I want a list of all departing ships in the past thirty minutes.”
“Yes, sir,” one of the guards said as he tapped his blunt finger against a handheld device. A moment passed. “There were two. A Stetrig supplier which only took on fuel, and an Earth Delta class vessel that docked a few minutes after you arrived.”
Delta class was a newer model with a more powerful engine, one step above the Renegade, and ridiculously expensive. Jaylin’s suspicions were instantly roused. “Who is the vessel registered to?”
Again, he waited. “It says here an Earth corporation called Alltryp Universal owns it.”
“Fuck!” Jaylin roared. “Get out.”
In the face of his rage, the Roukars bolted. Hurriedly, Jaylin ended the fueling process, and locked down the bay. “Prepare for departure,” he barked aloud as he bent to Malik. With more care than the ham-fisted aliens, he lifted him, and strode to the medical room as the on-board computer updated him on his orders.
“Departure in three minutes. Disconnecting from hangar sleeve. Hull clamps will disengage in sixty seconds.”
Jaylin laid Malik on the table, then pulled out the medicine stores. He searched the injector pods for the depressant antagonist, thankful his brother had drilled the emergency protocols into his head. Spotting what he needed, he pulled it out and loaded the diffuser. He pressed it against Malik’s inner arm as the computer counted down from ten.
At zero, he bent over the exam table, gripping the edges, holding his twin’s unconscious form in place, and secured himself, prepared for what came next.
“Commencing to disengage.”
The ship lurched, then pitched to the side as it came about. If he’d been at the helm, it would have been executed with more finesse, but he didn’t have time. His muscles strained to keep them both from falling on the floor, not an easy feat with their combined weight near five hundred pounds. Ordinarily, they’d be strapped in, but neither Malik nor Dani had time to wait.
“Set course for Alliance Planet 22,” he ordered.
An instant later, the computer answered. “Course set for Earth. Arrival in seventy-two standard alliance hours.”
The erratic course he’d set to evade the unknown ship, and the detour Dani had accidentally sent them on had taken them far afield. Three days ordinarily would have been fine, but her abductor’s ship with its superior engines would make it in half the time. With Dani, and their triad’s future in the balance, he didn’t have time to waste on less than FTL speeds.
“Calculate arrival time using hyperdrive.”
“Not recommended with proximity to star in Earth’s system.”
If they got too close to the solar system’s massive sun, its gravitational pull would yank them from hyperspace and they’d burn up. Not using it, they risk losing Dani. The other ship would have the same obstacle and, like them, stop short of their final destination to be safe.
“How close can you get us?”
“Eight hours out.”
“And the Delta Class?”
“Will arrive two hours ahead of us.”
He made a split decision. “Do it. Engage hyperdrive in ten seconds!”
“
Unadvised. Personnel are not secured.”
“Override safety protocol,” Jaylin ordered. He pulled a strap across Malik’s chest and another across his hips.
“Hyperdrive initiating in ten, nine, eight...”
This time, Jaylin climbed on top of his twin and wound his arms beneath the straps, interlocking his hands on the opposite wrist. He wrapped his legs around the edges of the table and held on.
The engines hummed, and the ship began to tremble.
“Six, five...”
“Daniella?” Malik asked weakly, appearing dazed, though with the rapid-onset drug coursing through his system, each time he blinked he looked more alert.
“Taken. But hang on, brother, we’re going after her now.”
“FTL in three, two, one...”
Malik’s angry roar came near to deafening him as the engines engaged, and they accelerated to faster-than-light speed.
Chapter Twelve
After the space jump takes them as close as safely possible, the remaining hours drag interminably by. While Malik, who believes he failed Dani, broods in a guilt-ridden silence, Jaylin couldn’t keep the scene where she’d been drugged and carried off from playing in his head. Imaging what occurred thereafter caused an icy fear to gnaw at his insides. They were both ready to tear both the planet and her father apart when they arrived on Earth.
Protocol required they deactivate their weapons before entering Earth’s orbital sector and docking at one of the spaceports—not a good experience for either man considering the outcome when they had done the same only two hours before. Once the Renegade had been secured, and both men passed through Global Security with the appropriate credentials and visas, they were allowed to shuttle down to the surface.
All went smoothly until they stepped off the small craft at the New York arrival center. A team of eight armed guards surrounded and arrested them. The bogus charge—kidnapping.
By a quirk of fate, Dani was still in processing at the center and witnessed it all.
“No, it’s a mistake,” she cried, struggling against the hard fingers banding her upper arms. “They didn’t kidnap me, they’re my rescuers. You’ve got the wrong men!”
No one listened, especially the police who slapped titanium shackles around their wrists, and, without a word to her of where they were taking them, hauled them away.
Daniel Alltryp’s hired man—yes, she’d been kidnapped by her own father—did much the same to her, minus the cuffs, dragging her off in the opposite direction.
***
After being shoved by her less-than-gentle, barely communicative captor into the back of an awaiting air glider, they’d merged into the crowded commuter traffic over the city, arriving at her father’s sprawling mansion overlooking Noyack Bay. She’d been taken straight to his office, rarely used in the almost twenty-five years Dani had lived there, except when she had a lecture coming, and when receiving orders or bad news.
Today, she expected all of the above.
She paced the thick, expensive rug in front of his desk, too anxious to sit down, wringing her hands with each agitated step. At the sound of the digital keypad beeping, the door swung inward and her father appeared, followed by a smaller, much slighter man, with blue-tinged skin.
Daniel Alltryp didn’t deign to look her way as he strode into the room. His guest did the opposite, staring down his blue nose at her as if she was filth stuck to the bottom of his shoe. She dismissed Prince Ivar and his rudeness, choosing to face off against her father instead.
Rushing to his desk, she gripped the edge with her trembling fingers while she demanded, “You have to drop these ridiculous charges against the Renegade’s captain and crew. You know they are untrue.”
“And how would I know that?” he drawled, still not looking at her as he unlocked a drawer. He withdrew a stack of papers and tossed them onto the empty desktop, sending them sliding across the shiny, polished wood. “This is the contract Sin-Naysir signed. You were due back days ago. When they didn’t show, with you, safe in hand, but were sighted at a spaceport on the other side of the galaxy, in their custody, what was I to think? Surely you didn’t break an engagement to the Prince and run off with those two mercenaries.”
“Doubtless you know pirates captured the Titan and kidnapped me when I left Elzor.”
“Yes, but the kidnappers’ ship exploded in space nearly two weeks ago. Plenty of time to complete their contract and return you, yet they didn’t for some odd reason. What did you offer them, girl?” Only then did his head come up, and he sent her a scathing look. “Your trust fund?”
She didn’t answer, but glanced at Ivar. “I refuse to marry the Prince, something you neglected to inform me I was being considered for when I left for Elzor. Information clarifying the reason behind why he would be interested had come to light. I will not be used to further line your pockets, Father, and marrying anyone for the sole purpose of begetting an heir is unacceptable.”
His fist came down on his desk with a loud bang. She didn’t jump, expecting his reaction. “What is unacceptable is you gallivanting across space with a known seducer. Everyone knows about Sin-Naysir and his twin. You spread your thighs for them both, didn’t you?”
She didn’t dignify his crude accusation with a response. Instead, she focused on one bizarre thing he’d said. “His twin?”
“Yes, girl. They are Trilorian. It’s a well-known fact the males come in pairs and they share everything—including their women. Being with them for an hour, much less alone for days, means your reputation is ruined.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Didn’t you pay attention during Universal Studies 101 in your damn women’s school? I know I paid good money for you to do so.”
She hesitated, a tumble of confused thoughts whirling in her head as she tried to jive what little Jaylin had told her with what bits and pieces she might have learned years ago.
“The planet is called Trilor, emphasis on Tri, for a reason.”
She shook her head, still not following.
“All Trilorian males are born as twins. The females are single births. This means the men on their planet outnumber the women by at least two to one. Because of this, marriages in their world are always between two males and one female. And over time, since they’ve been procreating this way as far back as any of ’em can remember, it’s become the only way they can conceive.”
“I didn’t know,” she murmured. “They never said.”
“What about all the head talking they do? As twins, the males have some kind of link. I’ve always found it disturbing. Didn’t you think it odd?”
All the times Jaylin and Malik had stared at one another as if silently communicating came back to her. “I can’t believe it.” But she did, remembering the Artruvian woman who had spoken in her head at the space mall. Malik hadn’t been shocked, not because it was common knowledge, because he had the ability, too. Dani knew what it was before he called it by name.
“They’re telepathic.”
It explained a lot, although not everything. “This is ridiculous. Jaylin didn’t have a twin on board. I would have known.”
“You're wrong. The police arrested Malik Sin-Naysir along with his older brother earlier today.”
No! It wasn’t possible. “It can’t be true. They look nothing alike!” Except the pieces of the puzzle all began to fit, and she couldn’t disbelieve her own denials.
“They wouldn’t. One is dark, the other light. Did you notice one was in charge, and dominated the other? The elder, whether light or dark, is always in charge. That makes Jaylin the alpha twin, and his younger brother, Malik, his beta.”
She began to feel sick.
“You act surprised.”
Unable to stand as the room spun, she lurched to a chair and sank into it.
“What were you thinking?”
“They said, or led me to believe, Malik was...”
“Was what?”
She shook her head.
/>
His fist came crashing down again. “Answer me, dammit.”
“A cyborg,” she whispered.
Silence pervaded the room, until her father snickered. “Oh, that’s rich, and a new take on getting laid.” Then he burst into laughter, something he rarely did, yet the same high-pitched cackle was unforgettable and straight out of her nightmare. “And you fell for it. You’re a stupid bitch, just like your mother. So, did they fuck you? Both of them?” He shook his head. “Of course, they did, although it really doesn’t matter. Whether you did or not, after being alone with them on their ship, everyone thinks you’re a whore.” With the press of a button on his desk a monitor popped up. He touched an icon and angled it toward her, revealing an ugly headline in large print.
“Daniella Does It All-Tryp and All-Ways!”
He queued up another.
“Mogul’s Daughter Ménaged By Mercenaries.”
She breathed deeply in through her nose, fighting back tears.
“This one is my personal favorite.” He swiped the screen again and revealed another horrifying banner. “From Blue Prince to Interstellar Threesome, Dani Alltryp Gets Around.”
Silence enveloped the room again, her mind reeling as she tried to make sense of things. Why would they lie to her? She felt like such a fool. A dirty, slutty fool.
“Well, Ivar,” she heard him say around the pounding in her ears, “I’m guessing this nixes our arrangement.”
“You guess right, Daniel. I did stipulate a virgin bride. This is very inconvenient.” The prince’s voice was cold and brittle. “You’ll excuse me, but I must go send word of this to the king.” The door closed just shy of a slam as he left in a huff.
“Well, ain’t this fucking great. What am I supposed to do with you now?” Her father’s voice dripped with contempt.
The steadiness of her voice surprised her when she replied, “Ignore me, same as you’ve done most of my life. Soon, you won’t have to do anything with me, ever again.”
“It’s hard to ignore the millions of credits this is costing me.”
“Of course, your only concern is your greed and the balance in your bank account.”
The Renegades' Reward Page 16
