by Celeste Raye
They made it to a tunnel. The tunnel was high enough to stand in and wide enough that they could run side-by-side, and they did. His hand still held hers and the shape of his hand—long fingers and wide but supple palm—made all sorts of thoughts that were completely traitorous to Jack spring up in her mind.
What was happening? And where was Jack?
She stuttered out, “My fiancé! Is he here? His name is Jack! His father is an under-officer on Newport! He was with me on Orbital, and we were having dinner one minute, and I was waking up here the next! Stop! We can’t leave him! We can’t!”
“Not happening, sweetheart. If he’s here, he is on his own. I am not about to go down those steps and through that tunnel again, especially not when all I would be doing would be running right toward those who wish me dead. If you want to give that a go, be my guest. Otherwise, keep moving!”
Just then they reached what was clearly a ship dock. Tara balked. “No! We have to find Jack!”
Her rescuer stared at her. Now that there was light, she could see him clearly. He was tall and very well-built, all broad shoulders and wide, deep chest, flat stomach, lean hips, and long legs all contained within some sort of suit that clung to his body like a second skin and outlined every rippling muscle and honed angle. Desire, unbidden and unwanted, made its presence known in the wetness of her crotch and the stiffness of her nipples.
Her rescuer ran one hand through his jet-black hair and said, “I hate to tell you this, but if you were on a pleasure planet eating dinner before you got here and you have no idea what happened after that… you were drugged. You were drugged, and you were sold. I would say perhaps you were kidnapped but when slavers engage in kidnappings, they are usually far more violent methods, and that’s usually something the victims wish, but only wish, that they could forget.”
Tara’s mouth hung open. “What do you mean I was sold?”
Her rescuer said, “I will explain it to you on the ship. They are a mere breath away from us. I don’t fancy getting my ass shot off to explain your maybe kidnapping and subsequent sale to slavers to you here and now. So let’s shelve that for later; what do you say?”
Who was this man? His harsh words brought tears to her eyes. Her body shook. Her ears picked up the sound of running footsteps, and he must have heard it too because his hand released hers as he turned and began to make his way, quite speedily, to the ship sitting at the dock. It was a small craft, capable of holding only a few, and she stared after him, knowing that he was not joking: he was leaving. Part of her was torn. Survival, her brain urged, run for your life and do it now while you still have time and opportunity. The other half of her, the half connected to her heart, urged her to go back the way she had come, to try to get back into the city and find Jack before something horrible happened to him.
Her rescuer slid the door of the craft open and jumped inside. Its engine cranked, and Tara knew at that moment that her only choice was to survive or die. She could hear the mob chasing them, and just then a bright burst of laser fire shot down the tunnel and bounced off the walls. They were almost in range, and if she did not get on the craft and off that dock, she was going to die. What was more, her dallying there was probably going to get the man who had just saved her life killed as well.
Tara turned and ran toward the craft. The door was closed, but as soon as she reached it, the door popped open. She jumped inside, one hand grabbing the manual door handle and yanking it down as fast as she could.
The craft took off, arcing sharply up off the docking station before she was ready for it to happen. She went flying through the cabin, rolling and tumbling until her hands found the bottom of a jump seat. She clutched at it, screaming loudly as the craft spun in a rolling circle, upside down and then right side up again several times over. She was sure she was going to die. She was equally sure that this man might be able to get the drop on a being whose back was turned and kill them, but that he had absolutely no idea how to fly an aircraft!
Then they were soaring, hitting space, and for a moment there was only dead silence broken by the sound of the engines and her own sobs. She scrambled to her feet and managed to work her way up to the seat beside the one that her rescuer sat in. She plopped into it and grabbed for the safety harnesses, buckling herself in so tightly that she could feel the press of the harness against her ribs and breasts. She stared out at the dead looking planet that they were soaring away from and asked, “Who are you?”
“Blade.”
Oh, of course he was. Of all the people in the universe who could have rescued her when she needed to be rescued, she just had to go to get herself rescued by a man whose name was reminiscent of the male heroes in the many-centuries-old tales of romance that she loved so much to read.
It just figured. It just did.
Chapter Three
Blade was torn between amusement and concern for his passenger. She was clearly confused and battered. He knew that the battering had mostly come from takeoff, but there was nothing he could do about that. She’d waited too long to enter the craft, and he had barely had enough time to get them out of there. There was no way he had the seconds it would have taken to let her get into a seat. They had already been firing, and one good shot would’ve killed them both or crippled the craft so that their pursuers could have reached them and killed them.
He knew he shouldn’t risk looking at her at the moment, he had a minefield to get through after all, but he couldn’t help himself. She was lovely, all flaming red hair tinted with gold highlights that he would wager were natural, translucent pale skin, a slim nose dotted with a few freckles right across the bridge, and wide eyes the same color as summer grass. Her body was exquisite, slim and well-sculpted. Evidence that she had been well-fed and had had plenty of access to water and other necessary things for humans.
So who the hell was she?
He decided he had to find out even if it meant risking paying less attention than he needed to. He had come this way far too many times to not know how to get out. There was an asteroid belt ahead after all.
It suddenly occurred to him that this human woman beside him had never been through there and if she began screaming that would be a hell of a larger distraction than he needed. He decided asking her some questions to take her mind off what was happening and to keep her focus on him would be just the thing.
He said, “Now you know my name; what is yours?”
She whispered out, “Tara. Tara Better.”
Better? What sort of last name was that? He frowned and guided the ship easily around the first of the small asteroids chunking their way across the deadness of space. “So you were on Orbital and having dinner: that is the last thing that you remember?”
She nodded quite vigorously. “Jack, my fiancé, and I were there for three days. Well, no. We were supposed to be there for three days, but we had only just gotten there that day. We went to dinner and…and I don’t know what happened next.”
He considered that, weighing her words carefully. Women being taken on trips to pleasure planets that ended with them being drugged and sold was a thing that happened a lot. He knew far too many slaves who had ended up in slavery via a vacation with a person they thought just wanted to gift them something nice.
He decided to ask a few more questions even though he was pretty sure that that was exactly what had happened. “Did you arrive a few days before this happened? Do you remember anyone who looked suspicious?”
She made a low sound in her throat then spoke. “No. It was an unexpected trip; it wasn’t something we planned to do. He just came home one day and said he got this really good deal on a travel voucher. That some friend of his had… Oh my God! Do you think his friend was in some kind of trouble and whoever he was in trouble with thought Jack and I were…”
Blade had his own opinion, and he was pretty sure it had nothing at all to do with mistaken identity, but he figured he might as well sound her out and see what he could learn. He was actually pr
etty willing to bet that her loving fiancé had gotten into some kind of debt there on the pleasure planet and had decided to trade her off as payment. Or he had taken her there to sell her.
He asked, “Had you ever been there before?”
She turned her chair so that she was looking at him. He could feel the intensity of her gaze upon his profile. He was glad to feel it. They were coming through the asteroid belt now, and danger was all around them. One scream from her and he might jerk the flight stick in the wrong direction just because she startled him.
Tara said, “No, we had never been. We never left Newport, either of us. And not just the planet either; neither of us had ever been out of Newport City. That’s what made it so strange, and so exciting too, I guess. We had both always wanted to travel, but neither of us have ever had the opportunity because our positions are so lowly and our credit earning is as well. We kept saying that when we were older, and no longer in service to the Federation, that we would travel.” A sharp laugh burst from her mouth and then it turned into a low sob that she quickly smothered and stifled.
She spoke again, “I guess we got to travel anyway.” Another sob also stifled swiftly. “Do you think he is alive? Do you think they hurt him?”
He was willing to bet old Jack was back home in Newport, perched in whatever living arrangement he had and gleefully counting himself lucky to have experienced the planet while having to pay nothing more than the woman who was sitting beside him. He asked, “Tell me something, how long were you two engaged?”
She sighed. “Oh, five months now. We met only seven months ago but… Don’t laugh. I know it was really fast. It’s just that we seemed so suited to each other and…”
Blade decided to turn the subject. “So you reside on Newport?”
“Yes. Have you been there?”
His voice was tight. “Not in a very long time.”
“But you’ve been?”
His shoulders stiffened, and he deliberately loosened them, forcing his muscles to relax so that he would not jerk up on that flight stick. “Yes, I have been.”
She said, “I have no idea how someone would go from living in Newport to living back there. Why were you there?”
He steadied the ship and made a minor adjustment that would take them through the heat field. “I had business there.”
“What kind of business could take you there?”
Blade said, “You don’t want to know. Listen, I am going to take you as far as the nearest Fed-friendly planet. Then you’re on your own. I can’t take you to Newport; I have business elsewhere.”
“I see.” She turned the seat and then sucked in a breath. “We’re on fire!”
“No, just going through a heat field. It will cease soon but please don’t panic and run. There’s a good chance that if you do, you will knock us off course and you don’t want to die like that.”
“I’d say not.”
Her stout answer made a grin crack his face even though he hadn’t meant for it to. He said, “You sound very practical.”
“I am very practical. Usually. Going to Orbital wasn’t practical at all. I don’t know what made me say yes. I guess it was just the idea of travel and going to such an exotic place—and…and, well, I wanted to make Jack happy. He was looking forward to it so much.” A sob came again, and he turned his head to see a long tear sliding down her cheek. She brushed it away with one hand and straightened her shoulders. “I have to know the name of that planet so I can get help and send assistance back.”
Blade decided to just be brutally honest. “Let me ask you this. Was he ever engaged before?”
She frowned. That frown creased her forehead and made her eyes squint a bit as she nodded. “How’d you know?”
“Any idea what happened to her?”
Clean white teeth chewed at her slightly thin bottom lip. “She left him without a word. It broke his heart. He wouldn’t ever talk about her.”
“I think your fiancé sold you.”
Her eyes went wide. Her jaw sagged open. She cried out, “Are you insane? How can you say such a thing?”
Blade said, “Because it happens like that. There’s a travel voucher, a too good to be true vacation to an exotic destination, a gift that is out of the ordinary and strange and not really affordable. Then when the woman, and sometimes the male, get to where they are going, food or drink gets drugged and the slavers, who are already there because they have already agreed to the purchase, haul off the victim, who is rarely ever seen again. I would say you got very lucky.”
“No.” Her hands shook as she raised them to her mouth. “You’re wrong. He would never. Jack is a very…” She broke off. Her chest heaved up and down. “Why would he do that?”
“Because he wanted credits and he could get them by selling you is the usual reason.” Blade knew his words were harsh and unkind but so was what had been done to her. “Did you fly on private transport?”
“Yes but…”
“Then you skipped the lines of security and didn’t have to register as a traveler.”
“No, but that was part of the voucher! It was…” She fell silent. The sobs that came from her chest now were not silent. They were harsh and broken. “No. he would not have done that. If anything, he was tricked and they stole me.”
She would believe that all up until she found her fiancé safe and sound, and quite shocked that she was back home. He knew that he was talking to a brick wall and if there was anything he was not willing to do, it was waste his precious time dealing with this situation. He said, “Maybe you’re right.”
“Of course I am!” her cry was wild and raw. “I…I need to try to contact him as soon as possible and let him know I am okay!”
“You can use the com-caster as soon as we get somewhere close to a place with signal.”
“Thank you.”
He knew he should dump her on the nearest planet. Unfortunately, the nearest planet was not one he would drop a dog off on. It was not as bad as the one they had just left, but it was bad enough. It was an outlier with plenty of criminal activity, and she was an innocent.
Too innocent.
He said, “I can take you to Merital. It’s just a small agri-planet, but they’re law abiding, and you will be safe there. You must, and I mean must, tell nobody where you were found.”
She squirmed. “I can’t tell anyone because I have no idea at all where I was. And you are so very wrong about him. He’s a good man. I mean I know you probably see that…what you said…a lot, but that only happens in your world, not in mine. I’m…we’re decent people, not criminals!”
She didn’t add the words like you, and she didn’t have to. He could hear them loud and clear anyway.
He didn’t have the time or the ability to help her sort it all out. He didn’t really have time to load her onto a safe planet, in truth, and why he had said that baffled him. He was a hard man, and he’d seen plenty of beings in trouble over the years. He could have walked away from her, he should have walked away from her, but for some reason he hadn’t—and he usually didn’t. That was his fatal flaw. He always wanted to save and champion the lost and hurt and weak. One day that was going to get his ass shot off, and he knew it, and he also knew that now was not the time to get mixed up with Tara, and whatever had happened to her. He was about to embark on open warfare with the all-powerful Federation.
And maybe he was wrong, maybe she had just been kidnapped, and her fiancé had nothing at all to do with her finding herself in that situation.
But he doubted it.
He was willing to wager a year’s worth of loot that she had little to no family, would not be missed at her job, and that said fiancé had kept their relationship very secret.
Why the hell did he care?
Because if he did sell her and she went back to him, he would either kill her on the spot or just sell her again, probably before she even had a chance to figure it all out for herself.
That ruthless part of him asked, �
�And so what? It’s not your problem. You have bigger fish to fry and a war to first start, and then fight. Drop her off and get on with it already.”
That was what he should do, no doubt. But he did care for some reason. He said, “You’re likely right, and I’m sure he’s terrified and worried about you.”
Her shoulders, held rigid by her tension, dropped slowly. “I’m sure he is. Thank you for…for everything.”
He nodded. His eyes went to the controls. Fourteen hours to Merital, and then she’d be gone. Out of his way and out of his ship and life.
Chapter Four
Tara stared at the com-cast, and then slowly she reached out and cut it off. The screen went blank. Her head lowered. Grief broke over her. Jack was not answering. That could mean only one thing.
He had been taken too, and he was either dead or…
Did they do to men what they had tried to do to her?
Yes. She had seen males on those streets of that foul and terrifying planet she had somehow ended up on.
Maybe Jack was back there at that very minute, and maybe he was hurt or dead.
She had to go back!
No. No way could she go back there. She twisted her fingers together as she tried to think. Maybe the best thing to do would be to try to pry information out of Blade, get him to reveal the name of the planet so she could get the proper authorities to go back and find Jack.
Blade was on the run from a pack of killers back there—and so was she. Going back was not an option. She turned away from the screen, her eyes roaming over the small chamber at the back of the ship that Blade had shown her into. The place was beyond spartan, just a single berth on one wall and a small cleansing chamber and a food printer on the other walls. Nothing else.
