by Lolita Lopez
Caught By Menace
Lolita Lopez
Grabbed, Book Two
Menace’s plan to catch a docile woman is shot to hell when he’s tackled by a dark-haired beauty who wants to save her friend from being Grabbed. Refusing to leave the planet’s surface empty-handed, Menace claims the spitfire with his collar.
Naya clawed her way off the streets of Connor’s Run and vowed to never let any man control her. She plans to make Menace so miserable he’ll set her free, but the ruggedly sexy warrior disarms her with his unexpected patience and kindness.
Against her better judgment, Naya surrenders to Menace’s masterful hands and mouth. Submitting to her new husband brings more pleasure and happiness than she’d ever imagined possible. For the first time in her life, she willingly trusts a man to protect her.
But when past misdeeds catch up with her, Naya puts the depth and strength of that love to the test. Determined to prove he’s worthy of her trust, Menace will stop at nothing to save her.
Inside Scoop: Our heroine learns to love every decadent delight the hero offers, including BDSM play and a sizzling M/F/M ménage.
A Romantica® sci-fi erotic romance from Ellora’s Cave
CAUGHT BY MENACE
Lolita Lopez
Chapter One
Naya kept to the shadows and moved silently through the cool night. Not even the inky darkness could slow her feet. She had traveled this path enough times to memorize every inch of the back alleys and darkened streets of Connor’s Run. Like most nights, the town’s power grid had failed, plunging the place into blackness. Not wanting to garner attention, she used no flashlight and relied on the palest slivers of moonlight from the three moons orbiting Calyx to make her way to the rendezvous point.
She shook off the cold sensation of uncertainty slithering along the back of her neck. Once her mind was made up, she’d never been one to hesitate. Tonight was no different. As a wide-eyed twelve-year-old terrified by the talk of the government signing one of the Harcos bride treaties, she’d sworn a promise to her best friend Jennie. Eleven years later, Naya refused to break that promise, even if it meant leaving behind the only life she’d ever known.
And so she ran. She ran through the back streets of Connor’s Run, skirting the squalid tenements and ignoring the stench of refuse from the poorly maintained water management systems. She kept close to the buildings, the brittle bricks and stones scraping against her thin jacket and leaving chalky marks on the worn, faded fabric. In a few hours, the lottery results would be official and it would be too late to save Jennie. She had to move fast if her plan had any chance of succeeding.
As she neared the meeting point, a ramshackle warehouse that had been long abandoned and scheduled for razing, Naya eased up on her pace. Her hand drifted to the weapon secured at her hip. Her father had always joked that this gun would be pried from his cold, dead hands—and she’d done just that. She’d been nine years old the night she’d inherited her first weapon. Looking back, it was a sad omen of the dangerous, often violent life she would be forced to lead, but to keep food in her belly and a roof over her head, there had been no other choice.
Creeping through the darkness, Naya listened carefully. She held her breath and hugged the nearest wall. She scanned the warehouse for any signs of life and spotted just one light. The eerie red glow of a light stick gave the warehouse a sinister appearance.
Recognizing Dankirk’s signal, she pursed her lips and let loose a high-pitched, warbling whistle. The sound mimicking a night bird was quickly answered with a lower-pitched whistle in three short bursts. Assured the coast was clear, Naya hustled to the dilapidated building and darted between two busted-out boards. Once inside the warehouse, she pushed back the hood covering her face and kept her fingertips hovering just above her weapon. After being ambushed and betrayed more than once, she never let her guard down anymore.
“Naya.” Dankirk’s familiar voice cut through the darkness. “Over here.”
She crossed the brick floor and came face-to-face with the Red Feather fixer. As a member of the underground group of political dissidents, Dankirk handled the logistics and “fixed” all the issues that arose during their risky missions. Like her, he had some serious skill in smuggling supplies and technologies that were forbidden in their society.
“You’re late.” He tucked away the eerie red chem-light and replaced it with one in bright-yellow that more clearly illuminated his face.
“The rumors of the Grab have already hit the streets. People are talking about rioting. I couldn’t take my usual route.”
Dankirk laughed, the sound so bitter and resigned. “Yeah, because the food riots in The City last month did so much good, right? Hell, people always talk about rioting over the Grabs but they do nothing. They’ll serve up their daughters like lambs to the slaughter rather than risk the wrath of The City’s secret police or the sky warriors.”
Humming in agreement, Naya glanced around the warehouse. “Where’s the alderman?”
“He’s coming. Probably delayed the same way you were.” Dankirk slipped the glowing stick into the holder attached to a lanyard dangling from his neck. His illuminated face showed his disbelief. “Are you sure about this, Naya?”
“Not really,” Naya admitted, “but I can’t let those sky monsters take Jennie.”
He snorted with amusement. “Monsters? Shit, Naya, look no further than Harper’s Well if you want to see real monsters. Naw,” he said, his low, country drawl dragging out the word, “those Harcos men aren’t that bad. They keep us safe here on Calyx. Besides, they turn a blind eye to us sneaking folks off this hellhole of a planet to the colonies. They haven’t stopped a single smuggling ship or medicine or technology shipment from landing here in over a year. They’re doing a good thing for us.”
She couldn’t argue with him there. The Harcos were the dominant race in this solar system. Like her Earth ancestors, the Harcos were human but much larger and more terrifying. But she’d seen enough of them in the Free Market section of Connor’s Run to know she didn’t want one of them catching her in the Grab, the archaic chase organized every quarter to provide brides to these sky warriors.
Though they had women of their own on their home planet of Harcos Prime, they were tens of thousands of light years away. In exchange for policing the solar system, the sky warriors took payment in natural resources like minerals and food—and in women.
Unmarried women aged eighteen to thirty were eligible for the Grab. The officials from The City, the government center of Calyx, picked a town or village to host the Grab every quarter and calculated the quota required based on the number of sky warriors approved for the list by their superiors. This time it was nineteen young women who would be called. The mayor of Connor’s Run had chosen them by lottery that afternoon. By sunrise, the list would be posted throughout the town.
But unlike the girls trying desperately to get their names off the list, Naya was willing to do everything in her power to get her name on that list.
“You know the odds of you pulling off this plan are like, zero, right?”
Naya glanced at Dankirk. “That’s what we say every time we smuggle a family off Calyx to Jesco colony or Safe Harbor, Danny. We still try.”
He slipped his hand into the front pocket of his jacket and produced the passports and travel permits she’d requested. “They’re not as good as the old ones, but the Artist is long gone.”
Naya tugged his chem-light closer so she could see better and quickly thumbed through the forged traveling papers. Here on Calyx everything was low-tech. All official correspondence was paper and ink. Only in the colonies did the Earth descendants embrace superior and more efficient technologies. When she and Jennie reached Safe Harbor in a
few days, they’d meet with Dankirk’s contacts and upgrade their papers to the implanted tags favored there.
“These are good. Good enough to get us through customs on the colonies,” she added and stuffed them into the inner pocket of her jacket. “What happened to the Artist?”
Dankirk pointed up. “They Grabbed her.”
Naya grimaced. “That’s terrible.”
“Not from what I’ve heard,” he replied. “Besides, she came from Harper’s Well. I don’t know about you, but I’d rather take my chances on a sky ship than live in that backwards swamp. Maybe it’s not so bad up there on their alien ships.”
“How would you know? There’s a communication blackout once you’re taken. You never get to see or talk to your family or friends again.”
“I don’t think that’s true. I’ve heard some girls have contact with their families. And the Artist has a sister that does some work for the Red Feather now. She was one of the last ones we successfully smuggled out of Harper’s Well. I guess she figures she owes us a debt so she helps us place single or widowed mothers and their children in safe houses on Jesco colony and Safe Harbor.”
“She does owe a debt. Every one of us that takes a favor from the Red Feather owes a favor in return.”
“There you go with your honor code again.” Dankirk shoved two pieces of chewing gum into his mouth and winced as he bit down. “Anyway, the sister in the colonies told me that the Artist is happy with her new husband on the Valiant and living the kind of life we can only dream about here.”
Naya’s gaze narrowed suspiciously. “Sounds like some kind of bullshit story to hide what’s really going on up there in those sky ships.”
“Believe what you want. I choose to believe the woman is happy. The moons only know that she deserves it, especially after being arrested and publicly humiliated for drawing that newsletter for us.”
She remembered the horror of learning the woman, just a teenager back then, had been arrested for her crime of disseminating information. They had sentenced her to a public shearing, the same sentence given to prostitutes, and had shaved her head in the Harper’s Well town square. It was such a cruel thing to do to someone so young.
Naya noticed the way Dankirk winced as he chewed. “That tooth bothering you again, Danny?”
He nodded. “Damn thing is killing me. The chewing helps. There’s some kind of herbal oil in the gum that numbs the area nicely.”
“You should see someone about that tooth before you get an infection and die. Go have Griff pull it.”
He growled. “I am not letting some drunken bear of a bartender jerk a damn tooth out of my head, Naya!”
“Quit being such a crybaby! He did my wisdom teeth when I was like, sixteen.”
“Yeah, well, you’re a different breed, kid. My ancestors were wimps. I’m quite fond of the analgesics they offer in more civilized places like the colonies and The City.”
She rolled her eyes. “Well, unless you plan to bribe one of the licensed dentists in The City just to get an appointment and then pay the exorbitant fees for pharmacy access and medical exemptions, you don’t have a lot of choices. Just suck it up, get drunk and have it yanked.”
Dankirk shuddered. “I’ll suffer until I can see someone in Safe Harbor next week. There’s a sick kid in Grogan’s Mill that needs some kind of major surgery. The hospital on the Harbor can help him so I’m smuggling them out.”
“Are you taking the whole family?”
He shook his head. “Just the mother.”
“Is it too expensive for the whole family to travel?”
“Hardly,” he said in frustration. “It’s just mom, dad and the kid, but the dad is one of those no-intervention nutters. It’s crazy. This kid will have a totally happy, healthy and productive life if he has the surgery but his dad is ready to start digging a grave and lighting memorial candles. I just don’t understand it.”
“Different cultures, Danny. That’s why our people settled here in Connor’s Run. They sure as hell knew they weren’t going to find the kind of freedom they wanted in places like Harper’s Well or the Mill.”
“You ain’t lying.” Danny’s head snapped to the far wall of the warehouse. “I think we have company.” He pushed her toward a dark corner. “Hide behind those boxes until I give you the signal.”
Naya didn’t argue. Silently she crept to safety and crouched down. Controlling her breathing and listening intently, she experienced such a surge of sadness. It wasn’t supposed to be this way.
All those centuries earlier, when her ancestors had left Earth for the promised land in the stars, they’d believed they were going to a place of peace and prosperity. After their generational ship limped into this end of the galaxy, the Harcos took pity on them. They’d been given a beautiful planet by a race of sky warriors to start their new civilization—but it had all gone pear-shaped. Religious disagreements, corruption, a famine and an epidemic had gutted their new world.
Their civilization had fractured. Most of the wealthy citizens and nearly all of the scientists and physicians and engineers had fled Calyx for the smaller but habitable planets nearby to form the more progressive colonies like Safe Harbor and Jesco. All of the religious extremists had chosen to leave The City and form their insulated communities like Harper’s Well and Grogan’s Mill where women were property—under the guise of protection, of course—and penalties for breaking moral codes were swift and harsh. Places like Connor’s Run, where people paid lip service to the laws of The City but not much more, had popped up in strategic locations to serve as marketplaces and trading posts between the backward villages and morally corrupt City.
This? Hiding in a warehouse to bribe an official while planning to make a daring escape off the planet to save her friend from a forced marriage to some juiced-up sky warrior? No, this wasn’t the way it was supposed to be.
A low whistle pulled her from the hiding place. She rose slowly, quietly, and waited until she could see Dankirk and the gray-haired alderman clearly. Certain it was safe, she let her hand fall from her weapon and went to meet them.
Dankirk made the necessary introductions. “Naya, this is Alderman Crane. Alderman, this is Naya.”
“We’ve never met but I know you.” Alderman Crane extended his hand. “You did a favor for my niece a few years ago.”
Naya frowned and shook his hand. “I did?”
“She came to your pawnshop asking for a weapon because she was afraid her husband was going to kill her. You told her a gun wasn’t the answer and gave her something even better—a way out.”
Naya’s eyes widened as the memory resurfaced. “Lilac, right? Blonde? Late twenties?” She nodded. “I remember her.” And the bruises on her face…
“She’s doing well now. You helped save her life. I’ll do whatever I can to return the favor.”
“I want my name on the Grab list.”
The alderman blinked. “You want me to put your name on the list?”
She nodded. “I know how crazy it sounds, but I have my reasons. I need my name on that list. It’s of the utmost importance.” She took a step closer to the man. “I happen to know your daughter’s name is on the list.”
His expression grew solemn. “She is.”
“Give me her number. It’s an easy fix. It’s been done plenty of times. You give me her number and put me on the list. She takes my number and stays off the list. That gives her at least another year of freedom before the Grab comes back to Connor’s Run.”
The alderman looked shocked. “Why?”
“Because I made a promise to a friend,” Naya replied. “I never break a promise.”
“She’s big on that whole honor thing,” Dankirk murmured.
“It’s an admirable quality,” Alderman Crane remarked. “I’ll do it, Naya. I’ll switch the numbers.” He hesitated. “How much do you expect me to pay for this transaction?”
“Nothing. I want a favor,” she said simply. She gestured toward Dankirk. “Yo
u’ll owe us a favor.”
“Us? The Red Feather?”
“Yes,” she clarified. “Someday, someone will come to you and ask for help. You’ll do whatever you can to make it happen. You’ll remember how I helped your niece and your daughter and you’ll pay it forward.”
“Of course,” Alderman Crane promised. “I’ll do whatever it takes.”
Naya shook his hand and slipped the piece of paper with her identification number against his palm. “Thank you.”
He squeezed her hand before pocketing the paper. “Good luck with whatever it is you have planned. May you find happiness in wherever this takes you.”
Dankirk walked the alderman outside. When he returned, he sighed loudly. “Well that’s that. You’re going to be on the list. You’re going to have to run.”
“That’s the plan.” Naya tried to ignore the wobbling anxiety burning in the pit of her stomach.
“It won’t be easy to get from the surface of Calyx to the colonies,” Dankirk warned.
“We’ve got our papers.” She touched her pocket. “Jennie’s boyfriend will land his surface-to-sky cruiser in the woods just beyond the safe zone. Jennie and I know the woods like the backs of our hands. We’ll evade the Harcos men, get to the safe zone and make a mad dash right to the waiting ship.”
“Why not run now? Run tonight. Run tomorrow. Don’t wait, Naya.”
“We can’t. You know the government has this place clamped down tightly. Those damn riots in The City have made it impossible to even travel between towns. Even if we could evade the local police force and get Josef’s ship into orbit, those guys?” She pointed toward the sky and shook her head. “They keep a close watch on the planet leading up to their Grabs. They’ll never allow two women chosen by the lottery to make a run to the colonies. They’d probably arrest Josef for trying to steal something they consider theirs. It’s too big of a risk.”
Dankirk rubbed the back of his neck. “What about Jennie’s boyfriend? Does this guy have the necessary permits to get to the surface?”
