After a moment he spoke. “What are we looking at?”
“Something in her heart.”
If Nolan had a thought about a foreign object in my body, he didn’t voice it. Instead, he waited without uttering another word.
“I want to be wrong.” Wes shook his head before he closed his eyes.
Nolan reached around Dane and patted Wes on the back. “You’re never wrong.”
“That’s the problem.” Wes opened his lids and walked toward me. When he spoke, he addressed me. “You have a wireless receiver inside you. A really good one. It moves across sub space, meaning it can go over long distances. I know this stuff bores you.”
“It doesn’t,” I hurriedly interrupted. “And we’re talking about something inside me. Near my baby. Even if it did bore me, I’d want to hear about it.”
Why did they keep telling me what I did and didn’t want to talk about? A pang struck my head and I ignored it. This was too important for another headache. My mind had to deal with information, whether it wanted to or not.
Nolan looked at his shoes, the floor, and the windows while Dane positioned himself at my side, his hand steady on my shoulder.
“So they’re tracking her?” Nolan asked.
“That’s not what this one does. It’s fused to the inside of the pericardial sack around her heart and is set to trigger the secondary device attached to it. It’s clear. It’s one of Geoff’s. It’s a smart bomb.”
Nolan’s head shot up and he finally stared right at me. “So she could be killed? At any moment?”
The room spun, and I grasped my belly. On the edge of the table, my last conscious thought was, That floor is going to hurt.
* * * *
When I woke again, I was alone on the metal bed. The lights in the room were dimmed and a steady beeping dinged low in the background. I was unfettered, no plastic surrounding me to keep me in. I didn’t have a headache and nothing ached like I’d hit the floor. Maybe someone had caught me before I’d actually made contact. Or Dane had fixed the injury. I didn’t know.
The baby jumped inside me. He—correction, she—seemed okay.
I took a deep breath and swung my legs over the side. This time I jumped. Having not stood in far too long, my legs were shaky and I took a few steps before I steadied. If no one was there with me, I had to take advantage of the situation.
I had a bomb inside of me and if it went off, my baby and I would die. I couldn’t allow any harm to come to her. She counted on me to make good decisions. One of the last things Wes said was Geoff made the bomb. I was travelling on a ship with a bunch of guys who hurt people as a living. Geoff made bombs that blew up people’s babies.
The best thing I could do constituted getting far away from him and whatever viciousness the others engaged in. I made my way to the doorway and walked out, half-expecting an alarm to trigger or some kind of force field to keep me in. When nothing happened, I kept going.
Somewhere, they had a shuttle. Geoff had stolen Prince Cooper’s. For hours I’d listened to him complain about how it was nothing to fly it. Point and click. I was smart enough. I could figure out how to get it to go. I’d fly away, fast. They’d made us study the important planets. I could even go directly to Ochoa. Someone would help me. They wouldn’t kill my daughter.
First, though, I had to find the shuttle.
Dane’s office was a lot nicer than the hallway. His medical bay had been clean yet disorganized. Outside the door, the walkway looked like it was falling apart. Paint peeled from the walls, the floor was cracked. One lone viewport caught my attention further down the hall and I made my way to it, pulling myself up on tiptoe to look outside. The vast blackness of space made me dizzy but I refused to faint again.
For my child, I had to do better than being a woman who alternated between tears and passing out. Oh and puking. I needed to stop that, too. There had to be some inner strength somewhere inside me. Nothing visible appeared attached to the side of the ship from this vantage, but maybe that made sense.
Where would a shuttle be if it had attached it to the ship? Behind, like a tow. I had to find my way to the rear of the ship.
Without getting caught.
I hoisted up the pants on the oversized guard uniform and rolled them until they weren’t quite so long. If I needed to run, I didn’t want them to be a hindrance.
I steeled my spine. Get moving, Melissa. Wherever they all were they weren’t going to stay gone forever. This was my chance to escape, and I planned to take it.
Ten minutes later I was lost with no idea how to get anywhere. One long corridor after another made me dizzy and I half-believed I was walking in circles. Several minutes had passed when a sudden alarm echoed through corridor. Surprise joined panic to pulse through me. Someone had noticed my absence. I picked up my pace.
A noise, which might be the engine, sounded louder and I hoped the increase in volume was a good sign. I rushed around a corner and slammed into a hard body with enough force that the impact knocked me backwards. I would have landed flat on my ass if strong arms hadn’t stopped my fall.
“Whoa.” The man, who must have been the fifth member of their crew, the one I hadn’t met, laughed. “Easy there. We don’t need you getting hurt.”
“I…” With nothing left to do, I struggled against his hold. He was much bigger than me, the tallest of the men I’d met so far, and even when I tried to kick at his shins, he kept me still. He had brown hair, long enough that it curled on his neck, and chocolate brown eyes to go with his locks. A scar covered part of his right cheek, under his eye socket. He wore black pants and an orange T-shirt stretched over the vast muscles of his chest. The man was huge.
“Calm down.” He didn’t increase his hold on me, not that he needed to. I wasn’t going anywhere so long as he held me steady against him. “You’re safe, M.”
His use of the initial instead of my name sounded weird, but it wasn’t the strangest thing to happen to me lately, so I didn’t even comment. “Who are you?”
He winced. “Sorry. I…I forgot. I see what Wes meant. Uh, yeah. I’m C.J. I’m not going to hurt you. I don’t want you to hurt yourself.”
“Listen to me.” I spoke through clenched teeth. “This has to stop. I get it. I’ve figured some things out. Geoff made some kind of vow. I assumed it was a misguided belief he had to rescue me. I tried to convince him to let me go, that I wanted to stay at Master’s. But I misunderstood. He took me to hurt the Nobles. Okay. I must be worth something to someone. Enough that they stuck a bomb in my heart to keep me from getting away. You have to understand, C.J. You’re a human being. You must have a soul. I have a baby, a girl, in my womb. She needs me not to die. If you have a heart, let me go. Please. I’ll get on the shuttle. I’ll disappear. I can’t tell them where you are. I don’t even know. In the time it takes me to get help, you can be gone. Let my daughter go. Please. Please. Please.”
His eyes widened. “M, stop it.”
I struggled harder. He had to understand. “Hate me if you want to. I can’t let you hurt my daughter. The prince—Cooper Jackson—he offered to help me. Maybe he’ll give you something for me. He seems to care a lot about babies. I’m a risk to you. When they blow me up, they’ll take out your ship. It’ll be better if I’m not on it.”
“Stop it.” This time his voice was strong, determined, and it kicked the fight right out of me. “You’re going to exhaust yourself. When did you last eat?”
His words made no sense. “What?”
“Food. The stuff you chew and swallow. When?”
“I have no idea. Are you listening to me?”
He released one of my arms and tucked the one he still held into his side. “Let’s get you fed. And by the way, Geoff brought you here because it would have killed him to leave you. The second he saw your face on the video feed of women available for bidding, he could think of nothing other than getting you to Artemis. We’ll talk about the rest of it while you ingest nutrition. Your daughter has n
ever been safer in her life than right where she is, and so is her mother. You’re going to be okay. We all will, once we get to The Bridge.” C.J. tapped his wrist. “Turn off the alarm. I’ve got her. She and I are going to have a talk in the kitchen. Leave us alone for a bit. Yes, Dane, that means you, too.”
So much for my grand idea of flying away. I was as trapped as I’ve always been.
Chapter 6
Force fields
C.J. sat me at a counter then he maneuvered around a small kitchen, pulling cans out of containers attached to the wall that served as cabinets. If I’d thought the hallways were in bad shape, they had nothing on how awful the kitchen appeared. The fronts of all the cabinets hung on hinges. There was no refrigerator, and the counter, which at least looked cleanish, had missing tiles and spots where clearly something had been burned on it. I traced my fingers over one of the circular indentations in the counter. Had it been a pot put down too soon, causing the scalding mark?
The stove wasn’t pretty, but it looked like it worked as C.J. placed a black pot on it and turned it on. “Soup a la C.J. It won’t be the best thing you’ve ever eaten but it’ll get you fed.”
“I can cook. They taught us on Master’s.”
He turned around. “Really? That’s the most fabulous news ever. After my soup, you can take over the cooking then, although we only have canned stuff right now. Add this to that. Not hard or complicated.”
I’d expected to use my skills to feed my husband, not my five captors. At least it would give me something to do while I figured out how to get to the shuttle.
C.J. spooned his concoction into my bowl when he finished. I blew on my spoon to cool it before I ate a small bite. Spiced meat mixed with the warm broth and I didn’t mind the taste. My stomach groaned, reminding me how long it had been since I’d eaten. Getting sick on the shuttle had put me off food. The machine Dane put me had probably given me nutrition but this was the first food I’d wanted in too long.
“Thank you.” I ate some more.
C.J. didn’t join me eating and watched instead as I slowly consumed my meal. When I finally set down my spoon, my body was warmed and my stomach was full. The baby bumped me and I rubbed where I felt her. My current captor watched the motion of my hands on my rounded belly, his eyes hooded and unreadable.
“Do you want more?” He motioned toward my empty bowl.
“No, I’m stuffed.”
C.J. raised an eyebrow. “Okay. Good. Not a lot of food for you, but I’ll go with it. I’m not the mother hen type. I trust you to eat from now on because your baby needs it, if for no other reason. Now, as to the things you said. You aren’t our prisoner. We’re taking you to The Bridge so the doctors there can release you from the prison of your mind. We didn’t do that to you. Geoff would be utterly horrified if he heard what you thought, so I’m not going to tell him. And if I ever get the chance to see Cooper Jackson again in person, I won’t be trading you to him. I’ll be slitting his throat.”
The brutal image sunk into my imagination. C.J. with a razor, Cooper’s throat, blood, gurgling. I shuddered. I didn’t know the prince, but he’d tried to help me and in return Geoff had stolen his shuttle. I didn’t want to get the man killed.
“You really hate him.” Goosebumps broke out on my skin.
“Yes.” Easy, quick answer. He didn’t even hesitate. How cold was C.J.? Or better yet, how impassioned in his hatred? “But enough about Cooper. More than enough said. No one is going to blow you up, not while you’re pregnant with that little girl. They’re all over the airwaves pleading for your safe return. They know what you carry. That will buy Dane, Wes, and Geoff, when he wakes from his medically-induced knock out, time to fix this. Either Dane will figure out how to get it safely out of you, Wes will cut the signal, or Geoff will know how to defuse his own bomb. Or, if all of that fails, Nolan and I will figure out who to kill, and we’ll take care of it. Okay?”
I doubted very much Nolan would kill anyone for me. He wouldn’t even make eye contact. I wouldn’t be surprised to hear he hated everything about having me on board. Detest rolled off him in waves.
“Let’s hope no one has to die.” I didn’t want any more sin on my soul. I rubbed at my neck. My skin felt tight. “You plan to keep me until after the baby comes.”
He leaned close to me. “Yes.”
There he was with his quick affirmative answer again. When C.J. meant something, he really owned it.
“C.J.” We both turned at Nolan’s entrance. “Get her to her room. We’re making our way to Planet Hall to rescue Ventura and his crew. Geoff got intel on their capture when he had her in the shuttle with him. We’ve been given orders to go get them.”
I remembered the call from the shuttle. They’d thought we were Noble and Geoff had played along.
C.J. shook his head. “We have to get to The Bridge. Does headquarters understand our situation?” He spoke through clenched teeth.
“I spoke to the General herself. She has a firm grasp and, since it’s 50-50 at best, she thinks it’s pressing we take care of our people and get them to their ship. The supplies they were taking away from the Nobles still needs getting. It’s now our gig. Suit up. We’ll be there within the hour.”
He pounded his hand on the counter, jolting my empty soup bowl. “Nolan, we need to get M help.”
“Don’t call her that. She doesn’t get to use our nicknames.” Nolan snapped, pounding the wall before he turned his back on us and stormed from the room.
“Damn it.” C.J. closed his eyes for a second. When he spoke to me, they were open. “He doesn’t mean that, M. He’s hurting.”
I picked up my soup bowl and took it to the sink. When I pushed on the water, relief filled me to see it worked, and I rinsed off my dirty dishes. Nolan threw me. I’d suspected his hatred and then I’d gotten to experience it. Two totally different dives into yuckiness. What had I done to him?
“It’s nothing to me.” I lied because I wished it was the truth. “Call me M, don’t call me M; I’m your prisoner. You can do whatever you want. You’re all a bunch of rebels. I hope they catch you and that Prince Cooper cuts off your head.”
I fled from the room, having no idea where I would go. I just knew I had to run from C.J., from Nolan’s harsh words, and from myself. The more time I spent on this ship, the more I began to care about these men. But I shouldn’t care, because they were traitors, and they’d taken me against my will.
“Hey.” C.J. grabbed me from behind, hauling me against the broad expanse of his chest. “I’m glad to see your spine is still intact. You told me off. Bravo. You don’t know where your room is. Let me show you. Feel free to stew about how much you hate us while we take care of business on the planet.”
“I have a room?”
C.J. set me down, taking my arm like he had before. “Well, you aren’t going to sleep on the floor. I was getting it fixed for you earlier or I would have come and joined the drama in med bay. Seems like it was really the time.”
I followed him around several corners, making note of various locations as we went, including the spot where the door, now open, led out to the shuttle I’d been looking for before. Wes stood in the open walkway staring at us as we went by.
“Where did you find her?” He spoke to C.J. even as he stared at me with his hard eyes. “And did you get her fed?”
“By the bionics supply lab and, yes, I made her my soup.”
Wes snickered. “When you’re sick later from his cooking, you’ll wish you hadn’t eaten that, Mel.”
“Any chance you want me out of here so much you’ll put me on one of those shuttles and let me go on my way?” I called over my shoulder to Wes as C.J. dragged me away.
“Not a chance,” Wes yelled after me.
Why were they all determined to keep me if it wasn’t about getting something in exchange for trading me? I wasn’t their wife. My head pounded.
We rounded the corner and C.J. motioned toward the door. I walked in and he follo
wed close on my heels. The room was…pretty. The bed was big, king-sized, and it had a purple bedspread with blue flowers on it. A closet, which had been left open, had clothes displayed on hangers, and there was a chest of drawers across the room.
There were no pictures or personal effects to the room, other than the bedspread and the clothes, to indicate anyone had lived in the space before. A bathroom was attached to the left.
“The bed is so big.” I’d not had anywhere near this amount of living space since I’d woken with no memories. I couldn’t imagine needing so much room. The bed in Master’s had been sufficient, and it was twin-sized. We didn’t need bigger beds until we had a husband.
I wandered further into the room and pointed at the closet. “Whose clothes are those?”
“Yours now.”
He didn’t answer the question he’d been asked, which could only mean one thing. “Your wife’s.” I didn’t have to be smart to figure out what was going on. It all added up. Geoff. Dane. Nolan. C.J. and Wes. They all shared a wife.
“She…” He rocked on his feet. “I’m sure she would want you to wear them. They’re sitting in the closet. No one will touch them to throw them out. Not that it matters, since you’re pregnant, so even though you’re the same size, I don’t think they’re going to work. When we get done with this job and head to The Bridge, we’ll get you some maternity clothes. In the meantime, I’ll get you some of my clothes. My shirts will cover you.”
The com in the room beeped. “C.J., we’re ready.” I winced at Nolan’s voice. He even sounded angry over the sound system. C.J. nodded and headed toward the door. “Relax for a bit. The ship is going to land, and then most of us will exit. Dane will stay here, and you’ll wait with him. See you later.”
When he left, I lay on the bed. I’d wanted quiet, but now it seemed deafening. What was I to do with so many thoughts on my own? I was flying on a ship with five guys I didn’t know, who were keeping me prisoner. Cooper’s face flew before my eyes and I pushed it away. Why couldn’t I stop thinking about him? I’d had less than five minutes of conversation with him.
Kidnapped by Her Husbands (Wings of Artemis Book 1) Page 7
