by Leila Brown
“Either that or we send you over to watch us die. Then you get used and abused by some asshole. Or a group of assholes,” Ace countered.
“You have three minutes.” A computerized voice blasted across a loud speaker.
Both women jumped.
“I thought Ryas turned that off.” Sera pulled a hand up to her chest. The movement wasn't going to calm her. Nothing would calm her. They were all about to die. The lie that Ace and Ryas had told her to get her back into their bed didn't seem so bad. Not in the face of certain death.
“I did. They are broadcasting that on an open communications channel. It will give anyone in the area time to get clear.” Ryas ran back into the room. “The hyperdrive is blown out, but our forward engines are still online.”
“What good is that going to do? Without the hyperdrive we won't be able to outrun them,” Ace argued.
A loud buzzer went off in the room. The slavers were calling back? Maybe they would give them another option.
Ryas hit the button and opened the communications channel. “Captain Ryas. What can we do for you now?”
“You can tell me if you would like help,” a deep voice replied over the speaker.
“Captain Black?” Sophie said in a tiny voice.
“Do you want my help?” the captain asked over the speakerphone. “I'd hurry up and decide. You only have two minutes left.”
“Tell him yes,” Sophie said as the men turned to look at each other. “What are you waiting for, a fucking written invitation?”
“It's not that simple. Captain Black never does anything for free,” Ace barked at her before turning and nodding at Ryas.
“Captain Black, what will your help cost us?” Ryas knew it would be steep because they'd broken into the man's ship. He would be looking for payback.
“Sophie.” The word came too quick. He knew what he wanted. There was no thought in it. No hesitation.
“No. Hell no,” Sera said before Ryas could click any button on the panel.
“If you want to live through this, I suggest you change your mind. Sophie will serve as my personal pleasure-giver for the next three runs. Otherwise, when they blast your ship to hell, I'll lock on and bring her aboard before she dies. Either way I get her.” He was deadly serious. No one could mistake the steel running through his voice.
“Sera,” Sophie said, gripping her arm.
Fuck and double fuck. They were going to die. Or at least three of them were. She would never buy her life with her sister as collateral. No way. No fucking way.
“Sera, he's going to get me either way. If I agree, at least I will have you to come back to,” Sophie whispered to her.
“No.” Sera sobbed.
“Tell him I will do it. Three runs, that's it. After that he has no claim to me.” Sophie swallowed with an audible gulp.
Sera felt tears well up in her eyes. He'd stolen her sister, she'd signed away her freedom to get her back, and the bastard was still going to have Sophie. She heard Ryas agreeing to the man's terms, and her stomach turned.
“Transport her over, and I will shoot the other ship with an EMP. They will be disabled, and I will tow you back to the planet. Although you will have to rent dock space, since you blasted yours to dust.” His voice was matter-of-fact now.
“You have one minute,” the computerized voice from the slavers' ship stated.
“Can they hear Captain Black?” Fear spread across Sophie's face.
“No. Captain Black hailed us on a secure channel. Are you sure about this, Sophie?”
“He's going to have me either way.” Sophie lifted her shoulders in defeat. “Just beam me over. But you two”—she pointed to Ace and Ryas—“owe me.”
Ryas's fingers flowed over the keys.
“Sera?” Sophie reached out for her.
Sera reached out, but before their fingers could touch, Sophie was gone. Sera fell to the floor, and tears poured from her. She couldn't stop them. Didn't want to. What the hell had Sophie done?
“Send the damn EMP now!” Ryas yelled.
There was no response. Was he going to do it? Or was he going to screw them now that he had Sophie. A crash flowed over the ship, and everything went black. It didn't matter. Sophie was gone now, and there was no way to get her back until those three runs were up.
Hands clamped on her and picked her up. Sera kicked out and struggled.
“Sera, stop it. We just want to get you back to our room,” Ace whispered in her ear. “The EMP knocked out our systems too.”
“Let me go, you bastard. This is your fault. Your fault,” she screamed. “You asked him to take her. You started all of this. She would be safe if it wasn't for you.” Sera hoped that they would contradict her. Tell her it was all a lie. Silence followed her outburst. No. No. No.
It was true. They'd set it all up. They'd asked someone to kidnap Sophie and then tricked her into signing on as their pleasure-giver. She was so stupid. “So fucking stupid.” A bed was suddenly beneath her.
“You're not stupid. It wasn't like that.” Ryas sat down beside her. “We wanted you to stay with us. We knew you wouldn't stay. You barely know us. And once you registered to be a pirate, every pirate on the planet would be angling to get you in his bed. You wouldn't have a reason to give us a second glance.”
“Our ship isn't the most fancy. It's not the fastest, and it will take you more than a few years to save enough money to get your own ship on our takes,” Ace added as he put a hand on her shoulder.
Sera shook his hand off her. “And that gives you the right to put my sister in danger?”
Ryas let out a thick sigh. “She wasn't supposed to be in danger. Captain Black was only supposed to take her temporarily. As soon as you signed that contract, he was going to give her back.”
“Then what happened? What went wrong with your plan?” Sera mocked.
“Captain Black called and said he was keeping her. Told us she was going to be his pleasure-giver.” Ryas moved closer to her.
Sera inched away from him, but she bumped into Ace.
“Give us a chance. We'll make you happy. We'd do anything to make you happy. We just wanted you with us. We are sorry. So sorry.” Ace smoothed a hand over her side.
“When we were young, we didn't have anything but each other. Ace and I tried to have relationships, but it never worked for us. Either they were really into Ace, or they wanted me. Most just wanted money. You're the first woman who wanted us both. Who treated us the same. If you want to start over, we can live with that. Just don't cut us out of your life.” The pain in Ryas's voice tore through her pain.
“We were stolen by slavers and escaped while we were barely eighteen. When we first started ransoming the slavers' ships, we tried to save everyone. The women fought us. They didn't believe us. You're the first ones we've convinced to leave with us.” Ace slipped his hands around her back.
“We want you. All of you…forever. We want to make your contract permanent. We want you to marry us.”
Sera's breath caught in her throat. They weren't using her. They wanted to keep her? Forever? “But you don't know me. It hasn't even been a week.”
“Honey, we know a good thing when we see it. Why wait months when we know nothing's going to change?” Ryas's hand moved out and traced up her leg.
“You want me? Forever? And you made up your mind just like that?” Sera asked, snapping her fingers in the darkness.
“Have you ever seen an old, gray pirate?” Ace asked.
Sera shook her head. Hell, before last week she'd never seen any pirate. Not in person anyway.
“You won't. Our jobs are dangerous. Full of fighting and death. We take love where we find it. We don't stand on ceremony. We do everything in our power to hold on to it with both hands. To hold on to you,” Ryas said.
Love? Sera took a deep breath. Love. They were talking love here? She shuddered with the thought. Could she forgive them? If they hadn't had Sophie kidnapped, the slavers might have gone on to the p
irates' planet. Someone else would have definitely handed them over. Or they could have threatened another ship. There was no telling what would have happened.
Hell, if they hadn't interfered in the first place, she would be a slave right now. They'd saved her life. They'd given her life. For the first time in a long time she'd felt more than beautiful. Wanted. Needed. She felt like she belonged.
“So if I don't say yes, what are you going to do?” she asked, glad they couldn't see her face.
“We plan to keep you tied to this bed until you say yes.” Ace turned her until his lips covered hers.
Ryas's hand moved up her leg. At least she thought it was his. It might have been Ace's. Ryas broke their kiss, and she felt the loss down to her toes.
“Is that a yes?” Ryas asked in her ear.
She turned her head away from Ace's lips. “I think I might need a little convincing.” Oh, she was going to need a lot more than that. She was going to make them suffer all the way back to the planet. Once the lights came on, she might let them ask her again. Then she'd say yes.
She'd won a trip to a pleasure paradise, only to find her personal paradise in the arms of two pirates. The only thing keeping her happiness from being complete were thoughts of her sister. Sophie would be okay. She had to be. She better be. Or Captain Black was going to have hell to pay!
Leila Brown
I've been an avid reader since the fifth grade. As I aged I read everything I could get my hands on from horror, to mystery and finally stopping in romance.
While in college studying computer programming and electrical engineering, I realized what I wanted to do when I grew up. I wanted to write those stories that entertained me through more nights than I could count. Of course my first attempts were less than remarkable and have been destroyed to protect the innocent. :)
As the years have progressed, life kind of took over. I got married, had a son, changed jobs several times. But one thing remained constant—my desire to write.
Currently, I work a normal 9 to 5 in the IT world. I write during my lunch hour and at home after 9pm when everyone in my house is asleep.
Is it easy? Yes and No. Coming up with the stories is easy. Getting the words out of my head and onto paper is HARD! But I couldn't live without it!
