by Alison Aimes
Winthrop had obviously been talking—and not in a way that would earn Convict any sympathy.
“I’m fine,” she assured.
“The soldiers are here to protect us, Bella. You’re safe now.” Winthrop peered out from behind Pogue, the whistle alarm Convict had given her gripped tightly in his hand. “And this one is about to learn what happens to those who ignore Council protocol.”
Apparently, Winthrop had decided to overlook both Pogue’s desertion and her defiant parting shot, but not Convict’s disrespect.
“I really am fine.” She stayed where she was. It didn’t escape her notice that she might be the only thing preventing Pogue and the others from opening fire. “This man”—she preferred not to call him Convict just then for obvious reasons—“wasn’t hurting me. He’s never hurt me. He’s one of the good guys.”
Was it her imagination or did Convict nearly stumble?
“You don’t need to pretend or feed his ego anymore,” insisted Pogue. “We’re here now.”
“He saved us from a dust storm and a vicious beast. He kept us sheltered from the other prisoners on the planet. He gave us water and food and kept us alive. You need to lower your weapons.”
Their weapons stayed up.
It probably didn’t help that Convict, with that dirt for camouflage, looked more like a wild creature than a man.
“This is bullshit. The guy’s no savior. Come out from behind him.” Pogue’s scowl was deeper than before. “Then we’ll lower our weapons.”
She got the distinct sense Pogue didn’t like her refusal to let him play hero.
“I’m telling you the truth. This man is on our side. But there are a group of prisoners who run this planet who aren’t. They’re the ones who brought down our ship.” She ignored the skeptical stares of Pogue and his men. “They’re planning to do the same to the rescue shuttle coming for us. We have to find a way to stop them.”
“Your captor’s been telling you lies.” Pogue’s grip on his gun tightened. “Don’t let him manipulate you into trusting him.”
“Bella, come over here,” coaxed Winthrop, “and we’ll gladly talk about your concerns.”
“Convict?” she prodded at a whisper. “Any good ideas?”
“Just stay where you are.” His voice was low, his breathing steady. “It won’t be long now.”
Won’t be long now? He made no sense.
Realizing it was up to her, she shifted tactics. “Cadet Davies, Dr. Winthrop, you know he saved both your lives. Tell them.”
Winthrop’s mouth flat lined. She’d get no help there.
Ava looked far more torn. “Did he hurt you? He said…he said there’d be pain.”
Damn Convict and his stupid anger.
“No, he didn’t hurt me, Ava.” She deliberately used her colleague’s first name. “I swear it. This time was no different than the other times. He made me feel good.”
Convict’s low chuckle surprised—and irritated—her. Of all the times to find something to laugh about. She pinched his waist, or tried to. He was so hard there was very little to hold onto.
“I’m trying to fix things,” she whispered in exasperation.
“Which I appreciate. But bragging about my prowess is only pissing Winthrop and Pogue off more.”
She dared a quick peek. Convict was right. Both men looked downright murderous.
“You send her out right now,” shouted Winthrop, “or they’re going to shift their guns from stun to kill.”
“He saved your life,” she yelled right back.
“I’m curious about something.” Convict’s calm words were more arresting than any shout. “How’d you find us? I thought I covered our tracks fairly well.”
The crazy man acted as if he hadn’t even heard Winthrop’s threat.
Pogue looked annoyed. “We didn’t need to follow any tracks. Dr. Winthrop has a tracking device imbedded in his skin for the rescue team to lock on. It keeps working as long as he’s alive. All we needed to do was follow that and here you are.”
No wonder Pogue had returned. He hadn’t had a change of heart or been concerned about their wellbeing. He’d realized Winthrop had survived and come back to be near the Doctor so he’d be rescued, too.
“Is that standard procedure?” Convict sounded only remotely curious.
She and Ava exchanged a look. They both knew it wasn’t. Usually, the tracking device was on the ship. Emergency training drills stressed the need for survivors to stay near the ship specifically so the rescue team could find them near the crash-site. Of course, Winthrop’s family was very high up among the Council elite so perhaps that had triggered the change in policy.
“What does it matter?” Winthrop looked almost uncomfortable. “I have one. They found us. And you’re not in charge, Convict. I am. Council protocol remains in effect even on this hellhole.” His lip curled upward. “Bella, come out now or you could both get hurt.”
Indecision whispered through her. She didn’t want Convict hurt. “Maybe I should go?”
“Stay right where you are,” he demanded.
The quiet click of Pogue’s gun cocking echoed like a shout. “We’re done waiting.” We? Wasn’t it Winthrop’s decision to make? Suddenly, a lot more than Convict’s fate seemed to be unraveling.
Acting on impulse, she pushed Convict aside—or tried to. The man refused to budge, grabbing her elbow and hauling her back behind him. At the same time, a figure stepped in front of Pogue’s gun.
“Ava, no. Get back.” Bella’s voice was shrill and tight.
“No.” Ava stood unsteadily on her one good leg, her gaze locked on Pogue. “You don’t get to decide what happens next.” Her gaze shifted to Winthrop. “Nor, forgive me for saying this, should you, no matter what Council protocol dictates. Dragath25 is not Earth. She might not be a Council-descendant, but Bella has earned the right to be heard, her judgments respected.” For once, a haughty, Council tone infused Ava’s voice. “She’s done more to keep us alive than anyone else. She’s the real hero here.”
Touched and awed, and a lot embarrassed, by her colleague’s words, Bella sent her a shaky smile. Somehow, some way, Ava had become a friend—and found her strength.
But one side-glance at the malice in Pogue’s gaze as he stared at Ava and Bella’s smile faded. It was clear Ava had also gained an enemy for life.
Before Bella could try to lessen the tension, a dark, long shadow skimmed over the ground, blotting out the sun.
“Holy shit.” Three of Pogue’s soldiers swung their guns to point at the sky.
She looked up, her breath leaving in a rush. Like something out of the prehistoric Earth stories of old, a giant, orange bird-like creature with wings nearly the width of their shuttle soared above, its hooked, sharp beak opening as it let out a shrill shriek. One that sounded strangely familiar.
“Oh, God.” She stood frozen in horror as it dove closer and closer.
All around her chaos erupted as everyone started yelling, some calling to run, some to shoot. All except for Convict.
Calm as ever, he pulled her from behind him, his arm going around her waist as he walked them both slowly backward the way they’d come. “It’s a saybak. It came when it heard the mating call from Winthrop’s whistle.” His tone was shockingly nonchalant. Like he had all day to explain. Like they were not about to be eaten by a living, breathing dinosaur. “I designed it purposely to give me an added advantage. Saybak’s can’t resist the sound and they have great hearing.”
“Uh-huh.” She nodded, barely listening, her gaze locked in terror on the approaching creature.
“Though they look menacing, they’re actually harmless—”
“Fire,” shouted Pogue.
A stream of red lasers sliced the air.
“—Until you do that,” finished Convict.
The creature shrieked in fury, its orange feathers shifting to bright red. With a hiss, it unleashed a line of flames from its mouth. One soldier screamed, managing by inch
es to dodge the line of fire.
“Go! Go, now.” Convict pushed her back up the cliff. “They’re distracted.”
“But they’re going to be killed. We can’t leave them.”
In the next instant, she was upside down, slung over his shoulder.
“I knew you were going to be a pain in the ass about this,” he mumbled, breaking into a run.
“Let me go.” She wouldn’t hurt him, but she could try and twist herself off. Squirming wildly, she leveraged herself up, her eyes locking with Ava’s as her colleague found cover under a rocky ledge.
A sharp sting landed across her ass, freezing her in place.
“Stop fighting and listen. Saybaks can’t keep attacking like that. It takes time to recharge. It will turn and flee in less than twenty seconds. Your colleagues are going to be okay.”
She took a second to absorb his words, jostling upside down all the while. “Ava?”
“With us gone, there’ll be less reason for your friend to risk herself for you.”
Bella let out a long sigh. “Then put me down and let’s get the hell out of here.” Better to wait and talk to Pogue and Winthrop without Convict or Ava around. In the meantime, Winthrop would watch out for Ava. And Pogue would keep Winthrop alive since the Council-connected Doctor was his ticket home.
Bella’s world went topsy-turvy once again as Convict set her on her feet. He dragged her along, his arm around her for balance, until she found her equilibrium. Then she was charging up the cliff on her own steam, his big body right behind her, pushing her on. He didn’t even let her catch her breath when they reached the top. Merely snagged his pack from the hidey-hole and corralled her down a different path. Since he was leading them toward the Oasis, she didn’t complain. Plus, she could barely breathe. Much less talk.
It wasn’t until a lot later when everything was silent and they were once again on flat ground that she found enough breath to actually speak. “Where are we going?”
“Home.”
Her steps faltered. She hadn’t really thought in terms of Convict and a home. It had an odd sense of permanency. One she definitely wasn’t ready for. She’d been thinking more in terms of a few hours or, at most, a day away from her crew. “Is…is it far from here?”
“Far enough.” His hand was firm against her lower back as he propelled her onward, farther and farther from everything and everyone she’d ever known. “They won’t bother us. No one will.”
She wasn’t sure whether to be comforted or terrified by his assertion.
Chapter Nine
“Is it much farther?” Bella scanned the horizon, trying to remember if they’d turned left or right at the last split in the rocky cliffs. Covered in miles of the same rust rock and debris, it was hard to tell one part of the terrain from another. The Oasis had definitely looked a lot closer from the top of the cliff.
Which was making it especially hard for her to feel confident about her ability to return to her colleagues’ campsite on her own if necessary.
“A little ways more.” One hand around his spear, one hand at her lower back, Convict urged her forward, his gaze scanning everywhere, his shoulders tense.
It was the same response he’d given her a half hour ago.
“Can you tell me more about this jammer? Where they keep it? How hard it was to make?”
“Why?” His voice had gone hard.
“I’m curious.”
“I told you before, there’s no going up against 225 and his pack. They number at least three thousand and fifty men, each more psychotic than the last. And they show no mercy. If they get hold of you, you’ll long for death.”
A shudder passed through her. “Still, there has to be some way to stop them.”
“Not without dying yourself.”
They walked in silence for a long while.
“I’m sorry about my colleagues.” She couldn’t stand the quiet any more. It was giving her too much time to think, especially about whether she’d made the right choice to leave with Convict. “They’re frightened and unsure and lashing out at everything as a threat. I’ll be able to get through to them next time we talk.”
If he noticed her subtle reference to seeing them again, he didn’t remark on it.
“They’re smart to be on guard,” he said instead. “It’s the only way to stay alive on this planet. Still it won’t make a bit of difference. Most of them will be dead within the month.”
At her soft gasp, his scowl deepened.
“You need to toughen up.” His hold tightened on his spear. “Don’t forget those soldiers are the same bastards who left you and your friends to die that first day. They deserve everything that’s coming to them.”
Disturbed, Bella said nothing. But inside, doubts battered at her. She kept trusting the humanity she’d glimpsed inside Convict, kept telling herself the way he touched her was more significant than what he said, but could she be fooling herself? Had she truly chosen the wrong side with which to stand? Ava’s reminder that there was a reason that Convict was a prisoner on Dragath25 echoed ominously through her head. Worse, hadn’t he himself warned her he wasn’t one of the good guys?
Questions clogged her throat, too many to let out at once. If his claims about what would happen to anyone who tried to rescue them were true, what did that mean for their deal? Was he thinking to use her for a while and then bring her back to the others when he got tired of her? Should she turn back now? Return to the soldiers and Winthrop and take her chances?
Maybe she should slip away when he relaxed his guard….It might be easier for both of them in the end.
She snuck a sideways glance at his profile. Convict’s shoulders were taut, deep lines bracketing his eyes as he shifted his gaze between her and their surroundings. He definitely didn’t look like a man who’d be relaxing his guard any time soon. And still the hand on her back propelled her on.
It was at least another half an hour before she tried talking again.
“How did you find this home of yours?” Goodness knows it wasn’t easily accessible.
“By accident.”
She waited. Nothing more. “Are you deliberately shutting me out or do you just not realize I’m trying to make conversation?”
He didn’t stop walking, but his brow crinkled. “Maybe a little of both.”
“Well, at least you’re honest.” Though a lifetime on Dragath25 with someone who refused to share any part of himself would be a long sentence, indeed.
“I always tell the truth.”
He looked so serious she nodded solemnly. “Good to know.”
He hopped over a large rock and then turned to help her. He’d been doing that a lot. Probably best to concentrate on nice things like that rather than her worries.
Then he surprised her by volunteering information she hadn’t even asked. “This side of the planet is a lot more isolated. Most convicts keep to the other side where the Council built barracks. That side is also where the Council does the droid drops; and because it’s so bleak, it’s also less popular with tigos and other predatory animals.”
“I can see the appeal,” she joked.
“No, you can’t.” He didn’t smile. “The penal barracks are…bad.” Ugly memories tightened his jaw, making her wish she hadn’t been so cavalier. “It’s a free-for-all over there, but the days the droids drop off the fresh meat are the worst.”
“Fresh meat?”
“That’s what they call the new prisoners.”
She shuddered, remembering the wild shrieks.
Convict looked equally haunted. “Only the strong survive.”
Suddenly, his conviction that you can't save them all made a lot more sense. He’d had to watch the new arrivals being raped and beaten and torn apart. No wonder he’d turned so hard.
According to the required lessons taught to all non-Council youths, Earth had been just as lawless and violent until the Command Council established order. Clearly though, the Council remained unconcerned about wh
at happened beyond the planetary boundaries.
Unable to resist any longer, she reached out, resting her hand on Convict’s forearm. Pale skin against bronzed flesh. The heat of his skin warming her own. “So you left?”
His gaze locked on her hand. “I wasn’t interested in becoming a 225 pack member. But this side of the planet has its costs, too. There are more frequent dust storms and it’s tigos territory, which is why most prisoners won’t come here—or if they do, they don’t last.” His hand covered hers, almost as if he couldn’t help himself. “I was running from a tigos female and her three babies when I stumbled across the Oasis. I barely made it out of that skirmish alive.”
Her chest squeezed. “I’m glad you did.” Slowly, but surely, he was sharing about himself, about his life—and everything he told her made her only admire him more.
She couldn’t imagine believing as he did that he would live and die on Dragath25 without any hope of rescue or pardon. It had to twist a person. And yet, Convict hadn’t let the violence and ugliness of this place destroy him. He might be hard, but he’d never been cruel or brutal.
Her chest fluttered. He really was an extraordinary man.
Oh no. Her heart beat fast at the direction of her thoughts. She was coming to care for him. More than she should. In a way that went beyond gratitude. Beyond lust.
A bead of sweat rolled down her spine. That wouldn’t do. Not when he could never leave Dragath25 and she had to go. Not when she couldn’t afford to grow attached.
She sucked down a deep breath and opened her mouth to tell him she was going back.
“Hold up.” Convict’s grip halted her in place, her deep breath—and her declaration—still caught in her lungs. He cocked his head, listening.
She mirrored his actions, her heart thumping away.
Had he heard a tigos? Or another sayback? She didn’t love learning this was the primary territory of the tigos. If she had her way, she’d never see another one again in her whole life.
But as hard as she tried to hear something, nothing but the bleak, desolate silence of the cliffs and the occasional whistling wind reached her eardrums.
“I don’t hear anything,” she whispered.
