Riana woke the following morning feeling like something was different. After over two months of endless days—all exactly the same—the feeling was significant enough to jar her awake from her usual half-conscious daze.

Cain wasn’t going to leave her. He was going to take her with him when he tried to escape. They’d worked out a plan. It was a longshot, but it was possible. Hall might not be wholly trustworthy, but he wanted to get out of here as much as they did, so they could trust him in this, at least. There might be hope for life outside the Hold—when she’d spent weeks telling herself not to even dream of a miracle rescue.

It wasn’t a miracle, though. It was just Cain being Cain. And evidence that she meant something to him—at least enough to trust her judgment and to not leave her behind.

She shifted in bed and realized she was snuggled up next to him. She had somehow scooted down while she’d slept because her cheek was pressed up against the side of Cain’s belly.

It wasn’t the worst place to be.

She pulled away, the skin of her cheek clinging to Cain’s warm, hard flesh as they parted. When she glanced up, she saw that he was already awake.

He didn’t look damaged or defensive, the way he had the night before. His expression was unfamiliar though—quiet and almost reflective.

“Hi,” she said, her voice cracking on the word.

With a faint smile, he murmured huskily, “What are you doing down there?”

Riana scooted back up so that she was stretched along his side. “I don’t know.” One of her cheeks felt warmer than the other so she assumed one was bright red from being pressed up against his side for so long.

He adjusted so that he could wrap his arms around her. He inhaled deeply, as if he were breathing her in—which was a little unnerving since she was quite sure she didn’t smell very good.

“Are you all right?” she asked, peering up at his unreadable expression. Her heart still ached at how he’d been feeling the night before.

“I’m all right. Thanks.” This morning, his words rung true.

She opened her mouth to ask about what had happened at the checkup, but then she snapped it shut again. She didn’t want to pressure him or make him think about it this morning when he was clearly feeling better.

But he must have read her mind. Because, after clearing his throat, he began, “It’s not torture.”

Riana gasped, startled and relieved at the same time. She didn’t bother asking for clarification, since she knew exactly what he was referring to. “It’s not?”

“No.” He shook his head slowly and brushed his hand along the tangles in her hair. “Davis is rigid about following Coalition rules. So the checkups get done once a year, and they are legitimate checkups.”

“So what’s so terrible about it?”

Cain was obviously having a hard time saying it, even though he sustained a low, even tone the whole time. “They strap you down to a table naked to do a visual examination, and then you’re moved along on a conveyor belt through a series of machines to scan and test your health.”

She could only imagine how Cain would feel bound and humiliated that way. She could only imagine how she herself would feel. But there must be more to it than that, based on his behavior last night. “Do the tests hurt?”

“Some of them. But the worst thing is…” He trailed off, wincing slightly.

“What?” She stroked his chest and belly and felt woozy—so powerfully did she sympathize with Cain’s obvious distress. “What is it?”

“You move through a tube—so small and tight you couldn’t move even if you weren’t strapped down. And the tests take hours.”

Hours. Trapped in a tiny, dark enclosure. And Cain didn’t like to be boxed in. He’d told her so the first night she’d met him.

She understood his reaction. Another person might not have responded so intensely, but he had. He wasn’t invulnerable. So she didn’t ask any more questions. She just squeezed him in a hug and rested her head on his shoulder.

After a minute, Cain said, “But ultimately, I think this might help us.”

Riana lifted her head. “How?”

“I had an idea while I was there. There might now be an easier way to get into the control room.”

“What’s way?”

Cain met her eyes evenly, something oddly wary in his eyes. “Today, Davis will take you up for a checkup.”

“What? Wait a minute! What? How do you know?”

“I know.” When he saw she was about to object and demand further information, he explained, “He’s got a thing for you. And now you’re on his mind. He’s not going to want to wait to bring you up.”

She was so startled she sat up in bed and gaped at him. “What are you talking about? He doesn’t have a thing for me. He barely even acknowledges me—or any other prisoner, for that matter.” But she remembered the hot look she’d caught in Davis’s eyes the day before, when she’d gotten out of the bed naked. She started to wonder if Cain might be right.

“He’s a professional, but he definitely has a thing for you. I noticed it the first day he showed you around.”

“He’s never even tried to—”

“He wouldn’t. He wouldn’t rape a prisoner, even though it would be so easy. But he’s interested. I talked you up while I was up there.”

“What?” Her startled question came out louder than she’d expected.

“It’s not what you think. I didn’t make it sound like I was pimping you out—he’d never be convinced by that. I made a lot of crude remarks about you to him so his heroic side would get riled up. I’m positive he’ll come get you for a checkup this afternoon. And we can take advantage of it.”

Riana was starting to follow his line of thought—although she was still disturbed by the idea of Davis’s possible interest. And she started to see possibilities in such a straightforward way of getting out of the prison hold and into a better position to escape.

Maybe they could get out of here after all.

Maybe they could get out of here today.

She saw across the distance, through the bars, that Hall was looking in their direction. She glanced over at Cain.

He nodded. “Get him over here. We’re going to need him.”

* * *

“Tell me what you can do,” Cain demanded, curtly but not angrily.

Hall had been listening to the plan they’d put together with impressive calm and efficiency—as if escaping from inescapable prison planets was something he did every day.

“I can sense what someone is feeling, and I can turn it around on them,” Hall explained. His eyes shifted from Riana to Cain. “For instance, when you were punching me before, you were feeling rage and violence, so I turned it around on you – making you feel the opposite. So you’d stop.”

“So you can manipulate people into feeling the opposite of what they’re really feeling?” Riana asked.

“Pretty much.”

“So if someone is feeling wary and careful…” Cain began.

“If I touch them, I can make them not care at all.”

“How long can you hold it?” Cain asked.

“In a weak-willed person, I can hold it for upwards of an hour. But not everyone. I’d say we can’t rely on more than five minutes.”

“That will be enough.” Cain looked over at Riana. “And you’re going to be okay stalling for a while? It will take some time for us to get into place.”

“I can stall.” She sounded more confident than she felt, but she was willing to do whatever she needed to do.

She’d been forced into helplessness for the last two months, and it was almost a relief to finally be able to something—however dangerous—that was genuinely a proactive step.

The three of them looked at each other for a minute, and there was a silent, mutual understanding between them.

“All right then,” Cain said. “We better be ready.”

“And your ramshackle device is really going to work?” Hall asked, looking amused and faintly smug, more like his old self than she’d seen him in a long time.

Cain glowered. “It will work. Just make sure your thing works.”

Hall was opening his mouth to reply, when Riana interrupted with a throaty exclamation of impatience. “Damn it. Would you guys stop with the male showdown? You might as well be arguing about penis size.”

Hall laughed out loud, and, after a few moments, Cain gave her a look that felt warm, special. She wished she weren’t so nervous so she could enjoy it.

***

She should have known by now not to doubt Cain.

He wasn’t the brute, mindless predator he appeared on first sight. That morning, he’d made a point of finding the Tortoise and giving him food, in spite of his narrow focus on their escape. He was far more intelligent and articulate than he appeared. And he was clearly a strategist—gifted at reading people, situations, and undercurrents and making plans accordingly.

He was nearly always right.

Davis did come for her that afternoon to take her to the checkup.

Cain had been doing one-arm push-ups—working off some of his excess energy—and Riana had just been lying on the bed, trying to distract herself from her anxiety by admiring the sleek power of his rippling muscles and the primal masculinity of his body, covered with the sheen of perspiration.

When the vehicle pulled up beside the cell, just as it had the day before, Riana got up immediately and stood by the bed.

“Unlock the cell,” Davis called out.

Cain pulled himself up from the floor and stood stock still, glaring in the direction of the vehicle. He looked grim, stubborn, bristling, and he made no move to follow the curt order.

“Do it.” Davis aimed a gun at him.

Riana hurried over to Cain and grabbed the key from his pocket. Then she went to unlock the cell door as instructed.

Davis came in, warily leveling the weapon at Cain.

“You took me yesterday,” Cain snarled.

“I’m not here for you today.” Davis eyes flickered over to where Riana was standing a few feet away.

Cain made a growling noise and took a threatening step forward.

Davis shifted the gun until he was aiming directly at Cain’s groin. “Not a good idea. I’m just taking her for the checkup. She’ll be back before lights out.”

“She’s mine,” Cain gritted out, looking and sounding like a snarling animal.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Riana snapped, stepping between Cain and Davis’s weapon with an impatient glance back at Cain.

“I’ll go,” she said, calmly meeting Davis’s eyes. “And I’m not his.”

As she’d hoped, his expression changed as she added those last soft words. He nodded, an expression of both understanding and interest on his face.

He’d also turned his body some, so he was facing in their direction, leaving his back toward the toilet nook.

Without making a sound, Hall stepped out of the nook, where he’d been hiding for hours, and put his hand out to grip the back of Davis’s neck.

Davis lowered his gun, and his face became strangely, frighteningly blank.

Cain took the gun out of his hands—facing no resistance at all—and then he ducked into the vehicle to make sure there was no other guard inside. Evidently, there wasn’t. Davis had come on his own yesterday too.

It was tempting to think they could all just get into the vehicle and make their way out of the prison and then to a transport that would get them off the planet. But far too many guards would be waiting when the vehicle returned, and they’d never get access to the control room or get through to the docking station.

“Is he ready?” Cain asked, his eyes on Hall.

Hall nodded. “He was highly on guard, so now he’s not. But hurry.” His face had broken out in perspiration, and Riana realized it must take effort to hold the Reader’s connection the way he was.

Cain asked, “Is there a transport we could use to get off the planet?”

Davis nodded, that same blank, apathetic expression on his face. “In Docking Bay D.”

Riana took a shaky breath.

“How do we get through the locked doors in this place?”

“Bracelet.” Davis waved his hand around, and she saw a metal bracelet around his wrist with a few different blinking lights.

She was relieved the doors didn’t activate by an eye scan. Maybe it was another safety precaution—so guards wouldn’t go around losing their eyes. She reached for the bracelet, trying to get it off, but it wouldn’t budge.

“Can you take it off?” she asked, feeling desperate, since Hall’s face was getting more and more strained.

“Sure.” Davis clicked something on the bracelet, and it snapped apart.

She took it from it, fumbling slightly in her nerves. “He’ll notice it’s gone,” she murmured to Cain.

He nodded, studying the bracelet, evidently to figure out what made it work.

“Hurry,” Hall muttered, shifting from foot to foot. “This guy’s will is not weak.” The arm he had raised to hold against Davis’s neck was shaking visibly.

Cain exhaled audibly as he snapped a piece out of the bracelet. Then he snapped the rest of the bracelet back on Davis’s wrist. He pocketed the piece he’d taken out. “That’s the part that matters,” he told her. “The rest is just to hold it on the wrist.”

She really hoped he was right.

“Okay,” Cain said. “Get him back in the vehicle.”

Hall was already moving, pushing Davis with him. “He’ll be susceptible for a minute after I let him go. Give him a story to believe. Make it a good one.

Cain was putting the manacles and gag on Riana, although he left the gag hanging rather than tightening it, and then he helped her into the vehicle. She felt sick and helpless and terrified, but she forced the feelings down because now was the moment that really mattered.

Cain leaned down and murmured into her ear. “I’ll be coming for you. No matter what. Wait for me.”

She nodded mutely, a painful tension in her throat, and then she watched as Cain deboarded the vehicle and then met Hall’s eyes.

“Get in position,” Hall said hoarsely, clearly on his last thread of control. “I have to move quick.”

Then Cain was out of sight, and Hall was saying, “Now.”

Hall was off the vehicle, shutting the door behind him, before she could process his exit.

Davis was standing in the armored vehicle, swaying and sickeningly white.

“Are you okay?” she asked, not having to fake the anxiety in her voice. “Are you okay?”

He blinked in her direction. “What…happened?”

“I don’t know. You were putting the gag on me, and then it was like you blacked out or something. Do you feel okay?”

“No.” He lowered himself to one of the seats, breathing slowly. “We were leaving?”

“Yeah. He was getting out of control, so you had to knock him out, and then you were getting me ready to take for checkup.” She had no idea how Hall’s ability worked, but she prayed desperately that Davis would believe the story.

Still looking dazed, Davis glanced out the window of the vehicle to see Cain lying on the floor of the cell, evidently unconscious. Hall was nowhere in sight.

Davis’s face was clearing and gaining more color, and he looked a little less dizzy as he said, “I don’t know what happened. Everything just faded. It’s never happened to me before.”

“Maybe you should see a doctor.” She kept her face relaxed and her eyes wide. “There are some medical conditions that cause that. Hopefully it’s nothing too serious.”

“Yes.” He must have pulled himself together because he reached over to the gag hanging lose under her chin.

“Do you have to put that on?” she asked, her pulse starting to race again.

“It’s protocol. It won’t be for long.”

She nodded, unable to say anything since he was strapping the gag in place. Then he went to sit in front of the controls of the vehicle and steered it to the entrance of the prison.

She had a brief moment of panic, thinking he wouldn’t have the thing in his bracelet that triggered the doors, but they opened automatically, evidently controlled by one of the guards on the other side.

When they docked next to the control center of the prison, a few guards came out—all of them brandishing guns. Davis helped her out of the vehicle, looking like himself again.

The story she’d planted had evidently been believable.

She noticed one of the guards eyeing her greedily, his gaze crawling over her body. Her trousers had been so well-worn by now that the fabric was soft and thin, riding low on her hips and smoothly shaping the lines of her bottom and legs. She was just wearing her camisole. The thin straps were stretched so they always fell down over her shoulders, and the worn fabric clung, revealing the swell of her breasts and the peaks of her nipples, and leaving a strip of bare skin between the hem and the top of her pants.

She was in better shape than she’d ever been in her life—thanks to two months of rigorous exercise with Cain. But she also hadn’t taken a shower in two months. And she couldn’t believe anyone but Cain would actually find her attractive.

“I’ll take over the checkup, if you want,” the guard volunteered.

Davis looked briefly annoyed, but then his professional demeanor reappeared as he snapped out an order to the others about preparing for mealtime.

So it was Davis who walked Riana through a different mechanized door, and it was Davis who took the gag off her.

After clearing her throat, Riana asked weakly, “What are you going to do to me?”

“Checkup. There’s nothing to be afraid of.”

Again, Riana realized his words were a gesture of kindness—although they didn’t feel particularly kind to her at the moment. She knew what was coming, and she would have been afraid—if she’d believed she would actually be going through with the checkup.

“Isn’t there a…a doctor?”

“We have no doctor here. The machines do most of the work, anyway. You need to take off your clothes and lie down here.” Davis gestured at the long table in the center of the room. “Put your arms and legs on the cuffs, and I’ll snap them in place from outside.”

Even though she’d known it was coming, the words still made her belly churn with nerves. “Do I have to take my clothes off?” she asked, since she knew she’d need to stall until Cain and Hall got into place. “Those other guards were—”

“No one will see you but me,” Davis assured her. “Unless you don’t get on the table to be restrained. Then I’ll have to bring others in, and we’ll do it by force.”

“I’ll do what I’m supposed to.” She spoke quickly and widened her eyes, not having to feign anxiety. “I don’t want any trouble.”

This seemed to please Davis too. The corner of his lips turned up slightly. “I didn’t think so. I’ll be outside, but I’ll have to observe you through the window to make sure you don’t try anything.”

“I understand.”

When Davis had left the room, the door sliding shut behind him, Riana took off her clothes, draping them on an empty table. She felt trembly and uncomfortable completely naked—especially knowing Davis was watching her—but she got on the table, laid on her back, and put her heels and hands in the designated spots.

There was a loud click as the shackles snapped over her wrists and ankles. She was naked on the table now, spread eagle with her legs parted.

The only time she could remember feeling more vulnerable was when she’d first been dumped into the Hold.

Davis wasn’t going to hurt her, though. He might not be a truly good man, but he was a rule follower, and he wasn’t out to hurt or debase her.

She would have come to this conclusion on her own, but she was comforted by the fact that Cain had assessed the man in the same way.

Cain wouldn’t have let her do this if he hadn’t been confident she was safe with Davis.

“Are you cold?” Davis asked, when he came back into the room.

She was. Her skin had broken out in goose bumps, and her nipples had tightened into erect peaks. “A little.” Her voice came out shaky, so she didn’t have to try to pretend. “The table is really cold.”

Davis hadn’t looked at her directly yet—as if he were making a point not to—and now he turned to adjust one of the controls on the panel that covered half of one wall. “I’ll see if we can get it a little warmer in here.”

Riana whispered, “Thank you.”

He met her eyes then, still managing to avoid staring down at her spread, naked body. “I’ll give you a visual checkup first—to look for obvious signs of ill-health. Then you’ll go through a series of computerized tests. It’s uncomfortable, but you should do fine.”

“Okay.” She really, really hoped Cain was getting things in motion soon.

She assumed he would be okay until he’d triggered the machine. Then all hell would break loose, and they’d all be in a lot of danger.

For the first time, Davis let his eyes stray down to her body. They lingered on her firm, rounded breasts, although he clearly tried not to leer. “Has anything been troubling you?”

Other than the fact that she’d been thrown in a prison to be used as the convicts wanted—she assumed he meant.

“My skin is itchy a lot, because I can’t clean myself properly,” she told him, although she assumed this would be true of everyone. “And I have a couple of cuts I’m afraid are infected.”

Davis had looked over her body carefully, doing his best to sustain a professional disinterest. But she’d noticed his breathing pick up and his face flush slightly, and she was pretty sure they were signs of excitement. “Where are the cuts?”

“One is here.” She gestured with her chin to her right armpit. “It hasn’t been there long, but it’s really been bothering me.”

The cut was actually on the side of her breast. And it had been made that morning when Cain had carefully given her a superficial gash with his hidden blade.

She thought she heard Davis suck in a breath, but he didn’t say anything as he turned to get some sort of disinfectant salve from a medical kit. Very gently, he wiped down the cut and then spread the salve over the wound.

When he accidentally grazed her hard nipple with the side of his hand, Riana sucked in a sharp breath and arched her back slightly.

The second time he brushed her nipple, she wasn’t sure it was an accident.

“Does he…” Davis began, clearing his throat after his voice cracked. His face was even more flushed now, and there was a barely suppressed smolder in his eyes. “Does he hurt you?”

She didn’t bother asking who he was talking about. “Do you mean does he beat me or anything? No. He doesn’t.”

Davis’s eyes shifted briefly back up to her eyes. “He doesn’t?”

She managed to shape a little smile, hoping it looked like mutual understanding based on the skepticism in his voice. “He really doesn’t. He thinks of me as his. He likes to…to make sure everyone knows I’m his. But he doesn’t want me damaged.”

He’d bandaged the cut and smoothed it one last time, letting his hand linger on her breast just a second too long. “Where was the other cut?”

Riana swallowed hard and worried her lower lip with her teeth.

Davis’s brows drew together. “Where is it?” His voice was gentler than before.

“Down there,” Riana whispered, nodding down between her legs. “He…he cut me.”

Davis’s hand jerked visibly. “What?”

“He cut me,” she explained. “When he was…was shaving me.”

His stared down at her smooth shaven groin. “He shaves you?” He sounded absolutely horrified.

“He likes me to…to look a certain way.”

The cut next to her pussy had been Riana’s idea. Cain had wanted to just use the one gash near her breast, but Riana had been worried that wouldn’t be enough to distract Davis long enough for the time they needed.

She didn’t have as much confidence in her charms as Cain had.

Cain had not been at all happy about the idea of cutting her in that spot, and he’d been even less happy about the idea of Davis looking, touching her down there.

But Riana had insisted—wanting to use every advantage they possibly could—and in the end, strategy and necessity had outweighed Cain’s instinctive protectiveness.

Secretly, Riana had been a tiny bit pleased by this evidence of his possessiveness of her, but she tried not to dwell on such an unworthy reaction to such unnatural circumstances.

With an almost delicate touch, Davis wiped the cut, which was genuinely uncomfortable, in the crease between her inner thigh and her pussy.

She gasped at the first contact and arched her spine to push up her breasts again, hoping to distract him and thus stall even more.

“Does it hurt? I’m sorry.” Davis’s hand was shaking a little now.

If something didn’t happen soon, then Riana was going to have to descend to more dramatic tactics. The next step would be to put her in that tube, and then Cain would have a much harder time getting to her.

She was just thinking through what kind of dramatic tactics she would use when there was a sudden, loud crack of noise. The bang was so loud and so sudden—accompanied by an ominous shaking—that Riana cried out in real astonishment.

“What the…” Davis’s head jerked up and he looked around in vague confusion. He must not be quite at his full thinking capacity after what Hall had done to him, since his reactions were very slow.

“What was that?” she gasped.

“I don’t…” Another shaking—it felt kind of like an earthquake—and alarms started to blare from every side. “Damn it.”

He turned toward the door. “I’ll be back.”

She knew he’d be back, but she wasn’t planning to be here when he returned.

* * *

Cain’s device had caused some sort of explosion. It wasn’t a bomb exactly—at least not as she’d ever understood explosive devices—but it blasted one of the walls of the prison hold. Not enough to cause structural damage, to flood the Hold with poisoned water or cause massive devastation. The foundations and reinforcement of the building structure were far too solid for that. Nothing Cain could create with spare parts could possibly do more than scratch the surface of the wall.

The damage was only superficial—a loud noise, a lot of rumbling, some dislocated concrete and metal. Since he’d planted it in the public bathroom, it should also mess up the plumbing.

At most, it would be a temporary inconvenience—as the prison staff scrambled to repair the damage. The device was never intended to forcefully blast a way out of the Hold.

It just provided a distraction.

The explosion was certain to cause chaos in the prison, however—and that chaos could very easily turn into a riot as the prison staff attempted to maintain order as well as assess and repair the damage.

The chaos would also give Cain and Hall a chance to get out.

At least, that was the plan.

She wasn’t sure how they would do so. The men hadn’t even been sure. They’d just have to take advantage of the chaos and somehow manage to slip out, using the bracelet they’d taken from Davis that was supposed to unlock the doors.

No one was as strong as Cain, and Hall had his special gift. Surely, between the two of them and the bracelet, they could do it.

If not, it had all been for nothing, and she’d be taken through the long, arduous medical tests and returned to the prison this evening—where she and Cain would spend the rest of their days penned up like animals.

She waited, still trapped by the manacles on the table. Cain should be here soon. Any time. He’d said to wait for him, that he would come for her. She knew he’d meant it.

If he didn’t come, it would mean he’d failed. Or he was dead.

She was just mentally flailing at that thought when the doors slid open, and Cain ran into the room, sweating, his shirt torn, a gash under one eye, and holding a gun he must have taken off a guard.

He’d clearly had to fight to get to her.

She gave a little sob of relief as he released the manacles and helped her off the table. She kind of collapsed against him, and he gave her a quick, hard hug, interrupted when Hall ducked his head in the room. “No time for that. We need to move now.”

Hall had evidently been fighting too. Blood was smeared in his hair, and he was holding his arm strangely.

Riana grabbed her clothes and was trying to pull them on quickly as Cain tugged her toward the door. “So the bracelet thing worked?” she asked.

“So far.”

The three of them started toward the control center. A guard appeared in the doorway—evidently left on duty when the rest went to see about the crisis—so Cain calmly shot him in the shoulder, sending him flopping to the floor.

Riana hugged herself—feeling self-conscious and jittery—as Cain walked over to the control panel. There was a bank of display screens, on which appeared surveillance images of the prison. It appeared to be chaos, with rioting prisoners and scrambling guards, just as they’d hoped.

“I’m opening the transport docking doors,” Cain said curtly, pulling down a lever and flicking a switch. “It looks like there’s a three minute delay—another safety precaution, I assume—so we’ll need to stay here so no one comes in and cancels the opening.”

Riana’s mind was such a blur of anxiety, adrenalin, and excitement that she could barely process that this was actually happening. “I can’t believe this is working.”

“We’re not out of here yet,” Hall said. His eyes ran up and down her body. “You might want to finish putting your clothes on.” He gave her a little quirk of a smile. “Not that I’m complaining.”

Cain made a guttural sound, and Riana pulled her top on, since she’d only gotten her trousers on before.

Cain watched her, but only in an impersonal way. After the quick hug he’d given her earlier, he didn’t even seem glad to see her. He was vigilantly focused on their plan and wasn’t wasting any time with warm looks or appreciation.

“So everything went as we planned?” he asked gruffly, when she’d come over to stand beside him.

“Yeah.” She kept her voice low, so Hall, across the room, couldn’t hear her. He’d known the plan too, but it still felt too personal to talk about with him. “Perfect. For a while, I was afraid he was going to drop his pants or something, but the explosion came in time.”

“How far did he get?” If possible, Cain’s voice was even gruffer than before.

“All he got to do was feel my breasts and brush up against my girly parts.” She let out a textured sigh and felt an uncomfortable twisting in her belly. “He was getting excited. I actually feel kind of bad for him.”

Cain stiffened beside her. “Do you?”

Noticing his tense face, Riana frowned. “You’re not going to get weird on me, are you? This was part of the plan.”

His mouth pressed into a tight line, and he didn’t respond.

Riana stewed, wondering what was going on in his head and pretty sure she’d be annoyed by it, until Cain said, “There. The doors are opening. Let’s get out of here.”

As they ran for the docking bay, two more guards appeared in the hall, yelling, “Hey!” as they realized there were escaped prisoners.

Cain knocked out one before the man could even raise the gun, and Hall grabbed the gun from the other one and slammed it into his head.

Then more appeared—so many that Riana’s mind blurred over in fear. There were a few shots from both sides that must have missed, but they were in such tight quarters in the hall that they had to resort to hand-to-hand combat. As Cain and Hall grappled with several guards, Riana managed to get a gun from one who’d been knocked out, and she used it to level a hard blow against the back of the head of the man who was going after Cain.

The impact of the blow jarred her whole body, but at least the man went down.

She was still trying to process the scene when Cain grabbed her arm again, dragging her down the hall to the docking station doors.

There, Cain raised the mechanism from the bracelet to unlock the door, which opened directly into the transport. Opening the docking doors flooded the bay with poisonous water, so transports had to attach directly to the station.

After that it was almost easy. The docking doors were starting to close again—as a guard must have seen they were opened and hurried to shut them—but they closed too slowly to matter. They took their places at the controls of the transport, and Hall started the engine, unhooked from the station, and pulled the transport out into the ocean before the doors could close all the way.

The transport was not one of the Coalition’s sleek newer vessels. It was clunky and battered, and it lurched and groaned as Hall steered it. But it moved. And it started rising toward the surface of the ocean with only a few more creaks and sputters.

It was going to get them out of this hellhole. Off the planet completely.

As far as Riana was concerned, it was a wonderful, beautiful craft.

She was silent as they emerged from the ocean and Hall adjusted the controls to launch the transport off the surface of the water and into the thin atmosphere of Genus 6.

When they’d broken through the gravitational force, Riana let out a long exhalation. She felt weird. And shaky. And kind of sick.

Cain glanced over at her. “You okay?”

She blinked, having a hard time processing anything. Cain was bleeding from his shoulder too, she managed to realize. “Huh?”

“You look white,” Hall said, looking over at her from his steering. One of his eyes was swollen shut. “Are you feeling all right?”

“I don’t know,” she admitted. “I can’t believe this is happening.” She put a hand on her stomach. “Did we really get away?”

Cain’s eyes softened a little as they rested on her face. “We’re getting there.”

“It all happened so fast,” she mumbled. “And with this clunky transport, I guess I’m feeling kind of dizzy.”

“That’s natural.”

She tried to frown at him, but she was trembling too much. “You don’t look—” She broke off, groaning as she felt a sudden wave of nausea. Then, with a flash of panic, she realized what was going to happen.

She fumbled with her safety belt and went to grab a waste container just as her stomach started to heave. She vomited painfully. A stark physical reaction that seemed to be in response—not just to the jerky motion of the transport and the shift in atmosphere and gravity—but also to the adrenaline high of the last few hours and the trauma of the last two months.

Feeling better after she threw up, she wiped her mouth with her hand.

“All right?” Cain asked, a flicker of worry on his stoic face.

Burning with embarrassment, she slanted him a sheepish look. “Yeah. Just pretend you guys didn’t see that, all right?”

Hall laughed, and Cain grunted—a grunt she recognized as both relief and amusement. He said, “I didn’t see a thing.”

Riana stood up, feeling more grounded now that she’d become used to the motion of the transport. “Are they going to chase us?”

“They’ll make at least a cursory pursuit, but I don’t think they’ll call for any help. That would mean admitting they let prisoners escape. They’ll probably just count us among the dead from the riot. You know what the Coalition is like—let things slide unless it directly impacts them. We need to dump this transport and find a safer spacecraft as soon as we can, though, just in case they decide to be thorough.”

“Genus 5 is less than an hour away,” Hall said. “I’ll take us there. The capital is a big city. Anything goes there. We can get lost there easily enough.”

Cain nodded in agreement.

“Sounds good.” She was about to take her seat again when she thought of something else. “So we have an hour?”

“Just about. Why? Did you want to take a nap?”

“No. Too jittery for that yet. But there’s probably a shower in the head. If you don’t need me to help…”

Cain smiled, an uncharacteristically soft look on his face. “We’ve got it covered up here. Go take a shower.”

Riana did.

The shower was old-fashioned, a little rusty, and wasn’t particularly clean. But it had been two months since Riana had been able to take one.

With the exception of having sex with Cain, nothing had ever felt better in her life.

* * *

When they landed on Genus 5, they left the transport in a public docking station, and Hall did his persuasion thing and got enough money to buy them a meal and a change of clothes. They went to a rather sleazy bar that evening, and they used the remaining money to join a card game. By the end of the night, they’d won a rickety spacecraft—this one safely anonymous—and enough money for fuel and adequate provisions.

Riana wasn’t surprised by their success at gambling.

No one could bluff better than Cain, and Hall could make people do whatever he wanted them to do.

She’d felt awkward and uncertain ever since they landed. Hall was planning to take off on his own, once he got to some planet where a friend of his lived. He would start up his life again, doing any sort of freelance work that made him money. But she wasn’t sure what Cain’s plans were once they were safely away. He would have had every right to dump her on the first convenient occasion, instead of hauling her around, but she certainly didn’t suggest it.

That evening, they got rooms in a hole-in-the-wall lodging house that didn’t ask for identification, and since they’d only gotten two rooms, she assumed she was sleeping with Cain.

They both took showers before bed, and Riana spent a long time combing the tangles out of her hair. But they didn’t talk much. Cain seemed closed-off and brooding, and everything felt so strange, unnatural.

Cain didn’t even smell like himself. He smelled like soap. It seemed foreign and unreal.

“Is your shoulder okay?” she asked. He’d been bleeding there earlier.

“Yeah. Shallow wound. Nothing serious.”

“Do you want me to bandage it up?”

“I already took care of it.” He was wearing a t-shirt with sleeves. She’d never seen him wearing sleeves before.

“Okay,” she said, swallowing hard. She wanted to say something else—something about how odd she felt, how different things were, how she felt like he was slipping through her fingers. But he wasn’t in a talkative mood, and she was terrified of hearing the truth, so she didn’t end up saying anything but, “Good night.”

Maybe he would roll over on top of her the way he often did. Maybe in sex things would feel more natural.

But he didn’t make any advances at all. He just said, “Good night,” back to her and turned off the light.

It felt like he was a stranger beside her, and she realized with the bleak weight of impending knowledge that what had been so good inside the prison might not last now that they were out. What she desperately wanted, needed from him might not be a possibility.

Freedom might mean she had lost him.

It wasn’t pitch black in the room, the way it had always been in the Hold at night, but she still felt lonely and scared for a long time before she finally went to sleep.

***

She smelled Cain as she woke up.

It was just a faint whiff—not the way she’d always been surrounded by the scent of him on waking—but it was distinct, unmistakable, deeply known.

 It was Cain, and she’d know him anywhere.

She rolled toward the smell of him as she gradually woke up, until she could feel his body beneath her hands. She breathed deeply, comforted by the familiar scent of him.

“What are you doing?” he asked, his voice gruff, fully awake.

“Smelling you,” she mumbled, obviously not quite in her right mind yet.

“Sorry. I can take another shower.”

“No.” She reached out for him groggily, sighing with pleasure as he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her against him. “I like it.”

He chuckled and slid his hands down her back until he was cupping her bottom. “I’m not sure what to think about that.”

“It’s strange—being out,” she admitted, nuzzling his chest and breathing him in.

He exhaled deeply. “I know.”

She moved against him and felt that he was hard, his erection trapped between their bodies. A tension unclenched in her chest at the recognition. He still wanted her. At least that hadn’t changed.

She rubbed herself against him slowly, until he moaned, low in his throat. Then he grabbed her face and pulled her into a deep kiss.

They kissed for a long time, moving their bodies against each other. It felt so different—with clean skin, clean hair—but the hard tension in his body, the urgency in his touch hadn’t changed.

With one hand, he stroked her hair as they kissed, and with the other he caressed one of her thighs. It wasn’t long until she was deeply aroused, whimpering slightly as desire pulsed all through her.

“Cain, please,” she gasped, pulling her mouth away at last. “I need you. Now.”

He release a muffled groan and rolled them over, so she was on her back and he was positioned between her thighs. They fumbled with their clothes, and he used his hand to align himself at her entrance, and then he was sinking inside.

Her pussy clung to his hard length, and she arched up in pleasure at the penetration. “Cain.”

He pushed a few times against her—just small, involuntary thrusts. And he said one breathless word with each push. “Yes. Baby. Riana.”

She arched up again, loving the sound of his voice, the feel of his need. She wrapped her legs around him and held onto him with her thighs and her arms. She kept breathing out his name as she rocked beneath him, matching his rhythm by instinct as much as practice. She couldn’t seem to stop.

Then he was kissing her again, even as their motion became more urgent, and it felt like they were truly joined, truly together, truly one. Her chest was aching with it as the pleasure released inside her, and she arched her neck, breaking the kiss and crying out softly as her body shook through the climax.

“Fuck, yeah,” he muttered, pushing against her contractions. “Baby, I love when you come.”

He was sweating now, and he smelled more like Cain than ever. And she’d come down enough to watch and feel as he froze, the release breaking on his face, before it was washed over him with palpable pleasure.

She held on as he came inside her, and she gathered him to her when he started to relax.

He lay on top of her for a minute, his weight heavy and hot and loved.

“That was so good,” she breathed after a minute, needing to say something, desperately wanting to hear from him some sort of reflection of her own feelings.

“Yeah,” he muttered, nuzzling her neck.

She waited, but he didn’t say anything else.

Maybe it was just sex to him. Maybe it was just a physical release. Maybe he wanted to go back to his real life and cut any ties from the memory of the nightmare year he’d spent in the prison.

Who could blame him, after all? Relationships formed in crisis weren’t supposed to last.

She wasn’t going to make him feel guilty. He’d more than lived up to his side of their deal. He hadn’t just kept her safe and taken care of her while they were in the Hold. He’d managed to get them both out. She wasn’t going to make him feel bad if he didn’t want to have her around for the rest of his life.

The idea of living the rest of her life without him upset her so much that she suddenly had to get some space. She squirmed slightly until he rolled off her, and then she tucked herself into a ball under the covers, telling herself to hold it together.

Cain had a good heart, no matter how he tried to hide it. Even a year in the prison hadn’t managed to beat it out of him. If he knew how sad she was at the thought of losing him, he would feel guilty about it.

It felt like he might be looking at her, but she couldn’t take the risk of checking.

Finally, he said, “I guess I’ll take a shower.”

“Okay. I’ll take one after you.” She thought she managed to sound mostly natural.

She shuddered and shook after Cain got up and went to the bathroom until she’d controlled the emotion.

There was a knock on the door a few minutes after she heard the shower come on. She sat up with a jerk, surprised and momentarily terrified.

They’d seen a couple of guards from the prison yesterday evening at the public docking station. Evidently, they’d made a search for them after all.

Maybe they’d found them.

“It’s me,” Hall’s voice came through the door.

Relieved, Riana threw her clothes on and went to open the door.

Hall was fully dressed and grinning—breathtakingly handsome despite his still swollen eye. She pitied the girl who Hall made a real move on. The poor thing wouldn’t have a chance.

“I found a ride,” he said, glancing behind her and evidently realizing that Cain was in the bathroom. “I think we’ll be safer going our ways now.”

“Oh, okay.” Riana agreed he was probably right, but she was kind of sorry to see Hall go. She felt strangely close to this mysterious, charismatic, incredibly attractive man. “Who’s your ride?”

“Someone going the same direction as me.” He lifted his eyebrows. “She was happy to give me a lift.”

“I bet she was.”

“So I’m taking off. Take care of yourself,” Hall said, leaning down to kiss her cheek. “Thanks for picking me out of the herd and giving me an escape route.”

He’d said he was going to kill himself if he’d stayed much longer in the Hold. She was absolutely sure it was true.

In a fleeting thought, she decided the world would have been lesser if he had.

“Thank you,” she said with a smile. “We couldn’t have gotten out without your help. You’re going to be okay?”

“Of course. I know how to take care of myself.”

“Don’t get in trouble again.”

“I’m always in trouble.” He gave her his characteristic grin. “I’d tell you to take care of yourself too, but I think someone already has the job covered.”

“I…don’t know about that,” Riana said, a little primly, since she wasn’t at all sure his assumption about her and Cain was true, and it really wasn’t Hall’s business anyway.

He chuckled and lowered his face to murmur, “You might not know, but I do. I read his feelings, remember? And I’ve never felt anything like it before—the way he feels for you.”

She stared at him breathlessly, a thrill rippling through her at the words. “Really?”

He nodded. “If I felt that deeply for a woman, I’d be absolutely terrified.” He glanced over her shoulder at the closed door of the bathroom. “Tell him goodbye from me. And thank you. And that he has nothing to feel guilty about.”

“What?” Riana asked, trying to sort out exactly what he was saying.

“Just tell him,” Hall said. Then he kissed her cheek again and turned to leave. But he added as he walked down the hall, “You can trust me.”

She stared after him for a minute, and she was still staring when the bathroom door opened.

“What’s going on?” Cain asked, low and hoarse.

Riana closed the door. “Hall. He got a ride to that planet he was heading for, so he came by say goodbye.”

“Oh. You didn’t want to go with him?”

She sucked in a sharp breath, turning to stare at Cain. “Why would I?”

He gave a half-shrug as he pulled on the pair of pants he’d bought the day before.

She was confused and emotional and flooded with far too many unanswered questions.

Where was Cain planning to go now, anyway? When were they going to discuss future plans?

Would he want to go back to his old life and forget about her completely?

All of the questions made her stomach knot as she watched Cain pull on a shirt.

She was breathing deeply and telling herself not to panic when he asked, “What’s the matter?”

“Nothing.”

“You look kind of shaky. Are you feeling sick again?” he asked, his face softening slightly in concern. “After being cooped up under the ocean for so long, it could just be the change in press—“

“I’m fine,” she interrupted. “I’m not sick.”

He lowered his brow, as if confused by her tone.

Trying to hide her nerves, she asked, “Do you think we’re safe to be out in public? Since we saw them here…I mean, since they came after us after all?”

“It was probably more of a gesture toward pursuit than the real thing. They don’t seem to have called in reinforcements. We aren’t enemies of the state, and they won’t want the publicity of admitting that anyone managed to escape from one of their prison planets. Occasionally, convicts have made escapes before, but the news is always hushed up. It will be easy enough to cover up—with the explosion and rioting that followed. They’ll just announce that we died in the chaos. The other prisoners will probably believe it, and no one else will even know to care.”

It made sense. And, knowing how the Coalition functioned primarily to cover its own ass, Riana realized that was exactly what would happen in this.

“So what are you going to do now?” Riana’s voice cracked slightly as she asked, but her emotions and confusion were rising up again.

Hall had said Cain cared about her. Surely he wouldn’t have lied about that.

“I’m going home.”

“Oh.”

She had no idea where his home was. Where he lived. What he did. Who his family was.

He might have a wife and kids.

He might be anything.

“Where would you like me to take you?” He’d turned slightly, like he was about to head back into the bathroom.

Riana swallowed hard and tried to think. “I’m not sure. Since I’m a convict and they know my name, I can hardly go back to the University. Even if they aren’t going to try to track me down, I can’t really just appear back on Earth and demand my old job back.”

“No, but it’s not difficult to take on a new identity these days. I would have to myself but I refused to give them my name, so they never officially knew who I was.”

Once technology had advanced to an extent that fingerprint identification was obsolete, the Coalition had turned to other methods of keeping track of people. But the Coalition was too vast to keep records on everyone, so only those born in Coalition hospitals or those on staff with the Coalition had their genetic identity on record. Those born on underdeveloped planets like Cain must have been could easily avoid getting tagged in such a way. It didn’t make a difference in the criminal system, since they imprisoned people whether they had a real name or not, but she could understand now why Cain had been stubborn about this. He would have lost his chance to go home again otherwise.

After a reflective pause, Cain continued, “You can probably forge identification and credentials without too much trouble and get a new job—maybe even doing archeology. I’m sure you have friends or family who could help you.”

Growing dread was a sickening weight in her gut as she tried to imagine starting her life over now. Alone.

Without Cain.

But Hall had said Cain had feelings for her.

“I don’t have any family left,” she murmured, staring down at her hands.

“Friends? Boyfriend?”

“I’ve always kept to myself, but I’ll figure it out. There’s no way I can thank you for everything—”

Cain put up an impatient hand. “None of that.”

“But—”

His lips twisted with some sort of suppressed emotion. “I haven’t been selfless. The way I’ve used you—”

Riana almost choked. “What? What do you mean?”

Cain turned to stare at her again. “I took advantage of you. We both know that. You were helpless. And I used that to fuck you the way I wanted—”

“No!” she exclaimed, horrified by the very idea, by the fact that Cain believed that about what had happened between them. She suddenly understood what Hall had meant when he’d said to tell Cain not to feel guilty. “No. I went into it willingly. It was an even trade. A consensual agreement. And, after the first time, it didn’t…it didn’t…”

Cain leaned forward, his eyes scanning her face intensely. “It didn’t what?”

She gave up even trying to retain the last remnants of her pride. He might as well know the whole truth. “After the first time, it didn’t feel like a trade. I mean, I didn’t think of it as something I had to do. I wanted to. And I thought…I guess I thought you understood that.”

Cain was silent for a long time.

Outside the prison, he appeared more human. He was still powerful, stoic, intimidating, but he didn’t seem quite so primal in his bearing and demeanor. He was just a man, after all. A strong, masculine, eminently capable one. But a man.

A man who looked confused and a little uncertain right now.

Finally, he said, “I knew you enjoyed it physically, but you can’t tell me you would have taken up with me had you not been forced into it by circumstances.”

Riana narrowed her eyes. “Would you have taken up with me?”

“That’s not the same, Riana.” He almost never said her name, and the sound of it now made her belly clench with emotion. “I was the one with the power there.”

“You had strength—yes. But I chose you, remember? I picked you out because I liked what I saw in you. You never took me against my will. So if you’ve been carrying around this stupid guilt for all these weeks, you can give it the fuck up!” Her voice was sharp, and for some reason she wanted strangle him.

Here she was, terrified that he was going to dump her and go on with his life. And break her heart in the process.

And he was brooding about something so irrational and unnecessary.

“Oh,” Cain murmured, his lips twitching slightly. She recognized his expression of amusement with relief. “My mistake.”

After a moment, his brows drew together and he asked, “So what exactly are you saying?”

Put on the spot, Riana just blurted out the truth. “I want to stay with you.” Blushing furiously as Cain gaped at her, she tried to backpedal a little. “I mean, I think there’s something between us. Or could be.”

“And you think it will last now that we’re out?”

“I don’t know for sure, but why shouldn’t it? I don’t want to give you up just because we were thrown together in an unnatural situation. Maybe these feelings will fade away once things go back to normal. But maybe they won’t. I…I like you. And I’d like to stick around. Unless you have a wife or—”

“I don’t have a wife,” Cain interrupted, his voice sounding a little strangled. His face twisted slightly, a clear sign of emotion on his usually stoic countenance. “Of course, I want you to stay with me. I’ve spent the last twelve hours talking myself out of throwing you over my shoulder and carrying you home with me. I just thought now that you finally have choices you’d want to get on with your life.”

It took her a minute to process his words. Then to realize what they meant.

When Riana finally understood that he felt the same way she did about their relationship, she blazed with joy. She had to hug herself to try to contain it. “I do want to get on with my life. I just want to do it with you.” Swallowing hard, she admitted, “I think…I think you’re the best thing in my life. And that goes for outside the Hold, not just in it.”

She saw something flare up in Cain’s eyes. Something she’d never seen there for long enough to recognize before. It took her breath away. “Me too,” he muttered, low and hoarse.

She wanted to grab him and kiss him, and then decided there was no reason not to. So she launched herself at him, wrapping her arms around his neck.

Cain didn’t seem inclined to let her go.

They’d been kissing fairly regularly for the last month, but it had never been as good as this.

After a minute of embracing with hungry exhilaration, Riana asked, “So where exactly do you live?”

Cain idly rubbed her thigh, as if he couldn’t touch her enough. “On the outskirts of the Sient galaxy. That’s where I was born, and I still have a home there.”

“What do you do anyway? I’ve always wanted to know.”

He chuckled. “So why didn’t you ask me?” Before she could shape her outraged objection to this insolence, he went on, “I have a ranch.”

Riana’s mouth fell open. “A ranch? Like a real ranch? With cows and everything? I thought beef was all mass produced now.”

“There’s still a specialized market for the real thing. I inherited the ranch from my father. The planet is mostly undeveloped.” He darted her a slightly nervous look. “It’s not very exciting. I’m not sure it’s what you’ll be used to. There’s only one city on the entire planet. Most of the land is agricultural. Maybe you should check it out before you commit yourself to staying with me. There’s nothing but grass, some rolling hills, big skies.”

Riana squeezed her arms around Cain’s neck and whispered, “Sounds about perfect to me.”

This answer seemed to please him immensely, and he claimed her mouth in a long kiss. After he’d suitably expressed his appreciation, he stroked her bottom and murmured, “Let’s not move too quickly. We’ll call it a visit at first, so you can see what it’s like without any pressure. If it seems like a place you’d like to stay and if your…your feelings for me don’t start to change now that you have real options, then we’ll consider it a more permanent arrangement.”

Riana had no fears of her feelings for him changing. She’d never been more sure of anything in her life.

But all she said was, “Sounds good to me.”

They stayed like that for a while—sometimes kissing, sometimes just holding each other—until Riana asked out of the blue, “So what did you get convicted of, anyway?”

Cain let out a surprised burst of laughter. “About time you ask me that. Getting worried that you’ve just hooked up with a serial killer?”

Riana waved away that nonsense. “Not once did I ever think such a thing about you. I know you’re not a killer.”

He’d been nuzzling her hair, but now he shifted to murmur against her ear, “And how did you know that?”

“You act tough,” she began. When she noticed his expression, she rephrased, “You are tough. You were stronger than anyone else. But you weren’t vicious, and you didn’t hurt people for fun. You didn’t shoot that guard to kill when we escaped.”

Cain just made a grunt.

“And I was wondering if Asp was the first man you’d ever killed.”

He didn’t answer for a long time, during which Riana’s heart beat frantically, afraid she’d pushed too far. Then he finally admitted, “He was.”

“So what crime did you commit?”

His face twisted reluctantly.

Frowning, Riana persisted, “How bad could it be? I figured it was smuggling or something. I didn’t know you were a rancher, and since you seemed to have traveled so much, I thought maybe you had a ship and bought and sold black-market—”

“No. Nothing that exciting. You’ll need to ask Hall about that kind of thing. I did have a ship for the business. It was always breaking down and I’d have to fix it, which is actually how I knew enough to put together that device. But that was only out of necessity. I actually prefer not to travel at all, and I’d recently found a partner who was going to take over the sales end of things for the ranch. But I couldn’t stay there all the time. I was basically by myself, and there wasn’t chance for…for…”

Riana suddenly understood his awkward expression. She choked on a burst of laughter. “So you had to make trips to the galaxy hot spots so you could have some fun and find a woman or two to fuck?”

His expression affirmed this as the truth.

While Riana didn’t like the idea of Cain fucking anyone but her, she could hardly blame the man for needing to find some physical release now and then. And she was kind of glad he hadn’t had a serious girlfriend or someone he had feelings for.

Maybe it was selfish—since it meant he’d been lonely for a long time—but she liked that she was the first woman he’d cared for like this.

“Anyway,” Cain admitted, his voice even gruffer than normal. “I made the mistake of sleeping with the wrong woman. Apparently she was the mistress of a Coalition commander and…”

Riana gasped, horrified and disbelieving at once. “You got sent to that hellhole just because you fucked some tramp?”

He gave her a wry look. Like her, he seemed to have turned to bitter irony as the only way to handle living in Coalition space. “Almost as good as trespassing, isn’t it?”

She wasn’t sure if she wanted to cry or laugh, so she settled for squeezing him in her arms. “My God, Cain. And you were there for more than a year. How did you stand it?”

He was holding on to her so tightly she was afraid her ribs might crack. But she didn’t want him to let go.

He wasn’t a sentimental man, and he wasn’t an openly emotional one. But she understood him just the same.

And right now, he was making it clear that he needed desperately to hold on to her for fear he would lose what was so important to him.

That would have been enough. The admission she could feel in his grip. But to her surprise he managed to shape his feelings in words.

He muttered, “I wouldn’t have made it without you.