Chapter 21
Sawyer hammered the stake into the solid floor. Some sort of concrete was below the layer of packed dirt and the grass that grew here beneath the overhang. The lemon-grass scent spread from where he’d crushed stalks. Deep enough. He tossed aside the lump of steel. The two chains, though light, were the strongest the slavemaster carried. Even buried a foot down they should have enough length to let Ari climb up onto JI. But no further.
“You promise to sit on this JI, until I come back?” He eyed JI then swung to Ari, who was standing looking about as innocent as he’d ever seen her, even with those double chains attached to her collar. Spelled trouble, that did.
“I do. I k-keep my word, sir.”
“Good.” Hands on hips, he watched the mech maneuver and sit where the stake was buried, resting his back against the shattered frontage of the building. Something cracked behind JI, fell inwards and crashed. “Think you just broke something.”
JI did a fair facsimile of apologizing with upraised palms, and he gave a mech shrug, rolling his giant shoulders. “Everything here is-sizz broken a little...even m-me.”
“True.” He shifted around, picked up his gun. At least Zarr hadn’t made any untoward moves, like trying to disarm him. Yet. Maybe the rumors Sassik had heard were untrue. “Be good, Ari. Fix him, not for me, for JI. I figure you like him.”
She too shrugged, drawing his eyes to where her nipples played peekaboo within the translucent top. Pretty girl, like always. If he could trust her...maybe things would be different. Seeing her helping JI had rearranged something inside him.
“I’m going to help him as best as I can. No guarantees.”
“I know that.
Keera was fifty yards away, perched on a mossy rock in the dappled sunlight, doing sentry duty, busted foot and all.
He wanted to leave more people to watch her, wanted to take Ari with him on this trek. Most of all, he’d prefer to stay, but Zarr had vetoed every other choice. Trust issues, for sure. The man thought he’d run away if left alone. He was correct. Sticking around with the yoyo-ing dick-tator-esque Zarr had become hazardous to his health.
To Ari’s too, maybe. There were beasts and creatures here he’d only glimpsed while hunting with Sassik, big things with big teeth and big stomachs. Keera was a great shot and a good warrior, according to the others, but one person didn’t seem enough. He hated leaving them both behind.
JI, the great military mech, was currently as horrifying and daunting as a fucking plastic toy.
If anything went wrong...he checked out Ari again and regretted some of his past actions. The fires of his revenge had died even if his lust for her still soared. Fern might be disgusted at him...with good reason.
She would be. Toning things down a little might work. Talking even? He had this niggling urge to talk to Ari.
At the tail end of the Scav force disappearing into the base of the adjacent building, men were waving and yelling.
“Gotta go.” He took a good grip of his long gun...really, she needed a name – Sassik had a name for his. He sighed. “Be good, all of you. We’ll return in a day.”
“Bye.” Ari waved daintily, barely moving her hand in an arc, a cute smile on her face. It almost seemed a taunt.
If he’d had time to spank her, he would’ve, just for the hell of it.
Instead he turned and jogged away.
He was the last man to enter into the crumpled doorway, and what did he spy on looking back? Ari kneeling like Princess Leia triggering that droid hologram – putting her hand out to some tiny pink-orange critter that barely came up to her ankle. Then a whole swarm of the things scampered out to her.
What the fuck? From her expression, she was happy about them approaching her. One ran up her arm. Those, he needed to ask Sassik about. So many legs. Cute spiders? Even from a distance the resemblance to jaggs was notable. Keera was oblivious. JI was watching, and he would know the wildlife here. Harmless, then. He ducked into the doorway and sprinted to catch up.
Maybe jaggs started out tiny?