Chapter Twelve
Sa’Mya rolled to her side and watched Kane as he came out of the bathroom. “What would you do if I told you where I am from?”
Kane hung the towel that had been wrapped around his waist inside the closet, exposing his perfect butt to her. “Contact your people and offer to give you back for a shitload of gold.”
She frowned. So much for the idea.
She’d been entertaining the thought of telling him where she was from and asking for his help in hiding her from her uncle. At least then he would realize there was no need to treat her as his captive, especially since she had no desire to leave the confines of his vessel. Maybe then he would allow her to roam freely.
He turned around.
The Ancients must have been smiling on her. There he stood. In all of his naked glory. He was perfection.
His narrow hips and chiseled abs were enough to make her want to go for round two. She watched his cock swing, carefree, between his lean, muscular thighs. He’d promised her the pain between her legs would subside. She hoped when it did he would be close at hand.
“What if I don’t tell you where I’m from? What then?”
Kane winked. “We’ll find out where you belong.”
To her disappointment, he put on a pair of shorts.
“What’s the deal anyway?” he continued. “Why don’t you want to go home? Are you in some type of trouble?”
She hesitated before answering. Should she tell him? No, Kane was a space pirate. He was in this business for gain and right now, she was the ultimate prize.
“I need to return home after my birthday,” she said, giving him the only information she was comfortable in divulging. “I have a proposition for you. You don’t need to contact my home planet for what you seek. I’ll meet your ransom demand.”
Kane pulled back the cover on his floor pallet. “Keep talking.”
I thought… She watched as he lay on the pallet and covered himself with his blanket. “I will pay your ransom demand. I can give you all the credits you request.” She sat up to watch him.
Kane turned. “Slave status, remember, Princess?”
“Right.” She lay back with a humph. “How is this usually handled then?”
Was it a human tradition for male and females to sleep separately? She cocked her head in thought. Had Eva and Taio slept in different beds? What if she invited him to the bed, would he accept?
“We request tangible items, minerals or gold, anything that can be exchanged for fuel, food or other goods.”
“Easy enough. I can exchange my credits and buy you gold or anything else you might need.”
“Are we negotiating your ransom, Princess?”
“Yes we are, Captain.”
“Okay. We’ll free you and your crew in exchange for gold. Should we decide on the weight of measurement?”
She flicked her hand through the air. “That won’t be necessary. I’ll pay your asking price.”
Kane snapped his fingers. “Just like that. We get rich.”
“Isn’t this how it’s supposed to work?”
Kane snorted. “That would be too damn easy, Princess. We aren’t idiots. What’s the catch?”
“Well…”
“I knew it. Spit it out.”
“You have to keep us onboard until after my birthday. It’s in fourteen rotations.”
“Rotations? You mean days?”
“Is that what you call it?”
“Yeah, but fourteen days? Why would I agree to that?”
“I’ll make you very rich, remember?”
“What’s to stop you from reneging after then? Why should I trust you?”
“I’m at your whim, Captain. If I don’t keep my end of the bargain you can throw me out the air lock, you seemed to like that idea before.”
“I don’t know. It’ll be bad for business to keep you that long. Spill it. What’s going on?”
“Nothing. I simply want to return home as Queen. I’ll behave, I promise.”
“What’s to stop me from bleeding your credit account dry right now and dropping you off wherever I choose?”
“Because you’ll need my access code.”
“And I’m guessing you won’t be giving that up anytime soon.”
“Absolutely not.”
“Well then, I’ll discuss it with the crew in the morning.”
* * * * *
Eli watched Kane intently. “And you trust her?”
“As far as I trust any alien,” Kane replied.
They were all sitting at one of the tables in the dining hall. Everyone listened while he explained the princess’s request. JB chugged on juice while the rest of them shoveled down breakfast. Jess was the only person who didn’t have a plate in front of her. She chose to scoff and roll her eyes at everything anyone else said.
Kyle shook his head. “I don’t know. It could be a trap. We’ve never held on to captives that long. It’s too risky.”
“I’m with Kyle,” Ryan added. “We need to have her give up the code now or send a ransom demand to her home planet as planned.”
Kane sat back in his chair. It could be a trick but then again it could be legit. The princess had a reason to wait two weeks. But why didn’t she want to tell him the truth?
“Kane, what are you thinking?” JB asked.
“Honestly, I don’t know.” Kane ran an impatient hand through his hair. “If she pays out the ransom, we could avoid all the necessary security measures that go along with pulling off an exchange. We could drop her off and be on our way.”
“So it still comes down to trust. Do you trust her enough to uphold her end of the bargain?” JB asked.
Jess slammed her fist on the table. “Wait. We can’t seriously be considering this. Why does she want to stay here? That bitch sounds too tricky to me.”
“I don’t believe it’s a trick, Jess,” Kane said, exasperated.
Kane would’ve loved for Jess to have skipped this meeting. But she was up bright and early and ready to piss on everyone else’s morning.
“Well, I think we should force her to give us the access code then kill her and her whores,” Jess said nonchalantly. She tilted back in her chair so that it balanced on two legs. “And the guard too. I almost forgot about him.”
“No one’s killing anybody. We need to decide the plan as a crew,” JB said. He raked irritated eyes over to Jess. He was the one member able to tolerate her longer than anyone else, usually. “Put all the jealous bullshit aside, Jess. If this works out, we can be set for a really long time.”
“Fuck you. I’m not the least bit jealous of those bitches. Kane doesn’t mind if we kill them. He hates aliens just as much as I do. I vote for my plan.” Jess smirked and held up her hand in mock vote.
“We shouldn’t harm anyone unnecessarily. Plus, Kane may be having a change of heart,” JB said.
“JB…” Kane warned.
Jess let the legs of her chair crash to the floor. “What the hell are you talking about?” she asked JB. She turned to Kane. “What the hell is he talking about?”
“Nothing,” Kane replied.
He had confided in JB in confidence. I’m going to kill him.
“Did you fuck her?” Jess asked, her voice rising to a hysterical level.
“It’s not your concern, Jess,” Kane said calmly.
“I can’t believe you actually fucked her. You got hard for an alien whore and you couldn’t get hard for me?”
“Calm down,” JB interrupted. “We’re discussing the ransom. Nothing more.”
Her chair screeched across the floor as she pushed away from the table. “One vote for torture and killing,” Jess snarled.
“You need psychological help,” Eli said.
“Fuck you,” Jess said before leaving.
They all watched as Jess kicked the chairs and tables that stood in her way as she left the dining hall. Trying to talk over the noise would’ve been pointless.
“Back to business. Do you trust her?” Kyle asked Kane.
I hope I don’t regret this. “Yeah.”
JB nodded. “Good enough for me.”
“Count me in,” Ryan said.
“Me too,” Eli added.
Kyle shrugged. “I guess I’ll go with the majority.”
* * * * *
“You fucking whore!”
What?
Sa’Mya struggled to wake as the bed dipped and an unknown person straddled her. Hands tightened around her neck, gripping hard, strangling the life out of her and cutting off her air supply. Her lungs burned, craving air. Sa’Mya opened her eyes in shock just as a fist barreled toward her. She closed them just in time.
Ancients.
Extreme pain shot through her face. Stars danced around her head. “He…lp,” Sa’Mya gurgled.
Sa’Mya grabbed at the assailant. She frantically scratched and pulled, trying to make the hands release her. The fingers only tightened and pressed her farther into the mattress.
Sa’Mya opened her eyes once again. A human female with red, swollen eyes stared back at her. Her lips were snarled up in disgust. Sa’Mya clawed wildly at the female, pulling at her hair, trying to escape. Nothing worked.
Sa’Mya pressed her feet on the bed and bucked, to no avail. The human held tight, gripping her harder.
“Why did you have to fuck him? Why couldn’t you just leave him alone?” the human cried.
Sa’Mya was losing consciousness. Before darkness could take her under, she dug deep into the female’s sockets, grabbing at her eyes. The human screamed and rolled away, holding her face.
Coughing and choking, Sa’Mya rolled in the opposite direction. She fell off the bed and crashed to the floor.
“I’ll kill you for that, bitch!” the human screamed.
Sa’Mya ignored the pain in her eye and neck. She scrambled to her bandaged feet. Face-to-face with only the bed between them, Sa’Mya looked around the room, searching for a weapon. Anything. But found nothing.
The human jumped on the bed and ran across it. Sa’Mya’s feet ached but she pushed all the pain aside and readied herself for the fight that was coming at her. She’d never been in real combat before, only the mock fights with Nebin. Her heart slammed against her ribs.
As the female came close she yelled, “You shouldn’t have touched him.” Hands outstretched she came at Sa’Mya. Sa’Mya slid to the side and pushed the female out of the way where she hit the wall, bouncing off she grabbed a fistful of Sa’Mya’s hair. Pain raced across Sa’Mya’s scalp.
Sa’Mya stumbled toward the female. Then, catching her footing, she brought up an elbow and hit the human in her nose. Bone cracked against bone. The human screamed.
Huh. All that self-defense training with Nebin had actually been useful.