“Back in the day I’d have been leading the charge against the owner. Congratulating myself when we beat him. Things have changed. The hero of my life turned out to be a villain. Players shifted. Everything I believed altered in a few seconds. Now, I only want to help, and I can’t.”
I touched his arm. “Do we have any chocolate?”
His eyebrows rose. “Do you want some?”
“I want to make you some hot chocolate. It’ll be good for me. Maybe I’ll be distracted.” I crawled out of the bed. I couldn’t fix his problems. I couldn’t even make myself feel better. But chocolate made a lot of things more bearable. I hadn’t had any in five years, hadn’t even thought of it before that very second.
I rummaged through the kitchen. Rehydrated chocolate wasn’t the same thing as the real deal, but beggars couldn’t be choosers. It would do. I stuck it in the hydrating machine. Clay came up behind me, placing his chin on my shoulder.
“You look pale. I’m desperate to give you some pain meds.”
I pinched his arm. “I’m really not in the mood to start puking.”
“We could knock you out.”
“Do you like to be knocked out? Listen, this isn’t the end of the world. It happens to women everywhere. Just calm down about it, and we’ll all be fine.”
I wasn’t being kind, but right then I didn’t have it in me to be so. I functioned. I made hot chocolate. What more did he want from me?
Clay hugged me tight. “I’m sorry. I’m being annoying, huh?”
“I know you mean well. We’re all new to each other and …”
The alarm went off, and Clay groaned. “Don’t worry, sweetheart. It’s probably Quinn or Keith fucking around. They’re not happy to be testing. Stay here, just a second.”
I wasn’t going to be moving anytime soon. Between the cramps and the terror that sound created inside of me, my feet were glued to the ground. If it was just some kind of screw up, they needed to get the alarm off now.
Clay’s rounded the corner back to me. “In the pod. It’s the bounty hunter. Same guy. He has some device that lets him repair his ship in space. Tommy’s going to handle it. Until we get you trained, in the pod. Okay?”
My whole body revolted under the idea of getting back into the pod. Clay tugged at my arm, and somehow my feet obeyed. “I really hate being inside of this thing. I hate it.”
“I hear you. This is for safety. For now. We’ll figure something else out. As soon as you’re out, we’ll do chocolate.”
I leaned against the back. “Be careful.”
“I will.”
I grabbed his arm. “Clay, please turn off the alarm. I get it. We’re in danger. I can’t listen to this endlessly. Please.”
He nodded. “That I can do.”
Clay was good to his word. The alarm stopped. I didn’t know if I’d made things worse on myself. The quiet was its own kind of daunting. I took a deep breath. I trusted them and this beautiful shuttle. Somehow, I had to make this an annoyance. I couldn’t be afraid of what was nothing more than an aggravating dent in the day.
If the Sisters had known the only thing they had to do to get me over my time-of-the-month pain was to terrify me and shove me in a pod ... I didn’t have Tommy’s tablet. He must have come and retrieved it. I hadn’t given it back to him.
I—
The boom that sounded around me shoved me from my seat. I hit the side of the pod. Everything went black.
I’d never seen it coming.
I woke with my ears ringing, and I wasn’t inside of the pod anymore. Instead I was strapped to a chair on a ship I’d never seen before and immediately hated. The smell hit me hard before anything else. Mold. The Sisterhood had been filled with it, and I was quasi-allergic. My throat itched. I dragged my head up to look around.
The last thing I remembered was the loud sound and then an explosion. I’d been in a pod. Now I wasn’t. A man stood with his back to me, fiddling with a control panel. He wore green pants over his black boots and a black torn shirt. He whistled to himself.
“You awake?” He turned around. “Machine said you’d be up soon, and here you are. I’m Phil, and I’m not at all happy to have you here. I thought I was getting Quinn. There’s money for Quinn. Commander Sandler wants his sons back. Intel indicated Tommy would be most likely to stick Quinn in a pod. So who are you? And how did you end up on my ship?”
I didn’t plan to answer him. I wasn’t even sure I could through my heart beating in my ears. This was the bounty hunter, and he had me. That was when I noticed my hands were restrained and, for that matter, my feet as well. I tugged and strained. He had me in pretty tight.
A sound beeped on the screen, and he groaned loudly. “Shit.” Phil hit a button and turned on the screen. A man stared at him, clear displeasure on his face. It took me a minute to realize who I stared at. I knew the McQueens looked alike. They all had blue eyes and blond hair, although different shades. Tommy’s face was broader than the others. Quinn and Keith weren’t identical, although they resembled each other strongly. Something about the width of their eyes. Clay looked the most like Tommy but somehow also like the twins.
And every one of them looked like the man on the screen.
I’d seen him before, but I’d hardly remembered him from the news reports. Flashes of him. I’d been too young to care about politics and who ran what.
But there was my father-in-law—or at least almost my father-in-law. His eyes were hard. If I’d ever thought Tommy could have mean eyes, it was simply because I hadn’t understood the true meaning of the description.
This man destroyed lives. Garrison Sandler.
“What is that?” Through the screen Garrison pointed at me. “You said you had the pod.”
Phil nodded. “I did, and she was in it.”
Garrison narrowed his eyes. “He stuck her in the pod? My son is a genius. Of course he knew we’d assume it was Quinn in the pod. And then he dumps us with her? What is she? Some kind of hooker?”
There were very few hookers in the universe. Women were scarce, given to the wealthy as brides or sent off to work at a job of their choice before they married. In any case, they were protected and cherished. Only women who had fallen into horrific circumstances ended up a hooker. There were some women who occasionally took their destinies into their hands—usually widows—and ran services. I knew very little about them. I’d met Quinn’s widows. The options for women were slim. I doubted, however, that Tommy could have convinced one to get in a pod to get thrown into the hands of Phil the Bounty Hunter.
“I don’t know who she is. She doesn’t look like a hooker. I thought you might know who she was.”
Garrison banged the table where he sat. “I don’t want her. Get rid of her. Get me my four sons, especially Quinn. They all need to be reconditioned, and I need that boy’s brain. Kill the bitch. Tommy clearly doesn’t want her, or he’d have done a better job of protecting her.” He pointed at the screen again. “I have more of you nothings looking for them than I know how to deal with. No one will miss you if I blow you from the sky.”
The screen turned black. For a moment, Phil didn’t move. When he turned around, his long face appeared blank. He had a dark beard, dark hair hanging to the back of his neck, and a long nose. I wouldn’t call him handsome. When he approached, I could see his brown eyes were cold, and if he’d ever been kind, he wasn’t now.
“I’m not going to kill you.”
Well that was good. “No?”
“I’m a business man. I spent some time getting you. I will find those Sandler boys. No one else has the knack like I do. That’s why they call me The Finder.” He waited as though that was supposed to mean something to me. It didn’t. He must have caught on because he kept speaking. “You’re going to make me some money. There are parts of this universe that never see women unless the ladies have the bad taste to be born there. Dark areas. No matter the wealth, no matter the power, no one sends their girls there to become wives. They pay
me a lot of money to get women. You, my dear, will be quite the find. I’m going to check out the merchandise myself. Before I give you to them.”
I should have been terrified. He’d just told me he was going to sell me and rape me. I think I’d reached my limit. I was not capable of being any more distraught or afraid. I simply felt nothing at all.
“You aren’t going to rape me right now.” I lifted my chin.
“Oh yes?” He stroked the side of my face. “Why is that?”
“Because I have my period.” If ever there was a turn off for a man, there it was. He actually stepped back a bit and stopped talking to me, like he could catch my condition.
His nostrils flared. “That doesn’t last forever. We have months together in this ship. What were you doing with the Sandler boys?”
“They were giving me a ride. They felt sorry for me. They’re nothing to me.”
I wouldn’t tell him I’d fallen head over heels for them. I wouldn’t let him use me to get them. I’d figure something else out. I was smart and capable. I might have forgotten it for a while, but so help me I was.
I had days until my monthly visitor would disappear. Between now and then, I would rescue myself.
Maybe.
***
He had to let me loose a few times a day so I could take care of myself. During that time, I made arrangements, collected things I could put up my sleeves. I didn’t know if I’d ever get to use the small soap dish by my shoulder but I had it, just the same. I’d never be able to say I didn’t try to escape.
A lot of my bravado from the days before had fled. My excuse to keep him away had left. Not that I planned to tell him, although I suspected he knew. Phil didn’t talk to me except for curt, one word instructions like “go” and “stop.” I didn’t know anything about him and I didn’t want to. As far as I was concerned, he needed to die before he took me to the dark planets. The next time he let me out, I was going to have to use the soap dish, if I couldn’t find anything else, to bash him in either his head or his cock.
He untied my wrists. I stepped from my restraints and let the soap dish run down my arm to my hand. It was either the dish or the toothbrush. I wondered if he’d missed it. Like his ship, Phil stunk. I’d bash him over the head and then poke him in the eye with the toothbrush.
I rushed forward and tried to hit him in the head. He darted left. No one had ever taught me how to fight, and I was not a natural study.
He grabbed me by the wrist and slammed me down on the couch. I tried with the toothbrush. Nothing worked. By then he had me totally pinned. Okay, I’d tried and this was happening. It would not break me. I would not let it.
A loud explosion sounded, and the ship dipped left. I fell over and so did Phil. Several more explosions went off, and my captor and would-be rapist ran for the console. He stared down.
“How the fuck did they find me?”
Who? I wasn’t going to ask him. I had a chance. There had to be a way to escape. I ran toward where he ate. Pots were heavy. I was going to bash him over the head.
I came up short. On the wall was something I’d never imagined seeing. A woman, a dead woman, with her eyes popped out, hung by her wrists over the stove. I gasped and nearly threw up in my hands. What kind of sicko was this? Why would he have done this?
“They think they’re getting you back; they have another thing coming.”
He smacked me hard against the cheek. I hadn’t seen it coming, and the truth was I couldn’t have blocked it if I had. I hit the ground hard.
“Hey.” A voice I hadn’t expected to hear caught both of our attention. Quinn McQueen stood a distance away. How had he gotten on the ship? I cried out, reaching for him. I’d never been so glad to see anyone in my life. The room spun from where Phil had slapped me.
“I’m Quinn Sandler. I heard you were looking for me. You took something that belongs to my family. We want her back. Now.” He raised his gun and, before Phil could even react, Quinn shot Phil in the head. Phil dropped to the ground in front of me, dead.
I shrieked and darted backwards. A second later, I was in Quinn’s arms.
“P? Talk to me. Are you okay?”
I’d never have imagined Quinn killing anyone. Not like that. I was glad he’d done it, but damn and … I didn’t care. I threw my arms around his neck.
“Oh thank you. Quinn. He was going to … hurt me.”
His eyes were hard. “Did he?”
“No. I tried to defend myself. With the soap dish. A toothbrush.”
He kissed my cheeks, both of them. “We’re going to teach you. First we’re getting out of this awful place. Paloma. You can’t know … I’ll tell you on our ship.”
Just then the ship shook. He rushed to the control panel, still holding onto my hand. “Oh damn. The fucker. He set autodestruct. Come on. Now.”
I ran to keep up with him. Quinn closed the door behind us. “Sit fast. We have to get out before the ship explodes.”
Why was he alone? This seemed really strange to me. “So glad to see you. Don’t get me wrong. But why are you doing this? Doesn’t seem your role.”
“You’re not wrong.” He grinned and pressed some buttons. “Tommy had to attack the ship so I could dock unnoticed. Keith and Clay are leading the other bounty hunters away from here. The Finder always has two trailing him. So you got me. Don’t worry about it. As you saw, I am capable of handling the dark stuff. Particularly for you.”
We jolted as Quinn rushed us into space. The explosion that followed us was loud but not as loud as the one I’d had in the pod. I covered my ears just the same.
“Hold on,” he yelled at me. “We’re going to take the edge of it.”
The ship flip-flopped back and forth before it started to spin. I cried out, and Quinn narrowed his gaze at the console. “He had some sort of explosives on there. It’s dinged us. We’re in a tailspin.”
“What do we do?” Had he gotten me off just for us to die?
“Tommy.” Quinn sounded calm when he spoke into the comm. “I’ve got P. Ship blew. It’s dinged us. Gravity of planet Joker 4 is pulling us in. We’re going down.”
We were? I sat up, and he tsked at me. “Put your seatbelt on.”
Tommy’s voice came over. “You know the protocol. The ship will hold. Make contact at the bottom. You got this, Quinn.”
I really hoped he did because we were going to crash land. “Quinn?”
He winked at me before he grabbed the controls. “Going to be a great story to tell our kids someday.”
CHAPTER NINE
Crash and Burn
I don’t remember much about what happened after that. Sometime with all the spinning, loud signals, and explosions, I passed out. I woke up strapped in my chair. We were still in the shuttle, finally on the ground, and the alarm was going off endlessly. I managed to lift my head even though it throbbed. Quinn was still strapped in his chair as well; he was out cold, his head hanging down. Something must have hit him in the forehead. He bled a steady stream down his cheek.
Although it took some effort, I unhooked myself from the chair and managed not to stumble forward onto my face. I got around some of the debris and made my way over to Quinn. I touched his shoulder, but he didn’t rouse. My heartrate kicked up in alarm. How hurt was he? I felt for his pulse and found it. Still, he didn’t move.
“Quinn.” No response. I wanted to scream. We’d crash-landed who knew where, and he was seriously hurt. I breathed in through my nose. Screaming wouldn’t help anything, and I knew from my first days with the Sisters it got me absolutely nowhere. Quinn needed help. It was just the two of us.
But first things first, I had to get the alarm off so I could think. I pushed some buttons on the control panel, and eventually it stopped.
“Okay, Quinn. Now that I can think, I can help you. Not that I can fix your concussion. But the medical machine, it can. Then you can wake up and not die. I can’t let you die.” I forced myself to stop going down that line of thinking
. “I’m going to live in the now. I’m not good at it. I always think of everything two steps ahead, even when that thinking does me no good. I get down the road, and I see there’s no way out.”
The trick was going to be getting unconscious Quinn into the machine. I was strong, but this was going to push even me. I grabbed him under the shoulders, trying to keep his head pressed against my chest. I didn’t need to make things worse.
“Hold on.” I kissed the top of his head gently. “We can’t screw up your big brain. We need you to mentally beat the shit out of your father. I’ve kind of met him now. Or seen him over the view-screen. I hate him even more than I did when he was just a description.”
It took me an endless amount of time to get Quinn to the machine. I lay him down on the ground. I couldn’t lift him into the machine, but fortunately it lowered down to the ground. Someone had been smart when they designed it. As gently as I could, I rolled him inside. A doctor would know which buttons to push, which instructions to give it when it came to making him well again.
I had the skills to push go and hope it followed directions. Sometimes the machine couldn’t fix what was wrong. Humans still died from injuries. The machine could only fix things if they weren’t too far gone.
I really hoped Quinn didn’t fall into that realm.
In the meantime, I could clean up some of the mess. Tommy would come for us just as soon as he could. He wouldn’t leave us here, and he’d be able to manage things when he did. I needed to keep my hands busy.
Or I could try to figure out how to use the com system …
A groan sounded in the room a second before the shelving system above my head came down on me. This time I didn’t pass out. I felt every second of the assault on my person by shelves. I cried out, tears pressing from my eyes. My legs were pinned beneath the mess, and I wasn’t getting anywhere. The pain was immense.
I pounded my hand on the floor. “Damn it, Tommy. Not a great design. Shelving units that fall when you crash.”
He was obviously not around to hear my complaint. I closed my eyes and tried to breathe through the ache that travelled up my leg. The medical machine buzzed. Quinn might be in there for days.