Kieran’s rage flashed through him, making everything suddenly hazy. He wasn’t supposed to be able to get angry like this—or upset, afraid, unhappy, lonely, or violent.
Screw all that.
Kieran grabbed the handheld from the startled patroller’s grip and broke it between his big hands.
The patroller stared at him, open-mouthed, as the plastic and metal bits rained to the dirt of the alley. A second later, she skimmed out her sidearm, taking aim.
Kieran moved fast—he’d been trained to strike like a desert cat on its prey. He had the pistol away from the patroller, its pieces shattered on the ground along with those of her handheld before she could draw another breath.
“What the fu—” The patroller’s words cut off as Kieran clamped a hand over her mouth, and her eyes went round with fear.
Kieran dragged her to his door, opened it, and pushed the patroller inside, away from the surveying cameras. He could only hope no one had been looking at that particular monitor at that moment, but he also knew he probably wouldn’t be so lucky.
He drove the patroller back through the apartment and into his bedroom, snatching up his restraints as he got her on the bed. In the work of a few moments, she was chained, spread-eagled to his bed, a gag cutting off her screams.
Kieran made sure she was secure before he ducked back outside and collected the broken pieces of handheld and pistol.
“Waste of time on you,” he growled, coming back into the bedroom. The patroller struggled with her bonds, her eyes enormous with fear. “Why the hell do you want to mess with my life when I’m just trying to live it? I haven’t done anything to hurt you or mess with
your
life—so why are you making mine grief?”
Kieran knew he was talking too much but he couldn’t stop. Only one thing to do before he said something dangerous . . .
He dug into a cabinet in the bathroom, found a tranq syringe he kept for ladies who liked to be sedated when they had sex, and carried it to the patroller. Her eyes got even bigger, her terror radiating to him.
“I know you don’t believe me when I say I won’t hurt you,” Kieran said as he checked the dosage. “You think all Shareem are crazy ravishers, who’d take you down and do you against your will, but we’re not. We’re nice guys, underneath it all. If you took ten seconds to find that out and believe it, maybe you’d enjoy yourself a little. Sweet dreams.”
Kieran stuck the syringe against the patroller’s arm and shot the sedative into her. Her eyes grew glassy with tears, then she drooped. Her entire body relaxed, her eyes closed, and she slumped against the pillow.
Kieran felt her pulse, but he didn’t worry that he’d given her too much. He’d perfected the art of putting a woman to sleep. A weird thing to know how to do, but it came in handy now.
The patroller’s pulse was strong and even. She’d likely not had this good a sleep in a long time.
Kieran stared down at her, his heart beating triple-time. He’d solved the problem for the moment, but created a bigger one for later, like when the patroller didn’t check in at her station.
Shit.
Kieran left the room and slapped on his console. “Rees,” he said, when Rees, who looked like he’d spent the afternoon doing what Kieran had done with Felice, answered. “I fucked up. Bad this time.”
*** *** ***
Baine did not want to let Felice out of the compound, but after she and Dr. Laas watched Kieran break the patroller’s gun and force her back into his apartment, Felice knew she couldn’t stay.
“Baine, erase that footage,” Dr. Laas had said in alarm. “Make sure it’s eradicated from every database on the planet.”
Already done
, Baine’s smooth voice came to them.
Monitors will no longer pick it up, and in fact, some have shorted out.
“I need to help him,” Felice said. She was on her feet, heading for the lift. “Open this.” She waved her arms at the stubbornly closed door.
My instructions are to keep you safe,
Baine said
. Here, you are safe. Outside, I can no longer ensure this.
“They’re looking for me, damn it. They think Kieran took me—I can help him get the patroller out of there, maybe find something to make her forget what happened, and then get the hell off Bor Narga. Let the patrollers and slave hunters chase
me
. Let me
fix this
.”
Dr. Laas, please explain to her that it is the height of foolishness to try to help. She will succeed in getting herself arrested—at best, she’ll given back to TGH; at worst, terminated.
“No, I won’t.” Felice swung around to Dr. Laas. “I won’t be stupid and rush in headlong, but Kieran’s going to be killed if we don’t help him.” Her anger got the better of her. “You hide in here, while they live like animals in cages. Why don’t you
do
something?”
Dr. Laas didn’t look upset. “I
am
doing something, child. I’ve been doing something for them for the last twenty and more years, every day of my life. If they live like animals in cages, at least they are alive, and the cages are large. And they’ll be gone soon. Rees and I are assuring it.”
Felice listened to this without understanding much of it, but she didn’t care. “Let me help him. I have to.”
Please, reason with her
, Baine said.
Dr. Laas came to Felice, the shorter woman studying her with shrewd eyes. “She’s right, Baine. She needs to help Kieran. In fact, I think she’s the only one who can.”
Baine heaved an aggrieved sigh—Felice hadn’t known computers could sigh—and the lift doors slid open.
Felice covered herself from head to toe in her sun-blocking robes, pulling on the goggles and taking the mask. Dr. Laas handed her a few things, explaining them, then the lift shot Felice back to the hot, dusty, drab, and dangerous surface.
*** *** ***
“What the holy fuck did you do?” Rees filled the doorway of Kieran’s bedroom and stared at the unconscious patroller on the bed.
“She pissed me off,” Kieran said.
Rees scrubbed a hand through his hair. “We have to get her out of here. And our timetable just moved up—like to today.”
“Yeah? You have a transport?”
“No.”
Rees gave him an irritated look. “I only have prospects. No guarantees any of them won’t turn us in and reap a reward. Damn it, Kieran, I wanted this to be perfect.”
Kieran let his anger come. “We don’t get perfect, Rees. We get the best we can. You’ve been fucking around with this so long, we’re never going to be able to go. I’m starting to think you want to stay.”
Rees blinked at him. “Are you crazy? Why would I?”
“Because you have it all cozy with Talan, and can go off to her moon villa with her anytime you want. The rest of us live in the dirt. Oh, no, wait, Calder, Braden, and everyone else have highborn women to hole up with. Pampered assholes.”
Rees watched him in surprise, then raised a hand, the gesture he made when he wanted to soothe. Arrogant shit.
“Calm down, big guy,” Rees said. “We need to take this one thing at a time.”
“Screw that. I’m sick of you treating me like I’m stupid. Why the hell did you let patrollers wait for me on my doorstep? You could have got rid of them, easy.”
“Kieran . . .”
“Leave him alone.”
Kieran’s heartbeat soared off the charts when he heard Felice’s voice. He shoved Rees aside and charged into the front room. There she was, removing her robes and hanging up goggles and breath mask, coming home like she belonged here.
Kieran roared. “Gods damn you, Felice. Why aren’t you safe where I left you?”
“Because you need me.” Felice fixed a stern gaze on Rees. “He’s right—why have you waited so long? If you need to get off planet, let me look at your list of prospective ships. I can pinpoint which ones will be most likely to ask no questions. But you’re going to have to pay. Can you pay?”
“Yes.” Rees said tersely. Kieran knew that was true—the highborn women in the group and Dr. Laas, plus Rio and his lady off-world were funding the escape.
“Good. Where’s the list? I’ll look through it while you do something with the patroller. Dr. Laas gave me this.” Felice handed a syringe, not to Rees but to Kieran. “She says this will give her a hangover that will help her forget what’s happened for about twenty-four hours. No guarantee she’ll never remember, but by that time, we should be long gone. Baine erased the visuals of you shoving her inside here, but that only works if no one was checking them at that moment.”
Rees gave Felice a look of new respect before he turned back to Kieran. “All right, so you did a good thing bringing her in on this. But you still fucked up, and we might all end up paying for that, so don’t look so smug.”
“Not smug,” Kieran said. “Just wanting you out.”
“You can’t stay here,” Rees warned.
“No shit. We’ll hole up at your place.”
Rees let out a growl. “You walk the edge, Kieran.”
“You stay with Talan, like you usually do,” Kieran said. “Felice can look at your database at your apartment, can’t she?”
“Yes.” Rees’s jaw worked, but Kieran didn’t care. They could all yell at each other once they got off-world and went their separate ways.
Not that Kieran planned to come up from having sex with Felice once they were free. Carrying on arguments with other Shareem wouldn’t be worth leaving her side for. Not by a long way.
Chapter Fourteen
Rees’s apartment was smaller than Kieran’s. Felice wasn’t sure what she’d expected—that the lead Shareem would have some hidden luxurious abode maybe, like Dr. Laas’s compound?
But no, Rees lived on the basement level of a nondescript lodging house, one floor down from the front door. No name or number appeared on the building or in the upstairs hall to indicate there was a basement apartment, but it existed, innocuous and small.
Felice saw Talan’s touch as she looked around, in the tasteful bed coverings, pictures on the walls, cushions on the chairs. The young woman had taken a barren place and made it homey.
“Rees is good at covering his tracks,” Kieran said when they’d locked themselves inside, alone. “Patrollers don’t even know he’s still on the planet. They’ve heard rumors, but everyone official figures Rees left Bor Narga a long time ago.”
“How can he?” Felice asked as she sat down at a top-of-the-line console. “Erase all trace of himself? Wish I could do that.”
Kieran shook his head. “Rees is a pain in the ass but one smart bastard. The rest of us have records in the Ministry of Non-Human Life Form’s database, always have. Rees does too, but it’s restricted as hell, and doesn’t have the name he’s using now on it.” Kieran seized a light chair and moved it close to Felice, sitting down an inch from her. “You know how to work that?”
“Rees gave me some codes.” Felice touched keys and pads, liking Kieran’s body heat touching her. “I’m willing to bet he didn’t give me access to anything that will come back to him or put him in danger.” She had to smile. “He only trusts me so much.”
“But he’ll use you to help him,” Kieran said. “Remember that.”
“He can’t be that bad.” Felice continued tapping keys and light screens. “I see the way he looks at Talan, and how she looks at him.”
“Women always fall for Rees. It’s a chemical reaction. Don’t be fooled.”
“Is that what it is with you?” Felice slanted him a look. “A chemical reaction?”
Kieran stopped, his brows drawing down. “Is
what
what it is with me?”
Felice dropped her hand to his thigh, so close to hers. “What I feel about you.”
Kieran’s eyes stilled. “You don’t feel anything about me. I’m made to pleasure you, and nothing after that.”
Felice moved her hand back to the keys. “Is that how
you
feel about it?”
“I don’t feel anything.”
The words were brittle. Felice knew she should be hurt by them. But she wouldn’t let herself feel hurt, because she knew he lied. What his mouth spoke was different from what she saw in his eyes—fear, loneliness, years of suffering.
“Well, guess what,” Felice said softly. “I do.” She turned back to the computer screen, which had begun to flow with information. “Here we go.”
Kieran sat unmoving, like a statue of an old Norse god someone had positioned on a modern chair. He said nothing at all, didn’t even lean to study the monitor with Felice as she went through the names of the cargo ships Rees had collected.
She recognized a few ships that had been in port a few days ago, gone now, including the one whose crew she and Kieran had fought. The TGH ship she’d worked on was still in port. It was on Rees’s list, but he’d made a note:
Not a good prospect.
No kidding. TGH Corp would be thrilled to find themselves with a hold full of new men and women they could work to death or sell. Of course, Rees might find a way to take over the ship—but then they’d be fugitives from the long arm of TGH Corp.
Felice saw many familiar ships and company names as she scrolled. Some Rees had already dismissed, and she agreed. A few Rees had on the “possible” list, but Felice crossed them off. They flew too near pro-indenture territories, and their captains were always looking for a way to make a quick buck. Human trafficking was all too easy, unfortunately.