Marked for Pleasure (13 page)

There was a sound of a woman crying, not loud, but it reached his ears. He turned and found that Mia, tears on her cheeks, sat beside Rhea. Rylan stood stunned, his gaze on Rhea, with the blonde woman, Tatanya, crouched in front of him, guarding him.

He stumbled to Rhea's side, and Mia slipped away, her grief genuine but unwanted. He clasped Rhea's body to his and buried his face in her neck. He rocked back and forth, unable to think, unable to feel anything but the burning pain in his stomach.

Unbelievably he felt a pulse in her neck. It was faint and erratic, but there. He lifted his head. “Rhea! Goddamn it, little bird, wake up!”

He gasped when her eyes blinked and opened halfway. Her left hand touched his face, the mark on her arm glowing and burning. “I'm here, my love. Did we win?”

Tears fell unchecked from his eyes. “Yes, we won. I love you, Rhea. God, I was so scared I'd lost you.”

“You're not getting rid of me that easily.” Her smile was brief, and she closed her eyes.

“Someone want to tell me what the fuck is going on?” Rylan's voice intruded.

Conner glanced at the man. “The Blueshift Brotherhood tried to take you out.”

“She saved me,” Rylan said as he stared at Rhea.

“She did.” Conner stood, keeping Rhea close in his arms. She snuggled against him, and he tightened his hold, ignoring the pain in his arm. “I am Master Conner Mitchum. I've been working undercover for the Teran governments”

“What was your mission?” The man's voice sharpened and, though he was naked, seemed to ooze authority.

“Stop the Brotherhood. Find the man giving the orders.” He strode toward the door. “You were their next target.” He nodded to Leo, who dragged the old man out the exit first. “He's going to give us a name.”

“You're bleeding,” Tatanya said and strode over to a small console. Two flicks of a button, and she had a small tube of ointment. “This will stop it. It's not deep.”

He glanced at the wound on his arm. He'd almost forgotten it. Tatanya nodded briskly at both him and Rhea when she finished patching him up. Then the big blonde woman tried to escort the minister from the room.

“I should thank you,” Rylan said.

“Right now, I think you should get the fuck out of here before the media finds you naked.” And Conner heard voices in the next room. He swung Rhea into his arms, ignoring her halfhearted protest, and strode toward the door.

“I won't tell you shit,” the old man said as he spat blood on the floor in the next room.

“Oh, you will,” Conner said and thrust his face closer to his. “You will, because Leo and I are Nyral masters, which means we can punish you in ways you've never even thought of.”

The man began to shake. “The general will kill you,” he shouted.

Now they were getting somewhere. “Which one, old man? Halloway or the Primarian asshole? Both are trying, but here you are.” He glanced around the room, his mate still secure in his arms. “Where are they?”

A muscle pulsed in the old man's jaw, and Conner kissed Rhea gently as he set her down on the nearest bench. She smiled at him and then stared at the old man, her gaze frigid. Conner stalked over to the man who trembled in Leo's grasp. “Two of your assassins are in there, bleeding, dead.” He waved at Leo and Rhea. “We're here, alive and in charge. Even if we let you go and you told us nothing? The Brotherhood will kill you”—Conner snapped his fingers—“like that.” The man flinched.

“General Halloway and General Ancred are our leaders,” the old man blurted out. “Each cell has a captain.”

“You're a captain, correct?”

He swallowed and nodded; his face turned a greenish color. “I have ten assassins under me including a second.”

“Where is the rest of your cell?” Conner demanded.

The old man swallowed. Suddenly Leo gripped a spot on the man's shoulder and pressed. Hard, and the man would pass out. A lighter pressure caused pain. The old man screamed. Leo smiled. Conner didn't like that smile. Losing his mate had fucked his friend up. But Conner wasn't going to step in. Let the asshole suffer.

Finally the old man gasped out words. “The princess.”

“The other target,” Leo said to him as he continued to stare at the old man. “Where, old man?” He spat the words. “Where and how?”

“She is here,” he screamed as Leo dug his fingers into the man's shoulder. “That's why we only used one cell.” He panted, sweat sliding down his gray, wrinkled skin.

Conner looked the old man up and down. What a pathetic example of the Brotherhood. As a matter of fact, Conner had never seen any Brotherhood assassin give in so easily.

It was a trap.

He glanced at Leo. Just a quick glance, but Leo got the message. He increased the pressure on the old man's shoulder, and the assassin crumpled. Instantly, Conner tossed Leo his clothes and yanked on his own. They had to find another way out of here.

“What's wrong?” Rhea asked him.

Conner grabbed two disintegrators from his bag. “The Brotherhood knew we would capture him. The minister was a decoy.” He glanced at the ceiling. “The old man wasn't supposed to kill him. He was supposed to kill me.”

“They didn't count on you having me there,” Leo added.

“Or Rhea. I was the one who was supposed to fling in front of the minister.” He shot a glare at Rhea. “Don't ever do that again, by the way.”

She just grinned. His mark flared, throbbed, and he ached to hold her. But they had other worries.

If the intel about the minister was wrong, he wasn't confident in his information on Princess Sera. He sighed. It's not like he could ignore it, however. And the Brotherhood knew it. If he was lucky, they still didn't know he had help.

The ceiling had two vents, and Conner chose the one farthest from the door. He stood on the bench and popped the cover off with a quick fist. “Come on, little bird. Time to go.”

He grasped her by the waist and helped her into the opening. She hefted herself into the duct. “Which way?” she asked him.

“Head away from the main corridor. They're waiting for us.”

He heard her scrambling down the duct and nodded to Leo. “You're next.”

Leo stood over the old man. He hadn't moved. “You go on ahead.”

Conner stared at his friend. Oh shit. He planned on staying here and drawing the rest of those assholes to him. He shook his head. “Not without you.”

Leo's head snapped up, and his blue eyes were bright. “Yes, without me. I've got a score to settle.”

“Then come with me, and we'll settle it together,” Conner said, but he could tell it was hopeless.

Sure enough, Leo shook his head. “No. I won't live without her anymore, Conner.” He stuck his chin out. “I can't. This is a better way for me.”

“Leo—” A pounding on the door echoed in the room.

“Get out of here, Conner.” Leo drew a disintegrator, and Conner's last view was of him facing the door, his fingers resting on his faded mate mark.

Conner ground his teeth and slid along the duct as fast as he could to catch up to Rhea. They would settle the score. He tried to ignore the sounds of disintegrator blasts behind him.

Rhea had waited for him at a fork and put her finger to her lips when he appeared, and pointed to an opening. He peered down and got a glimpse of three black-clad Brotherhood assassins with a woman between them.

Princess Sera's color was high, and she glared at her captors. “Why was I brought here? I am on a diplomatic mission to Sethos Blue. Why have you brought me here?” Her long, curly red hair was mussed, and her white dress dirty and torn. Her blue eyes shot daggers at the assassins.

“Shut up, Princess,” a female assassin snapped. “You're bait.”

“Bait? Bait? I am the first daughter of Emir Placido, descended from the Placido line of the abandoned planet, the last of the Placidos in the universe.” The princess was in fine form.

“Then shut the fuck up, or there won't be any Placidos left in the universe,” the second assassin snapped.

“Keep it down,” the third whispered. “They've stormed the room and found the captain. When we have word they've captured Mitchum, we can kill her.”

“Kill me?” The princess screamed. Conner's gaze narrowed. The princess moved toward a cupboard, her screams a distraction, a game. The female assassin wasn't distracted, however, and placed a firm hand on the princess's neck and squeezed her carotid. The princess collapsed.

“Jesus,” the female said. “How long does it take to kill one guy?”

The third assassin snapped his head around. “When it's Conner Mitchum? A long time. The general wants him dead.”

The female sighed. “As long as I get to kill this bitch soon, I don't care.”

Silently and quickly, Conner lifted the cover to the duct and drew his disintegrator. He glanced at Rhea and found she had hers ready. He met her gaze, and she smiled.

Time to save the princess and take out the cell. He nodded and then jumped down in the middle of the three killers.

The first shot dusted the female. Rhea took the second man out just as he fired on Conner. The blast seared Conner's torso as he twisted away. He rolled backward, only to come face-to-face with the disintegrator in the third man's hand aimed at him. And then the man's face crumpled and dropped away in a pile of dust, revealing Rhea directly behind him.

Two leaps, and he had her in his arms. He took possession of her lips and plundered her mouth. If he could have whisked her away, kept her locked up somewhere safe, he would have done it. In that fucking room, he'd believed she was dead. And now they were caught up in a battle with a vicious enemy. He couldn't imagine his life without her, and didn't want to. She belonged to him. His mark burned in agreement. Her fingers twined in his hair, and he was lost in her.

“Ahem.” A feminine sound from behind forced him to break contact. “Do you think you could save that for another time?” The princess tried to straighten her dress. “Not that I'm not grateful, but I would really like to know what in the hell is going on.” Her blue eyes glittered.

“It's a long story, Your Majesty.” He slapped the Emergency button on the wall behind Rhea. “Right now I have a friend who needs my help.”

She sighed. “Lead the way.”

He snorted. “It's not a party, princess.”

She glared at him. “I didn't think it was.” The princess kicked open a cabinet near the entrance to the corridor. From inside, she withdrew a laser rifle. “I said, lead the way.”

Well, well, well. He learned something new every day. Princess Sera looked like she could handle that weapon. He sprinted for the room where he'd left Leo.

The old man had said each cell had a captain, a second, and ten others. He and five assassins were dead. That left a second and five more killers.

He rounded a corner, and a blast cut through the wall just in front of him. His arm shot out to stop Rhea from coming forward, but Princess Sera slid into the corridor on her side and fired the rifle. She took out two.

Conner sprinted forward, zigzagging from one wall to the other. Rhea was right behind him. She fired her weapon and took out a third man.

Two more and the second remained.

The dressing room was off the next corridor, and Conner rolled into the next hallway while Rhea and the princess covered him. One man twisted away from Rhea's fire and right into the princess's laser. He was cut in half, bloodless and dead.

Conner rose in front of the open door. An assassin whirled around and fired, but missed Conner by millimeters. Conner fired and dusted the man.

The second, marked by the red trident brand on the back of his hand, held Leo by the throat, his friend's feet dangling, his face purple. A huge burn discolored his shoulder, and his shirt was burned away near his torso. Blood oozed from several wounds. The assassin lifted his knife, and Conner fired as it swiped through the air, shouting as the blast careened into the killer's body.

He'd been too late.

Rhea slid to a stop in front of the entrance to the room they'd crawled out of minutes earlier. Conner held Leo in his arms, blood everywhere. The blank agony on Conner's face was like a kick in the stomach. “Oh Conner,” she sighed and reached out a hand to touch him.