Origin (2 page)

“I’m not going to leave her, but grabbing her is probably not the best way to handle her. Think about it. Let a little of that manly protective urge go and look at her. Really look at her. She’s still got fight, Sullivan.”

They stood talking when any second the most vicious, bloodthirsty men could spill in here and cut them to pieces. I scowled.

“She has a choice,” Claybourne said quietly.

“And her choice would be to stay on this disgusting ship? Did you not see the things I witnessed upstairs?” Anders looked at me. “How about you come with us and we’ll work out where you’d like to go, hmm? The upstairs is by now crawling with government enforcers. Instead of dealing with all the brouhaha of government policies, etcetera, etcetera, you’d rather just jump on our ship and go on home, right? Sweetheart, you scream Gwinarian and we’re headed that direction.”

He was big, but he had a kind face. I stared into green eyes, tried to read past them, to see if I was trading one hell for another. I didn’t think I was. I hoped I wasn’t. Nodding, I turned and ran into the small room I’d opened. They followed. I typed in the code to shut and lock the door behind us. My fingers were shaking so hard, I had to code it in twice. I picked up one of the laser guns.

“Do you know how to use that?” Claybourne asked.

“No.”

Anders reached over and clicked something on the gun that showed a long white line. “It’s fully charged, but how about we push this little safety button on the back so you don’t accidently shoot me or the captain here. You might hit something I like.” He smiled.

“On you or him?” I bit my lip, surprised I’d asked.

Chuckling, he checked his own weapon. “Both.”

They started down the secret exit, but I stopped them. “You wanted files off the grid?” I knelt, wincing at the deep stinging in my thighs, and slid my fingers around the leg of the metal table holding the guns. Finding the button, I pushed. A hidden drawer slid open on the left side of the table. I snatched the two small drives and handed them to Anders. “I don’t know what’s on them—he doesn’t even know I knew about the drawer. I saw him open it once when he thought I was…unconscious just outside the door.”

Anders closed his fists around the drives and stared at me. “Unconscious.” It wasn’t a question.

“Let’s just go. Please.”

He nodded and turned, sliding the drives into his pocket.

The men took the lead in the narrow passage and I didn’t mind. It only went one direction, so it wasn’t like they needed me to show them more. I didn’t know how to use the gun, but if we got out of here, I planned to learn.

I nearly tripped. I had actually made a plan. For the future.

Once I’d had plans. Had planned to use this escape to leave, but my owner had broken his own vid rule and showed me news vids of the explosions on my homeworld over and over until my heart bled. A year ago, I’d built up the courage to try this escape again when I’d planned to steal the young Gwinarian man he’d kept down here with us. I was made to watch his torture and was whipped when I cried for him. But Bastian had disappeared and the details my owner shared about his death had shattered what was left of my spirit.

So I wasn’t sure what prompted me to leave with the strange humans. To actually decide to learn to defend myself.

It seemed a part of me was still alive.

Chapter Two

Low lights ran along the sides of the passage. It had probably been built for escaping criminals when authorities stormed the ship—criminals not Anders’s size. He swore and ducked when his long hair got stuck on another ceiling rivet. He couldn’t turn enough to get loose and Claybourne couldn’t get around him, so I stood on my toes to gently pull his hair free. Trying to do this without leaning on him proved impossible. Plus, his hair was really stuck. I bit my lip. “Do you have a knife?”

He turned as much as he could, dug in the pocket of his brown pants, and pulled out a compact box. I took it, turned it over before looking at him questioningly.

“Hold it this way.” He rotated it so the bird emblem on the top faced away from me. “Squeeze the sides.”

I did and jumped when a slim blade sprang from one end.

“Careful. It’s sharp.”

“You trust me with this?”

“Sweetheart, you’re holding a laser gun and I showed you where the safety switch is.”

True. I set the laser on the floor and stood on my toes again, gasping when his hands softly settled on my waist. The skin there was bare because of the silly lace bodysuit.

“I’m only helping you balance. I promise my hands won’t move anywhere else. I’d put them on the material, but that only seems to be in places you probably don’t want my hands.” He grinned. “Yet anyway.”

My arms were still raised in the air, my gaze flitting to his mouth and back to his eyes. “That smirk gets you what you want a lot, doesn’t it?”

“It does with some,” Claybourne said over his shoulder. “But I see his point. We should have grabbed you something else to wear. You’re going to freeze out there.”

“I’m fine,” I breathed, trying not to pay attention to the hands on my waist and instead on the hair I was supposed to cut. “This is going to leave a big chunk out of your hair.”

He shrugged, fingers tightening slightly. “I was going to cut it anyway. It’s only long ’cuz I got lazy.”

There he went with that languid, drawn out way of speaking. With his warm hands on my skin and the proximity of his body to mine, I felt that strange heat in my gut again. I quickly cut his hair free, squeezed the sides of the box knife again, and handed it back. Along with the hair.

Clay peeked over his shoulder and laughed. “That is a lot, isn’t it? I always thought that long hair was impractical.”

“Gwinarians make it work.” Me. I said that. I directly contradicted something a man said. Familiar fear poured through me, and I started to shake.

Anders tightened his lips and leaned close to me. “Neither I nor Clay will ever hurt you. You can get away with saying anything you want. Test us as many times as you want. You will not be hurt again. Do you understand me?”

“Yes,” I said, then took a deep breath. “But you need to understand something too.” I picked up the laser gun. “I’ve been someone’s property for longer than I can remember, and I’ve never been allowed to speak my mind. My reactions are ingrained. If you get mad every time I start shaking, you’ll be mad a lot.”

Claybourne chuckled as he turned to continue down the narrow passage. “I knew it. Still fight.”

“Don’t know why you’re laughing, Clay. You’re the one who’s gonna have to watch his mouth with that wicked temper of yours.”

“Only with you, Sullivan. Only with you.” He suddenly stopped, lowered his voice to a whisper. “Hear that?”

Something slammed on the other side of the wall and the loud noise was followed by a grunt of pain. I tapped on Anders’s arm and he looked back at me. Claybourne peeked over his shoulder. “We’re nearing the end and have to be quiet in this part,” I whispered.

They nodded before continuing. The passage widened enough for us to stand together as we reached the door. The sounds of fighting had faded and we stood for a few moments while Claybourne rested his ear against the metal wall. He turned to us and winked at me. “I think the enforcers already passed through this way, but take the safety off your laser, just in case.”

I nodded, careful to keep it pointed down afterward. Stomach in knots, I knew that once we passed through this door, we’d either make it or die. My owner would never let me live this time—not after helping the men who’d invaded his ship.

Claybourne nudged the door open slightly to peer through, then pushed it wide. He shot the lone guard before waving us through. “Enforcers are that way, so we’re going this way.” He pointed, took off with a confident stride, Anders at his side. I followed, glancing over my shoulder every now and then because it felt like we were being watched. Then I remembered the cameras. My owner had them installed in the corner of every passageway. They were so small they blended right into the side of the round, blue lights lining the tops of the walls. Stopping, I stared up at the light I knew held the camera, hoping that he watched as I lifted the laser with both hands and shot it out.

Lowering the gun, I found both men had turned to watch me. Anders was nodding in approval, a new light in his green eyes. “Seems our captain was right about you.”

“Do you know where all the cameras are?” Claybourne asked.

I slowly nodded. “My owner liked to make me watch things that went on up here.”

Cursing, Claybourne turned and stomped off, muttering under his breath.

If I’d had another life, I would have enjoyed watching him walk. He moved with purpose, shoulders forward, legs taking even, precise strides, head tilted down while it moved slightly left and right as he watched everything around us. He wasn’t as big as Anders, but I instinctively knew he was dangerous.

We passed closed doors and I hoped the enforcers would take all the people enslaved on this ship and get them help, set them free. But I knew enough about the government to know that some wouldn’t make it—some would be resold. The only time my owner had shared me was when certain government officials came to dinner. He’d dress me up, show me off and make me pleasure them. I never understood why they wanted me when there were so many other slaves or willing volunteers in the rooms above they could do anything to. My owner didn’t let them mark me unless he was involved. That was for him alone and he reminded me every single time I performed for one of the men whom I suspected blackmailed him. They had something on him—something he wanted nobody finding out.

Claybourne pointed at a blue light about three yards from him and I nodded. He shot out the light. “Thanks for giving us the drives. My brother has already hacked into Lashin’s system to find some pretty rotten files, but do you know what else the man was hiding?”

I shook my head. “No, but there are others who do. He was being blackmailed.”

The captain came back to me, started to put his hands on my shoulders, but I flinched back, causing him to frown. “I’m sorry. As I said before, I seem compelled to touch you. Do you know who blackmailed him?”

“Not their names, but I would recognize them easily.” I looked away from him, feeling heat creep up my neck. “I was part of the payoff. Got to know them all personally.”

“Bastilleen isn’t good enough for this fucker,” Anders muttered.

“I’m not disagreeing with you this time.” Claybourne stared at me, eyes full of something that made my stomach twist up in shame.

Should I explain I didn’t want to know those men and women personally? Would they think a forced woman could grow to love what was done to her? Because I knew that could happen. The things my owner forced me to watch over the years were proof enough. Some trapped in those rooms did grow to love it, especially when there were drugs involved. I looked at the door to my left and stepped forward, my hand shaking as I reached for the key panel. I never loved it. Any of it.

This time, Claybourne did touch me. My hand. “Don’t,” he said, voice low. “You might not want to see what’s on the other side.

“I’ve been forced to watch what’s on the other side of these doors since I was a young girl. I don’t want—” I broke off, chewing hard on my bottom lip. “I don’t want to leave everyone. Some of the government officials are just as bad as the man who ran this ship.”

“I called someone I know personally to come in here and help these people. Someone I trust. Believe me, they will go where they need to go. We don’t have room on my ship for more people.”

“Then why are you taking me?”

“Because I find I have no choice.” He nodded at the big blond behind him. “And besides, Anders is already attached. I can tell.”

“I am,” Anders agreed.

I shook my head. “Don’t. Don’t get attached to me. Not me.” I shivered as a cold breeze crept down the passageway and into my chest.

Anders cursed and quickly undid the metal connectors on his brown shirt before handing my gun to Claybourne and dropping the shirt over my shoulders. It draped me like a cape, but I slid my hands into the sleeves. The most warm, enticing scent wafted from the material. Underneath the shirt, Anders wore another sleeveless brown shirt and I had to look away quickly. His arms…

Claybourne snorted. “Felt like scaring the woman with those tree trunks you call arms?”

Anders leered. “Admiring them? Missing them wrapped around that tight body of yours?”

“I do not.” Claybourne scowled and brushed past him. “Come on, we’ve dawdled enough.

Anders and I followed and I felt small next to him. His arms were like tree trunks, as were his legs. His hair did look silly with a huge chunk off the back. A smile played about my lips, but I didn’t remember how to let it free, so it faded away only to fight to return when Anders leaned over to whisper in my ear. “Did he say we’d diddled enough, because you should probably know now that when it comes to Clay, there is never enough diddling.”

I immediately pictured Anders “diddling” the captain, his big body pumping, ass flexing as he held the smaller man spread open underneath him. I’d seen that happen to others more times than I could count, but the thought of these two didn’t fill me with disgust—no, not disgust, but something…warmer. The heat that scorched through my lower body frightened me enough to nearly make me walk past Claybourne. I’d never felt anything like it before.