Authors: Sophie Angmering
She frowned, furious with the two men who had ruined Kate’s life with what appeared to be an almost systematic deliberation, angry at how helpless she felt, and not a little concerned now as to what the future might hold for her younger sister. Kate had somehow managed to antagonise all parties across a massive area of space whilst becoming entangled with two of the most powerful men in the sector. “I am hoping you are in the market for some sensible advice. My advice being, if you wish to continue to live for much longer, I strongly suggest you retire your links with the Rim Lords, the Galaxy Elite Fleet and the ISS as soon as possible. Then lie low for about ten years.”
Kate sighed heavily and said, “I thought you might say that.”
* * * *
Rowe shifted slightly, aware of voices drifting in and out at the edge of his consciousness. The half-life of the drugs made it difficult to concentrate on waking, but so far he had not even really cared. The captain drugged him every night. He knew she was doing it even as she put a tepid, foul-tasting drink to his lips and he drank it. If he was honest, it was moot whether he lived or died. He found himself all too willing to embrace oblivion rather than face up to the deceit and betrayal that had landed him in this situation. Eventually he would no doubt get to a point where he would refuse her medication, or pretend to take it whilst plotting his escape, but for now it suited him just to lie there in a sensory fog.
For all that, Rowe was still aware of things. He was aware of the fact that they had left the disgusting world of Egalita Prime after Thorn had dined with the local governor, just as he was aware that it was Captain Thorn herself who’d escorted him personally aboard her ship and to her quarters. His prison there was a surprisingly low-tech cage, big enough to lie down in and stand up straight in, but that was all.
“By the creator, Helena, what have you bought now?” It was an older man’s voice, which pricked Rowe’s curiosity enough to make him try to open an eye to focus on the owners of the voices outside his cage. He’d been sure he had heard an unfamiliar woman’s voice before, but had been too drugged to register anything more than that.
“A big man to fuck, Daddy,” Helena Thorn stated baldly. “You know, to ensure my needs don’t intrude on my work. You’ve always said that it’s wisest not to fuck anyone senseless on one’s own doorstep, or hand anybody that sort of advantage over you. Never does to mix business with pleasure.”
The elder Thorn gave a shocked snort, and Rowe could almost sympathise with the notorious Admiral Thorn’s distaste.
Rowe rolled his eyes and allowed his head to sink back down. His top priority had to be to escape this hell whore, her ship, her space—and to return to the wild, lawless territories of the Rim, where he had a serious score to settle.
He needed to be gone before she stopped drugging him because she had a use for him, and decided to bed him. This was certainly no time to have the robust health and genetics of a Rim colonist.
As he opened his eyes, the diminutive figure of Helena Thorn stepped into his line of vision. The notorious, spoilt, Daddy’s girl of the Galaxy Elite Fleet, scourge of the anarchic Rim worlds, golden child of the dangerous and influential Thorn family. Petite, buxom, with an unlikely head of flaxen-blonde hair, she was built like a pocket Venus, with an hourglass figure that made a man think only of spreading her thighs and losing himself in her.
It would no doubt be later that that same unfortunate would discover she had the mind of a precision-built computer and the reputation of an alley cat,
Rowe told himself.
Chapter Three
Nell glanced warily over her shoulder. He was watching her again. He was always watching her, not moving his body but following her with his eyes, tracking her progress about her cabin.
They had been travelling for some time now, at sub-dimensional speed, to reach the rendezvous. Nell had been surprised at how quickly her guest had recovered from such a serious beating, but then what little she did know about the inhabitants of the Rim included something of their ability to recuperate from even the most serious of injuries.
She had been unable to make much progress with her acquisition, as her father had arrived on board unannounced at the worst possible time. Nell, all too aware of the sensitive nature of her current mission, and of her father’s intense disapproval of the kind of activity she was currently involved in, had thought it wiser to do nothing until he left.
The fewer people that knew about what she did the better. Fortunately, Captain Helena Thorn had acquired a reputation for an eclectic taste in sexual companions, and a fast turnover.
Personally, Nell was surprised that people did not ask more questions.
As long as they did not, Nell was free to collect individuals as requested by her coordinator, Talbot, and relocate them as quickly and quietly as possible. She had secretly moved political prisoners, deposed leaders, troublesome celebrities and, now, even her own sister.
As she studied him, she wondered what category he fell into.
“Are you able to talk?” she asked her prisoner, aware of the smoky grey gaze resting on her, even as he lay there as if asleep. Or not. He shrugged, clearly admitting he was actually conscious this time.
“Why am I here?” His voice was deep, fluid and unexpectedly sexy.
Oh, my maker
. Nell closed her eyes and tried to ignore the lurch in her stomach. “Do you need to know why?” she replied abruptly, answering a question with a question, clearing her throat with a cough as she finished. Aware that a huskiness had crept in that could give completely the wrong message.
“Yes.”
“Is it not enough that I saved you?”
“No. There will no doubt be a reckoning.”
She had been told very little, apart from that the mission was highly confidential, and that her latest guest was to be considered high risk. Whether that meant Nell would be at risk from him, or he would be at risk from someone else, had not been made clear.
“Yes, of course there will. I bought you for sex,” she replied without preamble, sticking to her own cover story.
It sounded a little too well rehearsed, even to Nell’s ears.
He nodded down at his lean, well-muscled hips, his flat stomach and smooth thighs. “When did you expect me to start work?”
The flood of heat that swept up from her chest to flush her neck and face caught Nell completely by surprise. It was made worse by the fact that she seemed more disconcerted than he did.
“I didn’t want to rush you.” She felt the evasive words tumble out of her mouth before she could stop them. “You’ve been ill.”
Pathetic
. Nell cringed silently. What was it about this man that left her fumbling for the right words?
His gasp of laughter made her start.
“Prefer women?” He was suddenly sympathetic and it was almost her undoing. “Don’t want Daddy to find out?”
“No!” Nell was indignant, a little shocked at his assumption. “Of course not… I mean…” She scowled, taking a step back in an effort to regain her legendary poise. “I don’t have to explain myself to anyone, least of all you.”
“Ah.” He smirked. “A nerve. What is it? Not a woman, then. A man… Maybe a man you can’t have?
“I don’t…”
“Don’t…or won’t?”
“I haven’t…”
“Haven’t?”
“I didn’t mean that! Of course I’ve… Not that I haven’t…”
“So you have?”
“No… I mean yes.” She glared at him furiously. What was it about this man? He was supposed to be cowed, uncertain. Not tying her in verbal knots.
“It couldn’t have been that good,” he observed with a sly smile.
Deep breaths
, she told herself.
“It was perfectly adequate, thank you,” she replied in freezing accents.
How dare he?
His effort at laughter, genuine laughter, made her jump. “Captain Thorn, you have a body made for love, for sex. So exquisite that even as I lie here, imprisoned in a cage, sedated with your evil-tasting medication, I know that ‘adequate’ would never be good enough for you.”
The man lay propped up on one arm, but his attitude was of a leader reclining on a throne rather than a captive in a cage, and the use of her formal name in such a context rattled her more than she cared to admit. The cage had a minimal structure so no software could be hacked to reveal anything about its occupants, or other general data obtained that could be used further.
It also meant she could not ignore him.
His words seemed to seep into her skin, making her senses prickle with awareness, her nipples hardening into aching tips as his words registered. “Who are you?” she finally asked him.
“You don’t know?” he quizzed, his attention seeming truly caught. “But, then, do you need to? It was no accident, was it? You turn up just in time to save me from slavers. You’ve obviously taken risks, performed days of sub-speed Rim-running to get me away from Egalita, and you do not even know my name.”
“I just follow my orders,” Nell snapped.
“And what is there to stop me leaving at the first opportunity that presents itself?”
“As I just said,” Nell told him through gritted teeth, “I follow my orders, and my orders are to escort you to a prearranged rendezvous.”
“These orders that not even a GEF Admiral is privy to?” He gave a low whistle, and Nell cursed the fact that he had obviously taken note of how vague she had been around her father, and had been capable of listening to what had been said on other occasions as well.
“Not everyone in the Fleet knows about every order issued.” She felt evasive even as she said it.
“Hmmm,” was his only response.
“So what
is
your name?” Nell asked him finally.
His gaze focused on her face, one eyebrow lifting to clearly show a sharp intelligence that had hitherto been missing. “If they’ve not told you, there must be good reason for it. It might be better if you don’t know my full name, but I think it’s safe enough for you to at least call me Rowe…”
* * * *
“Who is this man Rowe?” she asked Talbot, later.
“No one you will have heard of—yet,” her contact told her.
Nell got a sinking feeling deep in her gut.
“You are not attempting to manipulate Rim politics again, are you, Talbot?”
“No one can manipulate Rim politics, Helena, not even the Rim itself. Let’s just say I’m attempting to head off a future clash between GEF and Rim. The rendezvous coordinates will be coming through soon. It’ll probably mean a meeting at Sigma Alpha, as usual.”
“You’re not… It’s not a trap, is it?”
“Oh, Helena…” Talbot sighed and moved forward to switch off the commlink. “Don’t grow a conscience on me now.”
* * * *
It was the gasping sound of someone trying to desperately draw breath that woke him. Not the erratic, thudding sound of flailing limbs, or the low, rasping voice of a gloating assassin.
“Come on.” The voice was thick, coarse and unfamiliar. “That’s it, fight. Not so easy now, is it? Now you haven’t got all that security around you, at your beck and call.” The only response was the hoarse gasp of someone fighting for their life. “That’s it, pretty. I’m going to fuck you, then cut your throat as I come.”
Amateur
, thought Rowe as he knocked the door of his prison off its hinges with one blow. A professional would not have wasted time with words.
She would have been dead by now.
Chapter Four
Nell was doing her best to fight the man sitting on her chest, but he had a good grip on her throat and was literally throttling the life out of her. As her vision blurred, the bed dipped and her attacker’s grinning face, with its macabre smile, was joined by another.
It was Rowe.
He was not smiling.
His muscular arm was around her assailant’s neck before she could blink, and it jerked with a sickly crack. The man’s eyes briefly registered surprise before his head lolled forward like that of a broken doll, and he fell to the floor with a loud thump. Nell slumped back onto her bed, sucking in huge gasps of welcome air, spots appearing before her eyes as every cell in her body woke to a welcome surge of oxygen.
“You… What are you doing?” she croaked furiously.
“Saving your life. He was killing you!”
“You stupid idiot, I do know that. You can get off me.” Nell fumed. “He’s not moving now, is he? You’ve broken his neck.”
“Yes, of course I have,” Rowe agreed, without a shadow of remorse, so sure that Nell regarded him with a frustrated scowl. Then she froze, her body becoming rigid as she felt how intimately Rowe pressed down on her, his muscular body straddling her thighs. Nell was aware of the heat from him seeping into her fear-chilled skin, and then the slow curl of desire that unfolded inside her as he shifted slightly, totally unaware of the effect he was having on her. Her eyes grew wide as he continued to glower back at her, his gaze narrowing at her thankless reaction.
“Believe it or not, this is not the first time it’s happened and I am armed.” She fished a laser gun out from under her pillow and brandished it under Rowe’s nose. “How will I find out who it was that sent him? Now that he’s dead, he won’t be saying much, will he?”
The adrenaline from her brush with death still pulsed through her body, but it was her GEF training and experience that kept her voice and nerves steady.
For now.
This time Rowe remained silent but his eyes said it all. Many would take death over interrogation by the Fleet any day. Rowe had probably done her failed assassin a favour.
They stared at each other in a long, drawn-out silence.
“I’ll call security,” Nell hissed finally.
She glared at him until he raised his hands in acceptance and climbed off her, then off the bed, without once turning his back to her.