Silver Bound
Authors: Ella Drake
Silver Bound
By Ella Drake
A dangerous journey across the galaxy
Sheriff Guy Trident doesn’t have much to do with off-worlders; he has his hands full keeping his own planet safe. But he’ll do anything, go anywhere to save Jewel Quinn. She broke his heart years ago when she left to marry a Terraloft aristocrat. Now she’s run away from her husband, only to fall into the clutches of slavers.
Posing as a wealthy playboy, Guy arrives at Zuthuru Station to learn he’s too late: Jewel’s memories have been erased. She’s been tipped in silver, a process that leaves nothing behind except her body, sexually bound to pleasuring her master. Unwilling to give up hope, Guy buys her.
Jewel fights to reclaim herself, recalling a different connection to the handsome sheriff, remembering the frightened eyes of a young boy and the events that made her run. Together she and Guy search for her cure, plan her son’s rescue from her ruthless ex, and test if they have any kind of future…before the past catches up to them.
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To the mudpuddlers for keeping me grounded and helping this story fly.
And to my own hero, always.
I’d like to thank Angela James, for tweeting that she wanted a space western.
Special thanks to my editor, Deb Nemeth, for making this story so much better. Her suggestions were all perfect. Just perfect.
Lastly, I have to thank Joss Whedon for
Firefly
and
Serenity.
And Nathan Fillion for his wonderful performance as Mal. Hours of inspiration. Thank you.
Her only hope was escape. The chill of the shuttle and the loud pounding in her ears made her body quake, but Jewel squelched the shivers.
She ran a hand through her son’s soft blond hair as he stood beside her, bouncing and eager for the hatch to open. They waited in the small docking area of the Geanus shuttlecraft. The same craft she’d stolen from her husband, Kalon, days before. To steady her shaking hand, she gripped Jared’s shoulder in a light squeeze.
“Will there be pirates?” Eyes twinkling up at her, Jared grinned, full of adventure.
“No, sweet one. Remember, we’re on holiday. Everything’s perfectly safe.”
The door swung open with a
shlurp
and all hope of safety fled. Tears stung her eyes as she hitched up her chin and stared at her husband’s two goons filling the doorway and blocking their escape. They’d almost made it. Almost.
Behind the beefy men who glared at her, phasers in hand—no doubt the choice of weapon to avoid hurting Jared—the station docks filled with people going about their business. None of them would stop, or even hesitate, if she screamed for help. She swallowed the urge and forced her trembling lips into a pasted-on smile at the tallest one, who wore leather and a menacing smile. She’d forgotten his name, if she ever knew it.
“Why, boys, are you here to accompany us to the circus? Jared’s excited. He’s never been to the circus before.”
The guard’s scowl turned to confusion. “Circus?”
Spinning on her heel, she scooped Jared into her arms and sprinted through the cabin of the shuttle.
“Hey.” One of the guards sputtered. Clamoring and cursing erupted behind them.
The two goons right behind them, she stumbled into the cockpit, turning to take the brunt of the fall. A sharp pain throbbed in her hip. Still on the floor beneath Jared, she stretched her leg and hit the door pad with her foot.
Swish.
The hatch slid closed on the curses of the tall one.
Her speech caught as she sucked in air, too winded to reassure Jared who clutched at her, ruining the expensive weave of her shirt—picked and paid for by Kalon. She’d never liked the thing anyway.
The pounding on the door was muffled from the reinforced airtight seal. Good. The guards were locked out. Or she and Jared were locked in this tiny cockpit. Jared scrambled off her, and she pulled herself up using the foldout table where she’d spent the journey teaching Jared how to play cards. Their game had scattered on the floor.
Jared stared at the closed portal. “Why’d we close the door on Ben? He’d like the circus, too.”
Leave it to Kalon to send Jared’s favorite guard. Her husband might not make the effort to understand his wife, but he apparently got full reports of Jared’s likes and dislikes. “I’m sure he’d enjoy the circus, baby.”
“I’m four. Not a baby.”
“No. You’re a big boy. Brave.” What was she going to do? All of this was for Jared. All of it.
A light blinked on the console. A message waited, probably from Kalon. She wouldn’t check it. There was nothing he could say that would make anything right.
“Strap in, moonbeam. I’ll show you the docking controls before we go.”
“Really?” His eyes widened and all his teeth showed in his big grin.
After he sat, legs dangling, she checked his harness and slammed her body into the pilot seat, her hip protesting. She missed the buckle twice. Finally, she clicked in and punched the controls with shaking fingers.
Backed into the dock, the shuttle cockpit faced out. A constellation twinkled peacefully ahead. Below, her home planet of Grassland loomed. On the dark side of the sun, it lay in shadow, the green lushness asleep. Somewhere down there was the man she’d dared not think of for years. A man she’d betrayed.
She thumbed on the comms. “Shuttle requesting launch from bay one-four-oh.”
In the small delay, she willed away the panic over where she and Jared could go.
“Negative. The registered owner of this shuttle has reported the craft stolen. Your docking clamps are secured.” The woman at station control spoke in a bored monotone, as if she hadn’t just ruined Jared’s life and given Jewel what was tantamount to a death sentence.
The stars blurred as Jared spoke, his words lost to the pounding in her ears.
She shook her head. “What did you say, moonbeam?”
“Why did the woman say we stole Daddy’s shuttle?”
“Must be a misunderstanding.” She tried and failed to smile to ease his troubled frown.
The clamoring at the door had quieted. The men wouldn’t have left, and she didn’t have much time until they were joined by station security, who Kalon would’ve given an override code of some sort.
All the cards were dealt, and she didn’t have a hand to play. Unless she had a wildcard up her sleeve. She scanned the controls in front of her and stilled the desperate tapping of her foot.
She opened the comms again to send a message to her father. If she got lucky, he’d already be on station.
All channels are locked.
Blinked over and over with an annoying beep on the console.
“Damn,” she whispered and slapped the screen.
“Momma.”
“Sorry,” she muttered. “I owe you a chip for bad language.”
“That’s okay.” Jared swung his legs and stared at the cards and chips scattered on the floor. She’d been teaching Jared her favorite game, something they’d kept as their secret since Kalon didn’t want his wife playing cards. “We’re going to the circus anyway. We can play again when we go home. I have lots of chips at home.”
Although Kalon’s space station was the only home Jared had ever known, it’d never felt that way to her. Home was and always would be that planet below them, impossibly far away. And they couldn’t waltz off the shuttle and play tourist on this gaudy and bawdy entertainment barge. The paid muscle outside those doors wouldn’t allow it.
She turned back to the pilot console. If she timed it right, she could cut the oxygen in the outer cabin until the guards passed out.
She made the adjustment and overrode the safety alert. Good thing the station hadn’t changed the internal security override. Probably because it’d never been set with security codes. Kalon’s arrogance didn’t leave room to consider that someone would steal from him, especially his wife.
Well, as soon as they were away from here, he could have the shuttle back.
Jared chattered beside her as she waited, sweat trickling along her hairline, for the system timer to go off.
“See that green planet?”
“It’s like a marble.”
She coughed, her laugh caught in her tight chest. “Your grandfather lives there.”
“But not your momma. She died.”
Her tightened chest hollowed. The guilt left her mouth sour and reminded her of the betrayal that had ripped out her heart.
Beep, beep, beep.
“Let’s go.” She threw off their straps and hoped the station security was in no hurry to follow up. They stood at the door. She put a hand on the pad to open it, but she jerked her hand back and shivered. Rubbing the bumps on her skin, she crossed her arms but one hand crept up to caress the line of raised flesh on her neck. Smooth. Soft and warm. Still there, after all these years.
Jared grabbed her hand and bounced on his heels. “Come on. This ship is boring.”
She slapped her hand on the panel.
In the outer cabin, the two guards splayed on the floor amid the luxurious appointments of the finest loungers and all that money could afford for a small transport craft.
“What’s wrong with Ben?” Jared asked softly with a slight quiver. The past few days had taken a toll. She could only hope he’d move past it with the resilience he’d shown already.
“Here. I’ll make sure he’s comfortable.” She moved to the smaller one and pulled his arm out from under him and positioned his head on it as a pillow. “He won’t mind us going without him.”
She subdued the grin that had always given her away with her father when she’d snuck out to go skinny-dipping in their private lake. She’d always been careful that nobody could see her, but he hadn’t thought proper young ladies should behave so. She couldn’t wait to teach Jared how to swim there. He’d never seen a lake, or river, or any organic body of water.
“Come on.” She nearly bounced on her toes as much as Jared, who gripped her hand, the only thing grounding her.
The outer hatch opened. The same busy dock greeted them. She’d gotten them out of this mess. A small laugh escaped.
“Momma.”
The worry in his voice registered a second late. A movement to the side came too fast. Four men in security uniforms rushed them.
A pinch in her arm hit her like a hammer.
A tranq.
Thoughts crashed together even as her knees weakened. She needed to get Jared away. Sidestepping, her foot slipped. Jared’s fingers wrenched away. The floor came at her. She landed with a
whoof.
Arm pinned beneath her, she reached with the other toward a sobbing Jared.
One of the security men patted his head. “We’ll take good care of her. You’re going home to your father.”
Jared hiccupped through his tears and lunged for her. His captors let him, but she couldn’t move her arms to hug him. Her mouth wouldn’t cooperate to soothe him.
She fell asleep with his small hand running through her hair.
***
Fighting through the fog in her brain, Jewel wished she’d sink back to oblivion.
The hard clinic chair and the constrictive padded cuffs brought back the rush of events like a stampede. She tried to roll away, but couldn’t move. Straps bit into her flesh. She was naked. Exposed. Trapped. Kalon’s guards stared at her, making her want to sink into the chair as much as tell them to slog off. She clenched her teeth together in a snap. She wouldn’t give them the satisfaction. She’d already harangued and begged for them to tell her what the hell was going on. Nothing.
Yanking, keeping her discomfort from spilling out and pulling her into panic, she strained and tugged to no avail. She couldn’t get free.
An efficient nurse leaned over her to place electrodes on her immobile head and temples. Mouth dry and stomach churning, she struggled, but couldn’t loosen the tight restraints. The cold pinpoints of the electrodes swept her strength away.
She was a prisoner. She didn’t understand why, but Kalon had something to do with this, whatever this was. Begging had gotten her nowhere. Bribery might’ve worked, but what did she have to offer?
Nothing.
Her ears buzzed, but the nurse’s platitudes clamored over the noise of confusion. “Don’t worry. It’ll be over soon. You’ll be brand new.” And more hollow words. “I’ll give back your virginity. Your owner will like that.”
She was no virgin. She cringed. Memories ran through her mind like flashes of the comets scattering the dust around
Geanus Station.
The life she’d gotten didn’t come close to the one she’d planned and wished for.
Nothing made sense. “I don’t belong here. This is a mistake.”
“They all say that.” Her expression remote, disinterested, the nurse patted Jewel’s arm, barely missing the throbbing bruise there.
The guards stood behind her, but their stares marked her naked flesh as surely as if their fingers wandered. Her head pounded with the aftereffects of the tranq. She hoped theirs did, too, from oxygen deprivation.
“Leave.” The nurse waved away the guards. A soft click followed and much of the tense heat left the room.
The erratic pulse at her restraints pounded as she searched for an escape that didn’t exist. The sterile cream-colored room held a console with drawers full of strange implements, the white-haired nurse in a long silver coat, and her own chair, reclined like a hospital bed. Unlike a bed for healing, this one had straps to hold her feet tight and immobile.
“I’ll remove the scar on your neck as well,” the nurse added.
Her flinch jerked against the bindings. The slight bump at the crease of her neck and shoulder grounded her, reminded her of a better time, of a better Jewel, and of wishes and dreams. Of a boy, long ago. One she’d betrayed. And the guilt.
Fingers splayed out from beneath the tight strap, she ached to stroke the comforting raised line of flesh. “No, I’ll keep the scar.”
The nurse shook her head and tutted. “I’ll make you the perfect slave. You won’t miss whatever depraved existence you had before.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m not a slave. I want to see my son.”
Jewel received no response to her plea, only another pat on the arm.
“Don’t worry. You have no son now.”
“You can’t take him away.” Her body felt hot, agitated, like she might burst from the restraints, but her captor didn’t bother to answer her.
“I always explain the process, though you won’t remember. It’s some idea our office manager got in her head.” The nurse rolled her eyes and slapped a probe on Jewel’s forehead.
Process? The blood seemed to freeze in her veins.
“You’re being silver-tipped. Your memories will be wiped. Your body will be repaired of any impurities and implanted with a programming to tie you to your master. The nanobots are applied to your erogenous zones and will foster your enjoyment and compliance. You will have no thoughts or needs other than your master. When he wants your services, he’ll wear a bracelet to control you, but not to worry, you’ll want to do his every bidding.”
“I will not.” She ground her teeth. “Who is this depraved man who thinks he can own me? Tell him to slog off.” Having a so-called master would be too much like what she had now, with a stifling tyrant of a husband.
The nurse didn’t answer but continued her briefing. “When he’s not in want of your services, the bracelet will rest in a home base called a Broker. The Broker is the only thing that’ll prevent you from feeling every one of your master’s sexual urges. If your master removes his bracelet without inserting it in the Broker, you’ll die. You’ll pine away for your master.”
“Not likely.”
“You won’t have such a smart mouth when I’m done with you.” The nurse smiled. She obviously enjoyed her job.
“You’ll never get away with this.”