Dangerously Yours: 2 (Loving Dangerously) (22 page)

Not only had Sa’Mya been able to contact her people, but he and the crew had literally been backed into a corner. He had to shift gears. Preservation versus gold. Preservation won. His main priority now was to ensure the safety of his crew.

“Well it appears you’ve got the upper hand. How about we give her to you unharmed for exchange of safe passage out of this system?”

“You are in no position to negotiate. You will stand down. We will board the vessel and retrieve the princess and her subjects.”

That didn’t sound so bad. Maybe he and his crew would be able to get out of this unscathed after all.

“And for my cooperation?”

“Even though your cooperation is not required, it will be taken into consideration. Instead of death, I will recommend lifetime imprisonment.”

Not exactly what I had in mind.
“I’m sure we can come to better terms.”

“Prepare to be boarded.”

Everyone’s jaw dropped open as two smaller vessels emerged from the larger one.

Kane jumped from his seat. “JB! Close off communication. Kyle! Ryan! Tell me something good.”

“Sorry, Captain, I’ve been trying to get us out of this mess since they arrived,” Ryan said. “They have completely locked us out of the controls. I can’t move. I can’t control anything. Right now they’re manipulating our oxygen.”

Since the intercom had been left open, Kyle and Eli had both heard the entire exchange. “He’s right. They must have wised up to what I was trying to do. Sorry, but I’m locked out too,” Kyle said.

“They’re coming for us. I’m not going back to a life of slavery. Weapons! Everyone head to the weapons room.”

They all scrambled to a door that did not open.

“Damn! Damn! Damn!” Jess yelled. “I can’t go back to the brothel. I can’t go back to that kind of life.” She cried as she slid down the wall.

JB grabbed her in a bear hug, supporting her weight. She was a fugitive female. The odds of her being sent to a brothel were far greater than being imprisoned in an alien prison.

* * * * *

As JB explained what was going on over the intercom, Sa’Mya jumped out of bed. She wasn’t sleeping. She hadn’t had a good night’s sleep since Kane had moved out of his cabin.

Her heart somersaulted over JB’s news. King Taio had finally arrived. She pressed the time-keeper, two more rotations until her birth cycle. King Taio had arrived with almost no time to spare.

Moira helped her dress quickly. Yazmine twisted her hair in a braided bun. Once finished, Sa’Mya waited to receive King Taio. As the door slid open, she stood to greet him.

“Hello, Princess.”

Feeling faint, she eased onto her chair.

Uncle Umar.

“Come now. Don’t I get a proper greeting?” he said. “We haven’t seen each other in so long.”

Her stomach flipped and churned. She wanted to throw up. “Wh…what are you doing here?”

He tsked before grabbing her arm and snatching her to her feet. He brought her nose-to-nose with him. “Don’t ever think you can outsmart me,” he warned.

Moira and Yazmine cowered behind her.

“Grab those other idiots,” he commanded the guards by his side.

Umar’s fingernails punched half-moons in her arm as he walked her out of the cabin and down the hall.

“It’ll be so nice to have you back, Princess. I wasn’t sure we would get to you before you legally became queen.”

She bit back the pain from his tight grasp. “How did you find me?” she asked through clenched teeth.

“Oh, it was easy. Moira had done a good job keeping me informed of your plans and your whereabouts, but when we lost contact with her, I knew it was just a matter of time before you would slip up.” He smiled a toothy grin. “I intercepted the message you sent to King Taio. It’s a good thing I was able to get to you first. My sources tell me he is abroad searching for his human female.”

Sa’Mya inwardly groaned. She had forgotten Taio had left Sonis to search for Eva. If she had imagined there was a remote chance Umar would intercept her message, she wouldn’t have sent it. Not only had she endangered herself but Kane and his crew as well.

She craned her neck to find Moira, whose head hung low.
She should feel ashamed
, Sa’Mya thought. She had betrayed the crown. “How much did you have to pay for my return?”

“Pay? Silly girl. Why would I pay when I can take?”

“But…the ransom?” she asked.

Umar laughed so hard he coughed and choked.

“Kane? Where are the humans?”

“They will be dealt with later,” he said after he regained his breath. “Those idiots tried to outsmart me.”

Just then, two more of her uncle’s guards joined them with Nebin sandwiched in between.

Nebin focused on her.
Surely he knows what to do
, she assured herself. Nebin would protect her.

Umar jerked her around hard.

“You have no right to treat me this way!” she screamed. “What do you plan to accomplish? Forging my bonding to your son? Do you actually think you will get away with this?”

“Oh, you see. I plan to get away with this and so much more. Your marriage to Antony is a fraction of a much greater plan.”

“You are crazy. You were always crazy.”

Umar chuckled. “You were certain to catch on. I had actually hoped you might be reasonable and cooperate.” His smile was unpleasant. “But then I had hoped our talk would be under better circumstances.”

She pulled away only to have Umar yank her to his side. Her feet collided with his. Her uncle was drunk on his own power.

“Talk to me about what?” she snarled.

Umar leaned in closer. She angled her neck farther away. “Did you really believe all those deaths, your mother, father, aunt and uncle were accidents? Naive little girl. They were all in my way.”

Her eyes widened in disbelief. “What…what do you mean?”

“Why, that I killed them.”

Overcome with rage, Sa’Mya turned on him. She swung her fist at his head and hit him in the face. Umar pushed her but she pounced back on him. She pulled and scratched wildly.

“You murderer! My parents,” Sa’Mya yelled. Every blow she landed was for all the time she had spent alone. She beat on him for robbing her of her parents. “How could you? She was your sister!”

A scuffle erupted behind her. Nebin growled as he fought the two guards who tried to hold him. Nebin picked up a guard and slammed him hard on the wall. The guard fell in an unconscious heap to the ground. Nebin grabbed the other guard’s neck in his large hand. The guard’s skin became ashen and he sputtered as Nebin continued to squeeze the life out of him.

Umar pulled her by her hair and twisted his fist in it. The pain brought her to her knees, where she stayed, crying, unable to move. The cold muzzle of a blaster pressed against the top of her head. “Release the guard or I’ll kill your precious princess.”

She yelled, “Kill him, Nebin. Kill the guards and Umar.” She didn’t care anymore. As long as this parasite was dead, nothing mattered.

Umar tightened the grip on her hair, pulling some of it out by the roots. Screaming, she clawed at him.

The thump of heavy boots hit the floor. “I’m sorry, Princess. I cannot risk your life,” Nebin said.

She hadn’t expected Nebin to risk her life, but this time she had wished for it. Umar pulled her to her feet by her hair.

“Touch me again and you sign his death warrant, you little bitch.” He indicated Nebin with his blaster.

Sa’Mya closed her eyes and vowed,
I’ll kill him. I’ll kill him and anyone who helped him kill my parents.

He dragged her the rest of the distance to the cargo bay. Sa’Mya spotted two transporters docked next to each other. She slowed her pace as she approached the first transporter vessel, hoping to catch a glimpse of Kane.

Her relief at seeing Kane and his crew crammed in the transporter rapidly deteriorated in the face of the cold hatred directed at her. They looked her way as she passed. Jess spat at her.

She had tried to warn him. She hadn’t meant for her uncle to find her. She would make it right. With Nebin’s help, she would free them.

Her uncle pulled her arm, dragging her past them. Kane turned his head as one of the guards shut his transport door.

She had wanted to assure Kane that she and Nebin would do all they could to get everyone out of danger. She had wanted him to assure her as well. But she couldn’t and he probably wouldn’t.

She tore her eyes away from his closed transporter door. She would not let her uncle scare her anymore. She would not cower under him. With Nebin’s help, she would reclaim her kingdom.

Umar stopped her in front of the second transporter and faced her. “No need to take him home with us.”

Umar took his blaster from its side holster. She froze in her tracks.

What is he talking about?

Umar aimed his blaster at Nebin and shot him directly in the face. Moira and Yazmine grabbed each other. Nebin fell dead to the ground.

Hysterical screaming echoed through the cargo bay. Her hands rose to protect her ears.
Who?
She looked at everyone else. It was
her
.

Moira terminated the call she had just made. Umar was too confident in her loyalty to him. As time passed, the unease of her betrayal had grown. As many of Umar’s loyalists, Moira had been plucked from a life of obscurity to a life of extreme privilege.

Her father passed away when she and her sister were young children. Her mother had toiled long hours in the factory making parts for Mercanis Shipping and Hauling. It hadn’t taken long for both her and her sister to follow suit.

It had been more than a dream come true when Umar approached her to be the princess’s personal aide. She had sworn her loyalty to him without second thought. What had the royal family ever done for her or her family? She owed more to Umar than to Princess Sa’Mya.

But as time went on it became very apparent Princess Sa’Mya’s life was not all Umar had led her or the rest of Laconia to believe. There were no endless parties, balls, attendants or prestige. He kept Princess Sa’Mya prisoner in her own home, with little to no outside contact.

Not only had she eventually come to enjoy her company but she also found herself pitying the princess.

The princess only had three people she could rely on. Umar had one locked in his personal quarters, one was dead and the other was a traitor.

She had sat by idly as Umar killed innocents.

No more.

In the beginning she had no problem with looking the other way. So long as she had enough credits to take care of her mother and sister.

She now realized that she had filled their accounts with tainted funds. She was a disgrace to her father’s name. She was a disgrace to her kingdom and to her planet.

It had been an easy decision to contact King Taio. She’d spoken with him directly and relayed not only the past day’s events to him, but also the treatment Princess Sa’Mya had endured since Moira came to the royal palace.

Umar forbade her from having anything to do with Sa’Mya anymore, but it wouldn’t matter anyway. Once he found out what she’d done, Umar would kill her.

* * * * *

Sa’Mya scanned the room with blurry vision. The family portrait painted before her parents’ death hung above the fireplace. Her father’s old sword hung on the far wall. Her mother’s favorite quilt draped across Sa’Mya’s favorite couch.

The few items Nebin had thought to save for her when her parents died were reminders of who they were and what they had stood for. Family, security, loyalty and love. She was home, in her private rooms on Laconia.

As she inconspicuously looked around, she tried not to stir. She didn’t know who could be in her room with her. Besides her breathing, the only other noise came from the wind howling outside her window. Otherwise, her room was quiet and dim.

The night cast long, dark shadows across her furniture. She didn’t know how long she’d been asleep.

Is it morning or evening?

She peeked behind her. The slight movement caused her head to spin. No one there either. As far as she could tell, she was alone. She slipped out of the bed and steadied herself on wobbly legs. What had he done to her?

Sa’Mya tiptoed to her door and placed an ear against it. She listened for sounds of someone standing on the other side. All was quiet. She turned the knob slowly, finding it unlocked. She cracked it open and peered out to the empty hallway.

She took the emptiness as a sign of good luck. As she ran down the hallway, she made sure not to bump into the pedestals of fresh flowers that lined it.

She didn’t stop as she made it to the wide spiral stairs. She raised her gown to her knees and bounded straight to the bottom and into the main gathering room. She was used to finding the elaborately furnished room empty. Nebin and Moira had been the only two people who had ever occupied the room on a consistent basis. She ran to the double doors that led out to the main palace.