Enslaved by a Rebel [Sold! 2] (Siren Publishing Everlasting Classic ManLove) (9 page)

“I don’t know. The message from the auction house didn’t say. Only that I had to return you.”

“Wait, what?” Jarrett had missed that part. Since the droid was meant for Ranic, and he leapt out of Jarrett’s arms and practically ran toward it, Jarrett hadn’t been able to hear everything it said by the time he caught up. “I thought it said we had to return to the auction house?”

“Yes. Well, we do, but it was clear I had to bring you with me.”

Jarrett’s mind was racing. “They can’t take me away from you. I mean, you bought me fair and square. Besides, we’re married now, so—” He cut himself off because he had no idea if he had any rights at all. Technically, Ranic still owned him.

“I’m not going to leave you.” Ranic stopped striding across the floor and came to sit beside Jarrett on the bed. “They can’t part us since neither one of us broke any laws.”

“Right.” Jarrett considered. “Or have you?”

“What do you mean?”

“Your world doesn’t deal in slaves. What if they want to arrest you?”

“The laws of the slave sale are governed by the world the sale was made on, which means it falls under Krase law. Finoc—the council of Finoc—could only reprimand me if I tried to take you there, which I wouldn’t. They simply wouldn’t let you onto the planet and that would be the end of things.” Ranic lifted his hand and kissed it, just like Jarrett did to him when he wanted to reassure him. “I don’t know what’s going on, but we have to return. They gave us passage so…”

“Maybe it’s not a bad thing.” Jarrett wanted to stay positive, but his gut was telling him that a slave seller didn’t demand his customer and his product return unless there was something gravely wrong. “It might be good news.”

“Perhaps.” Ranic looked down at the floor then flashed surreptitious looks around their bedroom.

“What?” Jarrett leaned close. He knew that look. That was the expression of a man who had law breaking on his mind.

“What if we don’t go?”

“You mean run for it?”

“Yes. We could take the passage they sent, go halfway, sell the rest of the passage, and then…” Ranic’s voice trailed off and it was clear he hadn’t thought his plan out beyond that.

“Where would we go?”

“To your Earth.”

Jarrett considered. “Could we get passage there? I mean, it’s not like humanity has an open-door policy with aliens.”

Ranic frowned. “Wait. You mean Earth was not conquered?”

“Not that I’m aware of.” Jarrett had been totally enjoying his vacation, but if the whole planet had been conquered, he was pretty sure he would have heard about it.

“How were you given into slavery?”

“I wasn’t. I was scuba diving, facing my imminent death, and then suddenly I was naked on that stage. Why?”

“Because you can’t steal slaves. They have to be given in tribute or won by conquering lands. You were literally plucked out of the water and sold.” Ranic’s expressive eyes looked utterly defeated. “That’s why they want you back. You and the others must have been taken illegally.”

“Well, then, I’m a free man who can go and do what I please.” Frankly, things were sounding better and better to Jarrett.

“I don’t know. I have a terrible feeling that there’s something very wrong.”

“Well, just because you feel that way doesn’t mean it’s true.” Although, Jarrett felt that way, too. Like he’d told Ranic earlier, he’d learned to trust his gut even when it pushed him to do the craziest things. But he didn’t want to trust it now. “I say we call them and find out what’s up. That way, we aren’t near to where they can grab us and make us do something if we don’t want to.”

Ranic nodded, and they sat silently for a time. Jarrett wanted to rail at something or someone because it simply wasn’t fair that after a lifetime of following the rules—hell, he didn’t even cheat on his taxes—he finally found exactly what he’d been looking for and now someone wanted to come in and muck it all up.

“If there has been law breaking, they might simply have us taken into custody and brought to them anyway. Krase is fairly liberal, but when their laws are broken, they can be brutal.” Ranic shivered. “In the bidding room, there were two Krase warriors. I would hate to end up in their custody.”

“What do these guys look like?”

Ranic described them as eight-foot-tall, four-foot-wide, maroon monsters with pointed teeth and cocks so massive they had evolved a bracing device known as a
strosan
to hold their erect cocks up for penetration.

“And they were bidding on humans?” Jarrett feared for his brothers. It sounded like only the biggest human in the world would be able to take on a horny Krase warrior.

“They fought very vigorously over them.”

“Maybe something happened to one of them and they want all the humans back to make sure we’re safe or something.” That sounded so unlikely Jarrett almost laughed at himself.

“No, I don’t think so. From what I learned about the slave trade on Krase, once a slave is sold, his or her master can do anything, even kill the servant if they wish.”

“But only for good reason?” Jarrett asked hopefully.

“For any reason. For no reason. Because of a whim. Slaves have no rights but what their masters give them. That’s why I don’t think this calling back is about you, but more about me buying you.”

They debated the issue a bit more, but in the end they called the auction house for further details. Since there was a huge time differential due to the vastness of space, they simply couldn’t have a face-to-face discussion about things. Basically, he and Ranic composed a message and then had to wait hours for the response.

“What will we do while we wait?”

Jarrett grinned, and Ranic tilted his head. “Oh. That.” Ranic matched his grin. “Haven’t we done enough of that?”

“We’ll
never
do enough of that.”

After completely messing up the bed and taking another shower, they were back where they had started out with Jarrett sitting on the edge of the bed watching Ranic pace. While observing his mate, Jarrett let his mind wander off to that moment deep in the azure waters of the Caribbean. He remembered checking all his equipment while they were onshore because it was something that had been drilled into him when he was getting certified. He’d checked it personally, not because he didn’t trust the company he was going out with, just that it was part of his preparation to dive. Everything had seemed in perfect condition. Sadly, things eventually broke, and there was nothing to be done about it.

“Oh, God. What if that’s what the problem is?” Jarrett’s gaze dropped to the woven leaves that were fashioned into a rug. The pattern was complex and interesting, almost as much as the problem he was working over in his mind. Everything was joined together in a mind-bendingly intricate way. Time and history like dominoes that if someone took one out of line, nothing would fall the same way.

“What problem?” Ranic continued to pace. He liked movement to dissipate his tension while Jarrett preferred to sit still and contemplate. It told him again that they were a good pairing.

“I think I was supposed to die.” Jarrett looked up in time to see an expression of horror consume his mate’s face. “I was going to drown in that water. Nothing would have saved me. Maybe that’s why Krase wants me back, because I’m not supposed to be here.”

Ranic opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out. He took a deep breath that hitched, but he didn’t cry. God, he probably had sparkles in his tears and looked beautiful when he was in torment. Not that Jarrett wanted to find out anytime soon. He much preferred to see his handsome husband laughing.

“I might be wrong.” But Jarrett’s gut was telling him he wasn’t. It seemed as soon as he hit on the idea, it simply wouldn’t leave.

“Then we can’t go back.”

“It was an invitation, right? I mean, they didn’t order you to come back…”

“It was more of a determined invitation.” Ranic frowned. “By law they can’t make us go back.”

“Then we have to figure out where we are going to go.” Jarrett stood but didn’t know exactly what to do with himself so he just stood there, hands on hips, wondering how to thwart a planet full of scary creatures who strongly suggested they return.

“I can sell my suit. That way we’ll have money.”

Jarrett nodded, but they would need a way to have money coming in all the time. “Do you still have the spaceship?”

“I do. I have it for another few days on the rental, and then I have to return it.”

Ranic used a different word, but his translator used
days
so that Jarrett would understand. It was a remarkably useful device.

“I’m certain there’s a tracker on the ship, though. They must have some way to find it so people don’t simply steal it.”

“I think the fact it’s a piece of shit probably prevents that most of the time.” It was the equivalent of the Ford Pinto Jarrett had driven off to college because it was all the car he could afford. Like Ranic’s spaceship, it was a piece of crap, but it got him where he needed to go. “Will it get us to Earth?”

“Do you think it’s wise to go there?”

“Why not?”

“I would think it would be the first place they would look for us.”

“Not necessarily. If you bought me and they know what you are, then they would think we would go where you wanted to go, not where your humble servant wanted to go.” Jarrett moved closer to Ranic, but he set off pacing again so Jarrett leaned against the wall to watch.

“I do not think we should run from Krase warriors.”

“Who said anything about them? It was an invite from the auction house, not the Krase government.”

“Yes, however, the auction house is on Krase.”

“But we didn’t break any laws.” Except Jarrett had a terrible feeling that not dying when he was supposed to broke some kind of powerful time law. Maybe the gremlins who enacted such deaths were furious they’d been cheated and even now they were hunting the galaxy, looking for him so they could finish him off. Jarrett shook his head. He’d obviously seen way too many sci-fi shows. People died, but people escaped certain death, too. Maybe his malfunctioning tank would have started working again. Or someone else on the tour would have come and shared air with him so he would have lived. Since he’d been taken before the situation had played out, no one could really say what would have happened. Like him, they could only speculate. The only certainties in life were death and taxes, and since he hadn’t died, no one could say it was a foregone conclusion.

“We didn’t break any laws, but the slave trader clearly did.” Ranic stopped pacing when there was a subtle tap at the door. His shoulders slumped.

“Let me.” Jarrett let the drone in, and this time he stayed close so he could hear exactly what was said. The first time they’d been given a message, it was in a kind cadence of someone who had worked in customer service for a long time. This was not in that tone of voice. This was delivered in the no-nonsense tone of a king issuing a directive. Their presence was requested, but the situation was urgent and one that could not be discussed over such a vast distance. They had to return to Krase, or the auction house would have no choice but to get the authorities involved.

When the droid was done delivering his message, he floated out of the room, and Jarrett closed the door behind him. He took up his place on the bed while Ranic returned to pacing across the floor. They didn’t speak for a long time, probably because neither one of them knew what to say.

“I don’t want to take you back.” Ranic’s voice was very quiet but strong.

“I don’t want to go back.” Jarrett matched his tone.

“Then we will have to run.”

Ranic had never broken any laws. He’d never even come close to doing so, yet in a very brief span of time, he’d managed to break several, and kept right on breaking more. But he didn’t revel in being a criminal. In fact, he hated it. He felt as if he was always going to be looking over his shoulder, waiting for the stern hand of justice to slap down on him and take him away to a dark cell. The only reason he kept pushing forward was because of Jarrett.

He turned his head from the pilot seat and looked at his slumbering mate again. Ranic would do anything to stay with him. Being a law-abiding citizen of the universe wasn’t nearly as important as being with the man he loved. He couldn’t think of anything he wouldn’t do for him.

Ranic knew he loved Jarrett almost as soon as he saw him on that stage. No wonder he hadn’t been able to go through with his plan to engage him in a fight, let him win, and then by his victory he would have the right to penetrate him. It was a stupid plan. Ranic realized that now. But when he’d been close to Jarrett and had seen his kind eyes and the way he was so open to everything, Ranic had spilled the truth.

“And that’s what made him mine.”

Ranic considered telling the truth again to the auction house, but he feared what they would do. If Jarrett was slated to die that day on his world, then Ranic feared the authorities would have no choice but to kill him so that there would be no issue with time or history or whatever letting him live would cause. Jarrett wasn’t likely to be a great historical figure someday. He was just an accountant who liked to scuba dive. A man like that didn’t matter in the greater scheme of time, but he mattered desperately to Ranic.