Origin (15 page)

Clay shook his head. “I’d rather you aren’t out of our sight—not on this planet.”

“Nobody is making me want to see this place. Sounds awful.”

“I looked it up. It is,” Anders said, adjusting his still-hard cock in his pants. “And I’m going to put some cold water on this thing so I don’t carry it out there into the wild.” He walked into my washroom.

Clay opened the door. “I’ll get a satchel for your things.”

Lia was standing on the other side of the door, grinning. “Aw, we thought things were just about to get interesting.”

I noticed Bucho, Speero and Juniper standing there too. My cheeks flushed hot, I bit my lip and started folding…no refolding my clothes to give me something to do other than stand there blushing.

“I’m going to be moving them into my room when we get back.” Clay strode past them. “Better walls.”

But if he had heard Anders and me in Anders’s room, then it would work the other way. There weren’t any rooms on the other side of Clay’s cabin, so maybe I could talk him into locking up Anders’s room. Or talk Anders into it. I smiled, pretty sure I could talk either man into anything at this point. I kind of liked the surge of power that thought gave me.

Burga One
was
the biggest shit pile of metal and fumes.

I truly understood Lia’s version of the word instantly. I hadn’t been allowed to see most of the planets the entertainment ship had docked on, but the few that I had seen over the years hadn’t been like this. Standing in front of a window that made up an entire wall, I looked down from the sixteenth floor of the rented room. One mining pod after another lined up as far as my eyes could see. The sun that warmed this planet sat fat, bright and hot on the horizon with only the tip visible through the layers of fire-colored smog.

Outside, I hadn’t been able to breathe.

Stone paths had been carved right out of the planet’s surface, each one leading into mine openings.

I walked away from the window, frowning at the mismatched patterns of wood on the floor. Squares of all shapes and sizes, some hadn’t even been smoothed down to the match the surface of those around them. I’d tripped twice in here. My feet were uncomfortably stuffed into a pair of Clay’s boots—we’d had to use four pairs of socks just to keep them from sliding around.

Eying the bed, I shivered and thought about sharing it with the men. Clay and Anders had locked me in the room and left to scout out the halls, they said. After walking from the shuttle stop to this rental building, I understood why they locked me in and wouldn’t leave me on the ship. I had seen only one woman and even I could recognize an overworked professional sex worker.

When the men came back into the room, I was at the window again. I turned to them, frowning. “This place is awful, but the bathing place is really nice. The brochure called it an old-fashioned shower. Water comes out from every direction or you can set it to come out of one nozzle and that one even comes off the wall so you can hold it in your hand.”

“I love old-fashioned head.” Anders’s grin was all kinds of naughty but I had no idea what he meant.

Clay chuckled and hurried into the washroom. “I get it first.” He firmly palmed the door closed behind him.

“Asshole probably locked us out too.” Anders walked to the bed. He bounced on it a couple of times. “It’s not as cushy as Clay’s, but it’ll do. Too bad we had to dock the ship so far out.”

It had taken us two hours in a shuttle to get to the part of the planet they thought Crichton would be. That mining crew had already shut down for the night, so we planned to go out in the morning.

Anders’s small vidscreen beeped inside his bag and he crossed the room to dig it out. I could see Speero’s shock of bright hair from where I still stood by the window.

“Captain there?”

“He’s showering. What’s up?” Anders walked to me, carrying the screen.

“Namito and Juniper just got into some trouble. They’re in a bar in the building next to yours.”

“That was fast.” Anders cursed, walked back to his bag and took out a strange-looking weapon. I frowned, not recognizing it as either a tranque gun or a laser. It was like the ones they’d carried onto the entertainment ship.

“Any more info?” he asked.

“Yeah. It’s bad. They’re cornered and Namito thinks Lashin is there.”

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Anders set everything down and walked to the washroom to bang on the door. Hard.

Clay opened the door wearing a towel and a scowl. He still had shampoo in his hair. “Impatient? I promise, we’ll get to the good stuff, Sullivan.”

“Lashin’s been spotted.”

Clay’s expression went flat and deadly. He nodded and shut the door. When he came back out, he didn’t even bother with a towel, just walked naked to his satchel and began pulling out clothes.

Anders and I looked at each other and I saw my own worry reflected in his green eyes.

Pulling on another pair of the Earth denim pants, Clay muttered under his breath then hopped a foot or two when his toes got stuck. The play of muscles in his thighs did manage to capture my attention long enough for some appreciation before he covered up and hauled a thick, long-sleeved shirt over his head. He covered that in some sort of thicker layer that made him look strangely bulky. He saw my confused frown and opened it up to show me it had pockets inside—pockets full of weapons, including another of those strange gun-type things.

“Are those laser guns?”

Anders strode across the room to dig another of those thick jackets out of his bag. “These guns are unique. Basically a combination of tranque, laser and holy shit, you’d better run now.”

Clay smirked, pulled his out to check the power levels. “We call them erasers. Juniper found them in Sector Two. Bought them all up right after their inventor was killed trying to modify one.”

“He was killed modifying his own weapon?”

Nodding, Clay stuck the weapon back inside his jacket. “Pretty stupid, eh? We’re surprised he managed to invent these wonderful things. We’ll never know what he was trying to add to them but it doesn’t matter. They belong to the
Ultio
crew now.”

“I don’t want to go without a weapon too.”

“Of course not,” Anders said, walking toward me and handing me a laser. “I don’t want to give you one of the erasers until we can train you on them, but you can work a laser just fine. On lights anyway.” He winked at me, then all hints of humor left his face. “You ready for this?”

“I’m surprised you’re not insisting I stay here.”

“Hell no. Like I said, we won’t leave you alone on this hellhole.”

“You just did.”

“Not for long.” Anders leaned in close. “Clay thought he’d spotted a naughty adult toy shop down the hall.”

I blushed.

“Plus,” Clay said, coming up to lift my chin with his fingers. He gave me a soft, lingering kiss. “We’re not leaving you because you have even more reason to put that man down than we do.”

“He destroyed your brother’s life. Lia told me.”

“He helped to destroy your world, your people, and he kept you as a slave.” Clay kissed me again, running his tongue along my bottom lip.

I groaned softly, couldn’t seem to help it. “I’d kill him just for what he did to Bastian.”

“That’s one sweet kid.” Anders pushed the captain aside and kissed me too. “We’ll make sure to hurt him a lot first. For Bastian. And for you.” Anders turned to Clay. “I’ll have your back, Captain.”

“You always do, Sullivan. Even when you’re pissed at me.”

“Expect that won’t change.”

“Which part? My back or being pissed.”

Anders snorted. “You have to ask? Both, of course. Small, nosy fucker.”

“I’m not small.” Clay suddenly frowned at my clothes. “We’ll have to walk to this place and I didn’t bring another weapon’s jacket for her. She can’t just walk around with that monster laser.”

“I’ve got a big shirt in my bag. It’ll go down to her knees.” Anders walked back to his bag and tugged it out. “I’ve got a smaller tranque gun she could put in the waist of her pants. The shirt will cover it.” He handed me the green shirt and we switched out the laser for the tranque. “You know how to use a tranque?”

I nodded. “I had one nice handler. He showed me. I still think he planned to get me out at some point even if he didn’t manage to.”

“Then let’s go. Apparently Namito and Juniper are holed up in the bar with the others. They won’t move without us, but if they’re recognized, they’ll be in a hell of a lot of trouble.”

Chapter Ten

My eyes watered when we stepped outside. Not only from the blast of cold that swept my face, but from the dust and burning oil in the air. It felt like I inhaled sludge with every breath—was worse than it had been earlier. I looked around and saw smoke coming from tall pipes. Everywhere. Anders pulled a square of cloth out of his pocket and stopped us on the stone path. He placed the material over my nose and slid his hands under my hair to tie it off at my neck. He stroked his thumb over my throat before pulling away.

I smiled my thanks, knowing he’d be able to tell by my eyes. He nodded, took my hand tight in his and glared at the two men and woman who’d stopped off the path to stare at me. One smirked outright, then quickly stopped when Anders turned up the heat on his stare. They moved along quickly then.

I wondered if I’d be able to use the tranque gun tucked into my pants on someone other than Lashin. Then I thought back to some of the government men and women, mostly human, some not, that he’d given me to over the years.

Yeah, I could use my gun, or better yet, one of the erasers on them easily.

When we reached the bar, it didn’t take me long to accept that I could easily use a weapon on anyone here who raised a gun on Clay or Anders. Because they did. The second Clay stepped inside the grungy black building, snaps filled the room as weapons hit palms.

“I see my reputation precedes me here,” Clay said loudly, humor lacing his tone.

Anders and I were still outside. I lifted an eyebrow at him.

“Guess I should have said this whole mining operation is run by Saturna,” Anders murmured.

“Why didn’t you?”

“Didn’t want you scared.”

I yanked the cloth off my face and stuffed it into my pocket. “And you think I’m not now?”

He chuckled. “Sweetheart, now you’re too pissed to be scared.”

I scowled at him, causing him to laugh harder. This only pissed me off enough to kick him in the shin.

“Hey now,” he said, still laughing.

“You think you know me that well, Sullivan?”

He shook his head. “I’m learning. Want to learn more.” He leaned close, his eyes on the people in the room because he could see over Clay’s shoulder. “Want to maybe keep learning the rest of my life.”

My heart fell into my stomach, but I didn’t have time to process what he’d said because Juniper suddenly stood in the back corner of the bar with his weapon aimed at the head of someone I recognized. My hands started to shake even as I lifted Anders’s huge shirt to pull out my tranque gun. “That man’s name is Lackey Hinters, Lashin’s favorite handler. Can I have the laser back?”

Clay, who still held his weapon trained on the roomful of people, turned his head only enough to aim words over his shoulder at me. “That man handle you, Siri?”

“Repeatedly.” I held my hand out to Anders. “I meant it about the laser,” I told him.

Clay made an adjustment on his eraser and shot Lackey between the eyes. The big man went down hard and Juniper instantly turned his weapon on the man to his right.

“I can hit six of you without moving this weapon, so I suggest you all lower yours now,” Clay said.

Someone I couldn’t see snorted loudly. “Stupid pirate. There are four of you and at least twenty-five of us, so what makes you think—” He ended on a gurgling note and I leaned closer to the doorway to see Namito stepping over a body.

“There are five of us and now at least twenty-four of you,” Namito said.

“Anyone else care to see what our guns can do?” Clay stepped farther into the room and Anders quickly moved beside him. I stayed a little behind but held my tranque gun on a table with two men and two women. One of the women narrowed her eyes at me and I had this vague memory of one of the times Lashin had drugged me so I’d be pliant for whatever hell he’d planned. All I could remember about that particular time was laughter, many bodies, waking up to pain that didn’t go away for a week, and strange yellow eyes that haunted my nightmares for months. Her eyes.

I kept the gun on her and turned up the power, wishing there was a kill level on this thing. She smiled and leaned back in her seat to drape her arm around the man next to her. She whispered something to him and he nodded, looked me up and down like he remembered me.

I looked around the room and realized there were others I held vague memories of as well.

I opened my mouth to warn Clay and had to clear my throat over the lump of terror that lodged there. Taking a deep breath, I worked past the fear and moved close to him. “This room is full of government people who visited Lashin over the years. Some who are also partners in Saturna.