Taurus (Galactic Cage Fighters (Book Three)) (12 page)

It wasn’t until she was several hallways away before she realized that she didn’t know where she was going.
Damn it!
She was horrible with directions. She thought she heard a male’s voice a couple of rooms down. She headed that way. She paused outside of the room the voice grew louder.

“I told you, they should not have come so soon. It will raise red flags with the IDJ. I don’t care about that. If the IDJ finds out about the set-up, we will never see the light of day again. They will have to make due with the kids we have sent them. The new circuit will start soon, let’s get the ones he has trained. Look, I have to go. We have the GCFA people here and they are looking the place over with a fine-tooth comb. Yes, sir, I’ll see you soon.”

Maya quickly backtracked to another room. She entered it and closed the door partially, leaving a crack. She held her breath as she waited for the male that was on the telephone to walk by. From her position behind the door and the small crack she opened, she could only see a pair of dark shiny shoes and a man’s hand with a silver ring. The ring had an odd design on it. She missed the rest of him and tried to open the door more to peer out for a better look. Unfortunately, by the time she peered out, the male had already rounded the corner and disappeared down the hallway.

Her heart rate was going so fast, it felt like it was going to burst through her chest. She didn’t know what to do. Everything in her screamed the male was up to no good and the children here at the orphanage were in danger.  Maybe the authorities would need to be notified. But she had no evidence. They probably wouldn’t believe her. It might bring unnecessary publicity to the GCFA. She had to find the others and discuss it with them first.

She slowly entered the hallway and started down it. She turned in the opposite direction the male had gone hoping to avoid him. It was a few minutes and a few more turns later when she felt the nagging feeling that she was being followed. Her fear skyrocketed. She began to walk faster. She heard it then, the steps behind her growing closer. She didn’t have time to look behind her. Her only thought was to get away. She started running full out.

The footsteps behind her started running, too. Oh man, she wished she had been more of an athletic person. If by some miracle she made it out of this situation, she swore she would start hitting the training facility full force.

She was so desperate to get away, she took the next turn without slowing down. She lost her footing and skidded right into the wall, then bouncing off it, landing on her knees. She was breathing hard and trying to get the dizziness to fade.

“What the hell?” Zara’s strong voice rang out somewhere nearby.

She felt herself being lifted up into large muscular arms. She panicked until she recognized Hammer’s voice.

“Easy, little one. I only mean to help you.”

She was shaking. The shock and fear was finally catching up to her. She nodded her head and then did the most embarrassing thing she could imagine. She passed out.

*****

“Enough!” the trainer yelled from outside of the cage.

Talon let go of Taurus and helped him up off the mat. “What is going on with you? This is not your best, Taurus.”

Taurus shrugged. He was preoccupied. Zen wouldn’t let him see Maya and then the personal appearance crew set out hours ago. He had not been able to say anything to her before she left. It pissed him off that Zen was going with her.  His words played over and over in his head.

“You need to figure out what you want from her before you approach her again. She deserves better.”

Damn, if the male wasn’t right. Maya did deserve to have a male who had his act together. Being forced to be away from her today was showing him that he was developing feelings for her quickly. It was actually almost painful not to be near her. He growled when Esan made a rude comment at breakfast about how there were too many humans on the circuit. Taurus either took his aggression out on Talon in the cage or he was so distracted that he got pummeled.

“Go to the healers. That cut is pretty deep,” Talon told him as he opened the door to the cage.

“Sorry, Talon. My head is just not in it today.”

“I understand. Can I give you some advice from a male that almost lost everything?”

“Sure.” He wasn’t going to ignore Talon.

“When you find someone that gets under your skin, don’t let anything get between you. No matter how scared you might be over allowing someone to get close to you, nothing is scarier than almost losing them forever.”

Taurus nodded but didn’t say anything. After that, all he wanted to do was to search out Maya. She was becoming very important to him. But first, he needed to get to the healers so they could patch him up. It wouldn’t do any good to scare the female if she saw him the way he was right then. Bruised and bloody, he made his way to the healing facility.

*****

Maya woke up in the same big warm arms that she had ungraciously passed out in. “Oh, man, did I pass out?”

“Yes, you did. Like one of those old-fashioned human southern ladies who needed the vapors. I was highly impressed,” Hammer told her with a twinkle in his kind eyes.

Maya blushed. “Sorry, I don’t know what happened.” It was true. Things were a little fuzzy right then. She had been at the orphanage. Then something bad happened. She was being chased. She had hit a wall, then she had passed out.

“You can put me down now,” Maya told him.

“Not yet, little one. You hit that wall pretty hard. I want you checked out first.”

She did feel pretty beat up. But she just wanted to go back to her suite and sort stuff out. “I don’t really need the healers. It’s just a few bruises. I get them all the time.”

“You heard the lady. Put her the fuck down!” Taurus said angrily, storming in their direction.

Oh shit!
Taurus was pissed.

Chapter Fourteen

Maya wiggled in Hammer’s arms. Things were coming back to her. But she was a little confused over her surroundings and slightly scared over Taurus looking as if he wanted to kill someone.
What had she done this time?

“Please put me down now, Hammer,” she told the huge guy.

“No, little one. Not until you have been checked over by the healers.” See her looking fearful at Taurus, he reassured her, “Don’t worry, I’ll handle Taurus. All you should worry about is feeling better.”

“Thanks.”

“Zara, keep Taurus out here while I take Maya in with the healers.”

Zara gave an almost evil gleam. “Can I use any force necessary?”

Maya gasped but Hammer chuckled. “No, not unless he makes the first move.”

Zara blocked off the entry to the healing facility.

“Move out of the way, Zara,” Taurus growled.

She shook her head. “Not until you get yourself under control.”

“I am under control!” Taurus yelled.

There was a pointed silence as Zara stared the larger male down. “She is mostly human and does not understand that this aggression you are displaying is not directed toward her. Give her some space and calm down.”

“Since when are you so concerned with humans?”

“Contrary to what everyone thinks, I don’t hate all humans. But I do hate most.  Maya is—alright.”

Seeing that Zara wasn’t going to budge. He took a couple of steps back and worked on breathing in and out, calming himself. He felt bad because he did sense Maya’s fear of him. That’s not what he wanted her to feel. He wanted to punch something when Zen strolled past Zara and into the healing facility.

A few minutes later Hammer came out. “You can come in now. The healers are finishing up. Maya asked me to call Rachel to come down immediately as soon as she and Rage arrive on the second shuttle.”

Rachel.
She was head of security. What did Maya need Rachel for? Taurus grunted as he walked past Zara who stood aside for him. The moment he looked at the huge bruise on Maya’s forehead, he was boiling mad.

“What the hell happened?” he demanded, not softening his tone at all.

Maya gulped. She had hoped to avoid speaking with Taurus, but now there was no way to avoid it. She looked away from him. It didn’t help matters that Zen had taken a seat right next to her and was holding her hand. This had to look bad, but she didn’t care. Taurus was the one that said they were nothing.

“I’d rather wait until Rachel comes.” She pulled her hand out of Zen’s because it was just too strange.

“She’s coming. She had stayed behind with Rage to investigate the orphanage for what caused the accident,” Hammer told her.

“What accident?” Taurus growled when Zen reached for Maya’s hand again.

Zen just gave Taurus a wink and leaned back in his chair, making himself comfortable.

Rachel and Rage walked into the healing facility. Maya looked relieved. “I need to speak with Rachel alone please.”

“NO!” everyone in the room answered back.

Rachel walked over to Zen and yanked him by his ear making him move out of the chair. She sat down and scooted closer to Maya’s bed. “I can have them all removed if you need privacy, but they seem to be concerned for you genuinely. I know them and I trust them.”

Maya nodded reluctantly.

“What happened?” Rachel asked her.

“I got lost trying to find the GCFA group.”

“Shocker,” Zara remarked snidely.

Rachel glared at the other female. “Shut it or I’ll have you sedated.” She turned back to Maya. “You got lost from the group. What else?”

“I heard a male’s voice down the hallway. I walked closer to the room he was in but stopped because I didn’t like what he was saying. Maybe it was the way he was saying it. Something bad was in his tone of voice. He was saying something about how
they should not have come so soon; raising red flag with the IDJ; some kind of set-up; making due with kids he had sent someone
. It sounded very suspicious.”

“Did this male see you?” Taurus asked, moving to the other side of Maya’s bed.

“I didn’t think so. I stayed hidden in another room with the door partially closed until he left. I thought it was safe enough to come out. As I tried to make my way to the main lobby of the orphanage, I heard footsteps behind me. Someone was following me. That’s when I started to run. I lost my footing, slid and hit the wall.”

“You hit a wall?” Taurus was livid. His female was in danger and he was sulking in the training facility.

“Stop yelling at her.” Hammer nudged Taurus in the ribs.

“It was quite a spectacle. I have to say, you definitely have a flare for the dramatics,” Zen told her with a sexy smile and a wink.

Taurus growled again at the other male. How dare he flirt with his female right in front of him.

Rachel continued to question Maya, “Did you hear any names spoken?”

“Not really.”

“What about hair color, eyes, skin tone, species?”

“No, I couldn’t see any of that. I’m sorry. I was scared that I’d be caught. The male sounded dangerous. The only thing I could make out of the crack in the door I was behind was a pair of dark shoes and a silver ring on the male’s right hand.”

“The ring might be something to go on. I’ll contact the IDJ and have them send out some agents to investigate. For now, it’s safer for you to remain on board the GCFA ship. Hopefully, this guy did not see any more of you than you did of him.” Rachel stood and moved toward the door. Maya stopped her.

“Wait, there was something else that bothered me. It may have nothing to do with the guy on the phone, but it struck me as odd, too.”

“What was that?” Rachel stopped to ask.

“There was a little girl that Zara had given a doll to. I spoke with her alone because she seemed reserved and upset.”

“You were giving out dolls?” Zen asked Zara in disbelief.

“Shut up, asshole,” Zara responded.

“Go on, Maya.” Rachel glared at both Zen and Zara.

“Her name was Lucy.  She told me that her brother, Luke, had been adopted about a year ago by a family named the Sampsons. They didn’t adopt Lucy because they already had girls and wanted a boy. But Luke didn’t want to be adopted and fought with them. They took him anyway. Lucy said that some of the other kids that had been there a while said the Sampsons come almost every two years and adopt. None of the kids are given the choice. They have to go with them. This just seemed really odd to me.”

“It does, but it may not have to do with the phone call conversation you overhead. But I will relay that to the IDJ agents,” Rachel told her.

“Thanks, Rachel.”

“No problem. Feel better.” Rachel and Rage left.

Everyone else was standing around looking at Maya sitting in the bed. It was awkward to say the least. “I’m just waiting for the healers to give me the release before I go back to my suite. You all can go on your way. I’m sure you are busy.”

Hammer looked at his phone and then back up. “If you’re sure, I have to check on the kids.”

“Go, and thank you for carrying me here.”

Hammer gave her a cute smile before heading out.

Zara took pity on her and grabbed Zen’s arm dragging him out of the room. “Come on, Zen, I’m sure we can find you some females to play with. This one’s busy.”

It was just her and Taurus. She shifted on the bed trying to get comfortable. The implants to heal her injuries would be kicking in soon and then the healers would let her leave.

“I’m sorry.”

Maya looked up quickly at Taurus. Did she hear him right? He was apologizing?

“Yeah, I am,” he answered her unspoken words.

She didn’t know what to say. So she remained quiet to let him finish.

“I was brash.”

“Go on.”

“A complete idiot.”

“No doubt.”

“An asshole.”

“Absolutely.”

He walked over to the chair and slid it closer to her bed. “I didn’t mean what I said to Gypsy.”

Maya looked down at her hands. Her heart beat faster with him so close to her. “Then why did you say it?”

“I was scared.”

She looked back up into his warm brown eyes. “Scared of what? Me?”