The Huntress (20 page)

“I want to leave.”

She dropped her hand, staring down at him with stormy eyes. “Yes, I know, it’s what you’re good at,” she snapped. “But you can’t just now, so ask me about her.”

They glared at each other for a long moment. Stone really did want to know, though. He’d been baffled by their behavior at the wake. Regan had glowed with happiness, and Mea had watched her so protectively.

“Fine. What’s with the kid? Why isn’t she gone yet?”

“She’s not gone because she’s home. I adopted her. She’s my daughter.” A slow smile lit her face like a sunrise.

“What?
What the fuck is wrong with you, woman? Why don’t I just take her back to the slam with me, for Christ’s sake! She’d be—”

Mea slapped a hand over his mouth with an angry hiss, watching the kid. He heard Regan groan and shift around before settling back down. Only when she was quiet did Mea remove her hand and glare down at him, speaking in a low, furious voice, “I don’t give a shit if you want to yell at me all night, but you wake her up and I’ll re-break all those bones Ema just fixed! In case you’ve forgotten, that child has had to deal with not one, but two homicidal lunatics trying to kill her and losing her only family in the process. Not to mention having to deal with your sorry ass leaving her every other
goddamned day. She’s been worrying herself sick over you, so you keep your voice down and let her sleep, or by god you’ll wish Job had finished the job!”

Maybe it was a good thing he couldn’t move. The green fire in her eyes was doing crazy things to his insides, and he had to look away to speak. God only knew what he’d do if he had his hands free to touch her. “She doesn’t belong with you, Hunter. You’re gonna get her killed.”

“I disagree and so does Child Security.” She leaned back, folding her arms and studying him with a disturbing glitter in her eyes. “I understand how you feel, though. You’ve been waiting around to protect her until she’s gone, but now she’s not going. What’s a guy to do?”

His muscles tightened and he glared up at her through Ema’s golden glow. “Is that why you did it? To keep me here?”

She bit off an exclamation and rubbed her temples, audibly gritting her teeth. “You are the most god-awful, paranoid, stubborn man I’ve ever met!” She dropped her hands to her hips and stared down at him. “No, I didn’t adopt Regan to keep you here. I love her. Her family couldn’t take her, and she wanted to be with me. If you have a problem with that, too bad because it’s a done deal.”

Instinctively, he knew she was telling the truth. He could see it in her eyes. Clenching his jaw, he looked away, focusing on one of Ema’s mechanical extensions above him. “Why’d you bring me here?”

“If I had taken you to a regular hospital, there would have been questions, inquiries, an investigation…”

Her voice trailed off, but he didn’t need her to finish. He nodded, and they both fell silent while Stone mulled over his current situation. Leaving was his only option. He’d wanted to stick around until Regan was safe, but it was way past time for him to give the kid up. He wanted no part of what Mea had in mind for him, but his avenue of escape was getting narrower and narrower.

Survival was not a choice—it was a state of being for him. Never giving up the fight for freedom was how he’d survived fifteen years in the hole. He’d known others who’d folded and got sucked into the institution so far that freedom was no longer a dream for them—it was a nightmare. He’d refused to be one of them and had come out the other side, into a cage of a different kind.

He was afraid he was starting to like this cage.

“You know, it occurs to me,” Mea murmured in a smoky tone that sent a stab of alarm through him, “that you owe me another life. And I don’t think a promise is going to be enough this time.” Heavy lidded and sultry, her eyes traveled down the length of him.

Instantly he was on fire, all the muscles in his body going rigid.

“A kiss isn’t too much of a price to pay, is it?”

Her eyes met his again, and his blood boiled through his veins like fierce-flowing lava at the smile that curved her lips. “Mea,” he muttered through clenched teeth and wasn’t sure if he was warning her or pleading with her.

She leaned over him, bracing herself with one hand next to his head and ran a finger feather-light down the side of his face. Her silky hair drifted down to surround him in a dark, sweet-smelling curtain. She filled his vision and his senses, and he thought if he couldn’t touch her, he’d go crazy.

“I know you,” she sighed as she touched sparks on his skin. “You’ll curse me for taking advantage of you later, so I’ll give you an out. All you have to do is tell me no. Stop. Don’t.”

With each word she eased closer until the last was whispered against his lips. Just that easily she shredded his self-control. With a groan like a man lost, he lifted his head and took her mouth with his, thoughts of escape disappearing like smoke in the wind. He was filled with her taste and smell—she was heaven, and the purring sound she made in the back of her throat drove him mindless with the need to be inside her.

He kissed her with a savagery that she returned in spades, nails digging like goads in the back of his neck. His heart thudded so heavily in his chest that his whole body vibrated with it, and he knew that if he couldn’t touch her he was going to explode.

“Stop! You have to stop. His heart rate and blood pressure are at dangerous levels. Get off him, Mea!”

He barely understood the AI, knowing only that Mea was pulling away from him. He groaned miserably.

“God, I’m sorry!” she gasped and shoved away from the table.

“Mea,” he growled, knowing this time he
was
pleading. Begging.
Don’t go. Stay. Give me what I need.
His eyes tried to track her, but she was gone, the infirmary door closing behind her. He struggled to follow, muscles bunching against the force that held him down.

Torture would have been fun next to this.

“Let me up,” he snarled, but Ema didn’t respond. He didn’t feel the prick of the needle, but the anesthetic that she gave him was almost instantaneous, yanking him ruthlessly down into darkness.

Chapter 17

The next time Stone woke, he was alone. Ema’s golden glow was still dim, but low lights had been turned on in the rest of the room. He flinched away from them, shading his eyes with one hand before he realized that he could move it. The thought that he’d been released goaded him into moving quickly, only to stop as shooting pain stabbed through his chest and abdomen.

“Take it easy,” Ema said in an expressionless voice. “Your clothes and goggles are at the end of the table.”

Moving with more caution, he sat up and paused to take stock in his condition. He felt weak, a dull throbbing in his chest and stomach. His left arm ached deeply around the elbow, and his hands were stiff. With slow movements, he slid off the table and began to dress, his memory of the previous night gradually crystallizing. When he remembered Mea’s kiss, he had to lean against the table for a moment, snarling at the empty room.

He was just as angry at his own weakness as he was the hunter. He could have said
no, stop, don’t.
He finished dressing roughly to hide the tremor in his hands. Just as he was putting on his goggles, the door slid open and Regan swung in, followed by Mea and Conley.

“Stone!” the kid yelled and charged across the room to collide with him painfully, thin arms squeezing his aching middle.

He grimaced but didn’t move away.

“Regan! Don’t break him. We just got him fixed.”

“Oh, sorry! Sorry. You okay?” she asked, patting the air over his chest as if that would make it better.

He spoke around the bands of pain wrapping his chest and abdomen. “I’ll live.”

“Ema can give you another pain killer.”

Mea’s voice made the muscles tighten at the back of his neck. “I’m fine,” he snarled with open hostility.

Regan took a large step back, eyebrows raised. “He’s a little cranky, Mom.”

“I see that, babe.”

The two females eyed him with identical expressions of cool speculation, and Stone ground his teeth, ready to strangle someone. Conley volunteered.

“About last night, Stone—”

Stone took a slow step toward the older man, letting his muscles loosen in readiness. In his condition, he knew the older hunter would put him on the floor, but at this point he didn’t care.

Conley read his body language and took a step back, holding up one hand. “Look, when you’re better I’ll let you hit me a few times, but right now you’re not up to it. I just came here to apologize for my hunters.”

Stone took another step forward.

Conley took another back. “They’re all on suspension, and I’ve got ‘em going through a brutal reconditioning program right now.”

Another step.

“Damn it, man, I need to talk to you about—”

Stone kept coming.

“Stubborn son-of-a-bitch. Okay, he’s all yours, Mea.”

Conley left to Stone’s keen disappointment. He turned his head. Mea had activated another table and she and the kid were both sitting on it, watching him like he was some kind of show. Both looked tolerantly amused. It didn’t help his mood any.

“Feel better?” Mea asked cheerfully.

Regan snickered. “Poor Grandpa.”

Stone felt like an animal with his foot caught in a trap. With a silent snarl, he began pacing back and forth on stiff legs.

“Apparently not. Regan, honey, will you go get him something to eat?”

“Mom, why don’t you just ask me to leave so you guys can talk?”

“Regan, honey, would you leave so we can talk?”

“’Kay.”

They grinned at one another, and Stone felt his skin tighten at the obvious affection between them.

Regan slid off the table and started for the door but paused just inside it. “You’re not going to run off while I’m gone getting food again, are you?”

He continued pacing without answering and she left.

“All right, you can start shouting now.”

Stone stopped pacing at Ema’s table and placed his hands flat on the surface, leaning on them and staring down at the table blindly. Here he was, in a room alone with her again. Shouting would be a bad idea. Letting his control slip even a fraction would lead to trouble. What the hell was he still doing here? He needed to leave.
Now.
Pushing away from the table, he swung around—only to find that Mea had placed herself in front of the door.

She shook her head at him. “Not just yet, Bay. You’ll hear me out before you leave even if I have to restrain you again.”

He stared at her, clenching his hands into fists. The violence would do him good, but getting anywhere near her was another very bad idea. With an effort he contained his ferocity, folding his arms across his chest and leaning with feigned nonchalance against the table.

Mea copied his stance, leaning against the wall next to the door. “What Uncle Mike was trying to tell you is that you aren’t safe on this planet. Although Job is confined right now, he has connections just like the rest of us, and he was overheard saying he’d make sure you got the message, whatever the hell that’s supposed to mean. So you’ve got a couple of ways off this planet. There are the public shuttles—the next one leaves in about five hours, which would be four and a half too late for you to avoid what Job has planned. The private transports usually need at least a couple of days’ notice. You could try the more illegal routes, but those are the people who’d take a payment to do you.”

She paused, crossing her ankles and dropping her eyes to study the toe of her shoe intently. Stone shifted uneasily against the table. She was working up to something—something he wasn’t going to like.

“And then there’s my ship. Uncle Mike has me leaving on a mission in about an hour. The first leg is a four-day run to Xerxes—just a stopover for info gathering, but it’s got possibilities for you. The place gets heavy traffic, and you could make some very good connections, get yourself a job, that sort of thing. And it’ll give Ema time to finish
healing you. Mike recommended just taking off and not giving you the option to leave, but I promised not to force you again. So it’s your choice.”

Still not looking at him, she shifted so that she was leaning on one shoulder, giving him her profile. She wasn’t finished, and Stone’s uneasiness increased, pushing his heart rate up a notch. Some animals knew a trap when they smelled it, and he was that kind of animal.

“Knowing you, you’ll risk leaving anyway, even in your condition. If that’s your choice, I won’t stop you, but I have an offer. You see, I’ve come to the conclusion that a little of you is better than none at all. I’ve discovered a lowering lack of pride and self-esteem where you’re concerned.”

She slanted a look at him, and his heart stumbled before hitching into a gallop at the dark heat in those emerald depths. In a low and husky voice, she growled, “If you fly with us, you can have me. Whenever, however, wherever you want. No pushing, no demands, no strings attached. Then you can just walk away. Four days of pure sexual gratification. Think about it.”

Raking one fiery look down his length, she slipped out the door.

When he started after her, he found out that his legs no longer worked. Activating a seat, he fell onto it heavily and turned to rest his elbows on the table, head in his hands. The trap door had closed with a loud clang, and the vibrations of it were still shaking him.

He tried to tell himself that it was still possible to get up and leave, but she’d baited this trap too well. Even if she still had an agenda, just the possibility of having her without restraint pushed him way past any self-control. The memory of last night sent a shaft of heat through him, and with a sharp, indrawn breath, he planted his hands on the table, pushing to his feet.

“Don’t even think about it!” Ema barked. “You try to go after her, and I’ll gas this room. You are not physically capable of doing that kind of strenuous exercise without injury. Mild activity only and that does not include sex, especially with you two. We need to have another healing session before you’re ready for that, which we can do in about four hours. So cool your jets.”