Not the Man She Thought (6 page)

Actually, she hadn’t slept late at all. She just purposely
hadn’t gone down to the mess because she knew the crew would be there. Besides
not wanting to face Karsten after the spanking he had given her, she hadn’t
been too eager to have breakfast with them after the scene he’d made the night before
at dinner.

Laken turned back to the railing, watching as the crew
loaded crates onto a personal transport vehicle. Her gaze went to the huge
cargo-bay door and her brow furrowed. She couldn’t see much of the planet, but
what she could see surprised her. She had expected a city, but all she saw were
rolling hills and farmland.

“I thought it would be more modern,” she said to Dev.

“Seguu?” Dev shook her head. “Seguu’s one of those armpits
of the galaxy. You know, the kind of planet you hear about and never want to
visit.”

Laken’s frown deepened. “Seguu?” She’d never even heard of
the place. “I thought you were going to Marlon Prime?”

“We are. “We just have some stops to make in between.”

Laken said nothing. When she’d overheard Finn and Kamran
talking back on Tellune, it hadn’t occurred to her the cargo ship wouldn’t be
going directly to Marlon Prime. Now instead of being able to get away from
Karsten, she’d be stuck on this damn ship with him for who knew how long.

Squaring her shoulders, she marched over to where he stood
talking with Kellen. Laken ignored the older man, directing her glare at
Karsten.

“You lied to me.”

His eyes narrowed. “Excuse me?”

 
“When I came on
board, you led me to believe that this heap of metal you call a ship was going
straight to Marlon Prime. Now I find out you plan on docking at every Podunk
planet in between.”

Rade Karsten clenched his jaw. “Maybe you should have
thought to check our itinerary before you decided to sneak on board. Then you
would have noticed this is actually a cargo ship, not your personal passenger
liner.”

“If I hadn’t been so desperate, I would have. And trust me,
this is not the ship I would have chosen.” She took a deep breath and forced
herself to count to ten. “How long is it before we get to Marlon Prime?”

“Six or seven days.”

“Six or seven days? I’m going to be trapped on here with you
people for seven more days?”

He smirked. “What’s wrong? Don’t find our company
scintillating?”

She lifted a brow. “Hardly. Scintillating is kind of a big
word for you, though, isn’t it? What did you do, look it up in the ship’s
dictionary this morning just so you could impress me?”

Karsten’s face darkened, while beside him, his first officer
had to fight to keep a straight face.

She shook her head. “Don’t answer that. Your ability to use
big words isn’t my most pressing concern at the moment. My clothing is. I
didn’t exactly pack for a week-long cruise. I’m going to need to do some
shopping while we’re here. What time are you leaving, so I can make sure to be
back by then.”

Karsten glanced at his first officer and the two exchanged a
look before the older man excused himself. After he left, Karsten turned his
attention back to her. “You’re not getting off the ship.”

“Yes, I am.”

He folded his arms across his broad chest. “No, you’re not.
Seguu is no place for a woman like you.”

“A woman like me? And just what do you mean by that?”

Rade Karsten scowled. “I’m not going to explain myself to
you. Just do as you’re told and stay on the ship. You can get anything you need
from Dev.”

Turning on his heel, he walked away, leaving Laken to stare
after him. Anger surged through her as she watched him make his way down the
steps and into the cargo hold. Just who the hell did he think he was, giving
her orders and telling her she wasn’t allowed off the ship? She wasn’t one of
his crew, and she sure as hell wasn’t his prisoner. If she wanted to get off
the ship, then she was damn well going to do it, no matter what he said.

Nice thought, but what if she wasn’t back by the time the
ship left? She frowned, then shook her head. So what if they did? She’d just
find transport on another ship, one that didn’t have a captain who was so
uncouth.

Below her, the engine of the personal transport vehicle
hummed to life, and from her position at the railing, Laken watched the captain
climb into the front seat. Jorn and Vance followed suit, getting into the back,
and a moment later, Keir maneuvered the craft through the door and out of the
bigger ship.

Laken almost started for the stairs right then, but with
Finn still below in the cargo hold, she decided to wait until he left. If he
left. And if he didn’t? Considering how he felt about her presence on the ship,
she doubted he would try to stop her from leaving. Not unless Karsten had given
him a direct order, of course. But whether the captain had given him an order
or not, she would never know, because a few moments later Finn came upstairs
and disappeared into the ship.

Laken didn’t waste any time hurrying down the metal steps
and out the door. At the bottom of the gangway, however, she came to an abrupt
halt. Instead of docking at Seguu’s spaceport, the ship was in some field out
in the middle of nowhere. She shouldn’t be surprised. After the conversation
she’d overheard between Karsten and his first officer last night, she was
beginning to think he and his crew weren’t exactly on the up and up. Which was
all the more reason for her to find other means of transportation to Marlon
Prime. Maybe she should look into that before she went shopping. To do that,
though, she had to find the spaceport. Hoping the dirt road that ran past the
ship led to a town of some sort, Laken picked a direction and headed that way.

After nearly half an hour of walking, she was about to give
up and turn around when she finally came to the outskirts of a town. Breathing
a sigh of relief, she quickened her steps and hurried toward it. She’d hoped to
find more than the set of ramshackle buildings lining the street on either side
of her, but they were better than nothing. There had to be someone in this
place that could direct her to the spaceport.

As she made her way along the street, Laken couldn’t help
but notice the looks the townsfolk were giving her. Men mostly, they were
eyeing her as if they’d never seen a woman before. Thinking it might be better
to ask directions at one of the shops, she did her best to ignore their leers
and continued walking.

Dev hadn’t been exaggerating when she’d call Seguu the
armpit of the galaxy. It was like she had stepped through a time-warp. She had
seen pictures of old mining and farming planets that looked like this, but she
didn’t think they still existed.

She walked by a lot of shops that looked like they were
deserted before finally hearing sounds of activity coming from a tavern. Laken
hesitated for a moment, then pushed open the swinging doors and stepped inside.
As the doors swung closed behind her, the room fell silent. Between the bright
sunshine outside and the hazy cigar smoke filling the air inside, it took a
moment for her eyes to adjust to the darkened room, but when they finally did,
she saw that everyone had stopped what they were doing and turned to look at
her. Talk about feeling self-conscious. While the few women gazed at her
curiously, the men looked like they were undressing her with their eyes, and it
was all she could do not to turn and run back outside. Then what? Go back to
Rade Karsten’s ship with her tail between her legs? Not if she could help it.

Telling herself that no one was going to attack her in a
public place, Laken squared her shoulders and slowly made her way over to the
bar. Unfortunately, the only empty space was between two men, both of whom were
eyeing her like they would rather feast on her than the stew in their bowls.

Afraid to look at either of them, Laken kept her gaze on the
rotund barkeep, hoping the man would come over to her. As she waited, the man
on her right took a step closer to her. Wanting to put some distance between
them, she instinctively tried to step away, but that only brought her closer to
his counterpart on her left.

“So,” the man on her right drawled. “What’ll fifty credits
get me with a pretty thing like you?”

Laken turned to look at the man, her brow furrowing. “I beg
your pardon?”

Lean and not much taller than she was, the man had a scruff
of beard and small, close-set eyes. He grinned, showing her a row of uneven,
yellow teeth. “I just got paid and those fifty credits are burning a hole in my
pocket, so I figure why not take you upstairs and spend them on you.”

Realization dawned on Laken then, and her eyes went wide.
The man thought she was a prostitute.

The man on her left laughed. “Fifty credits ain’t even gonna
get you a smile from a woman like he. Not when I can pay her twice that. So,
what do ya say, sugar?”

Laken jumped as the man ran his beefy hand down her bare
arm. She swallowed hard and took a step back. “I-I’m n-not...”

Shaking her head, Laken turned to run for the door, but one
of the men grabbed her arm, spinning her back around. Her heart lurched at the
determined look on his hideous face. A sickening feeling settled in the pit of
her stomach. Rade Karsten had been right. Seguu was no place for a woman like
her.

* * * * *

Rade stepped out of the PTV the moment Keir brought the
vehicle to a stop inside the cargo hold. Spotting Kellen standing at the bottom
of the steps, he gave the other man a nod. Then, glancing over his shoulder at
Jorn, said, “Get everything locked up and tell Kam to get us moving so we can
get the hell out of this dump.”

“Actually,” Kellen said as he walked over to meet Rade.
“There’s a slight problem. The girl isn’t on board.”

Rade frowned. “What do you mean, she isn’t on board? Are you
sure?”

“Her cabin is empty, and no one has seen her since you and
the others left.”

Rade clenched his jaw. “Damn her. I told that little fool to
stay on the ship.” Turning on his heel, he strode over to the PTV. “Tell Kam to
keep the engines powered up. If I run into trouble, I want us to be able to
take off as soon as I get back on board.”

“Shouldn’t you take someone with you?” Kellen suggested.

Rade glanced at the older man as he climbed into the
transport. His friend’s brow was creased with concern. Though his first officer
had a point, he shook his head. “I can take care of myself. You just make sure
we’re ready to go.”

Leaving the other man standing in the cargo hold, Rade
maneuvered the PTV out of the ship and sped down the dirt road in the direction
of the closest town, hoping that was where the girl had gone. What the hell was
the matter with her? Did she think he’d been joking when he warned her about
getting off the ship? Seguu was a mining colony and the only women who lived on
it were whores, which meant that if Laken Andara had been stupid enough to walk
into some shop or even worse, the saloon, the men would think she was a
prostitute, too. And the fact that she wasn’t wouldn’t really matter much to
them.

Abruptly, a thought struck him. What if he’d been right
about her being a Federation spy? What if she’d gone into town to meet one her
contacts?

He shook his head. That didn’t make sense. There was no way
the Federation could have known he was going to stop on Seguu, and it would
have been impossible for Laken to get a message to them. And even if she had,
why set up a meeting in the mining town when she had free run of the ship with
him and most of his crew gone?

On the other hand, if he was wrong about her being a spy and
she had gone into town to do the shopping she’d mentioned, then she was even
more stupid than he’d thought. He was going to put her over his knee and give
her one hell of a spanking when they got back to the ship. If he could get her
back, that was. Swearing under his breath, he switched gears and drove down the
dirt road even faster.

* * * * *

“Take your hands off me,” Laken demanded, trying to jerk her
arm free of the big man’s grasp. “I don’t know who you think you are, but I
won’t be treated like this. Now, let go of me!”

He laughed and pulled her against him, his other hand
cupping her breast roughly through the thin material of her dress, his
foul-smelling breath hot on her face as he bent his head to kiss her. Laken
turned her head away, cringing as his bushy beard scraped her cheek.

“Get the hell away from her, you asshole!”

Relief coursed through Laken at the sound of Rade Karsten’s voice.
Startled at the interruption, the man loosened his hold on her and she pushed
away from him. She whirled around, to see Karsten striding across the room. She
didn’t think she’d ever been so glad to see someone in her whole life, even if
it was him. Which was probably why she didn’t notice he was glowering at her
until he had closed the distance between them and taken her arm in a firm grip.

  
“I told
you to stay on the ship,” he growled, his dark eyes glinting dangerously.