Stealing Mercury (Arena Dogs Book 1) (22 page)

“No.” She ducked under his arm and pressed her chest to his back, wrapping one arm around his shoulder. When she hitched a leg to his hip his hands were there in an instant. Large warm hands under her thighs. She twined the fingers of her free hand with his--their two vines of flowers trailing in the water. She pressed a kiss to his shoulder. “Paint with me.”

Arena Dogs Campsite, Planet G-45987

Earth Alliance Beta Sector - Gollerra Border

2210.167

Samantha sat cross-legged and barefoot in a patch of grass on the slope down from the cargo-drop campsite. The breeze rustled in the trees and some sort of insect provided a concert of clicking noises. They’d arrived back at their original campsite early the day before. Lo had continued on, to check on Drake and Resler. Mercury and a still limping Carn had disappeared into the woods at sun-up. It seemed impossible Carn had been able to hike on that knee so quickly—genetic engineering at work.

They’d been gone for hours, but she wasn’t worried. Once the urgent need to stop the low frequency pulse had been met, they’d become more interested in exploring this new world and she knew they wouldn’t be so far that they couldn’t get back if she ran into trouble.

She studied the collection of objects she’d pulled together—a scrap of thermal material, a small emergency toolkit with a cutter and a sealer, and packaging from supplies they’d already used. She’d never had a need to make shoes before, but she wanted something besides her deck boots to wear around camp.

Samantha tugged the tool-case open and peered inside. She had the cutter in her hand when she realized she was no longer alone. Lo stood like a living statue under the nearest tree. Only his chest moved. He had one hand pressed on the trunk of the tree, the other against his belly. The muscles of his arms and chest were sharply defined in the dappled sunlight.

He stood there, watching her, even after he knew she’d seen him. His teeth hid behind his lips, but the tip of his tongue peeked out.

Sometimes he took her breath away.

What did that say about her? Her feelings for Mercury had grown so strong she could barely contain them. She shouldn’t even be noticing Lo. She’d grown fond of them all. How could she not? But that didn’t mean she should get hot and bothered by two of them. She wasn’t her father. Stars, she couldn’t be that faithless and weak.

Something broke the spell and Lo strode toward her in long fluid movements. He crouched in front of her, but kept nearly a meter between them. “All is well, little Sam. I’m no threat to you.”

She reached out and waited for him to put his hand in hers. “I know, Lo. I know.”

His touch burned hot against her palm. His claws were barely visible. His presence dominated her field of vision. So close, it was impossible not to notice his raw sexuality, but she refused to acknowledge her reaction.

It had been a mistake to touch him.

She slipped her hand free and wiped her sweaty palm against her thigh.

Lo followed the movement and she considered trying to explain, but he tipped his head back and howled.

“Calling the guys,” she guessed.

He nodded then tilted his head to the side and twitched his ears. “They’ll be back soon.”

“Great,” she said with more enthusiasm than she intended. “I wasn’t making much progress on my shoe project anyway.”

He looked down at her collection of materials and frowned. “Is
that
what you were doing?”

Samantha sighed. “I hadn’t really started yet.”

He pushed to his feet, but didn’t offer her a hand to stand and she didn’t ask for one.

They walked in silence back to the cluster of boulders. Samantha tucked away her supplies and took a seat on one of the containers. Within a few minutes, first Mercury then Carn jogged back into camp.

The men greeted each other with small touches—a clasp of an arm, a pat on a back, a brush of shoulders—as if they needed the physical contact to reassure each other that they were all together again. When Lo and Carn found spots to sit, Mercury settled on the ground near her. He pressed his arm against her leg, instantly making her feel one of them.

She hadn’t realized until he did it that she’d been envying them as she watched the small ritual. She put her hand on Mercury’s shoulder and something tightened in her belly then eased in her chest.

“They remain in their camp,” said Lo. “But I saw the whip-master speak into a panel on the escape-pod.”

Mercury peered up at her. “Could he be trying to call for help?”

“No.” Samantha shook her head. “He couldn’t use the pod to contact anyone. It doesn’t have that kind of range.” She tried to think, but she was certain the Roma men didn’t have the skills to rig up a relay with the
Dove
.

“What’s the range?” asked Carn.

“Pretty good in deep space. Not so good with the interference of a solar system close by. From planet surface, it wouldn’t reach beyond a high orbit.”

Lo bent forward to rest his forearms on his thighs. “He didn’t look as if he was repeating a message. Seemed more like a conversation.”

Carn made a sound, something like a whimper, and his eyes widened. “Could it be the rendezvous ship?”

“Or,” said Mercury. “Someone responding to your distress call.”

Samantha refused to calculate the odds someone helpful would respond. “If anyone is out there they would’ve found the
Dove
. They might have moved into orbit to look for survivors.”

Mercury frowned. “In which case they could be more help to the whip-master than to us.”

“I was hoping,” she said. “That the call might draw help from the Gollerra system.”

Mercury blinked slowly. She could see the possibilities turning in his brain. “Could someone from that system have reached us?”

“Yes. There are transports that could make it in about three days, if there was someone willing and ready to respond right away.” Willing to cross the border, too. She’d sent her distress call on the main shipping frequency and included her indie call-sign hoping someone friendly might hear it. The problem was, she didn’t know how many friends she had left among the indies. “But it’s also been long enough that someone could have made it from Roma. I’d have thought two more days-but if they had a fast enough ship…”

“Then we have to be prepared that it might be them,” concluded Mercury. “If it is someone friendly, can you make contact from the cargo pod?”

She thought about it. “Yeah. Damn it. I should have thought of this before. I’ll have to rig something. The thing is only equipped with a beacon, but I can make it work.”

Mercury’s nose flared and she knew he was trying to read her scent. Good luck to him. She wasn’t even sure what she was feeling herself. Letting herself care for him was crazy when she’d been confused by her reaction to Lo less than an hour before. Thinking about the future, their future, seemed like a really bad idea.

She was startled by the fingers that tugged on the fist she’d tightened around the cloth of her shirt, right over her heart. She hadn’t been aware of doing it, but he’d seen it and the determination on his face as he pulled her to her feet, promised he wouldn’t be pushed away.

He sent Carn to patrol the perimeter around them and told Lo to get some sleep, then he led her to the cargo-drop. He observed, intent, as she worked on the transmitter. It wasn’t easy without the proper tools, but she wired up a simple receiver and got to work altering the beacon transmitter to meet their needs.

“Do all pilots have such skill with modifying systems?” His voice broke into her thoughts.

“Hardly.” She laughed at the thought, more than a little pleased to see him looking as interested and intent on her work as when she started. “Most pilots are too arrogant to get their hands dirty.” And most men were too easily bored to sit around watching her work.

He moved closer, propping against the side of the drop. “Then how did you learn to do this?”

He was close enough to touch, making it harder to keep the emotional distance she’d been aiming for between them. “My father had a small freight hauling business. Strictly indie, that means independent—not part of a large company, but he had a good reputation.” At least with clients. “He taught me to pilot, but before that his crew taught me to work on the ship.”

“Why would you seek out this skill when your father could teach you the other?”

She tried to keep her face blank. “It was never a sure thing that he’d let me on his ship, let alone teach me to fly. Mom and I lived in a refugee camp, Haverlee. My folks never actually married.”

“I don’t know this word.”

She looked up at that. “Married? It’s a commitment when two people decide to share their lives, be with only each other.”

His lips thinned and his tongue slipped out to briefly flick across them. “It’s like mates then.”

The Arena Dogs probably didn’t have any legal options, she realized. They’d been slaves with no hope of anything better. They’d made the best of their situation.

 “Your father and mother had a child together, but weren’t mates,” he said. “Were they forced to breed?”

Samantha’s stomach twisted. He looked so grim. “Have you ever been forced to father a child?”

“Forced breeding is something they started only recently and no children have been conceived.” His face blanked as he spoke, all sign of emotion gone. “Hera was sent to us, but Carn wanted her.” He shook his head as if he thought he could shake away the thought.

A knot formed in her stomach, as she considered what might have happened if Carn hadn’t wanted Hera. “I’m glad you weren’t forced.”

“What of your parents?” His tone rang with a demand to move the conversation forward.

She turned her attention back to her work, connecting the power circuit to the voltage regulator. “My parents weren’t forced either. They wanted to share sex. I think having me was a mistake. Dad had women in every port he worked. He wasn’t awful about it though. He brought my mother funds when he came around. And he did come around.”

“And...” The softly spoken word encouraged her to continue. To dive back into the old memories as she completed her work.

“I knew he was my only way out of the camp so when he came to visit Mom I hung out with his crew. I was just a kid, but I was his kid, so they treated me well. Taught me things.” Probably, her old man had told them to keep her busy so she wouldn’t be in the way of him getting busy with her mother, but mentioning that might be over-sharing. “So I learned to work on ships around the port and he eventually falsified citizenship papers for me and paid for the tests so I could get certified. I signed onto his ship and he taught me to be a pilot, too.”

“You no longer work with your father.”

She had to swallow a lump of regrets before she could answer. “He died last year.”

Mercury stroked her cheek with the back of his fingers. “I may not have had a true blood family, but we made our own.” She’d understood that much and been awed by the strength of heart that had allowed them to survive in such brutality without losing their humanity. “We made packs to protect one another, to stand and fight together. Just as Carn and Lo are my pack brothers, there were others who are gone now. We mourned their loss and still feel it with each breath.” Maybe it was the loss he wore like a gravity-suit that had made it so impossible for her to ignore him. It was something they shared. He slipped his fingers under her chin and lifted her face to look into her eyes. “I’m sorry you lost this man who was your father. You honor his memory by using these skills he taught you.”

Something moist dripped onto her lip. She licked it away, tasting the saltiness of tears. She hadn’t known she was crying. She’d never cried for her father before.

She scrubbed the moisture from her eyes. “I hated him. I loved him, but I hated him too. My mother loved him, always. Every time he came around she’d light up and then he’d leave again. She never cried in front of me, but her light was gone when he left.” She scrubbed at her eyes again to make sure all traces of her tears were wiped away. “I swore I’d never cry for him.”

Mercury pulled her into his arms. His deep voiced rumbled softly in her ear. “You wanted to hate him, but you couldn’t hate someone who gave your mother joy, gave you life, gave you skills to make a life for yourself.”

She pulled away choking on a laugh. “Sure. Side with him. Just like a man.” Her laughter faded quickly, leaving a raw ache in its wake. “I thought I’d become important to him, but when he died he left me nothing. Not even a part interest in his freighter. He left that to his crew chief.”

“I have nothing to give you,” he said. His eyes narrowed as his stormy gaze met hers. “Nothing but myself. But I’ll never stand against you or leave you behind. I’ll fight to keep you with me always.”

His words were too perfect, everything she could hope for… and impossible to believe. “When would that be? After you rescue Carn’s mate? Or after you free all the slaves?” Stars, she sounded like a selfish shrew.

Mercury didn’t bristle as she expected—as some terrified corner of her soul hoped he would. A fight would be easier to handle than more of this weak, clingy creature that had taken over her body. But the solemn expression on his face never wavered, never gave way to anger.

“You’re right,” he said. “I’m not free to devote myself solely to your happiness, but seldom in our world are things as we would wish.”

His easy agreement doused the fuel for her ire.

She couldn’t even imagine the life he’d endured. The cruelty and hate. He came from a world that seemed terrible and incomprehensibly horrifying.

He didn’t scoff at her grief. A grief that should have seemed trivial through his eyes. Eyes that had gone silver for her. As if he stood ready to fight her battles. How could she do any less for him?

She couldn’t find the words to tell him how she felt. Even if his intentions were the best, letting herself love him would give him the power to crush her.

The crackle of the cargo-drop’s newly adapted receiver saved her from failing, utterly, to protect her heart.