Trapped: A SciFi Convict Romance (The Condemned Book 1) (7 page)

She didn’t hurry to catch up with Convict, and he didn’t slow
to wait for her, either. By the time she was halfway up the rocky canyon, he’d
disappeared from sight. Alone, she picked her way along the rocks, growing more
and more enraged with every stumble, every scrap.

By the time she crested the top of the cliff, she was
gleefully imagining using the Council rescuers’ stun guns on the bastard while
ordering him to crawl around on all fours.
Ass
in the
air.

Then she crested the cliff—and sucked in a breath, her steps
faltering.

Chapter Seven

Bella stared in awe, her gaze darting everywhere at once.
Nestled between barren, rocky cliffs was a paradise she’d never imagined
existed. A lush, green canyon dotted with towering spiky trees and fan-shaped
purple and orange flora. A place even more beautiful than the one in the cave.
Palms moved lazily in the wind, casting shadows over a slow moving crystal pink
lake that shimmered in the suns’ rays. It was…it was vibrancy and tranquility
and beauty. It was sustenance. It was hope.

“Do you like it?” Convict stepped into sight from behind a
large rock. The hard mask that had tightened his face when talking with
Winthrop had settled into more relaxed lines.

“It’s…unbelievable.” Her admission was grudgingly offered.
She’d liked the view better without him in it.

 
“I stumbled on it a
few years ago. There are a couple places like it on Dragath25, but so far no
one else knows about this one. I thought you’d like it.”

“You meant to show it to me?”

His gaze shifted away. “I noticed how much you liked the
place in the cave. I thought you might like to see this, too. The lake down
there is at least fifteen degrees warmer than the one in the cave.”

Like a swinging pendulum, her feelings careened back in the
other direction, something almost akin to affection for Convict flaring inside.

“Amazing.” She took a few awed steps closer to the cliff edge,
peering down. “I can’t believe it’s real. I never truly believed we’d find
anything useful here on Dragath25, but there it is. Plain as day. Living,
thriving wild plants. Something we haven’t had at home in ages.” She clapped
her hands in awe. “Do you know what this means? The mission wasn’t a failure,
after all. You may have just saved Earth.”

He reared back as if slapped. “I don’t give a fuck about
Earth.” His scowl was fierce. “What the hell has anyone there done for me
except strand me on this hellhole and wait for me to die? I say Earth’s demise
is fitting justice.”

“But millions of people will die.” She slammed her fist into
her hand. “You can’t honestly wish them all dead. My brother and sister are
there. They’ve done nothing to you.”

He shrugged, a disturbing non-answer. “It doesn’t matter what
we think, anyway. We can't do a thing to change it.”

“But we can.” She corrected, praying she was making the right
decision in confiding in him. “A search and rescue shuttle is coming. It’s
standard procedure after a crash. They’ll come to investigate and identify
survivors. They’ll save us and we’ll relay our findings. We’ll be heroes. All
of us, including you.” She hurried to add the last part as his frown deepened.
“Because you were the one to show me this place. I’ll be very clear on that
point. I’ll tell the Command Council all you’ve done for us. I’m sure that will
go a long way in reducing your sentence.” She’d make sure of it. She owed him
at least that.

He snorted. “For such a smart female, you really have no
clue.”

“Excuse me?” She drew up short.

“There’s no shortening my sentence. The Command Council wants
me on Dragath25 until I die and nothing will change that. And those rescuers
you’re counting on?” He shook his head, pity in his gaze. “They won’t make it.
You think your shuttle crashed by accident?”

An inky cloud of dread spread through her veins. “What are
you saying?”

“I’m saying the Council has no idea what’s going on here. I’m
saying you’re hardly the first research vessel to try and land here. I’m saying
225’s pack brought down your shuttle, just like the few that came before, and
they’ll do the same to whomever comes next.”

“That’s not true.”

He started toward her. “Is that why you’ve been so
accommodating? Were you holding out hope for rescue? Imagining that this little
deal of ours only needed to be for the short term? That you’d only have to
suffer some Dragath25 lowlife’s cock inside you for a few days more?” His laugh
had no humor in it. “Sorry, fighter girl, but there’s no imminent rescue in
sight.”

“You’re lying. They’re coming.”

“225’s pack only lets the droids through because they like
what they bring—food, clothes, and bodies for slave labor or fucking—and they
haven’t wanted Command Council to get suspicious until they were ready to take
them on.”

“Take them on?”

“You think you can leave a group of criminals alone for
thousands of years and not have them build their own societies? All it takes is
one visionary psychopath with the ability to terrorize enough followers into
doing whatever he wants and you go from a disorganized penal planet full of
kill-or-be-killed criminals to a well-organized terrorist training center. And
that is what Dragath25 has become.”

“That can’t be.”

“You may not have heard on Earth because of the Council’s
censorship, but this planet is now run by a vicious pack of killers with
delusions of grandeur and a fairly large grudge against the Council. To top it
off, they’ve figured out how to jam entering ship’s electronic systems, causing
them to crash without much warning at all. From what I’ve seen, they’re on
their way to building the kind of machinery that can do far more. Maybe even
get them off this planet and into space.” He hoisted the backpack that was
never far from his side. “All they’re missing is a few critical pieces and some
know-how. But those will eventually come.”
 

“No.” She took a step back. Then another. “You’re lying.
Rescue is coming. And I’m going to get off here. Ava and Dr. Winthrop, too.”

“Careful,” Convict barked, his backpack hitting the dirt as
he raised his hands and beckoned her toward him. “You’re near the edge.”

She barely heard him. “We’re going to tell them about the
plants. How they’re able to thrive in harsh heat and dirt similar to Earth’s
changing environment. They’re going to agree on the need for further study, and
we’re going to give Earth and my sister and my brother a fighting chance at
living a full life.”

“Stop.” He sounded furious. And cruel.

She shook her head, tears blurring her face. “I’m not
listening to you anymore.” Her boot slipped near the edge, but she kept
stepping backwards, needing distance, needing a barrier from the awful things
he was telling her. “Stay back.”

The ground gave way beneath her feet.

She screamed. Just as strong hands seized her forearms.

“
God damn it
.”
Convict hauled her close, pulling her back from the edge as the sound of
falling rocks echoed in her ears. “What did I tell you that first day, female?”
He shook her gently. “You need to give up your dreams of Earth. You need to
come to grips with the fact that you’re on Dragath25 now.” He jerked her close
again. “You
have
to do that or you’ll
never survive.”

“I thought you meant for the short term,” she shouted back,
pushing at his chest. “I didn’t think you meant forever. Tell me you’re lying.”

“I can’t.”

“No!” She struggled to get away. From his words. From the
sincerity in his gaze. From the awful truth of what this meant for her brother
and sister.

If she was declared missing or dead, Council contracts stated
that all dependents would be removed from protective Council housing and
resource distribution. Her sweet, young sister and brother would be sent back
to the orphan barracks where she’d grown up. A soulless, miserable place where
starvation, death, and predators were a way of life. And this time she wouldn’t
be there to protect them.

“You’re wrong,” she insisted. “A rescue shuttle is coming to
save us.” She pressed. Shoved. And all the time he held her. His grip firm, but
not painful. Just waiting it out. Waiting her out.

Until her pants gave way to sobs and her arms fell lifelessly
at her side. “I don’t…I don’t want to be here forever.”

Expression grim, he pulled her close, holding her tight. His
big, strong hands running up and down her spine, her only anchor. “It’s okay, fighter
girl. It’s okay.”

But it wasn’t. She wasn’t sure it would ever be again.

*****

Convict held her tight trying to comfort them both. Even on
Earth, he hadn’t been so good at it. He’d been a pilot and a soldier, and even
when home on leave from Command Council business, he and his wife had led
fairly separate lives. He’d understood. He was home so infrequently. She had to
make a life for herself. But he hadn’t understood when she’d started sleeping
with the married Council representative of their district.

“Convict?”

“Yeah?” He didn’t mean to sound so gruff, but she was staring
up at him, her gorgeous face streaked with tears, her fingers curled against
his chest, and his throat had gone a little tight.

He’d thought for an instant he’d lost her over the cliff,
that he wouldn’t be fast enough to reach her in time, and his heart was still
coming to grips with the matter. Which was dumber than dumb. Growing attached
to anything on Dragath25 was a recipe for disappointment.

“No one’s coming?” Her voice sounded small. Not like his fighter
girl at all.

Still, he wouldn’t give her anything but the truth. “They’re
coming, but they won’t make it out alive.”

She shuddered against him. “I can’t just let it happen.”

He played with the ends of her hair, reveling in the soft
brush of silk against his palms. “There’s no way to stop it. Surviving on this
planet is hard enough. Trying to take on 225 and his pack will only get you
killed alongside them.”

“But to do nothing….” Her words ended on a sob.

“Remember what I told you.” He tried to keep the edge from
his voice, but it wasn’t easy. Her softness—any softness—reminded him of his
initial conclusion that she wouldn’t last long—and that already displeased him
more than it should. “Earth rules don’t apply here. Worry for yourself.”

She didn’t respond. He didn’t say anything more, either. Just
savored the pleasure of holding her warm and willing and trusting against him.

“Convict?” He should have known the silence wouldn’t last.
His fighter girl was a talker. “Why’d you say those things before? Why’d you
make Winthrop and Ava think you were taking me up here to fuck me?”

His dick twitched. He liked hearing that word from her full
lips. “Because that’s what I intend to do.”

She studied him, as if she could see to the heart of him.
Which was impossible. He’d lost that particular organ a long time ago. “And the
part about the pain?”

He shifted uncomfortably. “That might have been a slight
exaggeration.” He tipped her chin to meet his hard stare. “But you’re mine now.
Not his. And there’s not a fucking thing that Council-asshole can do about it
laid out there on the ground so he better get used to it. You both better get
used to it.”

“I don’t want to be with him. I didn’t, even before the
crash.” She didn’t even hesitate.

Something inside him loosened. Something he hadn’t even
realized had been squeezing his chest tight. “Good.”

“I know I have no real ground to ask given the terms of our
deal,” her voice cracked, lashing at him like a whip, “but I–I would appreciate
it if you didn’t purposely humiliate me.”

Shit.
When he’d
seen her hand clasped with that smug, blueblood scientist’s, he’d wanted to
blot it out anyway he could. To make it clear as day that she wasn’t the
bastard’s to touch anymore. And, maybe yes, to make her feel like shit—as low
and dirty and shitty as he felt knowing he’d never measure up to a
well-respected, well-paid Council scientist with a bunch of fancy degrees and
no criminal record.

Which made him a grade-A asshole. And stupid, too.

Because the truth of the matter was, he didn’t want his fighter
girl to feel badly about being with him. He didn’t want her to hate it. Or be
desperate to get on that shuttle and travel light years away.

Because the fact was, he liked her.

He liked the way she smelled. The way she tasted. Like
vanilla and woman and light and hope and goodness and all the things he hadn’t
had in forever. He liked the curve of her waist and the fullness of her
breasts. He liked the little sounds she made when he drove inside her. He liked
her spirit. Her courage and the way she looked out for her colleagues and her
siblings. He liked her toughness and her tenacity. Her resilience and her sense
of fairness. Even her fierceness when he was being an ass.

Hell, she was damn near perfect. The kind of woman he’d never
thought to find. Not only on Dragath25, but anywhere in the universe.

“I won’t do that again.” He tilted her chin so she could see
the sincerity in his gaze.

She smiled. “And I shouldn’t have lashed out at you for
telling me the truth about the rescue shuttle or the way things stand. I won’t
do that again, either.”

“We’ll call it even.”

It was weird conversing like this. Holding her like this.
Like a normal person.

Weird. And nice. And terrifying. Because he wasn’t a normal
person anymore, and Dragath25 wasn’t a normal place.

“Even.” She repeated his wording. “I like that.” She looked
pleased. Just as he knew she would. Then a shadow crossed her face. “Are we
safe from this 225 and his pack?”

“No one’s safe on this planet, but I know how 225 and his
pack operate and where they like to spend their time. As long as I don’t bother
them, they don’t bother me. They know I could make more trouble for them than
they want.”

“So they won’t come for us?”

He’d been asking himself the same question. “They know there
were survivors at the crash. I did my best to hide your tracks, but those
soldiers of yours weren’t so careful. Hopefully, your soldiers will keep 225’s
pack busy enough and they’ll never realize there were additional survivors.”

If the pack discovered some of those still alive from the
crash were women, there wouldn’t be anything that would keep them away. Which
was why he’d been pushing so hard to get as far from the crash site as fast as
he could.