For anyone who ever fell in love with Han Solo…I hope you find a space pirate of your own.
Chapter One
Killian
What the fuck was I doing chasing across the goddamn universe after a girl I knew virtually nothing about?
I slouched in the pilot’s seat—a nearly empty bottle dangling from one hand—and glared at the little green dot on the screen.
The really bad feeling twisting my guts was getting worse.
I took a deep slug. The raw alcohol seared my throat and then settled with familiar warmth in my belly, melting the cold hard lump of…fear?
For many years, fear had been my constant companion, and I recognized the signs: the clenched muscles, racing heart, the icy sheen of sweat on my skin. An image of Ruby, as I’d last seen her, cut through the alcohol haze in my mind. So lost and alone, and so brave.
With fucking gorgeous tits.
It would be a goddamn shame for those tits to come to a bad end. I took another swig and turned to where Zak slumped in the co-pilot’s seat beside me. We have to save Ruby’s tits,
I said.
And the rest of her.
He tugged the bottle from my limp fingers. You want to lay off this stuff.
His tone was disapproving.
Why?
I made a snatch for it and missed. You going to tell me it’s bad for me?
No, but that’s nearly the last bottle, and you’re drinking more than your share.
He took a long pull, wiping his mouth with the back of his blue hand.
I’d grown up hating the Groth—great big, ugly blue bastards, but Zak was my friend. My only friend actually. But the cool thing about Zak was, I was no more responsible for him than he was for me.
I returned my attention to the screen with its little green dot. There’s our girl,
I said.
Ruby had a tracking device implanted in her brain, which was lucky for us because otherwise we would never have found her again. Equally luckily, the person who wanted her dead wasn’t aware of that, or at least he couldn’t lock in on the tracker. Otherwise, he would have known she wasn’t on board when he’d contacted us.
Yeah.
He sighed. You realize where they’re headed?
I could make a guess.
Actually, I had already guessed. That’s when I’d gotten out the bottle. So how do you feel about going back to Groth?
I asked.
Crappy.
Me, too. Will it help or hinder our chances of saving Ruby?
Well, there’s a huge price on your head and you’re hardly inconspicuous.
He waved a hand in the general direction of my metal arm and my metal eye. "And then there’s the fact that my sister really wants me dead."
Yeah. Total bitch. But on the positive side, you know your way around, and you must know a few people in high places who don’t want you dead.
Maybe,
he said cautiously. He didn’t sound convinced.
And I know a few people in low places.
Who would probably be no help at all, but I felt I had to contribute something.
Shit, I don’t want to go there.
Maybe they’re heading somewhere else,
I said with more hope than expectation.
There is nowhere else in that quadrant.
He was right. I stared at the green dot some more, trying to imagine how she was feeling, where she was. Was she all alone, cold, hungry? They would have quarantined her—we’d given her a pretty impressive rash to convince them to take her back and swap her for a new girl.
Why the fuck had I agreed? Oh yeah, because she’d blinked at me with those big blue eyes and said she needed to save the universe.
I remembered the feel of being deep inside her. I wanted that again. Then it looks like you’re going home, big guy.
"We’re going home."
Yeah.
Though I’d never really thought of it as a home. More like a prison. And we need a plan.
I didn’t want Ruby there for any longer than necessary. While I hadn’t known her for long, it had been long enough to be sure she’d make a crap slave. She might come across as all cute and sweet, but she hated being told what to do. That little character trait would get her in all sorts of trouble in no time at all. And I hated the thought of them marking her perfect skin. I’d have to hunt them down and kill them if they did, and that would reduce our chances of a clean getaway.
Well,
Zak began, we have no money to buy her.
Hell, we didn’t even have money to buy a bottle of decent booze.
And we certainly don’t have the fire power to take that slaver by force.
No, much as I loved the Helldiver, she wasn’t much good at full-frontal attacks. Though she was great at running away; the fastest little ship in the known universe. I waited for Zak to go on. Many people took him for an idiot—hey, he was big and blue—but he had a sharp mind and the brain of a warrior, and he’d been trained in combat from before he could
