Dangerously Yours: 2 (Loving Dangerously) (15 page)

“I don’t believe it’s a trick, Jess,” Kane said, exasperated.

Kane would’ve loved for Jess to have skipped this meeting. But she was up bright and early and ready to piss on everyone else’s morning.

“Well,
I
think we should force her to give us the access code then kill her and her whores,” Jess said nonchalantly. She tilted back in her chair so that it balanced on two legs. “And the guard too. I almost forgot about him.”

“No one’s killing anybody. We need to decide the plan as a crew,” JB said. He raked irritated eyes over to Jess. He was the one member able to tolerate her longer than anyone else, usually. “Put all the jealous bullshit aside, Jess. If this works out, we can be set for a really long time.”

“Fuck you. I’m not the least bit jealous of those bitches. Kane doesn’t mind if we kill them. He hates aliens just as much as I do. I vote for my plan.” Jess smirked and held up her hand in mock vote.

“We shouldn’t harm anyone unnecessarily. Plus, Kane may be having a change of heart,” JB said.

“JB…” Kane warned.

Jess let the legs of her chair crash to the floor. “What the hell are you talking about?” she asked JB. She turned to Kane. “What the hell is he talking about?”

“Nothing,” Kane replied.

He had confided in JB in confidence.
I’m going to kill him.

“Did you fuck her?” Jess asked, her voice rising to a hysterical level.

“It’s not your concern, Jess,” Kane said calmly.

“I can’t believe you actually fucked her. You got hard for an alien whore?”

“Calm down,” JB interrupted. “We’re discussing the ransom. Nothing more.”

Her chair screeched across the floor as she pushed away from the table. “One vote for torture and killing,” Jess snarled.

“You need psychological help,” Eli said.

“Fuck you,” Jess said before leaving.

They all watched as Jess kicked the chairs and tables that stood in her way as she left the dining hall. Trying to talk over the noise would have been pointless.

“Back to business. Do you trust her?” Kyle asked Kane.

I hope I don’t regret this.
“Yeah.”

JB nodded. “Good enough for me.”

“Count me in,” Ryan said.

“Me too,” Eli said.

Kyle shrugged. “I guess I’ll go with the majority.”

* * * * *

“You fucking whore!”

What?

Sa’Mya struggled to wake as the bed dipped and an unknown person straddled her. Hands tightened around her neck, gripping hard, strangling the life out of her and cutting off her air supply. Her lungs burned, craving air. Sa’Mya’s eyes flew open in shock just as a fist barreled toward her. She closed them just in time.

Ancients.

Extreme pain shot through her face. Stars danced around her head. “He…lp,” Sa’Mya gurgled.

Sa’Mya grabbed at the assailant. She frantically scratched and pulled, trying to make the hands release her. The fingers only tightened and pressed her farther into the mattress.

Sa’Mya opened her eyes once again. A human female with red, swollen eyes stared back at her. Her lips were snarled up in disgust. Sa’Mya clawed wildly at the female, pulling at her hair, trying to escape. Nothing worked.

Sa’Mya pressed her feet on the bed and bucked, to no avail. The human held tight, gripping her harder. Sa’Mya was losing consciousness. Before darkness could take her under, she dug deep into the female’s sockets, grabbing at her eyes. The human screamed and rolled away, holding her face.

Coughing and choking, Sa’Mya rolled in the opposite direction. She fell off the bed and crashed to the floor.

“I’ll kill you for that, bitch!” the human screamed.

Sa’Mya ignored the pain in her eye and neck. She scrambled to her bandaged feet. Face-to-face with only the bed between them, Sa’Mya looked around the room, searching for a weapon. Anything. But found nothing.

The human jumped on the bed and ran across it. Screaming, Sa’Mya ran toward the bathroom.

“Oh no you don’t, bitch,” the human snarled. As Sa’Mya’s hair was grabbed from behind, pain raced across her scalp.

Sa’Mya stumbled as she was yanked back. Then, catching her footing, she brought up an elbow and hit the human in her nose. Bone cracked against bone. The human screamed.

Huh.
All that self-defense training with Nebin had actually been useful.

Echoes of screaming coming from his cabin met Kane as he rounded the corner. What had Sa’Mya gotten herself into? He trotted the last few steps.

What he hadn’t expected was to find Sa’Mya kicking and punching on Jess as if she were a Shaolin Warrior.

After pausing momentarily, he ran to separate the two, pushing Sa’Mya behind him. “What the fuck is going on here?”

Jess spit blood on the floor and covered her nose with a hand. “That whore broke my nose.”

“She was going to kill me.” Sa’Mya choked behind him. “She tried to strangle me.”

Kane turned to inspect Sa’Mya. Red marks covered her neck, and her eye was beginning to blacken.

What the hell?

Sa’Mya choked again.

“Argh!” Jess flew at Sa’Mya with outstretched arms.

Instead of cowering, Sa’Mya tried to reach over his shoulder to grab at Jess. Before Jess could reach her, Kane pushed Jess back. Jess stumbled over her feet and fell to the floor.

“You fucked her. How could you?” Jess cried. She pulled her knees to her chest. She wrapped her arms tightly around them and rocked on her butt and heels.

“Sa’Mya,” Kane said, low and controlled. “Go into the bathroom. I will send your aides to tend to you.”

Sa’Mya nodded and limped cautiously past Jess. He noticed the bright-red blood splotches that her feet left behind as she entered the bathroom.

After the door closed behind Sa’Mya, he knelt beside Jess who cried hysterically. She probably had deserved the beating Sa’Mya had given her, but right now she needed him. As he scooped her off the floor, she wrapped her arms tightly around his neck and cried onto his chest.

“What the hell is the matter with you?”

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry,” Jess cried.

“Why did you come here?”

Jess struggled to control her crying. “You…you’re the only person…still…pure.”

Jess could be a bitch, but she was family with some major psychological issues. He couldn’t blame her for wigging out every now and again but to try to kill the princess? There was no excuse, even for someone with a fucked-up mind.

“I’m not pure, Jess. Nobody is.”

“You were. You were the only one of us who hasn’t fucked an alien. You were so pure. She ruined you.” She cried harder onto his chest. “That bitch ruined you.”

Jess was right, fucked up, but right just the same. He had given in to how his body had reacted with Sa’Mya. What he’d done could never be undone. He’d soiled Anna’s memory and that would stick with him forever.

On the way to her cabin, he spotted JB with the other females. Kane stopped JB in his tracks as he was leading them from Kyle’s cabin to his own.

“Fun’s over,” Kane said. “Take those two to the princess. She needs their help.”

JB didn’t object but his gaze lingered on Jess’s emotionally broken frame. “What’s up with her?”

“Nothing I can’t handle.”

Finally at her cabin, he laid Jess on the bed where she curled into a ball. Her nose was now purple, swollen, misshapen and bleeding. He hit the intercom.

“Eli. Jess has been hurt. She needs medical attention.”

“I’m there, Captain,” Eli responded.

Kane sat next to her. “We have to talk.”

Jess nodded.

“I don’t want you near Sa’Mya or her crew. They will be here for another two weeks. You are to stay away from her and her crew until we get the gold. If you don’t think you can control yourself until then, I’ll confine you here. Do you understand?”

Jess sniffled and nodded again.

Kane waited with her, giving her what she need most. Comfort.

Walking through the door, Eli stopped midstride and eyed Jess and her bloody mess. “Holy shit. Who finally got tired of her mouth and fucked her up?”

“Princess Sa’Mya.”

“
No way.
The princess did this?” Eli took a seat next to Jess and began to study the damage.

Just like the rest of the crew, Eli had left his former life—his as a plastic surgeon—back on Earth. The twenty-eight-year-old hadn’t yet completed his residency when the aliens had come, but he’d completed enough training to keep them all stitched up and taken care of.

“Fix her up. When you’re done come to my cabin to help the princess.”

Eli shook his head. “Chick fight and I missed it.”

* * * * *

When the bathroom door closed, Sa’Mya laid her back against it. She slid to the floor and waited. She didn’t know how long she had stayed on the floor cradling her painful feet. A light knock on the bathroom door caused her to startle.

“Princess?”

Moira’s voice came from the other side. Sa’Mya let out a relieved breath. She scooted from the door, allowing it to open.

“Moira, I’ve never been so happy to see you in my life.” Wayward tears streamed down her cheeks. A weight lifted from her.

As she looked at Sa’Mya, Moira’s eyes widened and she inhaled sharply. “Princess, what happened to you?”

Yazmine peeked from behind Moira. Her hands flew to her mouth, covering a gasp.

Moira grabbed Sa’Mya’s hands and tried to pull her to her feet. Sa’Mya yelled out as pain ignited in every wound in them.

“Oh my,” Moira said. “Yazmine, please help me.” They both took a side and supported an arm.

They had been missing in action since being captured, doing Ancients knew what. But it didn’t matter, they were both here now. Sa’Mya leaned on them and let them guide her to the bed. Moira apologized the entire way.

“Princess, I don’t know where to start.” Moira clucked her tongue as Yazmine worked on making her comfortable, propping her up with pillows. “You need a healing tank. You need a good scrubbing and I might need to cut the knots out of your hair. You’ve been mistreated so badly. I was promised you were well taken care of.”

“Ha! I don’t know who told you that. The captain wouldn’t let me have my own clothes and he wouldn’t let you and Yazmine attend to me.”

Moira and Yazmine exchanged worried glances.

So Kane had been right. They had been enjoying themselves with the crew.

Sa’Mya sat back against the pillows. Yazmine looked the same, but Moira, she looked…different. Her once dull skin now had a radiant glow. Her hair, normally in a severe bun, now flowed in sandy locks past her shoulders.

“You have wounds everywhere,” Yazmine said.

“I think Kane went a little overboard with the bandages.” She eyed the thick wrappings that covered her hands, knees and feet. “Help me undo them.”

With Yazmine’s help, Sa’Mya unrolled the wrappings.

“It’s not as bad as I imagined,” Sa’Mya said after she inspected her injuries for the first time. “Well, except the feet.” She tsked. Some of the cuts had started to bleed again.

All because of that crazy human female.

“Great Ancients,” Moira said.

Moira dropped on the bed next to her and gingerly took a hand in hers. “I’m so sorry. I never would have thought that you were being mistreated.”

Sa’Mya stared back in shock. Moira had never shown any compassion for her. Yes, it was Moira’s job to see to her needs, but Sa’Mya always felt that her concern ended there.

Moira continued, “You’ve already been through so much. I was not at your side. I was off…” Moira’s gaze diverted from hers. “I know you haven’t been able to trust me. I’ve been so un-loyal—”

“It’s okay.” Despite the pain, she gave Moira’s hand a gentle squeeze. “You are here now.”

“I’ll make it up to you,” Moira vowed.

“Be loyal to me. That’s all that I ask.”

“It is done.”

A knock interrupted them. “Enter,” Moira said, wiping mist from her eyes.

The males entered the room. They delivered her four trunks of belongings and stacked them by the wall.

“Who was the human female who attacked me?” Sa’Mya asked after they left.

Moira went to kneel in front of the larger trunks. “Jess,” she said over her shoulder. Moira began inspecting outfit after outfit. “You need suitable clothing. You’ll need something that won’t brush against your injuries.”

“Ah, I can’t wait to get into my own clothes. It’ll make me feel more civilized.”

“Why did she attack you?” Moira asked.

“I think she was upset because Kane and I had sex.”

Both Moira’s and Yazmine’s eyes widened in shock and their mouths fell open. Snapping hers shut, Moira was the first to reply. “Was that wise?”