Defiance (3 page)

But fight she must. She had to get
back to her mother. But what could she do?

Chapter Three

“You scared her,” David said as
they entered the cockpit.

“Of course I did,”
Laith
replied. He sat down in the pilot’s chair and studied
the screen in front of him. “You may want feisty, but the female needs to learn
her place.”

“You’re thinking like a raider.”

“Any sane person would subdue a
firecat
.”

“You know what I think? I think you
like her feisty.” David’s gaze wandered for a moment. “Why do you think she was
acting like a boy?”

Laith
shrugged. “I have heard conditions in the Earth camps are detestable. No doubt
she was hiding her gender to protect herself.”

David rubbed his knee. “She was
very handy with that club. And did you smell her?”

“Unfortunately, yes.”

 
“No, I meant there’s something different about
her. Sweet, floral, but also … I’m not quite sure. You’re the one with the
super scent detector.”

“David, you cannot possibly be
attracted to
that
female.”

“Why can’t I? As we say on Earth,
I’m a red blooded male, and she’s a damn good looking woman. But I wasn’t the
only one feeling it.
 
You were turning
red with anger back there. Or was the red for a different heat?”

Laith
bristled and turned back to his console. “I have no idea what you are talking
about. As usual, you are being ridiculous.”

“Am I?”

“Yes, you are. And you were right. We
found a worthy female that even Commander Kath can’t ignore. When we arrive at
the
Targin
Market we’ll be able to get his attention
and get onto his ship,” said
Laith
.

“Yes. Our plan is sound.”

 
“Do not get any ideas when it comes to Jordan
Kuper
. She’s a virgin who will be the perfect spoil of our
war.”

David nodded, his focus on the
console before him, although
Laith
didn’t know what
he could possibly be engrossed with. They were cruising on autopilot.

“Why don’t you get some sleep? I’ll
feed our guest.”

“All right.
Wake me in a few hours.”
Laith
made his way to their
quarters, past the cell that housed their abductee, and a sliver of guilt went
through him. He pushed it aside because as much as he may hate what he was
doing,
he was on a course that couldn’t be altered.

It seemed like he’d just fallen
asleep when an alarm sounded, causing him to immediately spring into action. David
met him by the cell door.

“The sensor is down,” David
announced. A small smile graced his lips. “I suppose you didn’t scare her too
much after all.”

****

Jordan
knew she had to stop the
ship, but inspiration wasn’t very forthcoming. But she’d thought about it all
through the night, through the unrecognizable dinner the asshole human had
served her, and even into her dreams. She may not know much about technology,
but she did know how to make a mess. How hard could it be to throw the
proverbial monkey wrench into the gears?

Sometime through the night she sat
up and turned on the lights to begin to study the room. First of all, she had
to get out of this cage. Sure, it was the cleanest cage she’d ever seen, but
she was still a prisoner. Was she the only woman the
Xyran
and human traitor had? If they were slavers than she might have to rescue more
women, and that thought was daunting. How could she be responsible for rescuing
others?

Her gaze landed on the sensor panel
by the door. From the looks of it, it was the only way to check on her, and no
doubt when the door opened it would let her two captors know. She had to
disable the panel.
But with what?

She got down on her hands and knees
and looked at the cot. It was connected to the wall on one side but had two
legs for the other side. And the legs were attached with screws.
As much technology as this space ship had, it was about to be
undone by a normal screw.
Using her fingernail she tested both and
discovered the second was loose enough to untwist. It took her a while, but her
patience paid off. The leg was made out of metal, and when she pulled it off,
the cot warped a little at the side but stayed upright. She studied the panel
for a second, took a deep breath, and brought the metal leg back to smash the
panel.

She smashed it again and
again,
until she was satisfied it was completely disabled. She
tried the door, but it must have locked manually. She replaced the leg back to
its original place but picked up a screw and put it between her toes. Then she
waited for the
Xyran
and the traitor to show back up.

It didn’t take long. A few minutes
later she heard noise on the other side of the door and crossed her arms,
automatically taking a defiant stance. They had to manually crank open the
door.

The alien was the first one through,
and he looked from her to the decimated panel. “You broke it.”

“I had to go to the bathroom,” she
said.

Laith
looked at her blankly. “What does that have to do with breaking the sensor
panel?”

 
“How could I trust that you wouldn’t peek in
on me right when I have my sheet lifted?”

He turned an interesting shade of amber.
“I have no interest in seeing you disrobed.”

“Famous last words,” she said with
a haughty sniff. “I have to admit, I find that changing skin color trick fascinating.
There’s not much color in the camp. I mean, sure, sometimes we get a blue shirt
or a red scarf, but given enough time in the muck and the burn of the sun,
well, everything turns brown.”

“Enough!”
Laith
shouted. He rubbed the bridge between his eyes. “Do not touch anything.
Anymore.
Do you understand? You are our prisoner.”

One of
Jordan
’s eyebrows shot up. “I
thought I was your merchandise.”

“That does sound better,” David
murmured. When she looked at him she saw a smile playing on his lips.
His very full, masculine lips.
She shook her head a little
to clear away that disturbing thought. No way would she develop a fixation on
her captors.

Laith
took a deep breath. “Just lie down and wait for us to reach the
Targin
Market.”

“Is that what your other captives
do? Just … surrender?
Because I won’t.
It’s not in my
nature.”

“Is that why you dressed like a
boy?” David asked. His dark gaze was so stark and direct it caused a little
fluttery sensation in her belly.

“I dressed like a boy to hide
myself from predators like you, traitor. Men hurt women, and I refuse to be a
victim.”

“Traitor?”

She nodded. “You’re working with
him, selling human women to demons. Of course you’re a traitor.”

David frowned. As he opened his
mouth to no doubt rebut what she’d said,

Laith
took a step forward and
grabbed her by the arms. They stood, bodies touching, and that nagging
awareness she had of them flared back to life. He was big and hard, and he made
her feel wholly feminine.

She didn’t like it, or perhaps she
liked it too much. Regardless, she pulled herself from his grip and took a step
back. Her heart thundered in her chest, and her palms grew sweaty.

“Get out,” she ordered shakily.

“You give a lot of orders,”
Laith
said as he shook her a little. “You need to learn
your place.”

“My place?
You kidnapped me. How could you possibly expect me to cooperate?”

His tongue darted out and touched
the air before he bent his head. It touched the skin on her temple, and she
shivered. It should have been a shiver of revulsion, but for some reason she
seemed fixated on that tongue. What would it feel like to kiss him with that
tongue?

What the hell was she thinking?

Heat had flared in
Laith’s
dark eyes, and his skin had turned a deep
passionate maroon. He backed away from her, gave a look toward David, and then
left. She let go of a breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding.

“I’ve never met a female who wasn’t
afraid of anything,” David told her on the threshold. “And it’s pretty stupid
to antagonize a
Xyran
.”

Her eyebrows shot up. “Me? I’m
scared of everything, but I don’t
cave
to the fear.”
Jordan
took a
deep breath and lifted her chin. “Why are you helping him? You’re human.”

“I am human, but
Laith
owns me.
A word to the wise.
Xyrans
admire spirit. He’s finding yours an
interesting challenge.”

“Yeah?
Perhaps
he’ll reconsider when I stick my foot up his ass.”

With that damn smile still
lingering on his lips, David followed after
Laith
. She
walked after him and stood just on the threshold of the door. David held her
stare as he closed the door on her face.
Jordan
looked down and saw that the
screw she’d just placed with her toe had produced a very tiny gap at the bottom
of the door. Without the sensor, they wouldn’t know that the door wasn’t as
secure as they thought.

Now it was her turn to smile.

Chapter Four

As she stepped out of her cell, it
immediately became clear that she was the only human female held prisoner. The
ship was small, so small she could see up into the cockpit. The
Xyran
and the human sat at their stations, and she ducked
to the opposite side of the very small corridor to get out of their line of sight.
Shit, the whole area wasn’t any bigger than the dilapidated cabin she lived in
back on Earth. And even though the whole thing was Spartan to the extreme,
there were more computer screens than she knew what to do with. Where were the
big engines like on cars and planes? How could she throw a monkey wrench when
there wasn’t a gear in sight?

Frustrated, she rubbed her forehead
as she tried to think of what to do. She supposed she could smash one of the
screens and disable something, but she couldn’t make heads or tails of the
computer displays because it was all in the
Xyran
language. What about an escape pod? Didn’t all space ships have one? But what
would that accomplish? It wasn’t like she could fly that back to Earth. She had
no experience flying anything.

Could she incapacitate the two men?
Maybe if she had a gun. But as she looked around she didn’t see a weapon. She
needed to investigate the ship. Find something useful to fight with. A noise
grabbed her attention, and she looked toward the cockpit. David stood from his
chair, and she panicked. If he came down here and caught her, she’d never have
another chance. She looked back at the bank of computer monitors. How was she
supposed to disable the right one? She wanted to go back to Earth, so she
shouldn’t damage the engines.
Navigation?
If they
couldn’t go forward perhaps they could still go back?

She knew it was not the sanest of
plans, but desperation called for desperate measures. One screen had a bunch of
graphs and configurations on it, and she remembered Mr. Meier once talking
about star charts. Could that be the same thing? She hesitated, not sure what
to do. The smart thing would be not to mess with anything because she didn’t
know what any of it meant or did, but picturing her mother’s devastated face
over her disappearance was enough for her to throw caution to the wind. She
couldn’t let them win, just like she couldn’t sit back and do nothing.
 

She took a step back and hefted the
metal bed leg onto her shoulder like she was wielding a baseball bat. Pursing
her lips, she held her breath as she let her weapon fly. With a spray of
electric arcs, the computer caved in most spectacularly. Immediately, the ship
went dark, and she felt the engines stop vibrating. Emergency lighting came on,
giving the ship an eerie glow, and a huge wave of satisfaction came over her
for a job well done. She didn’t have to wait long for David and
Laith
to come rushing.

As the two men saw her, they came
to a halt, their mouths hanging open. It gave her a momentary thrill to see
them looking flummoxed.
Laith
shook his head and
hurried over to the very broken console, staring at it with something akin to
horror.

David took a step toward her and
grabbed her arm. She stomped on his foot. Pain radiated up her leg, and she
looked down. Her bare feet were no match against his big boot clad ones. He
shook her, hard enough to cause her head to snap back and forth.

 
“How did you escape?” he asked. He looked
toward the door, inspecting it, and she knew exactly when he saw the screw. His
body went rigid. “Clever. You disabled the panel so the sensor wouldn’t alert
us when the door opened. You are proving to be a very resourceful, if stupid, woman.”

“Why did you do this?”
Laith
demanded as he tried to fix the damage. It was a
futile gesture.

Jordan
lifted her chin. “I want to
go back to Earth, so I figured if I got rid of your navigation you’d be forced
to go back instead of forward.”

“This is a starship!” he roared.
Laith
took a threatening step toward. His skin was turning
a sickly yellow color. “Navigation is necessary to go in any direction,
including going back! You are foolish, irrational, irritating—”