Finding Lara (Distant Worlds Book 3) (4 page)

She had never realized
until this moment how much Nori and the marines shielded her, and not just her
body but her heart as well.  Right now, the pain and fear surrounding her was
enough to make her sick.  And she was never going to be able to walk through
all those dead pieces without throwing up.  Lara made a solemn vow right then
and there that she would listen to everything that her father and the marines
said from now on.  She would hire someone qualified to be her escort on her
journeys and not because he was a nice old soldier who needed the job.  And she
would stop taking chances with her life . . .  
Once she rescued Thaos from
the slavers. 
Then she amended the thought further. 
Unless someone else
needs help.

Her thoughts were interrupted
before she could add anything else to her list, and in a most dizzying way, she
felt herself lifted and tossed over the brute’s shoulder.  She knew it was
him.  She was up too high for it to be anyone else.  Lara grabbed his coat to
keep from going head first into the dead things and kept her eyes tightly
covered.  She did not think he would react well if she saw the carnage again
and threw up down his back.  And at this point, she really did not want to make
the big beast mad.  At least the clean scent of spice and leather blocked most
of the blood smell.  She pressed her face in closer to the leathers and held
on.

***

Barnos shook his head and
tromped through the now squishy street to get to the female.  He hefted her
over his shoulder with a grunt on his part and a squeal on hers.  But besides
grabbing onto the back of his captain’s coat with a death grip with one hand
and keeping the other over her eyes, she did not make another peep. He turned
to see a half smile on the cat’s face even as he was watching their retreat,
sword still in one hand, blaster in the other.  With the soft bundle of woman
in his arms, he could not help but notice a few things.  She smelled like
flowers; after a kidnapping and slave auction she should smell bad.  She didn’t,
and it was damn distracting.  And, quite frankly, if she was this sensitive
shouldn’t she be at home under her father’s protection, not traipsing all over
the known universe?  He had half a mind to give the High Ambassador a piece of
his mind.  He growled at the next miscreant that looked at him as if he wanted
to make trouble and at least this one was smart enough to get gone.  By the
time he made the shuttle Barnos was having a hard time holding onto his good
mood; and having to wait for the cat to disengage the shields and remove the
dead bodies that had tried to take the shuttle in their absence, he was fed up
with all the shivering and sniffling coming from their rescue.  Did she have no
backbone at all?

When the brute finally
put her down it was with enough oomph to have her skidding away a little on
unsteady feet.  Lara finally opened her eyes and the first thing she saw was
Tolan Lark closing the hatch.  He smiled that teasing smile at her and she
blinked, every breath in her body tumbling out with the weight of her hidden
fear.  The relief was almost enough to take her out at the knees.  She grabbed
the nearest bulkhead and burst into tears.

She knew she was making a
spectacle of herself.  She could feel the panic coming from the two men at the
sight of her distress, and as soon as she was able to speak, she would try to
explain that they were good tears.  Between waking up kidnapped by slavers,
watching the abuse around her, losing Thaos to who knows what terrible future
and being purchased by the brute, knowing what was surely to come, and then to
know she was safe, well . . . she had reasons to cry, so they were just going
to have to deal with it.

When she could catch her
breath and speak somewhat, she looked back at the two men giving her and each
other confused looks.  She wiped at her wet cheeks as best she could and
ignored the dirt that came off her face with the tears.  She wanted to be
clean, but that was so far down her list of priorities to be inconsequential. 
The other slaves sold had it so much worse.  The thought almost started her
crying again.

“It’s not . . .,” she
swallowed more tears with an effort.  Her breath halting, her words soggy, “I’m
just so happy I’m not going to be forced into sexual servitude to
him.
” 
She stabbed a finger toward the giant.  “Really, you have no idea.”

The big man growled.

Tolan Lark snorted out a
laugh and gave him a once over.  “I think I get the idea.”  He gave her a half
smile that Lara was happy to see actually reached his eyes.  “Lara, may I
introduce Captain Conall Barnos.  He is working with me on another matter and
agreed to help rescue you from the slavers when your . . .” He looked confused
for a moment.  “My apologies, is Nori your sister or your cousin?  I think I’ve
heard her refer to you in both ways.”

Lara wiped away the
lingering tears and sighed, “Technically, my father raised her as my sister,
but legally it was my uncle that adopted her.  It was a way of getting around
the legalities of a High Ambassador claiming a foreign child as his own. 
Especially when the Shakien are not in the Alliance, by choice.”  She sniffed,
wiping more tears away.  “Depending on her mood, Nori will claim either
connection, but she is the sister of my heart.”

Out of the corner of her eyes,
she saw Barnos chuff and roll his eyes.  She narrowed hers.  She was not quick
to anger by any means but his dismissive attitude was wearing on her.  He was
lucky it was her he was dealing with; Nori would have gutted him by now.  “Why
in the world did you send
him
to purchase me, when I would have known
you?”

“That’s why,” Tolan Lark
shrugged.  “You would have known me.  If you gave away the rescue things could
have gone very bad.”

Lara blew out a
shuddering breath.  “I suppose you couldn’t trust that I would keep the secret?”

Captain Barnos snorted
rudely.  “You burst into uncontrollable tears when you saw the cat.  No, we
could not trust you would be sensible.”

She narrowed her eyes his
way again, then back at Tolan Lark, studying the men her sister sent after
her.  “Nori called on you?”  She merely asked instead of arguing her good
sense.  “To rescue me?”  She could not keep the doubt out of her voice or her
eyes.  “She does not like or trust you,” she said nodding to Tolan Lark.  “And
I would think she would absolutely loath you,” she finished, tilting her head
to study the bigger man.

Tolan Lark laughed again,
drawing her eyes from the toothy smile Captain Barnos was giving her.  Even
seeing the inherent threat in that smile, he still packed quite a punch when he
used it with that sardonic gleam in his eyes.  “Neither your father or Nori
have the connections to get you off of Montrouge.  I was the only scoundrel
they could get on short notice.”  Tolan Lark shrugged negligently, even while
his eyes were moving over her.  “Speaking of scoundrels, no one seems to know
how you were taken off
The Triton.
”

Lara shook her head at
that.  “And I cannot help.  I went to sleep in my cabin with my guard outside
the door as protection.  I woke up on the Maize trader ship.”  She scrunched
her eyes, as the worry for her guard could no longer be set aside.  “I hope
Jorge is all right.”

“Jorge?” Both men perked
up at the question, seeming to sharpen into blades of curiosity.  “Who is
Jorge?”  Tolan asked carefully.

“The bodyguard I hired
when I started my journey.”

“Why not just take the
marines who work for your father?”

Lara shook her head and
smiled at the mercenary.  “Because they work for my father.”  She thought that
was pretty obvious.

“Afraid they would
curtail your fun?” Captain Barnos asked with obvious disgust.

She blinked at his tone
not understanding the reasons for it, even though she could feel the emotions
coating it as well as hear it in his voice.  “Well, yes.”  She pushed her
tangled grimy hair back behind her ear, all her thoughts on the strange man
before her.  “They would have tried to stop me from seeing any places even
remotely questionable.”

“Imagine that,” Barnos
muttered, sounding snide with sarcasm.  “Bodyguards that actually keep you
safe.”

She thought about why he
would feel as strongly as he did on the subject but could find no cause.  “I
have insulted you in some way and you don’t like me; that is why you take
exception to everything I say.”  She tilted her head, her eyes guileless on
his.  “But surely you would never allow someone to dictate where you should go,
and what you should do when you get there.”

Barnos blinked at the
calm words.  “I don’t dislike you,” he muttered clearly disgusted with the
whole situation.  “You irritate the hell out of me, that’s true, and I would
never let anyone tell me what to do, but then I can take care of myself.  From
what I’ve seen, you couldn’t fight your way out of a schoolroom, let alone
anything remotely dangerous.  And to top that off your damn distractingly
beautiful. How the hell have you survived this long?”  The last was more a
mutter as he looked her over with a scorching look in his eyes that heated with
each word.

Lara cleared her throat
and hoped he could not see the blush he instigated with that look.  “I’m not a
fighter, this is true.  But I am not a child either to be dictated to.  I’m an
explorer.” She raised her chin in pride at the title she felt she had more than
earned.  “I have found that when you make an effort to understand people, what
motivates them, they are more likely to become friends than enemies.”

Now Captain Barnos was
looking at her as if she was insane.  Then he looked at Tolan Lark and what
passed between them felt like equal parts humor and doubt.  “She actually
believes that, doesn’t she?”

Tolan Lark shrugged his
shoulders, the smile reaching his eyes this time.  “The Lady Lara always says
exactly
what she thinks.  She means it.”  Before Barnos could comment, which she could
see very clearly he wanted to do, Tolan Lark headed for the controls.  “You can
get to know each other once we are back on
The Fire
.  For now, strap in
and let’s get off this smelly rock.”

Barnos held his tongue
and so did Lara, even if she did want to take exception to that sardonic gleam
in his eyes. Later she would take him to task for staring at her as if she had
five heads.  Leaving Montrouge sounded wonderful, and she had things to think
about.  Like how she was going to convince the two men that the rescue was not
finished yet.  As condescending as they were, they seemed to know what they
were about in the rescue business.  Plus she was sure the both of them were
just wicked enough to have the connections she was going to need.  She did not
fool herself into thinking she had the power to end slavery and save all those
poor women sold every day on this terrible planet, not until the Alliance took
a broader view on where their protection covered, but Thaos was just a child. 
She had made him a promise, and she intended to keep it.  She knew without
asking that neither man would welcome further involvement, but when she
explained the circumstances and her bond with Thaos, they would have no choice
but to help her rescue him.  At least she hoped that was the case.  When
dealing with scoundrels it was sometimes difficult to understand what motivated
them.

***

They docked with
The
Fire
without any further issues, and Barnos was free to wonder at the
luscious Lady Lara of Heti.  He knew there were people so sheltered from the
universe around them that they kept that naive belief in the good of all
mankind rubbish, but from what he gathered she had quite a bit of freedom and
had seen much of the worlds, including the slave pens on Montrouge, and yet she
looked as if she believed that shite she was spewing about ‘understanding’ and ‘motives’
and ‘friends’.  It boggled the mind, it truly did. 
Has to be an act. 
But
if it was, it was a good one to fool Tolan Lark; the cat had could usually
smell deceit. Might be he was as susceptible to a beautiful woman as the next
man, Barnos included.  But they had never seemed to share that trait.  Pragmatism
and ruthlessness, that they shared, but not the weakness for beautiful women.
That was all Barnos, and he was not ashamed to admit it.  The Shakien did agree
to rescue the girl, and that was decidedly out of character.  Either he had
some other plan in the works, or he really did like her enough to be damn
inconvenienced by her rescue.  And apparently, this was not the first time. 
Something to think about.

Much better than thinking
on the pair of blue balls he was sporting with a beautiful nymph on the ship
who obviously had no interest in showing him the gratitude he was hoping for. 
Since his dick had been hard from his first sight and had yet to lose interest,
things were not looking good for a comfortable flight.  The cat’s ship was fast
and brutal in a fight, but it was not big enough to keep clear of a woman that
smelled like flowers, even when she was covered in filth, and had the soulful
brown eyes of an angel.  At least it promised to be of short duration.  That
was something.

“Your sister will be
happy to see you.”  Tolan Lark got the ship underway and was plugging the
coordinates for the jump when the lady made a delicate little throat clearing
sound to draw his attention.  Barnos was busy finding a jump chair but the
sound drew his attention to the girl.  She looked serene, and she was trying
too hard to achieve that, her eyes looking big and melting in her pale face, so
Barnos narrowed his eyes and studied her even as she started speaking.

“I cannot meet with my
sister just yet.  A young boy was with me in the slave transport.  An Avian child. 
I need to find him first.  I am hoping that you will be able to help me one
more time to free him.”

Tolan Lark gave as good of
a blank face as he could.  Quite frankly, Barnos was waiting for the punch
line.  When none came, he shook his head.

“Come again?” Barnos asked
his voice low and incredulous.  “We were hired to find one child, not two.”

The insult had her
flashing those serene brown eyes his way.  He valiantly ignored how pretty they
were and glared back.  She just raised her brow and moved those big doe eyes
back to Tolan Lark.  “It’s the right thing to do.”

Tolan Lark looked wary
when he should have looked amused by the naive statement.  “Lady Lara, I
sympathize with a child becoming a slave, but we cannot save everyone,” he
started carefully, only to be interrupted.

“I don’t need to save
everyone,” she said quickly.  “Just this child.”

He tried a different tact,
when he should have not just said
no
, but
hell no
.  “If we knew
where he was taken, maybe we could find him . . .”

She interrupted his
careful words with a smile.  “But we do know where he is,” she said sweetly.  “If
you used my tracking code to find me on Montrouge then you can find the boy the
same way.”

“And how would we do
that?” Barnos narrowed his eyes her way.  “When my understanding is that code
was undetectable and heat transferred into your skin.”

“I transferred mine to
Thaos before he was sold on Montrouge.”

The silence was
deafening.  “And if we had not found you on Montrouge before you were sold and
moved?” Barnos asked very carefully, his own anger heating at the chances she
took.

“Then at least the boy
would have been found and Nori would have looked after him in my stead.”

Barnos stared at the
crazy woman.  “And you would have lived a short miserable life, followed by a
hard death,” he reminded her grimly.

“Thaos is barely more
than a babe,” she answered softly, as if that said everything, and apparently,
to her it did.

“An avian male child you
say?” Tolan Lark asked, something happening behind his eyes that Barnos could
not read.  “Fine, we’ll find the child.”  Tolan Lark sighed and Barnos would
have fallen out of his chair if he wasn’t already strapped in.