Ship Called Malice

by Rebecca Royce

  Bo cooked dinner again that night. They still hadn’t opened the space container. Apparently, it had ‘extra infusion.’ I wasn’t certain what that meant. Sometimes, I could have sworn they spoke a different language.

  River wasn’t there at the table, having apparently passed out finally in his room, face planted, still in his clothes.

  “Should we bring him some food?”

  Bo grinned and shook his head. “When River Sandler goes to bed, we leave him that way. He’s not pleasant when he’s woken. If we really need him, that’s fine. I don’t want to listen to him bitch and moan for something as unimportant as missing a meal.”

  I played with my noodles. They were delicious, but I’d eaten more than I usually did and was full. “You guys use his last name a lot. Sandler. That’s a part of space, right?”

  Jordan reached out and tugged on a piece of my hair. “He’ll tell you all about that. You’re not wrong. He has that last name, and it is relevant.”

  “I didn’t mean to talk out of turn. I was just curious, really. You don’t use your own last names. I’m Priscilla Hamilton.”

  Bo shifted in his chair. “We’re going to have to decide which one of our last names you take. That is, if you stay with us. Or you could somehow take all three. You could be Priscilla Tyler,” he pointed to himself, “slash Chimes,” he pointed at Jordan, “slash Sandler.”

  Jordan shook his head. “That would be a hell of a moniker. Maybe she should stay Priscilla Hamilton.”

  I didn’t feel like Priscilla Hamilton anymore. At least not the version of her I’d been before I woke up on Malice. Today alone, I’d kissed Jordan, been embraced by Bo, had a moment with River, and then I fixed a table without having to hide what I was doing. I’d never had so many things happen to me in one day.

  Maybe that was why, later that evening, I couldn’t sleep. I tossed and turned. My brain wouldn’t quiet. Three weeks to decide if we should all stay together. I liked them, and I wasn’t going to pretend I didn’t. Starting out, they’d rescued me. Now, they seemed really interesting, smart, sweet, and funny. They were also living their lives on the wrong side of the law.

  I wasn’t going to judge them or the decisions they made. Did I want to live on the other side of it with them?

  I didn’t know. I’d done a lot of things I shouldn’t in this life, too. The thought did no good, and I pushed it away. I never let myself remember those things…

  With no other choice, I got out of bed and tugged on an oversized sweatshirt to cover up my pajamas. They were warm, comfy, and blue and white. After slipping on my shoes, I left the room with no particular idea where I was going to go. I just had to move.

  At home, I would have left my bed on quiet feet and headed outside to look at the two moons. I had no such view here; even looking out the window brought me nothing to see but dark space. I’d never have chosen to spend time in the vast darkness of space. Maybe I could get used to it.

  I followed the sound of banging back to the storage area where Bo continued to work on getting the space container taken apart. There were layers of it disassembled and all over the room. He sat back on his heels as a machine that looked like a giant hammer pounded on the box.

  “Hi?”

  He sucked in a breath and almost fell over before he jumped to his feet. “Damn. Sorry. You’re awake. Ah, did this bother you?”

  I gave him a small smile. “Not at all. I can’t sleep. Nothing to do with you. When I heard noise, I came to look. Didn’t mean to startle you.”

  Bo walked to a panel on the wall and shut off the hammer-like machine. He shook his head. “I’m not getting this open tonight. It’ll be days. There’s never been a thing made I can’t break into. But this is going to take some time.”

  “Have you always been good at it or is this something you’ve learned in the last twenty years?” I knew almost nothing about the men I was married to. The only way all of us were going to learn if we wanted to stay together was to ask the right questions.

  He grinned. “My family have always been pirates. I was raised on a planet with my mom, but I’d see my father about every eight months, and he’d bring me up on this ship. I’d travel with him and see what he was doing, what his life was like. We’d do that for about a month. Then he’d come back, spend some time with mom and me before he was off again. One day, he didn’t come back. One of his fellow pirates returned Malice. He’d been killed in a raid against an Earth patrol who didn’t like how much he was traveling into their space to raid. Foolish of him to have done that. He’d always told me, a smart pirate stayed away from Earth Space. No idea why he did that, and I never will.”

  I walked toward him. “When you were older, you took back up the family business?”

  “Right. Well, I thought I might. I was tooling around on this ship by myself. Stopped at a space station and immediately met River Sandler, which was bizarre. We really are going to let River tell you about himself and not interfere. Needless to say—maybe—he’s not like Jordan and me. Not really. Or at least he wasn’t. Still, he was persistent. You might have noticed that personality trait of his already. He wanted to live this life and thought we’d make a good team. He usually wins when he sets out to. Here we all are, twenty years later, and we are still doing this.”

  I didn’t know exactly what his tone implied except that he’d earlier told me no one set out to be a thief. “Did you want something else before you took Malice?”

  “Some rather important people from Earth Space came and took over the planet. They believed they could mine uranium.” I went cold at that word. I might not know much about life outside of my limited upbringing, but I did know uranium. Earth had once almost completely destroyed itself in a nuclear war. We weren’t really supposed to go near the stuff. It was against the law. “They destroyed everything. My mom died. I had no choice but to leave. Before that, I was actually in school. Had some idea of taking Mom out of the dark planets and going to teach math and science to youngsters. I haven’t thought of that in years.”

  “I’m sorry if I’m asking too many questions.”

  He shook his head. “How else will we know each other? So what is your story? It can’t be all farm life and waiting to be married.”

  “I helped around the house, fixed things, took care of my sisters.” Saved the baby boys my father and mother discarded… I almost uttered those words then stopped. I didn’t know what was making me still my tongue on this subject. I was far from my home planet and my parents. Surely, the family secret didn’t have to continue to be upheld.

  Yet… I paused before I spoke.

  Bo pointed at me. “You’ve had a thought you’re not sure you’re going to share. I can see it, right there in your forehead. The second it passed through your mind and you didn’t speak, it wrinkled your forehead. Right there.” He touched the spot he said held my unspoken words.

  I leaned into Bo. “You’re so incredibly handsome. That wasn’t what I was thinking, but there it is.”

  He caught his breath. River had smelled like cinnamon, Jordan clean, fresh soap, and Bo like a cool breeze. I pressed my head against his chest. He wrapped his arms around me tightly. It felt so nice to be held by him that I decided I could finally say what I never did. “My parents get rid of the boys. They’d take them to the woods and leave them to die after they were born. Dad didn’t want to waste money raising boys. I rescued them. Over and over. I’d sneak out, save them, and bring them to the local town where a woman I knew there would smuggle them off the planet to orphanages elsewhere. Mom can’t have any more babies. But it’s a common practice there. We never speak of it. I don’t think my parents know I saved the boys. I couldn’t just… I couldn’t just let them die.”

  He pulled back to look at me. “Of course you couldn’t. Priscilla, you lovely woman, you’re like out of a dream I didn’t know I even had. I saw you on that station, and it was like all the world lit up. I wanted you for me, for us. I knew it wasn’t right. I’m too o
ld, too scarred, too notorious. But I did. When the chance to save you came, I never hesitated. I knew you were supposed to be mine. That is so stupid. I’m not that guy. I don’t have Jordan’s belief in fate. Still.” His mouth pressed down on mine. This wasn’t the gentle peck with Jordan earlier. This was heat, and although I’d never experienced it before, I recognized a claiming when I got one.

  I let him lead me, our mouths fused together, again and again. I wrapped my arms around his neck and held on. His arms came around my waist, and he picked me up to carry me. I didn’t know where we were going, and I didn’t care. As long as he kept kissing me, all would be right in the world.

  Eventually, we reached his bedroom. It looked exactly like mine only the bed was bigger. “I’m not rushing you.” He spoke between kisses. “I just want to kiss you, and I want privacy to do so.”

  That sounded fine. I wasn’t sure I only wanted to kiss. I’d become a ball of passion. There was an ache inside of me from his kisses alone. We were married. Rushed though it was, I didn’t plan on letting go of an amazing man just because of the inconvenience of timing.

  “You can more than kiss me.”

  He made a low sound in the back of his throat. “We’re giving you time to know us.”

  Bo was right. I knew he was. Yet… still. “You’re my husband.” I kissed his chin. “The fact you even want to give me time to know you? That’s amazing. I wasn’t supposed to have that.”

  “Take the time. It’s not much. In three weeks, if you want us, honey, you won’t be able to breathe. I’m going to be attached to you and intent on getting you naked. Tonight, let me kiss you.”

  I wouldn’t object. He rolled on top of me, keeping himself off my body by holding himself up on his elbows. I’d never imagined this. In all the years I’d known I would someday be someone’s wife, I hadn’t fathomed I would feel this… snuggly. His mouth met mine again. This time I had a better sense of what to do.

  I met him, kiss for kiss.

  Time passed. I just wasn’t sure how much.

  Bo was a hard man—his shoulders were broad, his muscles defined. I felt soft against him, like I was small. Not a sensation I was used to. I ran my hands up his back, eventually traveling to the top of his shaved head. He moaned. I guessed he liked that. He squirmed above me. My nipples pebbled beneath my shirt from the slight friction. I sighed against his mouth.

  He raised his head to look down on me with molten lava in his gaze. “You are so beautiful.”

  I’d never thought of myself that way. “Am I?”

  Bo tweaked my chin. “And you don’t even know it? Priscilla, you are… amazing looking. Blonde. Expressive blue eyes. I’m… completely taken with you.” He kissed me one more time. “I think we’d better stop. I didn’t expect to get this worked up so fast.” He rolled off me.

  He scooted over and then tugged me against his side. “Can you sleep here? With me?”

  I blinked. “Yes. I’d like that.”

  “When I used to think about the sheer impossibility of having a wife, I thought what I was really going to miss was spending the night with my woman, of having her against me in sleep, to wake up with her.”

  I leaned up on my elbow. “I never thought about this at all. I really would like to stay.”

  A large bulge showed in his pants, and I couldn’t help but stare at the evidence of his arousal. He followed my gaze then grinned. “This is a lesson for me in maintaining my self-control.”

  We lay like that for a long time. Eventually, his eyes closed and his respiration changed. Bo breathed deeply. He wasn’t snoring, per se, but he wasn’t a quiet sleeper. I listened to the sounds, and steadily my insomnia lifted. I was warm, Bo was with me, and I believed he’d put himself between me and any imagined danger that might come through the door. This was a terrible world, but I was safe on Malice in Bo’s arms.

  I closed my eyes and sleep came.

  Morning arrived slowly. The ship’s automatic light systems turned on and the dim light met my eyes. Bo hadn’t moved. He still breathed as he had earlier, his body showing no signs of wakefulness. Okay, it was morning, but it seemed we had nowhere we had to be immediately. In my farm girl life, I’d been expected to get up with the dawn. I yawned and closed my eyes. I’d sleep in. I snuggled closer to Bo, and he pulled me closer without stirring otherwise.

  Bo had been right. This was one of the best parts of marriage

  4

  The Testing

  In a half-dazed state, I considered my situation. I really had fallen hard for my husbands in a short period of time. Jordan thought we were destined to be together and seemed to really like me. Bo had made it clear the night before he wanted to keep me, too. I wasn’t so sure what River thought at that point, but I appreciated that he’d wanted to make this consensual and give us some time to get to know one another.

  They were all such beautiful men I could hardly stand it.

  Bo rolled over, putting one leg over mine. He exhaled on a long breath. “You make me want to be lazy.”

  I smiled against his shoulder. Bo was like a heating pad, and I was usually so cold at night. Temperatures dropped below freezing every night on my planet. It wasn’t that cold on Malice, but that didn’t mean I didn’t love the way it felt to be completely warm in the morning.

  “Hi.”

  He stretched a little, and I cuddled into him. “Hi.” He kissed my cheek. “I’ve never had this before. A woman with a heart so big that she saves her brothers’ lives? How did we get so lucky?”

  “Which one of you had the idea to save me from that man you hate?” I wanted to picture my wedding day—since I couldn’t remember it.

  “Xavier.” He made a circle on the outside of my hand with his thumb. “The worst of the worst. He makes us look like we’re law abiding.”

  I shook my head. “You don’t seem so bad to me.”

  “Oh, ask someone sometime about Malice, they’ll shudder.” He laughed. “To answer your question, we all saw you go down. I was horrified watching it happen. Then when Xavier stepped up, it was Jordan who said we had to marry you instead. I expected River to object because he doesn’t like plans that he’s not involved in making, but he was right on board. So there we were, buying you from the slavers, signing marriage papers, and getting you onto the ship and into the med machine.” He grinned at me. “I didn’t know right then that you were going to turn out to be sweet, smart, and kind. I know we still have a million things to learn about each other. So far, I really like what I see.”

  I leaned over to kiss him, lightly on the lips. “I like what I see so far, too.”

  I measured the boards in the laundry room, humming to myself. A noise behind me sounded, and I whirled. River leaned against the door watching me.

  I took a deep breath. He’d startled me. “Hi.”

  “Hello. You’re humming. Bo is humming. Jordan is humming. Music all over the ship. What did I miss while I was sleeping?”

  Heat found a place in my cheeks. “Nothing much. Are you feeling better?”

  “Rested. Yes.” He stepped into the room. “I do that on occasion, stay up too long. Always have.”

  I set the measuring machine onto one of the slanted shelves. “I do, too. Well, I suffer from insomnia sometimes. I used to go out and look at the moon. Can’t do that here, obviously.” I was rambling, and I had to stop. Why did River make me more nervous than Jordan or Bo?

  An alarm sounded, and I jumped, colliding with the clothes processor. The tank jolted, and River yanked me off of it, which I appreciated because if it was anything like the one at home it could be really hot, really fast.

  “It’s okay. We’ve spotted a ship. Jordan is going to move to take it on. That means I have to get in the shuttle to hang back and see if they unload anything.” That was right. They’d explained this idea to me. It was why they never missed anything. “I’d rather you come with me than stay here. Every once in a while, someone makes the mistake of firing on us. I’d rather yo
u were on the shuttle in case we take damage.”

  Alone on the shuttle with River. I gulped. “Sure.”

  Nerves about what was going to happen made my spine stiff. I wasn’t concerned about time with River, I didn’t think. Oh, maybe I was. How could I both want to be with him and be terrified of it at the same time? How did that work? What was wrong with me?

  I followed him to the shuttle. It took me a moment to orient, and then eventually, I figured out that I should sit in the co-pilot seat. River pressed a button on the console after he sat down. “What are we looking at, gentlemen?”

  “It’s a Hansen ship.” Jordan came over the speaker. “You have Priscilla, right? I did a quick look, and when I didn’t find her, I figured you brought her with you.”

  River ran a hand through his hair. “She’s here. Just about to get her to strap in. Hansen this time of year? Hmm. What could they have with them in this part of the quadrant if it’s not planting season?”

  Bo’s voice answered. “Presuming they haven’t traveled a great distance to get here already. Maybe they are almost out of the quadrant and they might actually have real goods in there we could get serious amounts of gold for.”

  River shrugged and winked at me. “Either way, we take a look. Get her lassoed, boys.”

  “On it. Take care of Priscilla,” Bo answered.

  In lieu of explaining anything to me, River punched on his keypad until the shuttle jolted forward, detaching itself from Malice. I leaned forward. This was the first time I’d seen her from the outside. She was as big as I’d imagined and painted in dark colors—black and dark green with a silver streak. I sucked in my breath. The word Malice was painted on the outside in big letters. She was really a beautiful ship. I hadn’t… expected that. The guys took care of her—well, her exterior.

  River cut the lights on the shuttle. We didn’t fly so much as float away.