by Anna Adler
She didn’t have the money to buy Chase.
Fuck!
Holly swept the papers off her desk. She leaned her head in her hands.
Why was I so stupid last night?
Chase had practically begged her to buy him. She should have rushed home and applied for loans right away, while she still had her job, but she let her insecurity get in the way. If only she had acted fast enough, she might have been able to buy Chase before everything went to hell.
Unlikely, though. Between last night and this morning, there was never enough time to get that kind of money and purchase Chase…
She stood up and stalked to the window. She jumped when she felt warm hands on her shoulders. She hadn’t heard Chase approach. He leaned over her and dropped a kiss on her shoulder. Holly sighed and leaned back against his chest.
“You need to talk to me, you know,” he said, his voice deep and comforting.
“I don’t want to burden you.”
“Burden me?” He sounded offended. “Fuck that. I thought we were a team. If you don’t let me help you, you’re screwed. I can see that plainly enough.”
“There’s nothing you can do to help.”
“I’m sure there’s a lot I can do. You’re just too used to being on your own.”
Holly let out a defeated sigh. “They fired me.”
Chase’s hands closed around her upper arms. “They what? Why?”
“I hadn’t allowed a single pet to be killed, ever, not since I took over that position,” she explained. “They were already suspicious of me. Saving you today in the infirmary was simply the last straw. I guess Director Stone finally decided he wanted me out of the way.”
Chase blew out a breath. “Damn, I’m sorry. You lost your job because of me.”
“It wasn’t your fault. I had it coming for a long time.”
“But…my punishment? The whipping?”
“They were going to go ahead with your execution. I demanded to take you with me instead. Mr. Stone agreed, as long as I punished you and proved that I was capable of handling a dangerous pet like you.”
Chase nodded, understanding. “So he bought our performance and let you take me with you. You did save my life, then.”
“Yes, but only for two days. I have forty-eight hours to either come up with the money to buy you or hand you back to the training center.”
“Shit.”
Holly rubbed her forehead wearily. “I don’t have that kind of money. I don’t know where to get it. But I can’t give you back to the IPT. They’d kill you. I see only one way out of this. We have to get you off the planet.”
Chase rubbed his hands soothingly up and down her arms. “Yeah, I see we don’t have a whole lot of options. Do you have any ideas how to get off this globe?”
“Ideas, yes. But I can’t guarantee any of them will work.” Holly turned to face the wall and tapped her wristband. The wall panel slid aside revealing a map of Silenia, maps of the major cities, every shuttle launch pad and all the possible escape routes she had come up with over the years.
“Whoa, what’s this?” Chase sauntered closer to the wall. “What are you, the secret service?”
Holly gave a humorless grin. “I wish.”
“So this is what you do in your free time.”
“I’ve never actually managed to smuggle a pet off the planet, but I wanted to see if it was possible. I’ve researched every aspect of it that I could think of, just in case I couldn’t save a pet’s life otherwise.” She came to stand next to Chase and looked up at her creation. “Out there on the streets, looking at all the bustle and luxury, you wouldn’t believe how hard it is to get off this planet. For an alien, Silenia is a high security prison.”
“Yeah. I’ve got a microchip in my neck, first of all.”
She turned to look at him in surprise. “You noticed they chipped you? The pets are kept unconscious during the initial medical examination.”
“Yeah, but I had a sore spot in the back of my neck when I woke up in my cell. It wasn’t hard to figure out what they’d done.”
“Exactly. You have a chip and it acts as a homing beacon if you try to run away. I know how to remove it; inserting pet chips is part of my training, so I know how to reverse the process. But it’s not something I can do with common household items. I need access to an infirmary.”
“Like the one back at the IPT?”
“Yes. That one’s out of the picture since I don’t work at the IPT anymore, but I think we could break into a public medical station.”
“Breaking and entering?” Chase grinned. “I like your talk, woman.”
A flush of pleasure went through her. “Then there’s the question of the actual escape route.”
“Are you by any chance familiar with the name Alyssa Cressfield?”
“No.”
“She’s a friend of mine. She’s from around here.”
“You mentioned someone before. The person who told you about Silenia.”
“Exactly. She left Silenia to be together with my buddy, Jax Deveraux. Jax is a hybrid, too. Human-S’laurian. He was held captive here, I think in the same facility as me.”
Holly’s heart beat faster with realization. “Human-S’laurian? We’ve only ever had one of those at the IPT. I remember him. He was sold untrained.”
“That’s the guy.”
“You’re telling me that this friend of yours, Jax Deveraux, is off-world now?”
“He and Alyssa both. They’re happy together and all that.”
“How exactly did Jax escape Silenia?”
“Alyssa got him on some kind of mining shuttle. They were detected, but he managed to escape. Alyssa was left behind and they put her in prison for a few months.”
“They were detected? Shit. That’s bad news.” Holly sighed and chewed on her nail. “Yeah, the ore shuttles, I’ve thought about those. But if the authorities know that someone already escaped on a shuttle, they’re keeping an extra close eye on them now. We’re not going to be able to pull the same trick.”
“What other options do we have?”
Holly abandoned her nail and chewed on her lip, staring at her patchwork map. “So you have friends off-world.”
“Yeah.”
“How crazy are your friends?”
“Pretty crazy. Why?”
“Silenian cities are under domes. No one on a shuttle can simply scoop down and pick someone up from a rooftop. But it can be done outside the domes. So let’s suppose…if you hike far enough from a city…and if your friends have a shuttle and they’re crazy enough to come to Silenia to attempt a rescue…they could pick you up from outside the city.”
Chase rubbed his jaw, the corner of his mouth curling up. “The idea isn’t half bad. I’d have to get a message to Jax. I borrowed one of his precious shuttles without permission, so he might want to come pick me up just for the pleasure of skinning me alive.”
“You’d have to be careful with the message though,” she said. “It’ll get intercepted and screened by Silenian authorities.”
Chase nodded. “No problem. We have a code language. Jax will know how to read my message, but to anyone else it’ll only look like a weather report.”
Holly quirked an eyebrow at him. “A code language, huh?”
“It’s not the first time we’ve had to dodge authorities.”
“What exactly did you do for a living before you came to Silenia?”
“I’ll…tell you later.”
“All right. Good. We have to time everything carefully. And we have to get you a protective suit and an oxygen mask. The Silenian atmosphere is toxic and it’s freezing cold outside the dome. The terrain is rocky…no roads at all…so it’s not a walk in the park. You’ll have to swiftly get away from the city dome before you’re detected. But you’re strong, I’m sure you’ll make it.”
“What do you mean I’ll make it? Of course you’re coming with me, right?”
Holly’s heart twisted. She shook h
er head sadly. “I can’t come with you, Chase. I’m sorry.”
He turned to face her. “What are you talking about?”
“I wish I could come with you. I hate this place. But I have to stay and help the other pets.”
He looked around, confused. “How do you think you can help them? You don’t work at the IPT anymore.”
“I’ll think of something. Maybe I’ll go rogue and start freeing them. Look, no one else is going to help them. I can’t just turn my back.”
Chase crossed his arms. “All right. If you’re not moving from this globe then I’m not going either.”
Holly steeled herself. “I’m sorry. That’s not an option.”
“I’m staying.”
“Are you crazy? You have to go!”
“You can’t make me. I’m not going anywhere without you.”
“You’re going to die if you stay here.”
“I’m not giving you up, Holly.”
“Chase, be reasonable. I don’t want your death on my conscience. You know this is the only way.”
“No. The only way is that you leave this planet behind and come with me.”
“I have work to do here, Chase. Important work!”
“So you care more about your pointless crusade than about me?”
Holly felt a painful stab in her heart. “That’s unfair.”
“It’s the truth, isn’t it?”
She gave him a hard stare. “Don’t you care about these people? People like you, kidnapped and kept here until death?”
“For fuck’s sake, Holly, do you know how many slave planets exist out there?” He motioned wildly with his hands. “You can’t save everybody and you’d be stupid to try. The aliens here on Silenia…if they’re smart, they’ll keep their heads down and try to land a good owner. They’re better off than most slaves I’ve seen.”
“You’d just abandon them to their fate?”
He scoffed. “They don’t need my help.”
Holly felt crushed. Chase’s attitude hurt her, but perhaps it was better this way. It would make giving him up easier. She shook her head. “Chase…I’m sorry, but clearly I’m not the right woman for you.”
His eyes narrowed and his voice dropped low. “Don’t say that.”
“You need to forget about me and move on.”
“Holly.”
“We’ll get you off this planet and you’ll live happily ever after with someone else. You’re not staying here.”
“Holly…” He reached out to touch her, but Holly evaded sharply.
“You’re not staying and that’s final.”
Dark fury lit up in his eyes. He grabbed her shoulders. “I’m not giving you up, you hear me?” he shouted. “I’m not leaving you behind! If you’re not coming with me, I’m staying.”
Holly tried to squirm free from his grip. “Chase, listen—”
“Now that I’ve found you, learned how it can be, life without you is pointless.”
“You’ll be killed!”
“I don’t care!” He shook her. “I’m staying, you hear me? I don’t care if I die. Don’t you dare try to send me away from you.”
Holly tried to push him away, but he threw her over his shoulder and carried her out of the room.
What is he doing?
She was so disoriented from his handling that she couldn’t put up a proper fight. She struggled, which only caused him to tighten his grip. Her vision swung and blurred in pace with his quick, angry strides. He swung her down and lowered her to the floor. His grip left her and he walked away. When she heard the click of the door, she knew where she was. He had locked her in the cage.
Chapter 13
Chase paced the office room, running both hands through his hair. Holly was yelling in the bedroom.
“Chase, come back here, god damn it! Let me out!”
He marched to the door and slammed it then resumed his frantic pacing. What the hell am I going to do?
Everything was fucked up. He had fucked up. His life had taken a sharp dip downhill and now everything was going to hell at full throttle.
He loved her, that’s what this was all about. He loved her and wanted to keep her, but she was telling him to fuck off. She was tearing him apart. She had flashed heaven and companionship at him and now she was snatching it away. She didn’t want him to stay with her. She wanted him to leave, and she had no intention of coming with him. He would never see her again.
She wants me to go find someone else. Fuck, that hurts.
It hurt worse than a knife in the gut. His world, just now, dropped into darkness because, without her, what the hell did he have to look forward to? Once he left, he could never return to Silenia. He grabbed the VR monitor off the table and flung it into the wall. It shattered in a crash. He proceeded to grab it and smash it into the wall over, and over again, into smaller pieces, until all he had left to grasp was shards. Then he grabbed the chair. He smashed it into the floor until it was nothing but twisted pieces of plastic and metal. The potted plant next to the desk was up next.
His chest heaved. The pain inside him still didn’t ease. He grabbed the desk. Smashing the desk took longer, but in the end, he also broke that into pieces. He stood in the middle of the destruction, looking around him. At some point, a cleaning robot had emerged from the wall. It was trying to vacuum the heaps of splinters, cables and glass shards. Chase snatched the robot and pounded it into pieces too. He beat it against the wall repeatedly. Once the hull cracked, he dug his fist inside it and yanked out the cables.
His heart still hurt as if it was being carved from his chest, but he needed a breather. He leaned his forehead against the wall, panting. His hands were bleeding from the cuts he had sustained. Holly had gone quiet in the bedroom.
She’s never going to forgive me for this. But she was going to throw him out, so what the hell did it matter?
She cared more about the other pets than about him. That’s what really set him off. She wanted to stay here and worry about the planet’s entire pet population…being together with him was less important. He had thought it meant something when she had taken him to bed with her. He didn’t take sex lightly and he thought Holly didn’t either. But no, she was happy to send him off without a second thought.
Chase wiped his forehead with the back of his hand. Isn’t this pain ever going to stop? It seemed to be getting worse instead of better. Did Holly have any booze in the house? He wanted to get drunk. He wanted to make this goddamn pain in his chest go away.
He strode out of the office. Opening the door irritated him. He had half the mind to tear it off its hinges and smash it, but he wanted the alcohol more. He left the door alone and went to the kitchen. He went through all the cupboards and the fridge. Finally, amidst heaps of pasta, vegetable chips and packages of dry soy meat, he found a promising brown bottle. He opened the cork and gave it a sniff. Yep. Alcohol.
He slumped down on the kitchen floor, his back against the kitchen island, and took a swig. The overripe taste made him grimace; something akin to a rotten fruit. He held up the bottle to see the label. Plum liquor. Earth import.
But hell, he would take anything right now as long as it got him wasted. He sat there and drank, staring darkly in front of him. The apartment was silent. He was glad. He wanted to forget that Holly was in the next room. He didn’t want to face her because he knew they were finished and seeing her would only make the pain worse.
Drinking made the ache dissolve, slowly. His head felt ever foggier. Once he finished the bottle, he put it down on the floor. He noticed the bottle was sticky on the outside and looked at his hands. They were bloody. The blood was starting to dry though, so it was fine. His back hurt from leaning against the island because of the cuts from the whipping.
Fuck.
It had been a good kind of pain. He thought back to it bitterly. He had experienced such a connection to Holly at that moment. They were allies, fighting a common enemy, and he admired her fierceness. He wanted this
woman by his side, forever. He would be proud if she left scars on him. He wanted to be her guardian, her protector, her everything.
But she didn’t want him.
He grabbed the bottle and smashed it against the floor.
“Chase?” called Holly’s voice from the bedroom.
He didn’t reply.
“Chase, what are you doing?” Her voice sounded worried, not angry.
Pain flooded his heart, making it twist and contract in agony, and he squeezed his eyes shut. “Shut up,” he muttered.
Just be quiet. I don’t want to hear your voice.
“Chase, I need to know what’s going on. Please come here and talk to me.”
He didn’t want to talk to her. He was too angry and miserable. He tossed the broken bottleneck out of his hand.
“Please?” Holly called softly.
Be quiet.
“I need to see you. Come here. Just for a moment. Okay?”
He didn’t want to go, but he was drunk. Her bewitching voice was too sweet to resist.
“Please, Chase, come here.”
He got up on his wobbly feet and immediately stepped on glass. Pain shot up his leg. He was barefoot. He stood on one leg and tried to pluck the glass shard from the sole of his foot and fell down.
Fuck it.
He was too drunk to care.
“Chase? I’m worried about you. Please come.”
He ignored the pain in his foot and limped to the bedroom.
Chapter 14
Holly waited with her heart in her throat. The silence was more terrifying than the sounds of Chase trashing her office because, in the silence, she had no idea what he was doing. When he locked her up, her first reaction had been fury.
How dare he do this to me? How dare he?
She was going to make him regret this for the rest of his life. Then the devastation had started. He was clearly out of his mind. Holly’s fury switched to fear.
What if he hurts himself?
He didn’t frighten her—every alien she had worked with had violent outbursts, and she was accustomed to it. It was only natural that traumatized beings expressed their pain. She didn’t believe Chase would hurt her, but she was terrified he might do something to himself.