Hunters

by Michelle Marquis; Lindsey Bayer

  Bill leaned in close and she resisted the urge to recoil in disgust. He lifted his chin toward the cage. “What’s a beauty like you doing with a loser like that?”

  Tanner had been stripped down to his black combat pants and, other than the bruises on his face, looked fit and ready for battle. She felt a tiny bit better. He was definitely a tough bastard and he looked alert enough to defend himself.

  Harmony played dumb and shrugged. “He was nice to me.”

  Bill placed his manicured hand on her thigh. “I’ll be nicer.”

  He wore a suggestive leer she couldn’t wait to shoot off his face. She glanced down at the ring. “What’s happening?”

  The blond Kirillian behind her laughed. “A fight to the death, sweetheart.”

  “What does the winner get?” She already knew the grim answer.

  They all laughed. Bill gave her a full smile that was all white and shiny teeth. “The winner gets to live another day, the fuck of his choice, and lots more fights.”

  Down below, the combatants were circling each other. Tanner rolled his shoulders, bouncing on the balls of his feet like a boxer. Then in a flash of speed and power, he landed two punches on his opponent. The Kirillian monster roared in pain and lumbered closer, managing to corner Tanner and land several hard body blows. Harmony winced. The strikes were so hard, she was sure Tanner was going to go down, but he didn’t. Instead something else happened.

  Like a violent coastal storm, a visible darkness came over Tanner’s face. He transformed before them into a hurricane of pure animal rage, exploding into the most chilling violence Harmony had ever seen. Lunging at his startled and much larger opponent, Tanner hammered the man with a firestorm of fast, hard punches. Suddenly the seven-foot warrior was backing up, trying his best to deflect a terrifying fury he never saw coming. Tanner landed blow after blow until one fist crashed squarely into his opponent’s nose with such a loud crack that the massive audience fell into a frozen silence.

  From where Harmony sat, it looked like Tanner had damaged the man’s nose badly enough for bits of bone to get into the giant’s brain. The warrior went down like a cut pine, slamming into the mat and spraying blood from his ruined face.

  Everyone in the box stood up including Harmony. The hall was so quiet you’d have thought it was empty. The referee came over and checked the fallen warrior. A full minute passed. Then he stood up and grabbed the microphone. “He’s dead!”

  The audience erupted into a frenzied chaos and Harmony seized her chance. Slipping her hands the rest of the way out of her handcuffs, she whirled on the blond Kirillian and yanked his blaster from the holster. “You won’t be needing that,” she said in Kirillian.

  The blond Kirillian stared at her, dumbfounded. Harmony turned her attention to Bill, who glared at her.

  She pointed the blaster at his groin. “Where did your brother go?”

  “You don’t want to do this, little bitch. I know a lot of people and I’ll have your ass brought back to me in shoebox.” His tone was spiked with pure hate.

  “Then maybe I should change the setting on this so that doesn’t happen. What do you think?” Harmony’s finger brushed over the button that changed the strength of the ion blast from stun to kill. A tense thirty seconds passed.

  Bill nodded and licked his pale lips. “I gave him some money and he stole one of the ships docked on the roof. He must be on his way to deep space by now.”

  Harmony pushed the setting to kill and leaned forward. This was getting tiresome. “Deep space is a rather large area to search. Perhaps you should be a little more specific. Now where is he headed?”

  “Probably to one of the moon stations near Draconia. I swear that’s all I know. He didn’t exactly give me his itinerary.”

  “He won’t get far.” She switched the blaster back to stun and squeezed the trigger. A white-hot stun bolt disappeared into the thug’s groin. He grabbed himself and doubled over. He wouldn’t be permanently damaged but he sure wouldn’t have a love life for a while.

  Satisfied, she backed down the steps, taking care to keep her blaster pointed at the two Kirillian goons. “Goodnight, assholes.” She popped a stun bolt into each of them. Being so close, she hit one square in the chest and the other in the head as he turned to run. They both fell to the ground next to their boss with a thud. “Now we’re even.” She whistled triumphantly and descended the stairs to the cage. Pushing through the milling crowd, she found Tanner sitting in a corner, drinking water from a ladle and rinsing blood out of his mouth. A moment of relief rolled through her.

  “Come on, killer, this is no time to rehydrate. You can drink plenty of water on the ship.” She grabbed his sweaty arm and pulled him toward the exit. “Let’s get the hell out of here.”

  Tanner stopped by the side of the cage and snatched his weapon belt out of the garbage bin. She let go of his arm and he strapped the blaster to his hip. He glanced down at his torn, bloody shirt crumpled in the corner. He didn’t bother to retrieve it. “What happened to the Kirillian guards?”

  “I took care of them.”

  “You couldn’t have taken care of them before I got the shit beat out of me?”

  The fight audience was leaving the auditorium, jostling them in a wave of slow-moving bodies. Some patted Tanner on the back in congratulations.

  “In case you hadn’t noticed,” Harmony said playfully, “I was a little tied up for a while. Besides you’re a big boy, you can take care of yourself.”

  Tanner squeezed her hand. “It’s always excuses with you.”

  “I have some good news though.”

  “What’s that?”

  “I have a lead on Ken Marz. According to his loser brother, he’s headed toward one of the stations off Draconia. He couldn’t tell me which one but I don’t think he’ll make it that far. We should be able to catch up to him before he gets there. Let’s just hope brother Bill didn’t feed me a lie.”

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Harmony returned the cruiser to Platinum Bonds, traced the ID number of the ship Marz had stolen from Teacher’s Pet, and dragged Tanner onto the next shuttle bound for the docking station where the Aries was. The shuttle ride was smooth and way too slow for her taste but it gave her time to collect her thoughts and clean Tanner up.

  He sat in a window seat staring into space, collecting strange looks from the other passengers. Harmony sat sideways on the bench next to him with her knees pulled up to her chest. She opened a medic kit she’d borrowed from the shuttle’s supply cabinet and pulled out an ice pack and some disinfectant. She activated the cooling pack and placed it over his swollen eye. She lifted up his hand and placed it over the pack. “Hold that there.” Then she busied herself filling a bowl with cool water from the lavatory and pouring some of the disinfectant in it. Pulling a square cloth out of the kit, she soaked it in the water for a few seconds and wrung out the excess.

  A huge knot of anguish sat in her stomach and, despite their escaped bounty, all she could think of was taking care of Tanner. She gently rubbed away the dried blood under his nose and around his mouth. She worked diligently, folding the cloth over and over, cleaning until the cloth was too soiled to continue, then dipping it back into the water and started all over again. It took her several minutes to clean him up but with every inch of improvement, the knot inside her loosened.

  Tanner tolerated her nursing like a dog enduring a dress-up game with a small child. He was all warm patience and calm indifference. Finally he’d had enough. He took her hands, pushed them away and handed her the ice pack.

  Tanner rested his head on her shoulder. “You’re a nice woman, Harmony.”

  She looked down at the ice pack and frowned. “You should keep it on a little longer,” she said, feeling strangely helpless. “It will keep the swelling down.”

  “I don’t need it.” He stole a kiss from her lips. “Everything I need is right here.”

  Harmony placed the ice pack back into the kit and dropped her hands in h
er lap. The weight of his head was more pleasant that she would have thought.

  “Why didn’t you leave me?” he asked, surprising her.

  “I thought you were going to sleep.” She handed the medic kit off to one of the passing stewards.

  “I never sleep. I haven’t been able to really sleep in years. Just short catnaps here and there.”

  She slumped in the seat, trying to get comfortable, and adjusted his head to a better position on her shoulder. “I couldn’t leave you. We’re supposed to be working together.”

  “Oh yeah. I forgot.” A few minutes of silence passed between them. “You ever been in love before?” The masculine timbre of his voice in her ear awakened her desire.

  “No.”

  “But you’re in love with me.”

  She twisted in her seat and stared at him. He lifted his head. “What? I feel something for you but I’d hesitate to call it love.”

  “You afraid of it?”

  “Afraid of what?”

  “Being in love with me.”

  “I never said I was in love with you. You said I was in love with you.”

  “I know you are. I can tell.”

  “How can you tell I’m in love with you?”

  “By the way your body responds when I fuck you.”

  Harmony glanced around. He was attracting some curious attention. “Okay, that’s enough. Stop talking.”

  Tanner chuckled evilly. “This conversation was just getting interesting.”

  Harmony shook her head and stared down the aisle wishing they’d get to the docking station already. “Maybe for you and the other passengers. I should never have slept with you.”

  “If you hadn’t, you never would have fallen in love with me.”

  “Now you’re just trying to make me mad. Why don’t you take one of your catnaps? Surely you must be exhausted from having the shit kicked out of you.”

  “I’ve been hurt worse. It’s nothing compared to what you do to my heart.”

  An old lady in the next aisle over smiled at Harmony as if to say, “Isn’t he sweet?”

  Harmony frowned back. You don’t know him like I do, lady. “If you say one more word to me, I’m switching seats.”

  Tanner laughed and leaned his head back into the headrest. He ran his hand down the length of her thigh. “Okay, baby, I’ll be good. I promise.”

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  After arriving on the Aries, Tanner didn’t even wait for authorization to take off. He just input the ID number of Marz’s stolen ship into the navigation system, disconnected the hookups, and pulled out of the docking bay, much to Harmony’s annoyance.

  “You’re supposed to wait for clearance,” she said icily.

  He watched his rear camera and eased fuel into his thrusters. “You want to catch Ken Marz or not?”

  His comm. crackled to life. “Aries, you are not authorized to—”

  He turned it off and blocked further messages with a typed-in code.

  “You’re going to get us banned from docking here.”

  “What do you care? It’s my ship and my docking permit that’ll get stripped.” He glanced over at her. “Better strap yourself in, honey.”

  Harmony buckled her harness and adjusted the straps. Tanner pulled free of the docking bay and adjusted the throttle all the way up. They both were pushed back in their seats as the ship accelerated and began its calculations for light drive.

  Then the green light on the control panel lit up and that familiar sensation of intense speed took over.

  Tanner closed his eyes for a second and inhaled, loving it. He heard Harmony utter a small gasp as her fingers dug into the armrest, and his cock filled with the most powerful lust he’d ever felt. Everything about her turned him on, from her obsessive pursuit of Prime to that small glimpse of vulnerability she’d shown after the fight. He’d slept with legions of women, from every planet and race, but after he fucked Harmony, she was all he wanted, all he dreamed of, to the point where he couldn’t even remember any of the others. His need for revenge and desire to hurt her seemed to have simply evaporated. His desire for her stretched from the present to the future, to his hopes and dreams for a family and someone to spend his life and share his adventures with.

  He could even forgive the fact that she was a Kirillian.

  The ship slowed and the tracking system signaled them that the vessel they were chasing was just ahead. Harmony pointed toward a silver speck in deep space. “I have visual.”

  Tanner switched on the tractor beam and let it charge up. “We’ve hooked the fish. Now all we have to do is reel him in.”

  An alarm went off on Harmony’s left. “He’s powering up. He’s going to run.”

  “He’s gonna try.” Tanner fired a devastating shot into Marz’s engines. A bright orange flash glowed from the right wing as the ship jerked hard to the right. Then the ship seemed to drift helplessly, listing to one side as it floated crippled in space. “How’s his life support?”

  “It’s fine, and the tractor beam has locked on.”

  Tanner smiled and slowly turned his ship around in the direction of Galaxy Recovery. Marz’s ship drifted after them. “I’d say this job is done. Let’s take him home to Mom.”

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  “Prime’s gone underground,” Harmony said to no one in particular as she searched the tracker for any sign of the hydrocore. “Upping the bounty must have freaked him out pretty bad.”

  Tanner lounged on the ship’s tiny cot in his black briefs, looking at a girlie magazine. “You’ll find him again,” he said, distracted, turning the magazine sideways and then righting it again. He tossed it into a corner where a bunch of discarded manacles lay. Harmony made a mental note to put them in a storage bin later.

  “With a bounty like the one Galaxy put on his head, someone’s bound to pick him up,” she said.

  “I thought you were convinced no one could nail him but you?”

  Harmony glanced at him, annoyed. He had a huge erection that he kept stroking on the outside of his briefs every few minutes. She tried to look indifferent but the truth was he was turning her on. “Do you ever think about anything but sex?”

  “I try not to.”

  “Catching Prime is serious.”

  “Catching Prime is ego, Harmony. You don’t give a shit about the safety of the galaxy. All you care about is not ruining your perfect record. Why can’t you just be honest about that?”

  Rich moisture collected in her sex and the small kernel of her clit swelled. It amazed her how quickly she could be ready for him, he didn’t even need to touch her. Tanner was the most infuriating man she’d ever known but everything about him was all raw animal heat and she loved it. Never before had she experienced a lover, human or Kirillian, who could make her feel as alive and desired as he could. Just watching him was distracting her from her never-ending quest.

  Finally she got up and went to him, sitting on the edge of the cot. He gave her a private smile. His eyes danced with mischief. “Let me tie you up.”

  She started getting uncomfortable. “No.”

  “You don’t trust me.”

  “No, I don’t.”

  “What if you had an easy way to release your bindings?”

  Harmony paused as her body burned high with punishing lust. “Maybe.”

  Tanner reached under the cot and brought out a long strip of silk.

  Harmony felt a chill roll up her neck. Can I relax and trust him enough to have him do this? “What do you want me to do?”

  Tanner got off the bed, stripped her naked, and had her lie on her back. He lifted her wrists and bound them to a metal handle just above her head. “Is that too tight?”

  Harmony made sure the knot was the kind that could be undone easily if need be. “No.”

  Standing before her, he glided his briefs off and roughly stroked his erection. Harmony’s nipples peaked as her need twisted inside her belly. Tanner’s body was rugged perfection with t
hick muscles over every glorious inch and a rich canvas of tattoos depicting all the fights he’d won during his enslavement. She stared at the dead hydrocore tattoo and wondered if Prime was being captured by someone else right now.

  Tanner eased down over her, nestling his hips into her pelvic cradle. He kissed her and everything else melted away but the sensuous feel of his mouth on hers. She kissed him back, enjoying the sweet luxury of his weight on top of her. He pushed his erection against her vaginal lips and stopped. Breaking the kiss, he reached over and opened a locker next to them. The inside door of the locker had a medium-sized mirror that he adjusted until he could turn his head and clearly see Harmony’s naked body.

  Harmony moaned softly and watched her reflection in the mirror. Tanner’s cock dipped into her wet secret, pulling all the way out so she could see it glisten with her moisture. Both feeling and watching them have sex was unparalleled bliss and she had to have more.

  Much, much more.

  “Tanner,” she gasped, rolling her hips up to meet him. “Fuck me.”

  A thick artery pulsed in his neck as he watched the mirror, pushing his cock in and out of her so slowly her groin ached. “You’re so beautiful,” he whispered. Then he took her right breast into his mouth and sucked hard.

  Harmony was losing her mind in a tempest of crushing pleasure. Her body rebelled at her desire for control, thrusting up to her lover and clenching his cock with her vaginal muscles. Tanner lifted his body off her with his powerful arms, devouring her with kisses as he drove her to the edge of madness with his cock. Harder and harder he took her, panting his animal moans into her ear as his sweat mingled with hers. She was conquered, ravished and couldn’t handle one more minute of being bound. With clawing fingers she pulled the release on her tied hands and wrapped her arms around him.

  Tanner chuckled like the devil collecting souls. Harmony’s body screamed to life as waves of pure joy roared from her center and sent warm ripples through every corner of her flesh. She screamed louder than she ever had in her life and grappled with Tanner to get on top of him.