Saving the Space Pirate (Ruby Robbins’ Sexy Space Odyssey)

by Nina Croft

  Really? I found that hard to believe.

  Joe caught my eye, raised a brow, and swallowed his drink in one go. I did the same. A small frown crossed Ruby’s face, but then she swallowed hers and licked her lips. She constantly surprised me.

  “Now, tell me what you’re doing here,” Joe said.

  I took a deep breath. I wasn’t going to admit that I needed their help, but they could make things easier for us…or harder. Where to start? “A few weeks ago, I took on a job to rescue an Earth girl from a Bhaxian slaver,” I said, and then told him what had happened between that moment and now.

  Joe turned to look at Ruby. “So you’re an escaped slave? Just like us?”

  “I guess so.” She looked at her empty glass, and the man rushed forward and filled it for her. Smiling at him, she wrinkled her nose as she thought about her answer; she was so goddamn cute. “Though I prefer to think of myself as an undercover agent working for the Federation’s Earth liaison.” Her expression cleared. “Besides, slavery is illegal, so there is no such thing as an escaped slave, just an illegally imprisoned person who has now gained their freedom.”

  Good answer.

  Smart as well as cute.

  “Fair enough,” Joe said. “What do you want from us?”

  I would have loved to have said “nothing.” But I had Ruby to think about as well. “We have to wait it out until things settle down on the planet. Hopefully, someone will come and get us, but it might be a couple of months.” I tried to work out how long it would take Zak to get to Earth and back in the Helldiver. She was faster than the Bhaxian slaver but it would still take weeks. “We need somewhere to hide out and some food.” I glanced across at Ruby. “And Ruby could do with some clothes.”

  “And what do we get out of this?”

  “When my ship gets back, we’ll pay you of course.”

  “My ship? Aren’t you the hoity-toity one? How do we even know you’re not making all this up? You always did have an imagination.”

  Ruby leaned forward. “Honest, he does have a ship. She’s pretty and silver and called the Helldiver.”

  Joe cast her a smile, clearly warming to Ruby more than me. “Okay, we believe you then. We want weapons and money.”

  We’d have both if Rekowski paid up as he’d promised. “We can do that.” I thought for a minute. “But first we need some intel. What’s happening on the planet? We need confirmation that our friends got away.”

  “I’ll put out some feelers. We have some contacts in the ships that bring supplies. We’ll see what we can find out. In the meantime, you can stay here.”

  “No. We’ll stay in the cave where you picked us up.”

  “We not good enough for you?”

  “Not even close. And Ruby’s shy and she’d prefer to be somewhere quiet.” A few weeks alone with Ruby sounded like a plan I could live with.

  He nodded once. “Probably for the best. She’s a distraction, that’s for sure.” He turned to one of his men and spoke quietly. The man went off and came back five minutes later with a bag, which he handed to me. I peered inside. There was a small sack of grain, a pot, some clothing which didn’t smell too clean, but which we could wash, and a bottle of alcohol. I glanced up. “Thanks.”

  “Don’t thank me. Just help us out when you get the chance.”

  “We will,” Ruby said. “We’ll stop this.”

  Joe shook his head. “So innocent. What do you really know about slavery? You’ve maybe played pretend for a few weeks, all the time knowing someone is on their way to save you. But with real slavery, there’s no one to save you. Someone owns you and it’s forever. No hope that anything will ever change.”

  “But it will change. We’re already changing things. So are you.”

  He shook his head. “Naive as well as innocent. Come on, I’ll take you back and show you something on the way.”

  I had an inkling what he would show her and I wanted to stop it. But maybe Ruby needed to see where I had come from.

  What had made me the man I was.

  Chapter Three

  Ruby

  I got up, swaying a little. That had been strong stuff. Not as strong as the martinis I’d drunk on a Friday night after a long week at work though. That seemed like a lifetime ago. Another world.

  But everything was going well after a shaky start. At one point, I suspected Killian and his uncle might come to blows, but now they appeared amicable enough. It would be nice to stop moving for a while, spend some time with Killian. Forget about the outside world.

  I just wished there was more food.

  Hey, call me shallow, but I like food.

  I winced as I took a step. My poor feet could have done with some of that fast-healing cream, but somehow I doubted they had any here. I tried not to show it as I moved closer to Killian. I didn’t want to be a whiner.

  But Joe, the lovely man, must have seen something. He spoke to the guy who’d gotten the bag for Killian. He disappeared, then came back a minute later with some material and rope.

  “Sit down,” Joe said, pointing to the seat I’d just vacated. “We don’t have any spare boots, but this will do for now. Until we get something better.” He wrapped a piece of soft leather around one foot, tying it around my ankle as a makeshift shoe, and then repeated the process with my other foot.

  “Thank you.” I wriggled my toes, then stood up. While it still hurt, I could walk okay.

  “Let’s go then.”

  Joe led the way out of the cavern and into a tunnel. Not the one we’d come down, though; this one was at right angles and narrower, so we had to walk in single file, with a low ceiling that was no problem to me, but Kill had to duck his head. I followed close behind him.

  Up ahead, a low hum drifted on the warm air, growing louder as we walked, until it was a constant clamor assaulting my ears. And the air grew heavy with a thick, almost greasy stench that threatened to clog my nostrils. Finally, Joe held up his hand and we stopped. He beckoned us forward to where the tunnel widened enough for us to stand side by side. We were on a ledge above a wide-open space, a huge drop below us which didn’t seem to faze the men, but I edged closer to Kill and slipped my hand in his. He looked at me, and I didn’t quite understand his expression. Then I peered down into the space below. For a minute, nothing made sense. I was gazing at total chaos. Then slowly, my brain made order from that chaos. Smoke hung heavy on the air, and the floor crawled with people. Not even people—children, who moved constantly, shoveling, scraping, dragging equipment, harnessed like mules. They wore rags and shackles around their ankles. It was so horrendous that for a moment I couldn’t speak.

  “The shackles are new,” Killian said.

  “Since a few of us escaped, they made them mandatory for all ages.”

  “Nice to see you’re making things better.”

  Joe ignored the comment. “This is the smelting room,” he said. “Most of the children start here when they’re four or so.”

  I swallowed. “Did you start here?” I asked Killian.

  He nodded. “As soon as I was big enough to pick up a shovel. I remember I was excited. It meant extra rations, and I was always hungry.”

  I squeezed his hand. “I bet you were such a cute little boy.”

  “He was a monster,” Joe said. “Always getting into trouble, getting a whipping.”

  Kill ignored the comment. “Anyway, the excitement lasted all of about five minutes.” He nodded down to the floor below. “Welcome to hell. That first day, I cried. But never again.”

  My eyes pricked for him.

  “This is the reality of slavery,” Joe said. “Children born to it, who’ll die to it, never knowing anything different. Unless we do something to change things.”

  I had nothing to say. My mouth was dry and my heart ached.

  He turned away and we followed him in silence. On the walk back, my indignation grew, swelling like a live thing inside me, threatening to burst out like some sort of alien offspring. Consuming
me.

  By the time we reached the cave, I was about to explode. “We have to do something.”

  Killian turned to me, and amusement flashed in his one good eye. “About what?”

  “About those poor children. We have to save them.”

  “They’re not your responsibility. Your job was to get Yolanda Pendleton back to her father. So this can never happen on Earth.”

  “But we can’t just leave them.”

  “And you can’t save the whole world.”

  I thought about that statement for a moment. “Why not?”

  “Because…” He ran his metal fingers through his hair. “Damned if I know.”

  “Well,” Joe said. “I’ll leave the two of you to think about it. I’ll be back when I have some news.”

  I watched him go. I wanted to talk about saving the world, but a wave of exhaustion washed over me. I swayed and Killian caught me, picked me up and carried me deeper into the cave. He lowered me to the warm, soft sand, and I burrowed in, making a little hole for myself. Kill came down beside me. Wrapping me in his arms, he kissed me, came over me, filled me, and made slow passionate love to me. I was asleep as the orgasm rippled through my body.

  It wasn’t so bad. In fact, those days in the cave with Killian were some of the happiest of my life. Like a time-out.

  On the practical side, we’d set up a latrine of sorts behind a boulder. We washed downstream so the water upstream would stay clean for drinking and cooking. We were warm, we had food of a sort, drink, and each other. We made love constantly, until we were sore and too tired to move, and then we’d make love again. I never, never, got enough. He could make me want him with just a glint in his eye. We did it lying down, him on top, me on top, side by side, standing, from behind, in the water. I spent probably hours with his cock in my mouth, his tongue in my pussy. I still wouldn’t let him touch my ass, but that was the sum total of my limitations.

  We’d finished the bottle of alcohol Joe had given us, but on the third morning we woke to find a bag next to us with more food, another bottle, and a pair of boots that were almost a perfect fit. I was falling in love with Joe. I mentioned this to Killian and he growled.

  “Why don’t you like him?” I asked at one point.

  Killian was silent for a moment. “He thought he had the right to act like my father, tell me what to do.”

  “Well, he was your uncle. There must be something else.”

  “He also thought he could tell Kara what to do. It was his fault Kara ended up in the brothel. He said it was the one way out for a woman. Better than the mines. He pushed her into it. She could have stayed under the radar. She was beautiful, but that’s easy to hide in the mines. Joe told her to clean up, get the attention of the guards… I didn’t want her to go, and he told me I was being selfish, holding her back. That being a whore was a better life.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “I never spoke to him again after she died.”

  So much pain. I wanted to hold him, keep him safe, tell him everything would be all right. But I was in no way sure that was the truth. After a week, we hadn’t heard anything.

  “We’ll make sure it never happens to anyone again,” I said.

  He smiled. “Ruby Robbins, savior of the universe. Is that how you see yourself?”

  I thought about my answer. Who I was, who I wanted to be, and what I wanted to do. “Maybe it isn’t who I am right now, but it’s who I want to be.” I rested my hand on his bare chest. “With you beside me, I feel like I can do anything.”

  He shook his head. “You are seriously scary. But I feel the same. I never came back here because I was scared, and I never felt like I could do anything. But maybe together we can change the world.”

  I think I was falling in love.

  But honestly, as saviors of the universe went, I was pretty crappy. I decided I needed to address a few of my weaker points. So when we weren’t making love, Killian was teaching me to fight.

  With mixed results.

  The laser pistol still terrified me, but I could manage to hit most things I aimed at, if they were close enough. Hand to hand, my small stature was always going to be a disadvantage. Kill said I had to play to my weaknesses. Pretend to be puny—hey, there was no pretending about it—lull them into a false sense of security, get close, and bash them where it hurt. A direct hit to the throat or the groin could disable a man, and then all I had to do was run as fast as I could.

  But I’d discovered with a blade I bordered on brilliant. I could hit a target every time, and Killian had given me his knife as a present.

  Sometimes I felt like I could be happy here forever. Other times, I thought I would go crazy without access to ice cream and pizza.

  We talked masses. I told him about Earth and he told me about the universe. Not so much about Groth, which I knew he had no happy memories of, but the rest of the universe he had traveled with Zak. They’d flown the Helldiver beyond the edges of civilization, just to see what was there. They’d fucked and brawled and partied across the occupied planets. Worked when they had to—anything they could take on when they needed the money. Had fun. That could be my life, too. In between the serious stuff of saving the universe. If we ever got out of here.

  “But maybe there are more important things than fun,” he said.

  “I hope you can have fun again.”

  “So do I.” He leered at me and then made a grab for my ass. And we had some fun. Afterward, we fell asleep on the warm sand.

  Something nudged me in the side. I blinked open my eyes and peered upward. Joe stood, hands on hips, staring down at us. At me, actually. I was naked and wrapped around Killian. He was still asleep, and I poked him in the stomach. As he opened his eyes, his lips curved into a smile.

  “We have company,” I said.

  He peered over my shoulder. “What the fuck?”

  “Do you two ever stop?” Joe asked, his tone conversational.

  “You been watching us?”

  “Only when it couldn’t be avoided.”

  We’d been here just under two weeks now, and a new stash of food had appeared every couple of days, but this was the first time he’d shown his face. I pulled free and scrambled to my feet and found my pants. I pulled them on, followed by Killian’s shirt, which I tied under my breasts, only turning back when I was covered.

  “Nice nipple rings,” Joe said.

  “Thank you.”

  Kill growled. He was still down on the sand, completely naked, but sitting up, running his metal hand through his long hair. God, he was gorgeous.

  “Stop looking at him like that,” Joe said. “You’re giving me a boner.”

  With a huge sigh, I had one last peek, then turned away and found Killian’s pants. I tossed them to him. He got up, put them on, and took the bottle Joe held out to him. He swallowed deeply and then passed it to me. I took a ladylike sip—but who was I kidding?—then a long pull, felt it burn down my throat and set my belly on fire.

  “I take it you have news?” Killian said.

  “I do. And it’s not good.”

  Crap.

  I’d so wanted good news. My heart sank.

  “Tell us.”

  “We just got this in today. All ships were grounded for over a week after your little escapade. And tell me one thing before I go any further—why the hell didn’t you mention you were in cahoots with Zakary Mer?”

  Kill shrugged. “It didn’t seem relevant.”

  “How the hell could it not be relevant?”

  “He wasn’t even here.”

  “That’s where you’re wrong. Things have been going crazy on the planet. That’s why it’s taken so long to get any information. They’re certainly not announcing it, but your friend is currently residing in the dungeons beneath the imperial palace.”

  “Shit.” Killian turned away for a moment, no doubt getting himself under control. “You’re sure?”

  “The whole palace is talking about it. Well, the slaves a
t least. The imperial family hasn’t mentioned him, and there’s been no official statement, but it’s definitely him. Even though he disappeared twelve years ago…” He trailed off and studied Killian through narrowed eyes. “He vanished at exactly the same time you jumped to your death.”

  “We met as he was about to be tossed into the mines by his loving uncle. We bonded under a shared desire not to die, killed his uncle, and stole his ship.”

  “That’s how you got away. I’d always wondered.”

  “Now, all you have to do is wait for your own imperial coup, and maybe you’ll get off this shithole as well.”

  Kill paced the floor a few times. I knew him well enough by now to recognize he was seriously rattled. But then, I also knew that he loved Zak like a brother—the one person he’d allowed close in all the years since his sister had died. Mainly, I suspected, because he’d believed Zak was invincible.

  Finally, he came back. “Is he all right?”

  “From the information we have, it seems he’s alive. But he’s been undergoing a somewhat rigorous questioning. They want to know who helped him get away all those years ago. Whether there’s a traitor in the palace. Though traitor is hardly the right word. Apparently, he isn’t saying anything except telling them to fuck themselves.”

  I was trying to process this. If Zak had been captured, then he wasn’t halfway back to Earth by now with Rekowski and Yolanda. We’d been relying on Zak to come back and rescue us eventually. That clearly wasn’t going to happen now. And where were Rekowski and his horrible fiancée?

  “That’s not all,” Joe said, and I had an idea I was about to find out. “There’s another prisoner in the dungeons. Only no one knows who this one is.”

  “Any idea what he looks like?” I asked, sickness crawling in my stomach, threatening to creep up my throat.

  “Dark red hair, green eyes.”

  I swallowed the bile. “Is he all right?” I might not actually like Rekowski, but I hated the thought of him being tortured, maybe worse.