“Okay,” Junkie announced after clearing the lusty gravel from his throat. “There are two writing boards mounted on the wall at the back of the room. Use one for the female. One for the male. Sign your name along with the amount you’re willing to pay. Highest bidder goes first, everyone else in the order of their bid.”
One of the Taurans unleashed his stiffly prodding cock long enough to raise his hand for a question.
“Yes. They’ll wash between customers,” Junkie shouted, anticipating the Tauran’s question. “And yes, you can watch your comrades while waiting your turn. This is a Tauran-friendly business.”
“I want to see his cock,” the man insisted, lagging behind while most of the others pushed toward the far end of the barracks. “I was stuck at the back of the crowd and missed it.”
With a groan trembling on his lips, Jason pulled out of Lacey. Turning slowly, he showed the Tauran his painfully engorged shaft, gleaming with Lacey’s juices, his own pre-cum dripping from the bulging cock head. With a growl, the Tauran grasped his own serpentine cock in a biting grip and headed for the back of the room.
Higblith was the first to scrawl his name on the board. While the rest of the Taurans jostled each other for a place in line, Junkie pulled the officer aside and engaged him in casual conversation. After a few moments of idle chatter, he let loose with what he hoped would be a bombshell. “What were your men doing out at Nahita Moruu?” he asked, his inflection purposely careless.
“What are you talking about?”
As though realizing he’d made a mistake, Junkie hastened to reply. “Nothing. I thought I saw…but the sands play tricks on your eyes sometimes. A man would be a fool to travel out there at this time of year, especially without a strong insect repellant.”
“This time of year? What do you mean?”
“It’s tick season,” he lied, there being a big difference between tick season and the current mating season. “You’re familiar with our eYonan ticks?”
“I’ve heard stories of their size,” Higblith said, crossing his arms over his chest.
“Well, they’re all true. They can suck a man dry in five minutes.”
But Higblith swiftly lost interest in ticks. Drawn in by Junkie’s earlier comment, the Tauran played right into his hands. “These men you saw out in the desert. They were carrying weapons?”
Junkie faked an uneasy look, as though he was afraid he’d said too much. “It was probably just a party of spelunkers,” he suggested next, inserting the idea that there were caves out at Nahita Moruu. That was another lie but he wanted the Tauran to think there were places to hide out there, places where their Tauran scans couldn’t reach.
“Spelunkers? There are caves out there in the sand wastes?”
“At Nahita Moruu, yes. They aren’t that extensive but they’re interesting. The men I saw were probably just cavers.”
The Tauran’s expression grew severe. “After what you’ve just told me about your ticks, it seems unlikely spelunkers would risk their necks just to visit some caves. A man would need a good reason to visit the sand wastes during this…tick season you talk about. He’d have to be desperate. Maybe even hiding from something.”
“Hiding from something?” Junkie queried, trying to look as innocent as he could, which wasn’t easy when he had murder on his mind.
“They might have been eYonan warriors hiding from us.”
That was exactly the conclusion he’d hoped the Tauran officer would make. Casting his net for more information, Junkie feigned an indifference he didn’t feel as he said, “But certainly you have all of the eYonans somehow…contained.”
“Yes, we do…along with the Spaceforce officers we captured.”
That was good news. He’d been afraid that the Taurans might have separated the two forces. “Do you have any reason to believe you might have missed any?” Junkie asked, nurturing the seed of doubt that he’d planted.
“As a matter of fact,” Higblith admitted with a grimace, “we came here looking for a specific eYonan. Our…spies led us to believe we’d find him stationed here at this rock pile they call the Iron Palace. But when we performed a DNA scan on the captives, we didn’t find him. Somehow the bastard gave us the slip.”
At that point, Junkie was forced to hide his surprise. He’d hoped to trick the Taurans into thinking they might have missed some warriors and send them out into the sand wastes on a wild goose chase, or a wild tick chase, to be precise. He’d never expected for one moment that the Taurans were looking for someone. It was a miraculous bit of luck and played right into his plan.
“A specific eYonan?” he queried, his mind racing. There was something very dodgy going on. The Taurans didn’t have any spies that he’d ever heard of. They were traders and had always been traders, their biggest customers being the Grundians, according to Spaceforce intelligence. Junkie couldn’t help wondering how much the Grundians were offering the Taurans for the man they were hunting.
“We’ve questioned the captives about him,” Higblith muttered. “But nobody seems to know of his existence.”
“Don’t know or won’t tell,” the captain growled as he joined them.
“If there’s money involved,” Junkie proposed, “maybe I could help you locate him.”
The two officers eyed him distrustfully.
“I imagine there are those who might pay a great deal for a member of the royal family?” Junkie suggested, taking a chance and guessing at who they might be looking for.
Higblith gave him a cynical look. “You might sell your mother and sister but it’s hard to believe an eYonan would betray his queen.”
“I’d never betray my queen,” Junkie replied stoutly. “But if you were looking for one of her pansy-assed brothers…”
Higblith considered him for several moments then, with a grunt, he reached inside his jacket and pulled out a thick wad of intergalactic bucks, separating out several large bills and putting them in Junkie’s hand.
Junkie took a few seconds and pretended to count the money. Finally, as though satisfied, he said, “Your spies were right. One of the queen’s brothers is stationed here at the Iron Palace. In fact, he’s one of our best customers.”
“Well, we didn’t find him,” the captain muttered, eyeing the money in Junkie’s hand and looking like he was already feeling cheated.
“That doesn’t surprise me,” Junkie answered with a cynical sound of disgust vibrating in his throat. “He’s seldom where he’s supposed to be.”
“You don’t like this guy?” Higblith asked, watching him closely.
“I don’t think a man should receive special treatment just because he has a title,” he responded truthfully.
“Do you have any idea where he might be?”
“I couldn’t say. I can only tell you that you should have found him here. And that he couldn’t be more than a few hours ride away. That’s as far as a magnabike will travel without needing to be recharged.”
Higblith’s expression turned thoughtful. “How large a party did you see out there at Nahita Moruu?”
Junkie shrugged as he pocketed the paper money. “Ten or twenty, perhaps. The prince travels in a large crowd,” he added temptingly and again truthfully.
“Glathron,” Higblith barked, motioning a younger officer to join them. “Arm a party of one hundred. After I get directions from this man, we’ll be making a trip to some local caves.”
As the junior officer formed a party out of the disappointed Taurans who’d been counting on enjoying themselves with one of the two blonds, Higblith turned back to Junkie and asked him the question he’d been hoping to hear. “Where can we get some of this insect repellant you mentioned?”
* * * * *
“That’s it,” Junkie encouraged the Taurans not twenty minutes later, as they poured the tick pheromone onto their hands and patted it onto their skin and clothing, “slap that repellant on thick.”
“Keep your eye on the Adept,” Higblith instructed the capta
in who was staying behind with a small contingent of men, “though she should be harmless enough. An Adept takes several hours to change so she shouldn’t pose any real threat.”
“What about the other two?” the captain asked, while eyeing Lacey with a rapt attention undiminished by the fact that she’d covered her legs with a pair of men’s pants. She’d fished them out of one of the footlockers. Loose on her, the suede pants hung low on her hips.
Higblith shrugged as he reached back and rubbed some more of the pheromone behind his neck. “One of them is a whore. The other is a pimp. How much trouble can they cause?”
Junkie gave him a sour look then played his part. “You don’t mind if we go ahead and do a little business while you’re—”
“You’ll wait for my return,” Higblith barked, cutting him off.
“You were the highest bidder,” he noted with seeming reluctance while scanning the writing board at the back of the room. “We’ll wait.”
“You’d damn well better,” Higblith growled, his obscene gaze zeroing in on Jason as he backed out of the room.
“It might be a long wait,” Junkie muttered beneath his breath while rubbing a hand over his mouth and sharing an evil wink with Jason.
They followed the Taurans out into the yard and watched as they mounted the eYonan magnabikes. As the large party glided away from the recharge slots and out through the gates, Junkie leaned on the low stone wall that enclosed the men’s barracks. “I assume he was the one,” Junkie murmured, turning his head and watching Jason closely. “Higblith. I assume he was the Tauran you knew on Ibeeza.” As Jason inclined his head the barest fraction, Lacey gave first Junkie then Jason a questioning look. She still didn’t know about Jason’s scar or about the Tauran who’d given it to him.
Feeling that story was not his to tell, Junkie swiftly changed the subject. “That was some show you put on back there,” he told Jason, setting his voice to a low, appreciative murmur and making it clear that his admiration was sincere.
Jason gave him a startled look, clearly uncertain as to how to respond.
“When we’re done here, maybe you could put on a private show for Lacey and me.”
Jason dipped his head self-consciously then cautiously lifted his gaze, his eyes bright with emotion, his expression grateful. He looked as though someone had just given him permission to smile. In a way Junkie had. He’d just given Jason permission to be himself—half naïve innocent in love with a woman for the first time, half dark sensuous creature, a product of the harsh forces that had shaped him.
Chapter Twelve
Lacey throttled back the low growl that grew in her chest as she watched the two devastatingly handsome men sharing a warm smile. Those two were as tight as airlocks and it rubbed her the wrong way. Why couldn’t Jason see what a prick Junkie really was? For that matter, why couldn’t she seem to remember the same thing?
One knee bent in a casual pose, the eYonan rested his forearms on the wall that fronted the barrack’s building and Lacey couldn’t help but think what an attractive dark figure he cut. With a mental shake, she returned her attention to the situation at hand. “So, who’s this guy they came here looking for?” she asked him.
“Hmmm?” Junkie murmured as the last of the Taurans swept through the gates.
“The Taurans. That Higblith bastard said they attacked Judipeao hoping to catch some prince. And you said—”
“I was just playing along,” he tossed over his shoulder as he straightened his long limbs and started off across the yard, his slow saunter quickly accelerating to a fast clip.
“Well, if there’s a prince here at Judipeao, he’d have to be fairly important,” she suggested, hurrying to keep up with him. “Surely you’d know about him.”
“Nobody important here,” he murmured, his long legs eating up the ground while she skipped along beside him. “Just a bunch of common soldiers and a few ex-musicians turned warriors.”
“But isn’t Saxon a lord or something?”
“Just about everyone on eYona is a lord or something.”
“You’re exaggerating,” she pouted, setting her mouth to a mulish line.
“And you’re as persistent as a dagfish,” he muttered, flicking his gaze at her.
“Where are we going?” she asked breathlessly as she glanced around the normally busy yard, now pretty much empty. Only a handful of Taurans remained behind to guard the prisoners and hold the fortress. She was ready to go kick some Tauran ass and free her Spaceforce companions.
“We’re going to find where they’ve stashed the Earther weapons,” Junkie answered.
Bursting with impatience, she tried to keep her voice civil as she asked, “Wouldn’t it make more sense to spring our men while most of the Taurans are gone? Before they get back?”
“What makes you think any of them are coming back?” he muttered and she could have smacked him for being so contrary.
“Well, they all had stunners on their belts and at least three of them were carrying blastukas…”
“Stunners,” he said, “won’t begin to cover the job. And the blastukas will work up until the males start swarming. After that, they’ll be buried in ticks. But if any of them do manage to make it back alive, it will make a hell of a diversion.”
Lacey was definitely going to scream. She didn’t want to wait around for a diversion. With the claws that were curling at the ends of her fingers and the armored hide that was breaking out across the skin of her chest, she was confident she could wipe out the remaining Taurans single-handedly. “Higblith said twelve soldiers died during their attack. For all we know there are injuries—”
“Keep your thong on, Lieutenant,” he cut her off with a growl. “I’m still your commanding officer.”
Which didn’t exactly improve her mood. It chafed her that she was still under the command of the arrogant, overbearing eYonan. “Well, we don’t even know where they’re holding the prisoners. And you’re wasting time looking for weapons!”
Without altering his stride, Junkie flashed her an impatient look.
“How are we going to find out where our men are being held?” she demanded.
“I’ve got that covered.”
“What do you mean?” she shouted.
“When you want to know where the prisoners are,” he informed her through the tight clench of his teeth, “you get yourself thrown into prison.”
“Thrown into prison!” she yelled.
He stopped suddenly and turned on her, towering over her so that she had to tilt her head back to meet his gaze. “By searching for the weapons, we kill two birds with one stone. We find out where the weapons are and, after we’re discovered snooping around, the Taurans throw us in prison which is where we want to end up anyhow. Only, instead of arriving there without any useful information, we can tell our friends where to find their weapons after we bust them out!”
“Oh,” she murmured softly, momentarily distracted by his heated speech, not to mention the heat rolling off his lean, hard body, nudged up so close to hers.
“Besides,” he continued, as he started off across the yard again, “the only place large enough to contain all of our people is the training arena.”
“They could be onboard the Tauran freighter,” she argued stubbornly, hating that the man was such a damn know-it-all.
Jason gave her a strange look, clearly surprised by her suggestion. “Despite their size, space freighters have very little livable space,” he lectured her as though she should have known that was the case.
In fact, she was well aware that the freighter wouldn’t have room to incarcerate a thousand captives. She just hated for the eYonan to be right. He was so damn smug. And now he had Jason siding with him! “Well, we’d better get moving,” she muttered sulkily even though she was having a hard time keeping up with the two men. “We’d better release them before the Taurans get back…if they get back.”
“Agreed,” Junkie bit off, while lengthening his stride again, his
cleated boots digging into the sandy soil. “Although, I’m more concerned about Hamm freeing himself before we can get there. That would be just like him,” he gritted. “To deny me the pleasure of saving his ass.”
Lacey grinned at the idea, knowing Junkie was on to something. While she was still anxious about her family and friends, she knew there wasn’t a containment device made that could hold her Spaceforce companions for long. In the meantime, she got a kick out of the idea that Graham Hamm could still get Junkie’s goat, even without being present.
“Shouldn’t we mark Lacey before we get ourselves captured?” Jason asked, his voice tight with concern, his stride matching that of his commanding officer.
Junkie gave his head a brief negative shake. “I’d rather keep any Taurans we run into distracted and off balance. Besides, Lacey can take care of herself.”
“Well, don’t waste any chivalry on me,” she muttered, disappointed that her recent lover demonstrated so little concern for her well-being. After all, it wasn’t like she was indestructible. A laser blast between her shoulder blades would still kill her…as long as she didn’t see it coming.
Junkie stopped again. Surprisingly, the look in his eyes was ripped with pain as he grasped her chin and tilted her face upward. “Give me a break,” he growled. “I’d give my life for you, just as I would for any other soldier under my command. But it’s hard to protect the equivalent of a man-eating lion.”
“A man-eating lion,” she echoed dryly. “You’re just full of compliments today, aren’t you?”
“You know damn well what I mean,” he rasped, his expression dark as his gaze drifted down to her bare breasts and puckered nipples. His muscles rippled as he rolled his shoulders and shrugged his leather jacket down his arms. “Put this on,” he rumbled, helping her into the coat then tugging it closed beneath her chin, his face so close to hers she thought he was going to kiss her. His breath was warm against her lips as he murmured, “Keep safe, Lieutenant, and watch your back. That’s an order.”
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