Apparently that isn't the answer he wants, and I’m pulled back, only to be slammed into the door again until a pained groan is forced from me.
“Tell me again,” Kurrahstka demands.
My eyes roll, and I sigh heavily. “Treto is mated to one of the humans auctioned alongside your girls. We haven’t exactly broadcast that we know there are pure-blooded human females running around. We’re not idiots.”
Another grinding shove has me groaning against the door. Seems one of them took offense to the idiot jab.
My fingers are starting to go numb, and I flex them, trying to get the blood to circulate. Also hoping the male whose gut is pinning me is close enough for me to grab hold of him, preferably a soft part of him that I can squeeze and twist.
Unfortunately that kind of luck isn’t in my corner today.
“And were you involved with stealing Madame Athea’s girls?” Kurrahstka asks me. His voice is quiet, but I don’t miss the hard bite from his clenched teeth.
“Ah, unfortunately not.” I laugh.
Treto couldn’t wait for us to join in the fun, and when we finally arrived to the battle he’d incited, it was nearly too late to be of much help. Or to save Sone.
“Come now, Igid. I find it hard to believe your crew had nothing at all to do with their escape.”
My lips clamp shut, and I stay quiet. I’ve probably already said too much.
“Nothing to say to that?” Kurrahstka tsks. “No witty remarks or biting retorts?”
One of the brutes leans into me and whispers in my ear, “Tell Kurrahstka what he wants to know, and this will go much easier for you.”
When I hear the spark of the shock stick again, I start to struggle.
“I’m willing to bet you know where the females’ planet is too.” Kurrahstka says between more sparking zaps. “And you’re gonna tell me.”
Sweat breaks out between my shoulder blades, and I can’t help the way my body tenses, waiting for the first agonizing prod to land. This is going to hurt—because I am not going to tell him shit.
CHAPTER 25
BROX
* * *
It feels like an eternity has passed before we finally land inside Kurrahstka’s pleasure house. I’ve been trying to comm Igid since I finished talking to Rovos, but she isn’t answering. What’s truly worrying is why she isn’t receiving my comms. Not matter how many times I comm her, it just slides over to leave a message.
“Something’s wrong,” I tell Volethos.
“You keep saying that.”
It’s true; I’ve probably repeated myself at least six times since we arrived in Kurrahstka’s airspace. And each time, the feeling of unease settles deeper into my chest.
I barely get the shuttle docked before I’m rushing through the shut-down sequence. I can’t get out of my seat fast enough. A tremble has started up in my hands as I struggle to undo the harness. Once I’m free, I don’t even wait for Volethos before heading for the ramp.
“Brox, wait,” he calls after me, but I can’t wait. Not even for the ramp to finish lowering before leaping over it and sprinting through the station. Echoes of “Hey, watch where you’re going!” fall away behind me.
I have no idea where I’m going, so I let the pressure in my chest lead me like a lodestone. Across the vestibule, past females and males selling flesh, into a lift and then to the very top where I explode into a dark lobby that reeks of musky artificial sex.
“Can I help you, sir?” an orange-skinned female at the reception desk asks. I barely give her a glance before I’m storming across the lobby to an oddly bare wall at the opposite end. My fingers somehow find the hidden mechanism, and a door slides open. “Hey! You can’t go in there—”
The door closing behind me cuts her off, and I pause.
Which way, which way, which way…
My head snaps to the right. Did I just hear her moan?
