“By Tiamat’s titties, do those boys smell!” He waved his hand in front of his face. Like that’d help. He swallowed the urge to vomit.
Morgan faced him with her fists on her trim hips, her gorgeous eyes squinted. Uh-oh. What did he say now that made her look at him like that?
“Tiamat’s titties?” She crossed her arms, raising up those glorious breasts again. “Why would you use that name?”
“Well, you know…” His mind went blank. Again. “I have no idea.” By Gilgamesh’s balls, he was tired of repeating himself. Gilgamesh? Well, shit. Time to go on the offensive. “What did short, ugly, and smelly say? Especially about me?”
“Don’t worry. You’re okay for now. I told him you were needed around here.” Her frown told him she might be dropping her earlier question, but no way would she let it go.
“Okay, needed. How so?” At this point, he’d take what he could get.
She dropped her arms and pulled out her handheld, checking the screen. She poked it a couple of times before showing him the screen.
It was a list of some sort.
“These are the major repairs that have to be done to theNebula Viper.“ She grunted. “Like yesterday.”
He took it from her and studied the list. Not that he could read it. Read. Could he read? He wasn’t sure. At least he couldn’t read whatever was on this stupid-ass thing. “I have no idea what this says.” He gave it back to her. “You’ll have to tell me what’s on it.”
Her smooth brow furrowed. “You can’t read?” She glanced at the screen. “But I translated it into English, which is what you’re speaking.”
Ari shrugged. “You told me that before, but I don’t have any idea what English is.” Much less know what language he spoke. Did he know any others? Hard to say.
Morgan tapped a finger on her screen. “Well, we’ll tackle that some other time.” She looked him in the eye. “What I really want to know is, can you help me with the repairs needed around here?” She waved to the immobile ship on the other side of the room. “At least until your ship repairs itself and you can fly us out of here.”
Ari glanced at the ship. No other sense of recognition came to him. He turned to Morgan and lied through his teeth. “Oh, you bet. Just tell me what’cha need and consider it done.”
“Come on, then.” Morgan pointed to a small crate behind him. “Sit over there while I check you out.”
Ari’s eyebrows rose. Check him out? He grinned. That sounded promising.
“Not like that, you idiot.” She blew out a breath. “You’ve been unconscious for who knows how long. It’s been at least twenty-four hours since I pulled you out of that ship, and I want to make sure you’re not suffering any lasting effects.”
“Other than missing my memories?” Ari grumbled and plopped onto the metal box.
Morgan ignored him and pointed her handheld at him, sweeping the thing up and down his torso. She did it twice, then pulled it to her and read the screen. She pursed her lips as she studied. Every so often, she’d tap or swipe across the screen.
The silence was getting on his nerves. He sprang from the crate and stood behind her to look at the screen over her shoulder. He scowled when the squiggly lines and swirls meant nothing to him. Forfruk’ssake, this was getting old.
“Well—“ He crossed his arms. ”—what does it say?”
“I don’t understand this,” Morgan whispered. Probably to herself. She seemed absorbed and said nothing else.
She stayed quiet, her eyes glued to the screen as she continued reading.
The growing silence gnawed at Ari. His nerves stretched tighter with each passing second, and his patience wore thin. Why wasn’t she saying anything? What was so wrong about him that made her forget he was there? The tension built up inside him until his face heated and his body shook. Swallowing a growl, he clenched his fists tight enough to bruise his palms.
Behind him, a loose pile of metallic parts rattled and shook violently before flying apart and crashing to the hard floor in a series of sharp, echoing clanks.
The noise snapped him out of his growing irritation.
Beside him, Morgan jumped. With eyes wide, she glanced across the room at the scattered mess. “I wonder what made them do that?” she muttered.
“Morgan—“ Ari pointed to the handheld. ”—what does that damn thing say?”
“Oh, well. You’re fine.” She eyed him up-and-down. “Believe it or not, there’s nothing wrong with you. At all. And I can’t understand why.” She glanced at her handheld before looking back at him. “When I found you aboard that ship—“ She pointed toElemiin the corner. ”—I ran a scan over you. You had massive internal damage and several broken bones.“ Her head tilted as she checked the side of his head. “Plus, you were unconscious and had suffered a severe concussion.”
Ari barked with laughter. “Didn’t you say I’d only been here twenty-four hours?” He smirked and nodded at her handheld. “That can’t be right. Stupid thing must be busted.”
