Damn Mal and his anguish, because that little bitch, hope, stirred to life inside me. As hard as I tried to talk her out of making an appearance, she refused to die quietly.
Was I falling in love? With all three of them? Was that even possible? Perhaps. A mother could love three children. A man could love three siblings. Three pets. Three friends. Why not three men? Males. Aliens.
Jeez, just shut the hell up and get up off the floor.
Once I had enough oxygen in my system, I opened my eyes and assessed the situation. I'd purposely made sure to fall with my hair covering my face like a sheepdog's would. Now I looked out through the strands to find Mal and Kayson held at the point of a blaster with two other jerks blocking them from moving to either side.
Kayson was curled in on himself, clearly in pain. I’d heard the blaster go off twice. Had Gee shot Kayson? Shit. And now he stood over Mal, a blaster aimed at Mal’s head.
“Why did you break in here?”
“Seemed like a nice place.”
“Hit him.” Master Gee gave the order but it was Amok who wielded the whip. The sharp snap nearly broke my self-control. Mal’s groan of pain made me force back tears. Everything was going wrong.
We were supposed to be doing the questioning here. Guess Master Gee hadn't read the memo.
I glanced at Mal. He was looking at me. Really looking.
“That’s right. That dead female means nothing. I’ll go downstairs and bring up three more submissives if that’s what it takes to get you to talk. I’ll have Gale choke them to death while Amok whips you. Doesn’t that sound like fun?”
“To a psychopath.”
“Or a sadist. After all these years together, Master Mal? You know I’m both.” Master Gee laughed as Amok brought the whip down on Kayson this time. Kayson barely jerked in response. The pain of his injuries had to be extreme for him to barely react.
Mal held my gaze for one more second, then looked away. He knew. He was the only one in this room who was paying attention.
Of course he was. The mind reader. The man who seemed to know me better than I knew myself. The one who refused to touch me.
Damn it. The little flame of hope flickered but didn’t go out.
Guess I’d better survive this disaster and work on my Seducing Mal plan of attack. I was not leaving this planet without having him at least once. Now that I’d let out my inner horny bitch, she was greedy, too. And I was okay with that. More than okay. I was tired of apologizing for what I wanted or needed out of life. D.O.N.E. Assuming we survived this fiasco.
Master Gee and his goons were idiots, regardless. No one had checked my pulse. They were ignoring me like I was a sack of potatoes.
Never leave an enemy at your back, gentlemen. Never.
But I was just a helpless little submissive. No reason to pay attention to me.
Mal and Kayson were both alive. I intended to keep it that way.
I took an incredibly slow, deep breath and prepared for the fight of my life. Three of them, and only one of me. Master Gee, Amok and Gale. Add in a whip and a blaster. And all three experienced fighters. I was quite sure they shared one goal as well—make sure , none of us left the room alive.
The smell of burned flesh and fresh blood filled my lungs. Mal’s blood. Kayson’s burned flesh.
No. Not okay.
Moving silently, I got to my feet and charged forward. I jumped Master Gee from behind and grabbed his blaster gun. Feeling the cold metal in my hands, I twisted it out of his hands and hoped it landed in Mal and Kayson’s general direction. I jumped off Gee’s back and threw a hard right jab into Amok's face before he could get his whip arm back to strike. The impact of my fist against his jaw hurt like hell but heard the crack of his teeth. I spun around and kicked Gale in the stomach, knocking him back before he could grab me from behind. Not again, asshole.
I heard the air rush out of his lungs as he fell to the ground.
Mal and Master Gee were rolling on the floor, trying to kill one another. I moved quickly, dodging Amok’s and Gale’s punches and kicks while waiting for the right moment to strike.
Amok backed off and I took the opportunity to go for Gale’s throat. Direct hit, dead center in the windpipe. He doubled over and dropped onto his ass, hands reaching for his throat as if he could somehow un-collapse the broken shit in there.
He’d tried to kill me first. I felt badly, but then I remembered their fancy ReGen pods.
He would live. Unfortunately.
