Ely sighed.
“I think you did.” Gunner settled in. “I thought about it but I didn’t want to give myself away...”
He waited for a response but once again, got nothing. He gritted his teeth.
“If you move closer, my body heat will warm you.” Truth.
Nothing.
“I know what you are,” Gunner bluffed.
Still nothing. Ely didn’t give him a single damned cue that he was listening. Gunner wanted to ram his fist through the metal between them and take hold of him but he knew the second he did, dozens of men and androids with guns would be triggered. They’d set upon him and he would be one step farther from finding out where his ship was.
Gunner rested his shoulders back and gave up. His control over the ship’s security continued to strengthen and with it, his need for revenge.
Time eventually slipped by as the cycle progressed and nothing else occurred. The quiet conversations had died at some point when he hadn’t been aware, but now that he was, he realized a new tension filled the air.
It was different from before, heavier, broodingly so, and filled with anticipation. He found himself staring at the door with everyone else.
And he knew, long before the rest, when the guards approached.
Two men walked into the brig with an android following behind. They headed straight for him.
***
THE DOOR OPENED FARtoo soon and Elodie’s eyes snapped to the men walking through. The first thing she felt was disappointment that her dad wasn’t one of them. Fear replaced her disappointment when they closed in on her dad’s old cell. Déjà vu struck, and for a split second, she saw the events from that evening played out again in her head once again.
This time instead of her dad, it was the new man playing the lead role.
Elodie had counted every minute that had gone by, knowing that it was a countdown to something bad, and the man who invaded her safe place only made the count that much harder. She knew Gunner hadn’t actually discovered her secret. It was impossible without evidence, and she wasn’t going to give him any if she had a say about it.
If that meant silence, so be it.
She stole glances his way when she knew he wasn’t looking at her. But every time he caught her, she felt trapped, caged, ensnared. No other man had made her feel that way before, not even when there weren’t bars between them.
So she counted down the time in her head, waiting for the guards to come in for their evening visit and find Gunner awake. Everyone knew he was going to be tonight’s entertainment.
It made her feel sick. It made her feel sicker when she felt relief knowing that she’d make it through one more cycle alive.
He hadn’t done anything to her, nothing that any of the other men in the brig hadn’t, and yet she was secretly wishing for him to be taken away.
“Look who’s awake,” one of the guards said.
“Boss’ll be pleased.”
Gunner stood and moved toward them. “You stole my ship.” His voice was deeper than before and low enough for her to strain for the words.
“We did. And it was easy,” one of them taunted. “We’ve ransacked it too.”
“Have you now?” Gunner tilted his head.
“Stop fucking talking to him and let’s bring him up for the boss. Get the door.” The other guard lifted his weapon and centered it against Gunner’s head as they opened his cell. Together, keeping their guns trained on him, the guards backed up a step, letting the android behind move forward and restrain him. She’d never seen the guards act the way they did with him. She wasn’t the only one who felt differently about the newcomer.
Elodie glanced between the three men. She knew based on his eyes alone, that Gunner was unusual, but standing next to the other male guards, his strangeness was even more obvious.
The electric shackles clicked into place around his wrists. Somehow, the noise made her want to giggle.
He was taller than the guards, leaner too, and the outline of muscle under his clothes was more apparent now that he no longer wore his jacket. In any other circumstance, she wouldn’t have cared what the men looked like, but this time, something compelled her to take notice. To size them up against each other.
