SEVERAL OPPRESSIVEhours dragged by and her finger remained hooked with his. Neither of them spoke and she was okay with that, glad for the time she needed to come to terms with her temporary alliance with him.
His finger was warm, searing, the connection fragile. It wasn’t real, she kept telling herself. Their connection was borne of the events around them. If she had encountered Gunner in any other circumstance, it would never have progressed more than an encounter, one she would be lucky enough to live through. He was that frightening, that intimidating, and in the back of her mind, a man who, even now, she should be staying clear of.
But he held her finger and she held his. The contact grounded her and she wanted more. Elodie twitched her other fingers, searching, but didn’t make a further move in interlocking them. When she glanced his way, his head was resting back on the wall, his eyes shut, his body loose and unmoving, giving off the appearance of sleep.
The brig had grown quieter since Kallan left, and it was almost to the point of relaxing, if it weren’t for the two men down the row still conversing under their breath.
She saw them as herself and her dad, fighting, in a stalemate, neither one knowing how to proceed.I could never beat my dad.Never. He would never have beaten her either. It wasn’t his way. Elodie would swear on both their lives that he would never lift a hand to hurt her.
She sighed, praying that he was okay. That he was alive, and somewhere safe in his element elsewhere on this ship.
One of the two men stood abruptly and grunted. He began to pace angrily across the space.
“Gunner?” she whispered.
“Hmm...”
“Could they use the electric prod to their advantage?”
They had a weapon between them after all.
“They could try.”
“Do you think they might?”
He lifted his head off the wall and opened his eyes, lasering them straight at the men. Several minutes went by in silence before he answered. “It’s a possibility but a stupid one. Those prods only have so much charge and only work with direct contact. They’d be sitting ducks against gunfire. Let’s say only the one guard returns and they take him out, take his gun, and gets his key. Let’s say they figure it out and release everyone in the brig. We would be two dozen half-starved men against at least triple our number with weapons. You see that.” He pointed to a pipe that ran down the length of the brig. “There’s a hole every two yards and a camera that feeds to security—”
“How do you know?”
“I can feed myself into it and see through them. If,” he continued before she could ask more, “they managed to do all that, whoever is watching and maintaining security, AI or human, would know immediately and a siren would go off, locking us in. Now, let’s say we manage to get outside this hold before that triggers, we now have a large unknown ship to deal with that not only has armed men but also androids protecting it. There’s no happy ending to that plan, none whatsoever, and the guard who left his weapon knew that.”
“What if we do manage to get out of here and into the ship? Some of us are skilled gunmen and fighters even if we’re weak, the adrenaline would take over. We could manage to kill a few more guards, get a few more weapons and work our way through. We could set traps?”
“Are you thinking about escaping, Ely?” Gunner taunted her with a smirk.
“I’m thinking about all our options,” she mumbled and brought her knees to her chest. “It’s better than being miserable.”
He chuckled. “Okay. So, let’s say we make it that far. How will we get past the security blockades? Because there will be blockades.”
Elodie groaned and ran her fingers through her limp hair. “I don’t know? How did you do it?” She still believed Gunner knew more about what happened to Royce then he was letting on.
“I went at night and I was alone. Regardless, I would have to be willing to help you out first. And, Ely, if all this hypothetical suicidal bullshit went down, I’d be inclined to hang back and take a power nap in my cell. I’d have to have a damn good reason to foster a bunch of desperate prisoners on a last-ditch effort escape attempt. A damn good reason.”
She tore her gaze from the two men and looked at Gunner. His eyes bore into hers, flickering red and white, making her flush.A damn good reason. Fuck you.But the guns on his cheek wrinkled with the devilish twitch of his lips and her gaze was drawn from his eyes to his mouth.
Elodie sucked in her lower lip as her heart thumped under the insinuation. His finger caught hers more heavily in the hook. The small amount of flesh to flesh they shared threatened to be so much more.
She knew how to be a man, but to be with a man, her experience was limited and sporadic. She was no virgin, having educated herself during the brief stints where she wasn’t on a job, but her knowledge was vastly lacking. Her eyes trailed from his face to skim over his body. Powerful. Muscled. Intense. Gunner would chew her up and spit her out. Elodie wasn’t sure she’d survive the experience.
But the idea had taken root and her belly clenched.
I’m way out of my depth.He’sway out of my depth.
The men she accepted in the past all had one thing in common: they could all be easily handled. They were either cowed by her insistence that she would spread terrible rumors if they started crowing about their conquest or never knew her name in the first place. Gunner couldn’t be handled, let alone easily.
“I’m dirty,” she argued, unsure why. “Disgusting.”
Gunner tugged on her hand, the heat of his skin burning. “I’m dirtier. Ely...my skin is stained with so much shit, it’ll never be clean again.”
