“However, if he fails to do so within a timeframe that I will choose in my own fashion, then he will be killed and you shall take your place as captain of this ship.” That wiped the pleased look off the fucker’s face.
“I will confess to nothing, as I have nothing to confess.” Back to bluffing.
Avith took a step forward. “I will make you talk.”
Rone kept up his bravado, even though he wasn’t sure what his next step would be. How would he be able to cheat Avith out of his win? He didn’t get a chance to think it through. Kuren’s next words wiped out all other thought.
“In the meantime, I will avail myself of your pretty little pet. I found its mouth quite delightful. I’m sure its ass will be no less so.”
“No!” The word was out of his mouth before Rone could censor himself.
“I suspected you have an unhealthy attachment to the thing. It doesn’t speak well of you, I’m afraid.”
Kuren reached for Frey’s leash, which of necessity Rone had dropped when he’d been seized. With a vicious yank, he pulled Frey into a tight embrace. He licked his tongue up Frey’s cheek and laughed when the boy struggled to get away. Rone felt the growl rising up his throat. He swallowed it down, the hardest thing he’d ever done. The only hope now for the mission, and Mother of All, for Frey, was Rone keeping his shit together and surviving Avith’s interrogation. If Rone failed, Frey would be in the hands of a male far more dangerous and cruel than Arpell had ever been. He couldn’t let that happened to his boy. His boy. His Frey. The pounding of his heart made him feel as if it was going to burst.
Preen’s screech cut through the bridge, taking Rone’s attention away from Kuren and Frey. The small creature squared off against a guard that was trying to grab its leash. Preen let outanother ear-piercing sound before leaping out of the guard’s way and heading for the door.
“Shoot that thing!” Kuren roared.
“No!” Frey strained against Kuren’s hold.
The human needn’t have worried. Preen was fast. It was off the bridge and out of sight before any of the crew could catch it. Rone relaxed a fraction. With Preen free, it gave him greater hope that, no matter what happened in the interrogation, Frey had a resourceful friend roaming the ship. In fact, if Preen were a game of quaz, Rone would have bet any amount on the creature coming out of this whole mess intact.
Kuren fisted Frey’s hair to stop his struggling. “If anyone sees that thing, shoot it, and you can keep its tail. It might make a good mating offering. I expect a female would like it as an accessory to a gown.” He shot a look at Avith. “Get on with it. I’ll be in the captain’s quarters.”
Rone watched Kuren drag Frey out of the bridge. There was nothing he could do to stop what was about to happen to the boy. All he could do for any of them was to hang on. He glared over at Avith.
“Let’s get on with this, shall we?”
Chapter Eight
“Idon’tknow,Dax.Itseems like a deathly dumb idea, as in we’re going to die if we try to do it.”
Dax scrubbed his face with his hands. “Yeah, I hear you, Cleo, but our new-found friends insist that we’re now tricked out with a jammer that will fool their sensors. This would be a good time to put that to the test, and it may be the only chance we get to bring that poor kid home.”
His first officer turned her dark eyes toward him. “I know you want to rescue Bjorkson, but he’s one person to weigh against the entire colony on Seven—and maybe all of the colonies. Maybe Earth too. Even if we kill the entire crew of that ship—which, by the way, I’m not sure we have the right to do—the Travians will still learn that we have the capability to sneak up on them. Do we really want to tip our hand for a rescue mission?”
“You’re not seriously worried that we’re under some moral obligation to spare any of the alien lives on that ship?” This from Branch, the chief of a security team consisting solely of himself. Dax thought of the guy simply as being the muscle of their small team because Branch was so huge that he made Dax, at six-seven, feel like he still had some growing to do. He knew Branch must be spoiling for some action, given how boring their journey must be for someone who literally had nothing to do on the ship.
“I’m afraid I have to agree with Branch, Cleo. I have no concerns about who I might have to kill to reach that boy. Remember, he’s not their guest. He’s been tortured by them for months. And, the minute the life of one kid stops being important, we may as well call it a day. Honestly, what would make us any better than those fuckers out there?”
“Come on, guys.” Ben, their practically toddler-aged engineer, had come up on the bridge to join the discussion. The kid was as loyal as a hound dog and as eager as a whole pile of puppies. Dax figured the kid had a crush on his captain, too, and that sucked, because Dax was no pedophile. Ben might be a genius when it came to mechanics and nearly nineteen, but he didn’t even have facial hair, for God’s sake. “This is some age-old philosophical shit about the needs of the one versus the needs of the many. Blah. Blah. Blah. Let’s go see if our cool new alien technology really works. We can decide who we kill or not kill later. ’Kay?”
Dax shrugged at the others. “The kid’s got a point.” Ben beamed as if Dax had just patted his head and given him a sticker for being such a smart boy. “Cleo, lay in the course.”
Frey lay curled on his side, as still as he could. He’d learned in the early days with Arpell that stillness hurt less. Back then, he’d fought hard, so his pain had been predictable, even a source ofperverse pride. This time, although part of his mind had urged him to resist Kuren with all he could, the more rational part of him forced him to acquiesce. It hadn’t mattered, in any event. Kuren had intended from the first to cause Frey pain for the sheer pleasure of it. Every scream the alien had wrung from Frey seemed to increase Kuren’s pleasure. There had been a few bad moments when Frey was sure he wouldn’t survive, yet his tormentor knew just when to pull back to keep Frey breathing for more fun later.
Giving up and dying would be so easy now. He was so tired of it all. His mother had believed in God and Heaven. Maybe she’d been right and death would be a new beginning with her instead of the endless void he feared really was waiting for him. One thing in particular kept him from giving up. Someone. Two someones, actually, and they were both on this fucking ship. Preen had escaped, and Frey could only hope the creature could evade Kuren’s murderous crew. More worrisome was that Rone was being tortured into a confession that Frey believed would be true. The idea that Rone had been a plant all along to bring down Kuren and his operations for the government made perfect sense. Believing that Rone was in some way a good guy helped Frey accept the feelings for the alien that he’d been suppressing almost from the moment of the fateful quaz game.
So, he stayed alive for Rone, as well as himself. If Rone could survive his torture and get them out of this mess, then Frey wanted to still be here for him. And, maybe, if Kuren became overly confident and Frey got lucky, he might get an opportunity to save his master. It was a long shot, but he remembered his mother telling him to stay strong, to not give up hope. As a wave of pain washed through his battered body, he stifled a cry and held on to that memory.
Rone roared through his pain and fell to his knees. The hard floor meeting his bare skin made him grimace—a minor discomfort compared to the myriad bruises and contact burns Avith had already inflicted on his naked self. The male circled Rone, waving his shock prod, gloating, but he didn’t get too close, Rone noticed. While Rone’s hands were cuffed tightly behind his back, his legs were still free. He’d already managed to kick the fucker once in the gut. The guards, who were there to watch, not interfere, had laughed. That’s when Avith had gotten serious with that prod.
Avith slammed the thing against Rone’s head before he could evade it, then followed through with another jolt to Rone’s chest. Rone landed heavily on his side, blood dripping into his eye, his heart skipping a beat from the shock. He panted his way through the pain.
“Had enough? I hope not. I like making you writhe on the floor. Nice to see a mighty Na caste male brought so low.” Oh, the guards liked that one. They laughed again, undoubtedly feeling the same as Avith.
Rolling back to his knees, Rone forced his legs to get him to a standing position. Unsteady as he was, being upright made it easier to avoid Avith and his prod. There was no telling what kind of arbitrary time Kuren would allot to this brutal dance. All Rone had to do was hang on, survive without confessing a thing. Knowing his life hung in the balance, Avith would get bolder soon, more desperate to force a confession from Rone’s lips. The other male likely thought he had the better incentive to prevail. He was wrong. Rone’s incentive was better. Rone’s was Frey. He would not leave that boy to his ugly fate. He’d survive this, bring Kuren down, and take that boy home to his people where he belonged. A different kind of pain washed over him. He didn’t want to give up the boy, not now, perhaps not ever.
