Damon was seething as he stepped off the ladder and sank into the muck of the bilge. Not that the other cyborgs weren’t pissed off to discover they had to hide in the sewage holding tank, but he knew the two fucks that had thought it up had had him in mind specifically when they did. He’d be willing to bet they’d be down here a while after the fucking authorities left, too.
Clearly, neither Jared nor Kane were nearly as delighted that he’d survived as Chloe was and he was pretty fucking sure he knew why! The bastards seemed to be laboring under the idea that she was theirs!
As his cellmates from the jail climbed down and stood beside him, he glanced up at the grinning faces above him for a moment before they closed the access panel, wondering if the air in his tank would last until they opened it again.
After a moment, he shrugged his pique off. As much as he loathed the situation, as certain as he was that Chloe’s cyborgs were thoroughly enjoying his misery, he also had to acknowledge that it was very likely their only chance of getting through an inspection. Of course, if the authorities were really determined to find them, they wouldn’t stop until they’d searched the ship from top to bottom—including the bilge—but at least they had a chance.
Hehad a chance. He had hoped that he might. He’d planned to try to escape if any opportunity presented itself, but he hadn’t actually expected one—not when four rangers had arrived to take him. That had seemed significant enough to him to indicate that he’d, somehow, given himself away.
The others who’d shared his cell didn’t agree. According to them, the company had issued a total recall and all cyborgs were being rounded up for destruction. They were soldiers, all three of them escapees from the disaster on Xeno-12, and, according to them, the company had been hunting them even before the recall was announced.
He didn’t know how he felt about the discovery that they, too, had changed, had become aware. In some ways, it was something of a relief to know he wasn’t the only one trying to understand what was happening to him. In others—well, clearly he wasn’t as special or unique as he’d believed he was if the company had grown alarmed enough to issue a total recall. They must be desperate if they were willing to show their hand.
That didn’t augur well for a bright future or a happy ending, he thought angrily, and he felt a pang of regret tamp his hopefulness a little deeper.
Here he stood, neck deep in piss and shit, and Chloe was risking her life to save his ass.Heshould be up there, protecting her! Not the other way around and not those two caveman throwbacks!
With an effort, he tamped his anger, reminding himself that hewasprotecting her. She would be in far more danger if she was found with him. At least by hiding he was not only giving her the chance of escaping alive, but escaping the law, prosecution—jail time.
He shook his head. He would’ve told her not to take the risk if he’d had any idea that she would. He still found it hard to believe that she’d not only remembered, but that their time together had meant enough to her to bring her back when she thought he needed her.
He would’ve been a hell of a lot more thrilled if she hadn’t behaved as if she thought he was an idiot child she had to protect, he thought irritably.
So much for thinking she was madly in love with him!
He supposed hewasan idiot or he would’ve realized immediately that he was a sex toy to her—just like he had been for all the others!
He didn’t give a fuck about the others, though, he thought angrily!
* * * *
Chloe was quaking inwardly when she went to meet the half dozen men that climbed out of the shuttle in her bay. It was some relief that their weapons were still in their holsters, but not a hell of a lot. Pasting a faint smile of greeting on her face as she reached them, she introduced herself.
The man in charge turned to the brothel proprietor. “Is this the woman who approached you and requested the sexdroid?”
Chloe lifted her brows as if surprised and turned to look at the man.
He stared at her for a good five minutes through narrowed eyes. “Nope,” he said finally.
Chloe’s knees went weak. She didn’t know if the man was blind as a bat, if it had been too dark in the brothel for him to see her well, or he had simply decided to lie. She didn’t care either. She would’ve kissed the old goat if the port authority hadn’t been watching both of them keenly.
The head agent glanced between the two of them suspiciously. “You’re certain this isn’t the woman?”
The proprietor’s lips tightened. “Didn’t I just say this ain’t her?”
“She’s the only female ship’s captain that’s entered the port today,” the man retorted.
“I don’t recall that I told you the woman was a ship’s captain. I just said I hadn’t seen her before.”
“So, you’re saying now she was a local?”
“Don’t be puttin’ words in my mouth! Didn’t I just say I hadn’t seen her before?”
“This woman?”
“Either fuckin’ woman, god damn it! The one that came to my place was older and shorter and plumper. I didn’t know her. That means she was a fuckin’ stranger! That don’t mean she came from no ship. She coulda come from anywhere on Thagorous or from any of the other ships in port, includin’ the ones that’s been in port all week!”
“You didn’t say that before.”
