“Nuts?”
He smiled faintly. “Emotional or you would not have, but I am fairly certain they admired your spunk, regardless, especially in defense of your men. I appreciate that myself.”
She shook her head. “I lost it. There’s just no getting around that. In all honesty, I think I was a little nuts. I just … I guess I’d convinced myself that they wouldn’t be hurt and I was just so afraid when I saw they had been that they ….” She halted, swallowing with an effort. “I know they’re cyborgs, alright? I also know that they aren’t invincible. Close, maybe, but not indestructible. Jared and Kane nearly died on Xeno-12. They came so close I can’t bear to think about it. I just don’t want anything else bad to happen to them.”
Reuel studied her thoughtfully and finally shrugged. “We are at war, Chloe,” he said gently. “I hope to avoid the worst of it, but there can be no true peace for us so long as we are hunted. Your men know this, too. The difference now is that we are fighting for ourselves, not for the Confederation. We are fighting for the right to live. We pulled a dozen more cyborgs from the space port when we were there. My people are scattered, defenseless because they are outnumbered and being systematically hunted down and killed. I can not turn my back on them … any of them.
“But for now, we will search for a place to live. We did manage to get away with the supplies, though there was some damage due to the hail of gunfire when we loaded the last of it.”
“The ship was damaged, too. I guess some of your company managed a hit, either that or Sebastian hit it and it was the flying debris that breached the hull. Either way, we’re going to have to do some repairs before we can make another jump.”
Reuel frowned. “Not good. I will get men on it right away. As I said, we brought more with us. They will have the locators … although I sent them directly to the med-bay to have them removed and destroyed. Regardless, it cannot be done quickly enough, I fear, to prevent the hunters from getting a fix on us. We will need to initiate the evasive maneuvers we had planned as quickly as possible.”
He rose. “You should try to get some rest.”
Chloe hadn’t realized until he suggested it just how exhausted she was. Instructing the computer to scan for other crafts and alert her immediately if it picked anything up, she headed down to check on the men and then showered and collapsed on her bunk.
She felt so refreshed when she woke, she decided she’d slept far longer than she should have. She knew positively that she had when she stepped out of the shower and heard the computer announce that they were preparing for a jump. Grabbing her clothes, she dashed back to her cabin, nearly skidding past the door since she hadn’t had time to dry off. She managed to get the bottom half of her suit on, but the damned thing was so clingy because of her wet skin, she gave up and climbed into her harness. She debated, briefly, whether to unbuckle the harness and finish dressing when they emerged from the jump. They had settled on a series of jumps, however—two hops, a skip, and a jump.
Settling back, she waited for the next hop.
The ship shuddered when it emerged the second time and that wasn’t a good thing. Unfastening the harness, she finished dressing and went to check on the guys. All of them were up and about—moving stiffly and with obvious pain, but up—with the exception of Jared and Kane. She was heartened, though, by the fact that they’d improved enough to be grouchy and complain about having to lie on the bunk. “If you’ll stay put, I’ll go get your breakfast and feed it to you myself. If you don’t, I’ll have the guys strap you to the bunks and then I’ll let them feed you.”
She had a sudden thought that cheered her even more while she was scrounging in the galley for something to feed herself and the invalids. It was her time of the month! Ordinarily, that wouldn’t have been cause for celebration, but it occurred to her fairly quickly that the timing couldn’t have been better. She was out of commission. The guys were out of commission. By the time she was over the hump, they’d be ready to hump again!
“Good deal!” she murmured to herself with a chuckle, double checking the calendar she kept just to be sure.
Damon had missed his night. He wasn’t going to be happy about that!
He was, in point of fact, royally pissed off.
“You’re hurt. You shouldn’t even be thinking about sex!” Chloe said testily when she stopped to check on him and he reminded her that it was his night.
“Well, I am not hurt that much and I am thinking about it,” he said a little sullenly.
“Let me see.”
He studied her through narrowed eyes but finally peeled his suit down to his waist to let her look. “As you see.”
“Yes, I do see and it’s just as I thought. You should wait.”
“I have already waited,” he said pointedly.
She released a huff. “Alright! If you’re still feeling like it tonight, come to my cabin. Last night was supposed to be your night, but you obviously weren’t in any shape for it so I’ll just figure that as my free night.”
Sebastian was outraged that she’d switched her free night for Damon. “Last night was his night! If he missed it, then he missed it!”
“He was wounded! It isn’t like he just forgot.”
“Nevertheless!”
“Even so!” Chloe shot back at him. “If he feels up to it, it’s his night. I didn’t promise you I’d try that weird thing you wanted to do, you know. I said I’d think about it, but things changed and I can’t. I wouldn’t be surprised if I started tonight and I had to put Damon off.”
“Started what?” he asked blankly.
“My cycle? Or, I guess, ended it. Anyway, pussy can’t play right now, so you’ll just have to deal with it.”
He looked more confused instead of less.
