She surged to her feet.
Violet stopped near the foot of her bunk. “I hope you’re satisfied! Cain’s been taken to the brig for fighting.”
Anger surged through Amaryllis. It wasn’t as if she’d asked him to provoke Reese and Dante. She’d tried to avoid any sort of contact with him at all. “Not especially, but I guess they are. It’s what men do, after all, and they really don’t need an excuse when they’re itching for a fight.”
“If you hadn’t led him on there wouldn’t have been any reason for a fight.”
Amaryllis gasped in outrage. “I didn’t lead him on,” she growled. “I didn’t come on to him either.”
“Right. Like you didn’t with Reese or Dante?”
Amaryllis glared at her. “Don’t start that holier than thou shit with me! I know damned well you’ve taken at least as many lovers as I have, probably more.”
“I never incited any of my lovers to violence by trying to make them jealous.”
She hadn’t either, not intentionally anyway. “Because you couldn’t?” she asked sweetly.
It was all the goading Violet needed. She launched herself at Amaryllis with a howl of rage. Expecting it, Amaryllis merely leapt out of her way. Unable to change directions or stop once she’d become airborne, Violet slammed into the bulkhead. The collision stunned her. Before she could recover and launch another attack, Amaryllis landed on her back, grasped both of her arms and twisted them behind her. “I know this is hard for you, Violet, but try not to be a complete moron. If you want Cain, this damned sure isn’t the way to get him. What do you think you’re going to do? Kill me and toss him over your shoulder like he’s a prize? There are three males to every single female on this damned ship. And they’re all pretty. Pick another one.”
“Cain is mine!” Violet said through gritted teeth.
“That’s his decision, not yours … and he obviously disagrees.”
“He wanted me before he noticed you, and I want him!”
Amaryllis seriously doubted it. If he had, there would’ve been no reason to notice her. “And I want to go home! But we can’t always have what we want, can we?”
Violet growled and tried to buck her off. Amaryllis tightened her knees around the other woman’s middle, pushing up on her arms until Violet subsided, then shook her head in disgust. “This is really so completely crazy! I thought I was backwards when it came to relationships, but even I know someone either likes you or they don’t. There’s nothing you can do about it. It wouldn’t matter if there wasn’t another female within 10,000 light-years. He might settle for what he could get, but do you really want someone to settle for you only because they can’t have what they want?”
“Meaning you?” Violet ground out.
Amaryllis rolled her eyes, but she realized she was wasting her time trying to reason with Violet. The problem was, she didn’t know what to do with her if she couldn’t. She couldn’t just continue to sit on her and if she let her up she was more than likely to attack again. “Fine!” she said through gritted teeth. “If you think it’s going to make you feel any better to get your ass kicked and then get thrown into the brig, suit yourself. But I’m sure as hell not going to let you kick my ass just because you’re a fucking idiot!”
As she’d expected, the moment she climbed off of Violet, the woman scrambled to her feet and launched herself toward Amaryllis again. This time, instead of side-stepping, Amaryllis dropped back, catching herself with her hands, and kicked upward.
Violet was too close. Instead of catching her with both feet, Amaryllis caught the woman with one foot and one knee, launching her sideways rather than over her head as she’d intended. Before she could get to her feet, Violet recovered herself. Leaping forward, she caught Amaryllis around the waist. Her momentum carried both of them backward. They flipped over the foot of one of the bunks, hit the mattress and bounced off onto the floor.
Amaryllis landed on top. Even as she scrambled to regain her footing, however, she felt hard fingers digging into her hair. Fire flooded her scalp as she was dragged upward by her hair. She swung blindly at the new threat. Her arm was caught and twisted behind her back so hard she thought for several moments the joints would separate.
“Cease!”
The roared command jerked her out of the haze of battle. Gritting her teeth, Amaryllis subsided, dividing a glare between the two cyborgs that held her.
If she’d had any doubts about the barracks being watched, the guards surrounding both her and Violet dispelled them.
Without a word, the cyborgs marched her and Violet from the barracks and into the corridor.
The brig was in the bowels of the ship. Amaryllis had thought the barracks was up until that point.
Not surprisingly, it was full. Embarrassment filled her as she was marched down the main corridor and finally shoved into a small cell. Violet was pushed into a cell opposite hers.
They glared at each other for several moments before Amaryllis finally turned and surveyed her accommodations.
It wasn’t a hell of a lot worse than the barracks.
Shrugging, she plopped down on the narrow bunk and braced her back against the wall that separated her from the next cell.
“Are you injured?”
