Another flash. But now Gor Lug’s back was to her as he narrowly dodged a club flying toward his head. He was only three spans away.
Finally.
Her legs obeyed her as she kicked up and out. Her boots met Gor Lug’s shoulders, but his momentum carried him back just enough…
She hooked her knees over his shoulders, pulled him into her. Then, with her thighs pressed on either side of his neck, shelocked her legs and squeezed. “It’s a shame,” she growled while Gor Lug attempted to pry her legs apart. “I would have preferred to split you open, but I guess this will have to do.”
He struggled and snorted, beat at her legs, but he couldn’t fully dislodge her. Eventually, he weakened from the lack of blood to his small brain. His body sagged against the pole.
Thick thighs truly saved lives.
Her shoulders were screaming at her, but she felt much better about things now that she had a kill.
It was then she realized the fighting had stopped. The only sound was the wind battering the tent. Had the stranger left? After all of that?
No, that wasn’t right. She couldfeelhim.
Somewhere in the dark, he stood and watched her. Something unfamiliar slithered down her spine.
Gor Lug’s body made a convenient seat for her, but she felt exposed. Trussed up for the true predator. He could see her, but she couldn’t see him. She licked her lips and was just about to speak when he finally made a sound. Rustling, too close for comfort. Then a single click.
Her arms came free from the anchor in the pole. The unexpected freedom caused her to shift, tilting dangerously. She couldn’t catch herself because her damn wrists were still cuffed together. Just as she entered freefall, she was caught. Effortlessly, the stranger lifted her by her hips, powerful hands sinking into the top of her ass.
Had she just been rescued? Like a damn damsel?
Liv could never find out.
Though he set her carefully on her feet, the stranger kept his hands on her. He held her upright as she tried to put the full weight of herself on her abused legs for the first time in hours. She hated being weak. She hated not being able to see a damnthing, and shereallyhated that she didn’t have her raze sword in hand.
“If you’re going to feel me up,” she ground out, “you could at least tell me who you are.”
His grasp only tightened.
Friend or foe? The question flickered through her head. Then she decided she didn’t much care who he was or what his intentions were. “Let me go, or I swear I will break each of your damn fingers, then cut them off and shove them so far down your throat you could braid your own intestines.”
A low, dark laugh reverberated through her. The hair on the back of her neck stood up.
His warm hands left her waist. “Do you always threaten those who save you?”
The voice was modulated with an unaffected dullness that suggested he was bored. She only knew one type of person who would go through the trouble of raiding an Orcru encampment to save her while hiding their identity.
A bounty hunter.
But who had sent him? The Lunaris pirates, who still held a grudge for that time she stole one of their ships? Or Cavlone? She’d had the displeasure of interacting with the Authority Blood Vulture turned galactic crime lord on more than one occasion.
Whoever it was, they were damn good if they’d found her here. “Who do you work for?”
“In less than two minutes, an entire horde of Orcru are going to have us surrounded.”
Over the gusts of wind hitting the tent, she heard their war cries. By the sound of it, there werehundreds.
Great.
The ground shook with their approach. “Then why are my wrists bound still? I need to get out of these, get my sword, and... Where’s that bag?”
Her plasma dirk lit the space between them. When her eyes adjusted, she found her raze sword’s hilt in his hand.
“How did you…?” She trailed off as she took it. There wasn’t time. Holding it with bound wrists was awkward, but she already felt better for having it in her possession again. A warrior without her raze sword, her father used to say, was like a nuo tiger without its claws. All bite.
