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“Hey Rann, come to join the party? Bring your friends too—the more the merrier!”

Lowering his weapon, he strode toward her, stepping around a goat that refused to move. The others were behind him, but he barely registered their footsteps beneath the clatter of hooves.

Layla had what looked like a chair leg in one hand and an ax in the other. Goats milled around her legs. One brushed against her hip, and she nudged it aside with her elbow without looking down. Myla and Hope had turned toward the Reapers now. Their attention moved over his combat gear, then past him to the much larger males filling the corridor.

“Layla, where’s Blythe?”

The question came out harder than he intended, but Layla’s grin didn’t falter. She rested the chair leg against her shoulder. “Gone to give Joe his just desserts while we find Callie and keep these rat bastards busy.”

His chest loosened enough for a full breath. B was alive. She’d survived the boarding and being taken off the trader. And she was free. Layla wouldn’t be standing here grinning at him if B were still chained up somewhere.

Then the rest of it caught up.

Draanth. She’d gone after Joe.

Covak leaned toward Ryke. “There’s dessert? Why did no one tell me there would be dessert?”

Tell shook his head, rolling his eyes. “It means she’s gone to kick his ass, Covak, not serve him ice cream.”

“Really?” Disappointment rang in Covak’s voice. “Huh, humans are weird.”

Rann ignored the chatter. Layla was still watching him, and there were questions he needed answered far more urgently than anything to do with Covak’s appetite.

“Which way?”

She shrugged. “Follow the goats.”

He looked around. There were goats in front of them, behind them, as well as several currently investigating the Reapers’ boots.

“Err, gonna need a little more than that?”

Grinning, she waved an ax down the corridor. “That way.”

He nodded. There were goats everywhere, but there was also a definite flow of animals moving in the direction she indicated, disappearing around the bend.

“Thank you.” He inclined his head and whistled to get the team’s attention. “Reapers, let’s move.”

Turning his weapon toward the deck, he adjusted his hold so he could move quickly without catching one of the animals with the barrel. Ryke and the others moved into position behind him, all apart from Jex.

They all caught the absence of the cyborg’s heavy footsteps as Ryke looked over his shoulder. The cyborg remained beside Layla and the other two females, his dark faceplate tilted toward them.

“There is a pregnant woman unaccounted for,” Jex rumbled. “I will stay and help locate her.”

Rann went still for a moment.

Draanth, he’d almost forgotten about Callie. If she was still missing somewhere on the ship, pregnant, with gunfire and armed males trying to regain control… His hand tightened around his weapon grip.

He wanted to find B. Wanted to pull her into his arms and know for himself that she was all right. But there were six females, and he’d boarded this ship to get all six clear. He couldn’t forget that now.

Jex turned toward Layla. “I’m Jex. I’m a rated battlefield medic.”

Layla’s smile widened as she tipped her head back to look up at the cyborg.

Oh, trall. Rann knew that look.

She whirled the ax around her hand. “Come on then, tall, metal, and handsome, let’s go find her.”

Jex’s faceplate gave nothing away. Beside him, a goat stretched its neck to sniff at his leg.