Page 128 of Gladiators of the Vagabond Boxset

Camila

“What would you like to do now?” asked the green-scaled Ziame from his seat behind the giant desk.

Thorin had propped himself up against a wall somewhere, and after he’d shown his Captain and Abbigail the footage, he hadn’t said much else.

I could tell he was bristling with tension, like a live wire.

I wasn’t sure myself what exactly I wanted, but having actual video evidence of something heinous going on with this trading mission…

That was something, right? Who was in those pods?

I doubted they’d be volunteers, and both Ziame and Thorin had been convinced that Drameil was not the type to welcome a batch of humans out of the goodness of his heart.

Likely, these people were destined for some form of slavery.

I shrugged. I needed to do the right thing and try to stop this trade from happening—to free these people.

But how? If I could just get the footage to the Alpha Quadrant and into the hands of several independent media stations, that might help.

Public outrage could well put a stop to it, and certainly, the people back on Earth and the colonies deserved to know what was going on. What exactly the mighty UAR was up to.

Fear for my family back home held me back, though. Would the UAR retaliate and harm them? Would airing this information make it a pointless target? I really didn’t know what the right move was. But I did know that doing nothing at all was the worst kind of choice I could make.

“Is there any way to reach the Alpha Quadrant with a communication? I think I need to make sure this footage is shown to everyone.” Yes, that felt good.

I think my dad would agree with me that doing the right thing was the best choice, even if it put our family at risk. That didn’t mean I wasn’t scared.

Thorin shifted against the wall, his green eyes fierce and angry as he stared at the datapad lying on the desk in front of Ziame.

“And can we find out where they’re meeting Drameil to do this trade?

” he demanded, fists clenched against his hips, ready for combat right now.

I understood his desire to strike back at the male who had caused him and the others so much suffering.

Abigail leaned forward to tap something on the screen embedded in the big desk.

“Ziame has located a contact that might be able to help us with this.” She twisted to look at her mate, as if to check if it was okay, and when he nodded, she continued with a smile.

“When Ziame was first captured by Drameil, he was part of an escape attempt that resulted in the freedom of three people. One of them is a human pilot who ran from UAR space.”

Interested, I leaned forward in my chair so I could see what information she’d pulled up.

Though the woman had not grown up with the kind of technology used aboard this ship—or any of its equivalents, like I had—she had certainly gotten very handy with it.

“Jasmin was captured while delivering cargo to one of Drameil’s many homes.

She and her mate, Yashan, flew off in her cargo ship, Beverly, and headed for Strewn, the shipyard. ”

I had never heard of this place, beyond Thorin mentioning they’d recently been there, but it had sounded like a huge place, and, on top of that, a popular one. I couldn’t imagine it would be easy to trace someone from there. I was curious how he’d located them.

Ziame was the one to continue the story, pointing at the image of a ship that Abigail had pulled up.

“Sunder asked around for a ship of this description, because we both remembered seeing it, and he made a contact who recently came through for us.” Okay, but where was this going?

Could they help us contact the Alpha Quadrant or not?

I was happy for Ziame for getting in touch with his old friends, but how was that going to help me and my situation?

Thorin had a different response. He’d gone from frowning and angry to suddenly grinning widely.

“I’ll be damned. Are you saying old Yashan managed to get with that pretty lady three years ago?

Good for him!” He seemed genuinely happy to hear about the escape of one of his gladiator brothers and was beaming now, his bright eyes focusing on me as if he wanted to share this moment with me.

The big, horned male snorted, a sound clicking in his throat, and then a small stream of fire curled up out of one nostril.

Shit, what the… Nobody told me this dude could breathe fire!

“Yashan was forty at the time, Thorin. I’d hardly call that old.

” Thorin’s happy expression immediately dropped, and in a much more somber tone, he said, “I know, but that was very old for a still-active gladiator. Just ask Sunder, and he had a bum shoulder. His days were numbered.”

Everyone was silent for a moment, processing that.

The statement drove home just how little a gladiator’s life was worth, what each of these males would have eventually faced if they hadn’t escaped.

Abigail broke the silence. “Anyway, Yashan, Jasmin, and their adopted kid are flying all over Zeta, and they sent us some info on contacts they made along the way. One of them is an information broker.”

Ah, and here things were starting to get interesting.

This information broker sounded like just the person to help get the message out.

Now, I just had to figure out what his fee was.

Could I somehow get the funds together to pay him?

I doubted these ex-gladiators were very flush with cash, and it wouldn’t feel right to ask them for money anyway.

“He can get the message out?” Thorin demanded, then added, “And where is he located?” He’d moved away from his spot at the wall and now stood behind my chair, resting his palms on my shoulders. “We need to get this message out. That will take the heat right off Camila, so she can return home.”

So I can do what? Startled by this statement, I tilted my head and looked up.

Home? That wasn’t at all what I was expecting out of this.

The thought hadn’t even crossed my mind, which was strange, because I really did want to go home.

So it was doubly silly to feel a little hurt that Thorin was just all right with me leaving.

Hypocrite, I was the one labeling this a fling.

I shouldn’t feel hurt when he did the same.

“He can probably do it?” Abigail offered, a slightly dubious look on her face.

“And he doesn’t want to get paid in credits.

He prefers trades or favors.” That sounded risky to me, but Thorin just shrugged, as if that didn’t matter.

For the next while, they talked about our route, when we would get there, and more planning things that I struggled with, because I didn’t know jack shit about this quadrant of the universe.

Eventually, we parted ways, and the only takeaway I’d really gotten from this meeting was that, yes, I could get my message out, and it was going to take us a week to get there.

Thorin had looked impressed at the ETA, and Abigail had proudly declared that Chloe, their nav, had gotten quicker since the new implant.

I had met Chloe, a slender blonde girl with a radiant smile and a quiet demeanor.

When I’d crossed her in the hallways, she always had one hand on the wall, using it as a guide, but beyond that she didn’t seem to let her lack of vision bother her.

Of course, when I had seen her, she’d often been accompanied by the fox guy, Kitan.

Now I just needed to figure out which media stations I should try to reach, and decide on a message to warn my family. I was sure this was going to be a long week, but at least I’d get to enjoy Thorin’s fantastic body a while longer. A girl could get spoiled by that.

*

Thorin

A week was not a long time, but I was determined to make the most of it with Camila. Man, I’d forgotten how much it sucked to do the right thing. I might have been a lawman once, but nowadays, I was firmly on the side of doing what was best for me. Okay, best for me and my brothers.

Which reminded me, it had been several days since I’d asked Fierce to try to find that Riho who was hiding somewhere aboard the Vagabond, and he still hadn’t gotten back to me.

I needed to follow up on that, so I headed for the brig, hoping I’d find him there.

Jakar and Da’vi had gotten us all together over the past few days, supervising us as we broke down the cell block that the slavers had quickly installed when they took over this pirate ship.

It had been cathartic to take it all apart, but it had also been noticeable to everyone that Fierce hadn’t pitched in.

I knew why, he had still been sleeping in that gods-forsaken place.

Now, the only place that reminded any of us of our time as slaves was going to be the brig, and I’d already caught him napping there more than once.

It wasn’t a surprise to find the male lying on his back on one of the cots when I got there.

His mind-bonded Ferai beast was lazily sprawled on his back on the other cot, blinking open one glowing ember of an eye, then sliding it shut again.

Fierce didn’t say anything, just sat upright and waited, eyes focused on my face.

The bone ridge on top of his head was a pale white slash in his multicolored hair.

He reminded me of an animal: waiting and observing, a little skittish even.

“Did you find that Riho? Or is it being as elusive aboard this ship as it is in the wild?” I asked him, not entering the cell but hopping up on the corner desk where a guard could be stationed.

I tapped the heel of my boot against the sturdy table leg and made sure I avoided eye contact.

I could still see the shrug he gave me. “No, no luck, but I’ll keep trying. You can trust me to take care of this.”

“All I ask, brother, all I ask. If you do find it, don’t scare or piss it off. Don’t want you to end up the same way as the Doc.” That was a serious concern. I’d already warned everyone aboard the ship, so they were on the lookout and knew not to approach it if they came across it.

My next stop was engineering, to make sure Da’vi had come through on Camila’s EV suit for her.

If she was going to be meeting this information broker, I wanted to be certain she had access to all the right gear.

But when I neared the cavernous, humming space, I heard voices talking.

Camila’s higher-pitched one layering with Da’vi’s deep sub-harmonics.

There was laughing, too, and I flinched, flashing back to how my partner back on Elrohira would chat up any male who could help her.

She’d done the same to me, stringing me along, and I’d been too young and foolish to realize it in time.

The biggest part of me—the angry part—wanted to barge in there and tell Da’vi to back off. To tell Camila that she was either with me right now or not. I didn’t deserve to be played behind my back.

I swallowed back that bitter, angry response and spun on my heels.

Camila was nothing like the bitch who had gotten me exiled; she was a goody-two-shoes down to her bones—a stickler for rules with a moral compass as straight as an arrow.

She’d never do that to me, even if this was just a little fling to her.

At least it sounded as if the EV suit was in good hands with Da’vi.