Page 183 of Gladiators of the Vagabond Boxset

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Oh, great. Dumb and Dumber were back. I cringed as I saw the two Aderian males walking down the subbasement corridor.

They still had spacesuits on and had clearly come from the direction of the private vehicle bay of the resort.

I ducked out of sight into the laundry room as they passed me, hoping they wouldn’t pay me any attention, that they wouldn’t notice me.

Aderians were freaky, though; it was really hard to hide from their senses.

At first, I thought it was because they just had a good sense of hearing or a great sense of smell, but I’d discovered that wasn’t true.

It was a relief to know that not every damn alien in this quadrant was better than me, but that still didn’t explain how they always knew how to find me.

Pass me by; I’m not here! You can’t see me!

I chanted in my head as the two huge, muscled men thudded through the bare hallway in their clunky space boots.

One of them had long hair in a braid dangling over a shoulder, a chiseled jaw, and a large scar over one eye.

I called that one Dumb because he was the brightest of the two.

He’d also never introduced himself, so I had no way to know his real name.

Dumb didn’t look at the door opening to the laundry room; he just stalked past it with a purposeful stride and a baleful look on his face. He was rather ugly despite the fantastic jawline and tended to use his looks purely as an intimidation tool.

Dumber, however… He paused, his pointed ears twitching at the sides of his shaved head, his eerie black eyes darting from left to right.

He turned on his heel, facing me, and his far-too-attractive face broke out in a huge grin.

“Hey, wait up, bro! Look what’s hiding between the laundry! ” He pointed a finger right at me.

My stomach turned to ice, and my hands went clammy with fear.

I was trapped and alone down here with these two, and no one at this damn resort would give a single fuck about what these two would do to me—as long as I showed up and did my job afterward.

“Leave me alone, asshole!” I managed to say, interjecting all of the anger I felt into my voice and none of the fear.

Dumber cackled—a sound that was anything but beautiful.

It grated down my spine, telling me of the pain in store for me.

I could already feel his touch, like a thousand fingers crawling all over my skin.

I didn’t know how he could always make me feel like that—so icky, so scared.

I didn’t even need to be alone and cornered to get this sensation.

Even in a crowded lobby, Dumber just had to look at me to make my skin crawl.

He didn’t approach yet, just stared at me with a malicious snarl on his beautiful face.

Seriously, if not for the eerie black eyes and the disgusting personality…

he was catwalk-handsome, all pretty boy, and crazy-sexy muscles outlined in his snug spacesuit.

His anthracite-colored skin, even in this glaring white light, still managed to glitter and glimmer like he was brushed with silver.

I backed up a little more, my back bumping into the hovercart, already stacked with clean sheets and hotel room supplies. I slipped my hands behind my back while I frantically tried to locate something heavy or sharp in the tray of bits and bobs—the things I used to fix up minor issues.

My hand closed around a type of glue gun, one I’d used more than once to restore a loose bit of carpet or tiling.

It wasn’t heavy, but if I pressed that button, a hot kind of glue would shoot out the tip.

Trying to ignore the creepy-crawly sensations on my skin and the way my heart pounded with something close to terror, I readied myself to hot-glue Dumber right in the face.

He stepped into the room, his mirror-smooth black eyes, with zero white, laser-focused on my face. “We’re going to have some fun,” he said in a singsong voice. Clunking boots indicated he was joined by Dumb, the guy’s ugly mug appearing over Dumber’s shoulder.

“Idiot,” he rumbled, smacking Dumber in the back of his skull with such force that the guy stumbled forward a few steps.

Hmm, I wondered if that was a contributing factor to Dumber’s declining intelligence.

“We have a meeting with the Director. We can’t be late,” Dumb said, but his black eyes did linger on my body.

I almost deflated on the spot. If they were here to meet with the boss…

they definitely shouldn’t be late. I called her the Dragon in my head for that very reason—she was extremely strict, easy to anger, and she’d happily take out her nasty disposition on anyone who crossed her.

Honestly, I was even more scared of her than I was of Dumb and Dumber.

When both of these assholes just kept staring at me, I tightened my grip around the glue gun I was holding.

I wasn’t about to beg or let them know just how scared I was.

Maybe that was stupid, but I found myself saying, “Better run along. Don’t want to leave her waiting.

She might just slap a collar on you and make you dance as entertainment for her guests.

” I had seen her do that once to someone who displeased her, so I knew the threat was more than valid.

Dumb curled his lips, displaying his filed-down, needle-like, yellowed teeth, but he didn’t say anything.

He grabbed Dumber by the back of his belt and yanked him out of the laundry room just as Dumber reached out to grab me.

They disappeared down the corridor, accompanied by the sound of angry words, thumping boots, and what very much sounded like Dumb hitting Dumber in the head a second time.

I didn’t celebrate my escape from their clutches, but I did stick my head out of the doorway to yell after them.

“Make sure to get ready for some ass-licking—she’s in a really foul mood!

” But they didn’t respond to my taunt, which was probably a good thing.

I wasn’t sure if Dumb would manage to restrain Dumber a second time.

Ducking back into the laundry room, I fingered the fancy lace necklace snugly locked around my throat.

The pale white lace was reinforced with metal thread and wire, and the locking mechanism at the back was tamperproof.

It was nothing more than a fancy version of a slave collar, a collar that matched my maid uniform, and was intended to look nothing like one. Hidden in plain sight.

Three months I’d been stuck in this hellhole by now.

Three months since I’d been stolen from my home and my crappy job in the crappiest part of Edentown on Earth Colony Four.

I needed to count myself lucky that I’d just been selected to be part of this resort’s housekeeping staff, picked to look appealing and pleasant, but also to blend into the fancy surroundings.

Best I get on with my work. I had far too many rooms to clean by myself and not a single break.

If I hurried, I would at least avoid being seen by most of the guests.

Some of these aliens here were just as obnoxious as the Dumb Duo just now.

I wondered what they were here for; they seemed the seedy type.

The Director only used them for odd jobs, but always out of sight of the guests.

The service elevator up to the top floor rattled so much that I had to drape myself over my stacks of clean sheets so they wouldn’t topple off my cart, but the door opened soundlessly because we wouldn’t want to disturb any sleeping guests.

As I pushed the hover cart into the plushly appointed corridor, I paused when I noticed a security guard in a neatly pressed suit.

He was standing at attention in front of one of the last rooms in the corridor.

Unlike the duo from earlier, this guy was not Aderian.

He was, as I’d learned, a Rummicaron, with a wedge-shaped head much like a shark's and rows upon rows of razor-sharp teeth.

I checked my list of rooms to clean, noting that the one with the guard was definitely on the list. I swallowed uncomfortably.

What was going on now? I wasn’t sure how to proceed, so I focused on the rooms I could clean instead.

At this hour, most guests were up, either enjoying an extravagant breakfast in the fancy restaurant or indulging in one of the many, many spa treatments this resort offered.