Page 349 of Gladiators of the Vagabond Boxset

I held my breath, waiting to see if this rich toddler was about to turn on us or if he would forget we were even here.

His shoulders lowered, the pistol disappeared back beneath his robe, and then he smoothed out his hair.

He sailed from the cell block with his head held high, completely oblivious to our presence.

That wouldn’t last. He’d be back, but I drew a relieved breath. We had a little more time.

“Now what?” Meena asked as soon as the door slid shut and the lights dimmed.

“We have to get out of here, Jakar.” Panic rose in her voice.

She didn’t have spots like mine to show her moods, but I knew them anyway.

It wasn’t hard to guess—in this case, as soon as they split us up, it would be all over for both of us.

I’d fight until I was dead; I wouldn’t be able to curb my instincts.

And she’d fight until she either killed that asshole or died trying.

We were much the same in that way. No wonder she was my mate.

“Now,” I said with more confidence than I felt, “you help me disable this collar, and we break the fuck out of here.”

*

Meena

Perched on my knees next to Jakar’s prone body, I apprehensively eyed the black collar strapped around his neck.

He seriously wanted me to get that thing off him with nothing more than the little metal clasp from my necklace and his freaking claw?

I didn’t think that would work. I remembered trying to pry off the lid of my own collar and getting shocked to hell and back by it.

I wasn’t looking forward to it, to be honest.

“You can do it. Don’t worry about hurting me.

Do it as quickly as you can. You got this, my little warrior,” Jakar said, a smile on his face, his eyes gentle and soft.

His stubble was already growing back, and I tried to focus on that, on how it always made him look so rakish, so pirate-like.

I might call him Tarzan, but damn it, I’d melt if he ever put on a pirate hat and coat and ravished me like in a romance novel. I knew he’d be up for that.

Okay, Meena, focus on that sexy role-play in the future—tons of it.

Just a little shock at first, but I could handle that.

Just a tickle, nothing too bad. I didn’t believe my own thoughts, but I was going to have to bite the bullet and just do it.

Jakar was a sitting duck as long as he had that thing on, and I couldn’t have that.

I needed him to make it out of here with me.

This life out here in space wasn’t going to work for me if he wasn’t in it.

Pinching the opened clasp between my fingers, I tilted his head with my other hand to angle him the best way.

We had very little light, and I needed as much of it as possible so I could find the edge between the lid and the tiny box of electronics attached to the collar.

For a while, I studied what I was looking at, shoving my nerves to the back of my head so I could analyze what I needed to do.

Biting down on the edge of Jakar’s leather belt—which he’d pulled off and insisted I use—I braced myself for the coming pain.

Probably not a bad idea to be biting down.

I remembered biting my tongue so hard it bled the last time I tried to yank this thing off my neck.

Waiting any longer might just make me chicken out, so as soon as I’d decided on my point of entry, I reached out and went for it.

Pain zapped up my fingers, making them cramp.

It tingled up my spine. It was a good thing I’d moved with such decisive force; I’d gotten the pin of the clasp stuck between the edges, though it hadn’t budged the lid yet.

Instinctively, I’d yanked back my hand at the onslaught of pain, but somehow the pin was still in there.

I’d have to reach out and touch it again, but now I knew what it was going to feel like.

Jakar’s entire body was locked up tight, twitching, his heels drumming against the metal floor, his fists clasped tightly, and his jaw clenched.

For him, the pain hadn’t let up and wouldn’t, not as long as that pin was stuck in the collar.

That alone was enough incentive to risk another round of pain, and with little finesse, I slammed my hand down on the wedged clasp, hoping it would free the lid from the force, but not break the pin.

The pain was much more intense this time, like fire licking along my nerves.

I wanted to cry; a scream was already bubbling from my throat, but the leather belt I gripped between my teeth muffled the sound.

I had only gone through a few seconds of it at most, and I already wanted to break down and give up.

This was just so painful, but Jakar was counting on me, and he had it much worse. I couldn’t let him down.

Almost too afraid to check if it had worked, I leaned in closer to see if I had freed the lid.

I didn’t know if I could psych myself up to go through it a second time if it hadn’t.

What little light there was allowed me to see several tiny exposed wires and something that looked like a circuit board.

I couldn’t see the lid anywhere, or my necklace and clasp, but I hardly cared about that. I’d done it. The lid was gone.

Jakar was panting, eyes wide and the spots on his face white.

I was pretty sure it was from pain, not fear.

Now that nothing was interfering with the lid, he was no longer getting hit with the pain promoter.

But to disable the collar… he’d have to go through it again, and we had nothing truly sharp—like my knife—to do it with.

He said he’d use one of the retractable claws on his hands, but I didn’t think he was capable of moving right now.

What if the alarm he’d mentioned had already gone off?

Guards could be rushing toward us even now.

Aching in my heart for what I was about to do, I snatched up his nearest hand and raised it to my cheek.

“Hey, Jakar, baby?” I said, waiting for his eyes to move from the ceiling to mine.

He was moving slowly, as if his muscles were stiff and aching even though he was no longer receiving the pain impulse from his collar.

I had to remember that he’d already received a paralyzing shock twice today, before this.

Worry spiked through me. Wasn’t that really bad for the heart?

I had to make sure that he got checked out by a doctor as soon as possible.

When his eyes were on mine, I made sure he could see how serious I was.

“I love you. You’re my light, okay? It took me a while to see it, but you are everything that’s good about this, about being here.

And I am not going to lose you.” His mouth moved, lifting into a tired smile, but the spots across his face blazoned to life, glowing like little colorful stars in the darkness.

I’d never seen them do what they were doing now.

Hina hadn’t mentioned this. Little rainbows shimmered all across his face.

It was extremely pretty, and emotion clogged up my throat in response.

I was pretty sure that meant he loved me too, even if he was currently struggling too hard to say it back in words.

“Let me do this with you, on three, okay?” I said, shifting the hand I was holding so that I could gently push on the pad of one of his fingers.

The claw pushed out of the tip, black, sharp, and thick.

It was the next best thing to a knife. Jakar knew what I was going to do, his expression resigned.

We’d agreed that he’d do this bit alone—no need for me to get shocked again—but it was obvious he wasn’t in control of his muscles yet, and we needed to hurry this up.

Guards were about to burst in here, or they would soon.

He needed to get this collar off, and as much time to recover as we could manage.

Biting back down on the leather belt, I made sure to tuck the other end into his mouth this time.

I winced when I spotted two bloody dents in his bottom lip from his upper canines.

Keeping my eyes on his face, I started to count, and on three, I dropped them to the wire box, pressed his claw inside, and yanked it through the wires.

Fireworks burst across my eyes as I did it, the belt dropping from my mouth and a scream escaping. While the pain lasted only a second, it was intense. My eyes watered, my teeth suddenly felt too hot, and something disgustingly metallic and burnt coated my tongue.

Jakar’s entire body had wrenched around when it happened.

I was left staring at his back, at the diagonal burn across his beautiful skin, which was visible through the tear in his shirt.

He was shaking, shoulders heaving, and his breathing was audible as he took in loud gasps of air.

I was terrified that he was going into cardiac arrest or something equally horrible.

Scrambling around his body so I could see his face, I saw that his body was twitching like he was having a seizure, but his eyes were wide open.

The spots on his face had turned yellow—which meant happy—which made no sense, given the pain he was probably still feeling after all that abuse.

Then he saw me, and I saw the way they flickered again, little sparkling shoots of color, rainbows.

Oh… He didn’t care about any of that. He was just happy because of what I’d said.

The freaking idiot, of course he was. My chest felt tight with warmth, my eyes prickling with tears.

“You… said… you… love… me,” he panted out, yellow eyes so radiant they looked like gold.

Taking it as a good sign that he was talking, I nodded, leaning in to brush my hand along his upper shoulder and down his arm.

My eyes scanned over his body to make sure he was in one piece.

The shaking was lessening, and his breathing was already evening out again.

“No taking it back. I’m holding you to that,” he said, his voice already steadier than before.

A hint of a smile teased the corners of his mouth, his spots settling into something that was almost a cross between pink and yellow.

I knew where his mind was heading. It was a relief: he was going to be all right, and now we had a fighting chance.

Tossing myself into his arms, I couldn’t stop the tears, whether I wanted them to come or not.

“No taking it back,” I agreed against his chest. “Are you okay? I’m so sorry you had to go through that…

” Stroking my fingers over his pectoral muscles, I pressed my ear to his heart, hearing a steady double thump that was entirely unlike a human heartbeat.

“I’m not the one with the bleeding nose, Meena,” Jakar said into the crown of my head, all four of his arms coming around me to hug me tightly to his body. I felt him shudder. “That was bad, but we made it. Now, we’ve got to move before the guards get here.”

His words proved to be prophetic. I had only just sat back up, wiping blood from my nose with the back of my hand, when the door to the cell block opened. The two of us froze in place, eyes wide as we looked at each other. Was this it? I didn’t think Jakar had recovered enough to fight.

My jaw firmed, my hands closed into fists, then it was up to me.

I turned to the door, prepared to grapple for the first weapon that came within reach.

I hoped I could surprise that rich asshole and take the little pistol from him; everyone seemed duly impressed with the small weapon, despite its size.