Page 7 of Stealing Mercury (Arena Dogs #1)

Chapter Three

Four days into the trip and Samantha was exhausted.

Exhausted and lonely. The exhaustion was no surprise.

The Dove should have a four-person crew.

Most of the systems were automated, but systems checks and navigation updates ate up her days.

Dinners with Drake and Resler taxed her better nature and did nothing to make her feel any less lonely.

The loneliness was the biggest surprise. She’d told herself she’d become self-sufficient. That she needed no one. Stars, how she’d lied.

Samantha pulled her legs up onto the seat and rested her chin on her knees as she stared at the blackness of space.

It filled up the exterior monitor and threatened to spill into the small pilot’s station.

The work area to her left, with its empty seat, was completely dark.

A small monitor to her right provided the only light, a soft glow as her calculations for the next skip-point crunched by in a scrolling fountain of numbers.

The metal wall that curved up from the monitors to curve over her head was bare.

On her father’s ship, the walls had been covered with paintings she’d made as a teenager, her first year traveling with him.

She couldn’t help but wonder if Shred had left them or had he scoured the walls, back to the metal.

Back on the Reliable, she’d been too busy crawling around the enormous ship’s systems to dwell on the betrayal of her father’s crew—men she’d lived and worked with for years.

And then there were the more complicated emotions twisted up with her father’s death.

She tapped the monitor, switching to a view of the cargo-hold.

Like every other time she’d checked on them, the strangely beautiful men were all lying on the floors of their cages.

Not sleeping, but quiet and calm. They were probably conserving energy.

She sighed. These so called “Dogs” had been better passengers than the jerks currently drinking their way through a container of whiskey in the crew commons room.

Samantha zoomed the view of Mercury’s cage. It had been bad enough to know they were going hungry while she ate her fill, but now she was facing the prospect of watching them starve for three damn weeks.

The rendezvous ship should have been waiting at the last skip-point.

Ten hours ago. If they didn’t show at the next one, chances were they weren’t coming.

And she’d have to make a decision. One that could cost her any hope of holding any job in Alliance territory, let alone the chance to pilot her own freighter.

On the small monitor, Mercury scrambled to his feet. Samantha tapped the screen, returning it to the wide view of the hold. All three men were up and agitated.

Her feet dropped to the floor like the clumsy legs of a marionette, and her spine straightened. She was leaning toward the screen when the back of Resler’s head came into view. She pushed back, unable to think of any good reason a drunken Resler would be in the hold in the middle of the night.

As he moved further into the room, more of him came into view. He held a stun-stick in one hand. She bolted for the nearest hatch and the corridor beyond. Samantha sprinted down toward the cargo-hold. Her heartbeat echoed the heavy thunk of her boots on the decking.

A tiny voice in her head warned that getting between Resler and his prisoners would be dangerous. Would make things harder for her if the rendezvous ship never appeared, and she had to make the hard choice. But all of that was later. Right now, she couldn’t let him hurt them.

Sliding to a stop at the cargo-hold hatch, she jabbed the code into the entry pad, then twisted the handle and shoved.

The moment the seal broke, she heard the shouts and snarls and agonized yelps.

She shoved open the door. Resler stood at the end of the line of large cages on the far side of the hold.

He shoved a stun-stick into the nearest cage. “That’s right,” he taunted, as Mercury’s body twisted and bowed. “Can’t get away now, you bastard. You need to learn to keep your damn mouth shut when I’m talking.”

In the next cage, Diablo snarled and snapped.

“Hey!” Samantha yelled, but Resler seemed too engrossed in his torture to notice. Bile rose in the back of her throat as another bolt jerked Mercury’s body. His muscles locked in response to the shock, making him helpless to avoid the next attack.

“Hey,” she yelled again as she sprinted across the hold. She closed the last few yards and gave Resler a solid shove. His heavy bulk landed hard against the metal floor, pulling her down with him. He expelled a whoosh of breath as Samantha landed on his ribs.

She fisted the heavy cloth of his shirt and shook him. “What in the hell do you think you’re doing?”

Despite the adrenaline giving her an extra boost of strength, she expected him to throw her off, but his hands came up and he latched onto her arms. He leaned up, shoving his face inches from her nose. “You want a piece of me, bitch? I’ll give you what I was saving for Carnage’s whore.”

Spittle and rank air struck her face as solidly as a blow. She jerked away instinctively, but his grip on one arm tightened to bruising force while he released her other arm and took a swing at her.

Pain bloomed in her cheek as her head reeled. She leaned in close, not wanting to give him a chance to put any more power behind his next punch.

His body jerked beneath her, and he was pulled toward the cage. “Fuck!” His eyes widened like the boggle-fish of Celas5.

Taking advantage of the moment, Samantha rolled, jerking free. On hands and knees, she panted. She had to catch her breath. By the time she scrambled to her feet, Resler was thrashing madly.

He wrapped a hand around her ankle, trying to pull himself away from the cage in a belly crawl. “Get him off! Get him off.” Red faced, he screamed.

Samantha’s gaze shot to Mercury. Reaching out of the cage, he gripped one of Resler’s legs.

Resler kicked his free leg back toward the bars, but he couldn’t connect with Mercury and his kicks weren’t well-planned enough to get any momentum pushing off the cage.

He was doing more thrashing than anything.

Mercury jerked Resler back and used the bars to wrench his leg.

The sickening snap of bone blurred with the sound of Resler’s high-pitched squeal and, suddenly, her ankle was free.

Over the din she heard the slap of feet running toward the hold.

She hadn’t bothered to close the door and the noise must have carried through the corridor to Drake. This was only going to get worse.

“Wait!” She leaped toward the bars and fell to her knees to get down to where Resler and Mercury were locked in violence. “Mercury, stop.”

His eyes snapped up to her and his lip curled in a snarl.

Her heart pounded in her chest. He could easily release Resler and rip out her throat. Taking a chance, she stretched out a shaking hand and laid it over his.

His hand jerked, but he kept his grip on the still squirming Resler.

“Drake is coming,” she said. “Please stop.”

Gaze still locked on her, his grip eased, but he didn’t release Resler completely. He breathed hard, nostrils flaring, body still taut and ready to fight.

Samantha spoke softly, “Resler, be still.”

“Fuck that. Get him off!”

“Shit.” Drake’s muttered curse echoed weakly from the hatch. Samantha kept her eyes on Mercury but spoke to Drake. “Come get your man, Mr. Drake. And,” she said, deliberate and even, “don’t bring any weapons over here or make any threatening moves.”

The cargo hold had gone eerily quiet with only the sound of the men panting from exertion and Drake’s boots as he strode across the floor, then came to a stop at Resler’s head.

Samantha slipped her fingers under Mercury’s wrist and slid them along the heated skin, stroking gently over the large artery.

His nostrils flared in response. For an instant, they were back in that moment when she’d first laid eyes on him.

When he’d pressed his nose against the same spot on her wrist. It had been a moment of trust. She’d trusted him.

Now it was his turn. “Please,” she said. “Let go.”

His hand eased away and Drake pulled Resler free. She knew Mercury could change his mind and grab her at any moment, but she refused to show her fear.

She glanced over her shoulder as Drake hauled Resler up, arm over his shoulder, and to his feet. “Take him to the med-bay. I’ll be there in a minute.”

Drake looked grim as his attention darted from her to Mercury and back. “I’m not leaving you in here alone.”

Slowly, she backed away from Mercury’s cage, then stopped. “I’ll be fine.”

He huffed. “Don’t be long.”

“I won’t.”

She watched until they disappeared through the hatch, then she scooted forward and wrapped her hands around the bars of Mercury’s cage. She looked for signs of injury. There were plenty of scars, but nothing that looked new. “Do you need medical attention?”

He stared back, chest rising and falling in deep labored breaths. She wanted him to trust her more than made sense. He had no reason to trust her and every reason to be angry at the world. She didn’t expect stopping Resler’s attack to change that.

“One look and I should’ve known you’d be trouble.” She bent her head on a sigh. She noticed the stun-stick had fallen, or more likely been pulled, into the cage. It lay a few inches inside.

Still on her knees, Samantha met Mercury’s gaze and edged her hand between the bars.

Staring back at her, he seemed unaware of her reaching for the stun-stick, but the moment she touched it his hand manacled her wrist. She waited, heart in her throat, for him to break her arm or hurt her, but he kneeled there motionless.

Samantha swallowed, pushing her sand-dry tongue against the roof of her mouth. “You know they won’t let you keep it. Keeping it will just give them an excuse to hurt you again.”

His grip flexed, but he made no move to let her go.

“I’m not going to hurt you. Stars,” she cursed. “That’s the last thing I’d want to do. There might be nothing I can do about you being in these cages, but I’ll try to keep you safe as long as you’re on board.”

Mercury’s grip eased, and Samantha dragged the weapon between the bars.

“I know Resler is scum, but try to avoid drawing his attention, okay?”

Mercury said nothing. Big surprise.

“You probably didn’t do anything this time, did you? Why would you?”

She’d accepted that Mercury wasn’t going to speak. She’d been talking more to herself than to him, but it was Diablo who finally answered.

“He did it to draw Resler off Carn.” His voice made her think of the rumble of an approaching sandstorm. “He’s still weak from our last fight in the arena.”

She hadn’t bothered to check the others. Stupid. Carnage lay limp on the floor of his cage. She rushed over and reached in to check his pulse.

Diablo snarled and growled. “Don’t. Touch. Him.” He’d followed her as she moved past his cage to reach Carnage. His command turned into a steady snarl, but he didn’t make a grab for her.

Samantha held his gaze. “I’m not going to hurt him.”

Carefully she pressed her fingers to Carnage’s neck.

His pulse was steady under her fingers. She remembered Resler saying something about Carnage’s whore.

He must have been taunting him about their mate.

Did these men really share one woman? He’d said Carnage’s whore not theirs.

Maybe Owens had it wrong. “I think he’s just out.

If he seizes or doesn’t come around soon, call me. Okay?”

Diablo quieted. He tipped his head and his ears flicked. The very un-human gesture made her pulse race more than his growls.

She struggled to her feet, legs feeling rubbery, and started for the door.

“How?”

Samantha spun around. Mercury was on his feet, watching her with those stormy eyes. The one word had sounded dragged past his lips.

His gaze flicked toward Carnage and back. “How do we call you?”

Her cheeks felt tight, a smile barely contained. He might be stubborn, but the other two men meant more to him than his pride. “Just say, emergency response .”

“Emergency acknowledged.” The ship’s computer spoke in cold metallic syllables.

“Cancel emergency response.” She went back to his cage and picked up the stun-stick she’d forgotten in her concern for Carnage. “When the ship responds like that, you can talk to it the same as you would talk to a person. It’ll understand and respond. Within limits. Got it?”

Instead of answering, he pushed his hand forward. He pressed his palm high on her chest, warm fingers spreading against her bare flesh. Her shirt had torn at some point. She knew the skin there would have flushed golden during the fight, but it should have returned to normal.

Mercury’s thumb traced her skin, leaving a trail of heat. “The color changed when you were angry,” he grumbled softly.

Samantha gritted her teeth and counted in her head until her breathing slowed. Maybe Resler and Drake hadn’t noticed. A lot had been happening. She brushed his hand away and smoothed the fabric back into place. “I’d explain, but I don’t have time to give you a Cirrillian biology lesson.”

Mercury released her, only to palm her cheek. “You were injured protecting me.”

She knew there’d be a bruise across the cheek where Resler had hit her, but she might get lucky and avoid the shiner.

She shrugged. “You returned the favor, so let’s call it even.

” She should pull away from his touch, but there was something soothing about the heat of his palm on her cheek.

Such gentleness from a man capable of terrible violence.

“No,” he said. “We’re not even. This was not for you to do.”

“I only did what you did for Carnage.”

“Pack protects pack.” Something dark whipped up the storm in his eyes before he pulled away and his gaze slipped to the floor. “You’re not a part of our pack. This wasn’t for you to do.” He wouldn’t meet her eyes. Grief or guilt? “Stay away from us.”

His rejection caused an almost physical pain. Silly. Angry, she bit back her urge to shout, igniting a fresh wave of pain in her cheek.

When she’d calmed, she spoke through the pain. “You’ll find I’m not so great at following orders.”