Page 5 of Taking Jenny (Planet Orhon #4)

Jenny

“ Y ou got Jac’s money, oy?”

The alien woman leveled what looked like a gun at Tiger’s head. I froze. Even with a weapon pointed at him, Tiger still smiled—like it was just a regular Tuesday. What kind of life had he lived to make this feel normal?

“I thought he paid you already,” he said calmly.

She adjusted something on the weapon and it began to whirr with a high-pitched sound. If Tiger was nervous, he didn’t show it.

“Don’t work on credit ’round here,” she grunted. “You thinkin’ he can stiff me?”

“Not at all.”

I had to admit, she was striking—skin black and gleaming in the sun, her pink hair threaded with beads. Her eyes were shaded, unreadable in the shadows of the trash piles. I tried to memorize every detail of her in case I needed to describe her to the police later.

Then she said, “You got as good a dick as your boss man?”

Tiger let out a smooth, practiced laugh. “Boundless, I had hoped Jac could settle his debt with you himself. For now, how about two thousand credits for the parking space?”

She sucked air through her teeth and squinted. “That’ll do for now.”

She held her arm up, and so did Tiger. The device on his arm projected a hologram toward her device. They looked like gauntlets I had seen at renaissance festivals, but metal instead of leather. Once she saw something happen that she liked, she uttered, “Pleasure doing business wit’ no one, then.”

“Thanks, Boundless.”

“Don’ you worry none ‘bout me. I didna see nothin’. Not you, not your lit’le human gash.”

I gasped. “Excuse me?”

“Oh, it talks Ladrian?” She reached out to rub my head and I swatted her hand away. “It’s cute when you get one that talks. Like chatty lit’le cina. She could fetch a good price.”

“What?” My voice rose. I was furious.

“We’re good. Thank you anyway, Boundless,” Tiger said quickly.

“Suit yourself.” She tromped off, disappearing into the trash piles.

I ran my fingers through my hair, trying to fix it. “What the hell was that all about?”

“Eh… Boundless used to sell humans, so—”

My knees went weak at the thought. “ Sell humans?”

He nodded, already walking toward the exit between the trash piles. I followed, more than happy to leave her behind.

“Humans aren’t widespread,” Tiger told me, “but they’re known to Ladrians. Your culture is considered…trendy. At least among the elite. You ever hear stories about people being abducted by aliens?”

I let out a dry laugh. “I’m very familiar with it.”

“There a reason for those stories, which are true.” He glanced at me. “Humans and their culture are a status symbol for the classed Ladrians. It’s popular to have them for servants.”

I frowned. “Do you mean slaves?”

“On Halla, there are some human slaves. Here, they’re servants, meaning they have to work forever for their Ladrians, but they are paid and have some freedoms. There are the rare humans who are not owned in some way, but I would guess there are fewer than fifty un-owned humans on Orhon.”

That sounded awful and I glanced around a little nervously. “Am I in danger here?”

He looked at me, his eyes dark with something sharp and possessive. “I’ll keep you safe, Jenny.”

I smiled, hearing the truth in his words. After seeing how he’d diffused being held at gunpoint, I knew he could handle anything. “I believe you, Tiger.”

“If anyone asks, tell them you are here as a donor.”

“What’s that?”

“Sometimes humans get sick, so if we can’t find what they need with the available humans here, we’ll go to Earth to get a donor. We screen them on Earth to make sure they’re a match—”

“You mean like, if a human here needs a kidney or something?”

“Yes. When one is sick, their owner does what they can to keep them alive. Otherwise, they look like a failure. We haven’t figured out how to use our organs in place of yours.

Blood sometimes, but not organs. We’re too big for you.

Human donors are considered untouchable by other Ladrians, because if someone is paying to heal their human, then they must be powerful. ”

Untouchable sounded better than being some random Ladrian’s servant. I slowly nodded. “Got it. I’m a donor.”

From the dump, we walked toward the city. Tiger kept close, the warmth of his body beside me more noticeable now that the air had cooled. I could feel his presence even when I wasn’t looking, like gravity had shifted and everything in me leaned a little his way.

“The main parts of Ladrille are laid out in a radial pattern,” he said as the landscape changed from debris to clean, well-kept streets.

“With plenty of open spaces between buildings. But the whole city, including the royal palace, is shaped like a teardrop, with the palace at the apex. I love the design of the city—it’s the only one like it on Orhon.

There are only a few cities on Orhon. It’s not as big as Earth. ”

“It’s so beautiful here, Tiger,” I said, in awe of how different everything was from Earth. “Thank you for showing me around.”

“Thank you for…letting me.” His voice went quieter, like the words cost him something.

As we continued, I noticed the streets were twice as wide as the ones back home, but they had to be in order to make room for what I assumed were their cars.

Some looked like dune buggies, others were more like ATVs.

Occasionally, a large one went through, looking like a bus with too few seats.

But then I realized that with their long legs, those buses were probably considered to be cramped.

The sidewalks were extra-large too, with enough room for eight Ladrians to walk side-by-side.

Between buildings were yards where dozens of children played on swings and other equipment. As we continued on, and I couldn’t help but smile at the people who walked by. The few who deigned to look me in the eye crinkled a brow my way, like they didn’t know why I was smiling at them.

There were aspects to Ladrille that were so familiar that I almost didn’t feel like I was on a whole other planet.

People walking their pets. The pets weren’t dogs, but still, they walked whatever those things were and cleaned up after them.

Children held their parent’s hand as they strolled down the sidewalk, chatting and laughing together.

The occasional food cart vendor hollered their wares at us. It felt familiar and alien all at once.

A warm breeze carried the scent of food, making my mouth water and my stomach growl loudly.

“Hungry?” Tiger asked.

I nodded, embarrassed, but he just smiled and crossed to a vendor. When he returned, he held two sticks of food and a drink.

“I grabbed us two squircen and we can share an olirck, unless you want one of your own,” he said. “I wasn’t sure if you’d like either of them. But I thought you might.”

I took a bite of something meaty on a stick. My eyes rolled back, and I groaned at the savory, delicious taste. “Wow.”

His brows lifted in amusement. “What do you think?”

“This meaty thing is really good,” I said, nibbling on another piece. “Do I want to know what it is?”

“Squircen,” he said with a grin. “Fermented vegetable curd, marinated and grilled.”

I squinted at the squircen. “That’s veggies?”

He nodded. “One of my favorites.”

“Tastes almost like really good teriyaki.”

“I’ve never heard of it.”

“If I ever get you to Earth, you have to try it.”

He smiled at the thought, and we continued our walk. I sipped the olirck and was surprised by the taste. “You have lemonade here?”

His brows furrowed in confusion. “What is lemonade?”

I shook the paper cup. “ This is lemonade.”

He laughed. “That’s olirck. A drink made with lemons and sugar and water.”

I giggled. “Which we call lemonade.”

“Oh,” he chuckled. “I guess everyone likes lemons and sugar together, huh?”

That grin made my stomach dip. I was smiling at a guy on a distant planet over sugar water. And somehow it felt like the most right thing I’d done in weeks.

Soon after the lemonade confusion, he stopped outside of what looked like a bar. The windows were blacked out in the front, but there was plenty of rowdy noise inside.

“I need to go in here to talk to some people,” he said a bit hesitantly. “Do you want to—"

“Come with you? Yes.” I threw away my trash in a nearby receptacle.

He paused. “It’s not a nice place.”

I raised my brows. “I’ll be the judge of that.”

The bar was dark inside, so it took a moment for my eyes to adjust. When they did, I didn’t like what I was seeing.

Tiger tensed up beside me. The bar was full of men, all of whom looked tired of people’s shit.

Tiger crowded himself around me, ushering me toward the back.

He looked to have someone in mind for our target.

When we stood near an older man, Tiger gave a friendly, “Summer, hey.”

“Tiger Orne, good to see you. Jac around?” The older man’s voice was gruff, but he wasn’t rude.

“No. He’s on a job. How have you been?”

Summer looked me over, before he asked Tiger, “You making side money these days?”

Apparently, I looked like someone who should be on an auction block. I stiffened, my annoyance flaring, but Tiger stepped in.

“She’s a donor,” he replied without missing a beat. “I’m just keeping an eye on her for her buyer.”

“Ah. Well, I’ve been good. Yourself?”

“Same. I heard there was trouble on Halla. You know anything about that?”

Summer sighed. “There’s always trouble on Halla. But, yeah, I heard Rex Terian was reborn to the ether. Pretty crazy. Had to be a badass to get the drop on him.”

Jac’s crew doctor Ode had killed Rex Terian.

It was the first time I had ever seen someone murdered, and the whole incident was still etched in my mind.

I didn’t know why she had done it at the time, but I learned he had murdered her family when she was a little girl and almost murdered her, too, but Sarah’s second companion Deacon had saved Ode from Rex.

I didn’t blame her for what she had done, but I wished I hadn’t witnessed his murder.