Page 38 of Tempting Jupiter (Arena Dogs #2)

Feeona strode out toward the common area.

She heard whispered voices before she made it out of the hall and down the steps, but they were nowhere in sight.

She followed the whispers past sleeping kids and found them in the food prep area.

They were sharing one of the fruity treat bars she stocked for the kids.

A length of leather with an irregular shaped medallion attached lay on the table between them.

“Hi, guys. Everything okay?” She stopped three meters from the table to give Sen plenty of space. She could still feel his hands around her neck. But she knew he wasn’t going to hurt Toby. Even when Toby attacked him, Seneca was the one that had come away with an injury. Toby didn’t have a scratch.

“Yeah,” said Toby. “We’re on the same side now.”

“Side?”

Toby sat straighter. “Seneca is going to help me protect you.”

That surprised the hell out of her. “Is that right?”

Seneca dipped his head in acknowledgement.

Feeona didn’t know what to think of that. Maybe it was just something he told Toby to help the kid relax more around him. Seneca turned out to have a knack for relating to the kids and since she started covering her bruises, most of them seemed to have forgotten the big tussle.

“What’s this?” She eased closer then lightly touched the metal. It wasn’t an alloy she’d seen before.

“It’s mine,” said Toby. “Only thing I have left from my mom.”

He spoke with fondness when he mentioned the woman who’d given birth to him and then turned him over to the factory. Most of the kids didn’t speak of their parents at all after the first few months.

“May I hold it?”

Toby shrugged his narrow shoulders. “Yeah.”

She lifted the medallion and considered the size, weight, and density. “I’m not familiar with this alloy. Do you know where it came from?”

His brown eyes met hers. “Mom said her Dad gave it to her. I seen more metal like this in the hills near our village. Most don’t have symbols like this. Just old scrap.”

She hadn’t known Toby came from the hills beyond the badlands. His people didn’t rely on the factory. He shouldn’t have ended up there. Feeona laid the medallion back on the table. “I’m glad you were able to keep it.”

Seneca tapped the table near the medallion. “The symbol is familiar to me.”

Feeona’s gut quaked at the sound of Seneca’s velvet voice. So casual, as if he hadn’t come close to killing her. She pulled out the chair in front of her, turned it backward, and straddled the seat. The shapes on the medallion didn’t even look like a symbol to her, just random decoration.

“It’s part of a larger design the Mothers carved into the walls of the nursery.” Sen traced the pattern on the table, his gaze locked on Toby. “Along with this one.” Slowly, deliberately, he traced another symbol.

Toby grinned. “I remember that one, too. It means strength.” He tapped on his medallion. “The one on my cord is for protection.”

Seneca traced another symbol on the table.

Toby screwed up his face with effort. “I… I saw it before, but I don’t remember it so well.

She painted that one on our tent when my dad died.

” He looked up without focus. As if he were remembering or trying to.

The concentration on his face turned to sadness.

“Yeah. It was like grief…. Suffering. That’s it. Suffering.”

Seneca laid a hand on Toby’s shoulder. “Thank you. This is something I didn’t know. I am grateful to understand the symbols now.”

The sadness in Toby’s features lightened. “No problem. Your mother never taught you?”

Seneca shook his head and let silence answer.

Toby looked from him to Feeona, as if he could feel the tension between them. He wrapped his small hand around the medallion and got to his feet. “Goodnight. I’m going back to bed.”

Bed wasn’t exactly right. He’d been one of the kids sleeping on her floor. As he disappeared down the hall, she realized he must have woken and come looking for her.

“Are the Mothers the surrogates Roma used to carry you?” She’d noticed the way Sen had talked about them and his hesitation to answer Toby. From what Jupiter had told her, they didn’t actually have biological mothers.

He leaned back in his chair. “Yes, they were a different species. They gave birth to us but didn’t treat us as their children. At least, I don’t think so. They provided care, only as much as required by our Master. They never spoke a word except to chant.”

Feeona reached out on instinct to put her hand over his on the table. He moved his hand before she could make contact. “I know what it’s like to be discarded as a child. I’m sorry you started out that way, too.”

“Jupiter told you about the Mothers?”

“Only a little.” He’d told her about Seneca’s life between childhood and the arena. It had been Jupiter’s reason for denying what simmered between the two men.

Seneca bowed his head. “Knowing these symbols makes me wonder about the Mothers. Maybe they cared for us more than I thought.”

Feeona pulled her hand back and clasped the edge of the chair back. “Might as well believe the best, since they’re not around to disappoint you.”

They sat in silence for a moment before Seneca spoke. “Toby told me about the factory. How the Angel comes to save those who believe in her.”

She shook her head, vehemently. “No!” It made her sick to think they believed she picked and chose who would survive based on belief. “Toolman, my contact at the factory, chooses the children and sneaks them out. I would take them all if I could.”

Seneca stretched to clasp her wrist and pulled it onto the table between them. “Because you were one of them?” He rubbed the rough patch where her tattoo had once been. “All the children have a tattoo just here and so did that young male back on Karona Station. He called you Angel, too.”

“Yes, I was one of them and I’ve been helping kids get out for a long time. I had my tattoo removed, but the memories never go away. It’s who I am.” Shadows from the past raised tiny bumps along her skin and she pulled her wrist free to rub her arms.

“Did this Toolman help you escape?”

She choked on a laugh. “Hardly. He sold me to Roland—a con man who needed a child for one of his cons. He couldn’t have known Roland would be good to me. I got lucky.”

His ears flicked. “Toby told me he was caught in the woods and turned over to the factory. His mother died fighting off their attackers.”

“That explains a lot about how different he is. How strong.”

Seneca stared at her as if he’d just seen her for the first time. “You were like the other children. Your parents turned you over to the factory willingly.”

“Yes.” Feeona sighed. It was a long time ago and it was the least of her aches these days.

“I didn’t blame them for that. That’s just the way it was.

I’d never known anything different. I’d always known I was different from my younger brothers and sisters.

They all treated me differently. I’d been taught it was my job to keep the factory running so my younger siblings would have a good life. ”

He grunted an angry sound in the back of his throat. “They betrayed you.”

It wasn’t an accusation. There was no disbelief. He sounded certain. Feeona hated feeling pitiful.

She stood up and walked over to the counter, leaving her back to Sen. She wasn’t a victim anymore. “You’re pitying me. Is that why you’ve suddenly decided to protect me? Or did you lie to Toby about that?” She blurted it out with more fight in her voice than she’d intended.

Seneca stood quickly, making his chair legs scrape against the floor. “I am not the liar here.”

Feeona spun around to face him. “No. I’ve got that covered. And I don’t need your pity.”

He scoffed. “You think I pity you? I need you alive until I have Jupiter back. For the moment my needs are aligned with the boy. There is nothing more to it than that.” He bit off the last word and scowled.

Feeona nodded. “Fair enough.”

Seneca studied her, ears alert and tipping his head to the side. Abruptly, he stalked toward her and gripped her arms. She couldn’t stop the wince when he squeezed against her bruises.

“What aren’t you telling me?” He punctuated his questions with a shake.

Feeona’s eyes widened. “That’s a broad question. Liar, remember? Want to narrow it down?”

Seneca growled. “Your story doesn’t make sense. Why would I pity you for doing your duty or for escaping enslavement?”

Feeona tried to tug her way free, but Sen’s grip didn’t give. “It’s nothing. Nothing you need to worry about.”

He growled quietly. “Tell me.”

She bit her lip. Damn him. It really was none of his business, but if he didn’t settle down, he was going to wake the kids.

So much for that agreement with Toby. She blew out a frustrated breath.

“After I did the job for Roland, he offered to take me wherever I wanted to go. I asked him to take me back to Petro-5.” Her words spilled out in a rush.

“I’d seen how my parents were with the other kids.

How they loved them and played with them and kept them safe.

I snuck back to my parents’ home in the middle of the night.

I thought they would finally treat me like my siblings.

They seemed glad to see me at first, but after they bundled me up on a pallet to sleep, I heard them whispering.

I snuck down the hall until I could hear them clearly. ”

Sen’s grip loosened, but he didn’t release her.

He might have let her off the hook at that point, but she couldn’t stop.

“They were going to take me back to the factory the next morning. The factory thought I was dead. They weren’t looking for me.

” She swallowed to clear the lump that formed in her throat every time she thought about it.

She’d wanted to make excuses for them—maybe they were scared the factory would find out and punish them.

It was Roland who’d eventually taught her that true parents fought for their children like Toby’s mom had fought for him.

“I crawled out a window and went back to Roland’s ship.

This ship. He was waiting for me. He’d known what would happen, but he knew I had to learn it for myself. ”

Seneca’s hands fell away, and his big lavender eyes closed and opened in a slow blink before his gaze drifted down to her neck. “Your voice is roughened by the bruising in your throat. Have you done anything to heal yourself?”

“Yes, for that and for the other bruises.” He’d shown no signs of remorse, so his questions surprised her.

“Good,” he said. “It scares the children.”

She tried to take his words in stride. It wasn’t as if she’d been expecting any tenderness.

She watched him walk away with that sexy grace of his and stood there a moment after he was out of sight.

She stood there and listened to the quiet familiarity of the ship and the small movements of children moving, settling, breathing.

She stood there in her now crowded ship, utterly alone.