Page 48 of Tempting Jupiter (Arena Dogs #2)

Chapter Thirty-One

The tour of the ship led to Morgan’s private office more quickly than Feeona had expected.

It had probably been too much to hope he’d show her the security station first. What she hadn’t been prepared for was the speed with which his arm had changed from a gentle assist to an immovable chain around her waist. Sen’s jaw was locked so tight she worried he might break it.

The moment Morgan’s office door closed behind them his hand had gone straight to her ass.

“Hey, no need to be so grabby.” She tried to fend off his hand in an effort to calm Seneca down. Watching Morgan’s passes had him beyond agitated. He’d been too good to show it, but her skin prickled in warning.

Morgan’s slim face scrunched in frustration. “No more playing hard to get.” He grabbed her upper arms and yanked her to him. He thrust against her, pressing his arousal against her belly. “You’ve made me wait years already.”

She didn’t fight him, but she let Sen’s silver chain slip from her hands. He was already starting to growl.

Morgan rocked his hips against her again. “Sounds like we should have put your pet in a cage like the others.”

“Sen.” She spoke calmly and clearly, afraid he might be too far gone to listen. “Anyone outside the door?”

“No.” There were a lot of teeth in that one word. He’d shed the submissive posture and once again stood proud and defiant.

Feeona savored the moment Morgan realized his mistake in seeing Seneca as no threat. Sen was behind him in a blink, ripping Morgan away from her.

Sen threw him against the wall, then stood over him where he sprawled on the floor. “You will never touch her again.”

The idiot climbed to his feet. He tugged his shirt into place and brushed at his trousers. Blood marred his lip. “You’re not getting off this ship alive.”

The door to the room slid open behind them.

Before either of them could reply to Morgan’s melodrama, a plasma blast obliterated his face. Fee spun around to see Andre Cervenka slipping a blaster inside his coat. The man who’d once paid to abuse Seneca, looked casual and relaxed despite the body he’d just put on the floor… and the wall.

Seneca stayed silent. If Feeona had the capacity to growl like the Arena Dogs, she would have.

“Cervenka.” Feeona called his name to get the man to stop staring at Sen, but it didn’t work.

“Seneca.” Cervenka’s voice was wistful and lover-like. “I’ve missed you.”

Sen stayed silent and somehow managed not to leap across the room and rip out the man’s throat.

“Well, damn.” Feeona wanted to slug the older man in the nose. Of course, it wasn’t the first time she’d had that impulse. “Why in hell did you do that?”

“He was going to die anyway. Don’t be ungrateful, Miss…?”

“We had things under control.” She strode to Morgan’s com station and sat in his chair. “He’s no help to us dead.”

“I seriously doubt you need him. But you do need to know an unauthorized ship just appeared in the landing bay. Whatever you’re planning to do, you should make it quick.”

Seneca stood next to her. He vibrated with aggression, but he didn’t make a move toward Cervenka. “Can you hack in from here without Morgan’s codes?”

She looked at Sen over her shoulder. Despite everything else that was going down, she was way more worried about Sen. “Maybe. But I might have to go to the central security station. But Sen—”

He squeezed her shoulder softly. “I’m okay, Fee. Now isn’t the time.”

He was right. They had a rescue to pull off. “Okay. Good to know. But we need to find the code-key for the cage.” She shot Cervenka a look. “And I am not searching that mess of a body.”

Sen bent over the body to search for the small crystal-like object that was key to getting Jupiter safely out of the cage. They’d done their research well and knew Morgan carried it with him during auctions.

Feeona pushed away from the terminal and stood. “Cervenka is right about the ship. I’m getting chatter on the com about an invasion force in the bay.” She stepped into the old man’s space. “Are you going to be more of a problem?”

Andre sighed in a way that rolled through his whole body. “I’m afraid our intentions are at cross purposes.”

Fury flashed through her. She poked her finger into his chest. “You’re never getting your hands on Seneca again.”

He smiled sadly. “He’s safe from me.” He placed a hand over his heart as he shifted his focus to Seneca who now stood with the code-key in hand.

“I’ll always love you my boy, but I am content with my memories.

” His gaze slid back to her. “As you surmised, at a certain age my young loves no longer satisfy my physical needs. Even so, Seneca was hard to let go.”

She wanted to cut his balls off. She counted to ten before she could speak normally.

“Besides being a pervert, what are you doing here?” Her attitude probably wasn’t helpful, but the man didn’t react to her provocation.

“My old friend Grande Owens sent me here to clean up his mess.” His eyes shifted back to Seneca momentarily.

“I told you I was a fixer. It’s just not broken things I fix, only broken situations. I never lied to you, my boy.”

“He’s a man now,” Feeona snapped. “How exactly are you supposed to fix things?”

He frowned. “I have a team planting explosives at crucial points in the ship. Grande wants no survivors to go telling tales. He wants to kill the rumors of escaped Arena Dogs.”

Seneca finally allowed disgust to slip over his face. “He’d kill everyone on this ship to do it?”

Andre shrugged. “Mmm. Barbaric isn’t it.”

“Evil,” said Seneca. “This isn’t your sort of sin, Andre. You can’t seriously mean to kill all these people.”

“Sadly, I do.” Cervenka shifted his focus back to Feeona, suddenly serious.

“But I refuse to kill Seneca. I don’t care about the other Arena Dogs or you.

Don’t give a damn if the rest of you manage to escape the explosion.

I don’t imagine you’re planning to be very visible after this.

So, you get Seneca off this ship and we’ll agree to stay out of each other’s way in the meantime. ”

“Staying out of your way leaves too much up in the air.” Feeona eyed the built-in terminal on Morgan’s desk. “So, bring me up to speed.”

She pulled up a map of the ship on the screen. Cervenka stood beside her and pointed to several areas. “These are the locations for each member of the team. They’re targeting strategic bulkheads, the main power relay stations. The team leader is quite expert at this sort of thing.”

Feeona had studied the ship’s systems enough to agree. “Call them off, Andre.”

He shook his head. “I can’t do that. Why do you care about any of these people? They’re all in the slave trade. Criminals. You have plenty of time to get off the ship.”

She would never work for a slaver, but her hands weren’t clean enough to condemn every crew member onboard. Some of which had nothing to do with Morgan’s business and might be there as a last resort. And then there were the slaves. “How long, Andre? How long before these explosions go off?”

He checked his very snazzy palm display. “Fifty minutes.”

“I can work with that.”

“So pleased to hear it.” Andre’s words dripped with boredom.

Seneca growled. “Don’t be. That means she doesn’t need you anymore.”

Cervenka’s face twisted in confusion. “Seneca—”

“I can’t let you hurt another boy.” Sen was on him in a flash. There was a sickening snap and the older man’s body slid to the floor.

Seneca took a deep breath then locked his gaze on hers. If he was looking for condemnation, he wasn’t getting it from her. He moved cautiously forward and took her hand. “I did love him, or thought I did at the time. I hated him for that most of all.”

“He manipulated you and you were young. Men like him are experts at ensnaring the vulnerable.”

Sen nodded then seemed to shake off thoughts of Andre. “We can do this. Together. We’re a good team.”

“Yes.” She wove her fingers with his. The instant rush of their connection steadied her.

Muted the anxiety of everything that could go wrong.

She could only hope it was the same for him.

She smiled through the hurt in her heart.

They made a good team, but their time together was almost done.

Letting go of the two men she loved was going to break her.

“Let’s go. We need to check out the so-called invasion force. ”

“You don’t think they’re real?”

Feeona shook her head. “There is someone there, but the ship they came in on is too small for an army.”

“Let’s find out.” Sen led her through the winding corridors and back to the auction room. They didn’t need to go any further than that. The invasion force had started a war with Morgan’s security team.

***

Seneca scented them before they walked through the entryway. Blood rushed through his heart in an adrenaline fueled rhythm. His body buzzed, ready for battle. Fee froze the moment they crossed into the room. He tightened his hand on hers. “It’s okay. It’s our pack.”

She didn’t answer. Her eyes were blank.

A plasma blast hit a wall near them. He grabbed her and carried her to the floor in a nook behind Morgan’s stage. “Fee?”

“Jupiter.” Her eyes remained blank, but her voice was strong.

Seneca’s gaze shot to the gilded cage where his other mate crouched.

A lean human male with spiky white hair and dressed in gray trousers, a matching pullover and heavy worker boots stood by the cage door trying to hack the lock.

Or rather he would have been, if he wasn’t dodging Bug.

Fee was keeping him away from the lock that would explode if opened without the code-key tucked into Sen’s waistband.

The man clearly wasn’t a guard or a guest, but he was about to kill himself and take Jupiter and Creek with him.