“Cade,” I growled and clutched my stomach, feeling more of my child as it bucked inside me. The gestation period; it wasn’t possible for it happen this fast.
“You know, I don’t even want the bounty.”
I stumbled against the wall, ignoring his words. My pistol dangled from my hand, knocking against my hip.
I grew more and more anxious. The longer I walked, the more pain I felt. The stronger I wanted to be, the weaker I became. I was a fading star, one who couldn’t face the facts. We were supposed to die here. So why was I still acting like a hero?
“You were saying something?” I asked.
Finally, the barrel of my gun was against the center of his stomach. One move and more than enough bullets would rip through his liver and intestines. A sign of worry flashed on his face before he erased it with fury.
Moving closer to me, so close that the toes of his shoes tapped my boots, he lowered his voice and traced his fingers around the front end of the barrel. “I don’t want the fucking bounty,” he repeated.
“What bounty?” He had to be talking about Talis.
“The alien you so desperately whored yourself out to keeps secrets,” he said, pushing his stomach into the gun until it was now or never.
“What secrets?” I urged him to answer me.
“He destroyed an entire race of people, Mia. Millions of innocent lives, destroyed. Poof. And without any reservations either.” His voice was almost nonchalant. He was enjoying this far too much. And when he knew I had no evidence to refute this claim, he pushed the doubt in further. “You let the most dangerous man in the universe fuck your brains out. Now, you’re giving birth to his child. I ask you because I’m a friend. What is your plan here?”
Friend? Plan? The most dangerous man in the universe?
It took me by surprise. Talis was a brute, but he promised to be there for me. “I don’t believe it,” I said, taking a step back. “His planet was destroyed by the people who kept them slaves.”
What felt like electric shocks pulsed inside my ovaries. I lurched forward but kept my gun pointed. Cade’s smile definitely didn’t comfort me.
“He took you and raped you. And now, look around. We’re alone here, Mia. Not only has the world forgotten about us, but so has your... alpha,” he said.
“I... he’s coming,” I said with tears in my eyes. I was holding onto the belief that he didn’t use me, that there was no bounty, and that he was what he said he was. I wanted the good convict back, the alpha who let down his guard for one girl. Was it really all a lie?
Cade couldn’t stop himself. He took hold of the barrel and squeezed until his palm weighed the gun down. “He took you,” he said, licking the dryness away from the red valleys of his chapped lips. “He took you before I could ever get a chance. But now, you know the truth. We’re dying here, Mia. Everyone is dead, and we’re the last ones walking. I don’t care about the bounty anymore. The last memory I want to enjoy is fucking your skull clean as you die.”
There were no more smiles. The need for philosophical discussion had come and gone. The only thing left to do was pull the trigger.
Cade got one thing wrong. I didn’t give a fuck about anything anymore. Whatever Talis got himself into, he did it for his people. I was sure of it. I would stand by my man.
I clenched my finger around that firm metal hook and prepared for the kickback of the gun to fuck up shoulder. But the gun just jammed, and I wasn’t a trained killer.
Cade shoved the barrel down, knocking the butt of the rifle against the bridge of my nose. I crumpled to the floor, a mess of rushing blood and sinus heat. I couldn’t see, nor could I move. The pain was so abrupt I thought I might black out.
I should have blacked out.
Cade stood over me, looking pleased with his capture. He took my hair by the roots and pulled me up, observing as the streams of red formed into large droplets. “Sometimes, I miss home.”
He dragged me across the floor.
“Sometimes I miss it so much it drives me fuckin’ mad!” he shrieked and pulled harder.
My entire backside slid against the rough metal floors, and, every now and then, he’d nudge my head up by my hair just to get a rise out of me.
Cade was losing steam. As he dragged my body, his breathing quickened, and his eyes drooped with exhaustion. Sometimes, a man can turn powerful at the moment of his crisis, I thought.
The casualties of our space shuttle would always haunt me. I’d never rid myself of what I had seen and experienced. But this place, Cade, and all of the bad that came with it would not be remembered by anyone else. Somehow, that was comforting.
“I miss the mugginess of Louisiana the most,” he went on. “Miserable summers. Nothing to do except sit and watch the trees sway, the leaves lookin’ like the hair on Sasquatch’s ass. I miss the crawdad festivals. I miss the women. The bars. I miss being free and... I miss pussy. Don’t mind if you’re pregnant, honey.”
“You’re disgusting,” I said, spitting blood onto the floor.