Adiron (Corsair Brothers 1)

"Uh…no, because I talked to him last night." I put on my brightest smile. "I might have also put the idea in his head to leave us behind. By accident."

"Oh, Adiron. You didn't." Her tone is full of disappointment.

"I can explain." And I do, rushing through all of it. Of last night's run-in with Straik and how he eyeballed the stasis pods like they were the enemy. How he seemed so melancholy at the realization that his family was slave trading. His realization that he needed to talk to his uncle, and my stupid joke about how it would have been better if we never found the ship. "And then he said he'd be gone before anyone woke up."

Jade puts a hand to her forehead and moans.

"I know. You're disappointed in me. I am, too." Mostly I'm just crushed that I've ruined a good thing for Jade. "I've keffed it all up, like usual, but I'll figure something out. Just…don't hate me."

She shakes her head, then moves forward to pat my chest. "I don't hate you, Adiron. How did you know he was going to do something so ruthless and shitty? Don't beat yourself up, all right?" She sighs and looks down the hall at my brothers. "I guess I should be glad he didn't space us all while we slept, but it's not exactly rebuilding my confidence in there being good space pirates out there."

"If it makes you feel any better, I'm starting to think me and my brothers are the only ones." I cock my head, thinking about Zoey's new crew. "Well, with one exception, I guess."

Jade gazes at the portal, now empty of ship-to-ship passage, and her shoulders slump. I can see the realization hitting her, that she's been abandoned once more. I hate the sight of it. More than anything, I want to fix this for her. I'm going to get her off this keffing ship and somewhere safe if it's the last thing I do, I vow silently.

"I'm going to go wake the others," Jade says in a soft voice. "They need to know that our plan isn't going forward."

Now I just feel worse, because if I'd kept my big mouth shut, Jade and her friends would be safe on Lord Straik's ship. Instead, Straik's turned tail and abandoned us, no doubt rushing off to Risda III to go talk to his uncle. "I'll wait here in case my brothers wake up. They're gonna be pissed." I think about the gas they were probably given and add, "And hungover."

Jade nods, padding silently back down the hall. I watch her go, fascinated by the sway of her hips. I need to focus, but somehow her movements are distracting all of my parts, especially the ones below the belt. There'll be time to stroke one out later, I tell my cock. If we're truly stuck here, there's gonna be a whole keffing lot of time.

I move toward my brothers, nudging Mathiras with my toe as he sleeps, just to see if he's ready to rouse. I notice there's a small crate by the doors, one I didn't pay much attention to before. I move toward it and brush Kaspar's belt off of the crate.

More noodles. Man. Jade is gonna shit herself. I guess I should be glad that Straik doesn't want us to starve, but damn. He could have thrown in some fruit.

"Adiron! Adiron!"

That's Jade. Alarm shoots through me and I stumble over my sleeping brothers in my haste to get to her. I plummet down the hall and turn the corner to see her racing back toward me, a look of sheer panic on her face. "What is it?" I ask. "What's wrong?"

Panting, she skids to a stop in front of me, the blanket about to fall off her gorgeous brown body. The look in her eyes is sheer terror, though. "Ruth. She's not in her room. I think she's gone, too."

"Where?"

"With Straik."

30

JADE

My head is spinning with everything going on this morning. I thought we'd wake up, agree to work with the men to rescue the Buoyant Star, and become part of the crew. We'd hitch the Star's systems to that of The Darkened Eye and let our home of the last three years be towed back to “civilized” space and take our chances. We're relatively safe out here, but we've known we were living on borrowed time.

Now, though, everything has changed.

Straik and The Darkened Eye are gone. Mathiras and Kaspar have been dumped here.

And Ruth—stubborn, pigheaded Ruth—is somewhere on The Darkened Eye.

"You know she went to go spy on him," Alice says, wiping angry tears from her eyes. "You know that's what she did. She thought her plan was better than ours."

"I know." My voice is soft, my eyes dry. I'm too numb for tears. I've done my best to protect and lead my friends over the last few years and the thought of Ruth in danger and me unable to help her is like a knife in the gut. I know she's an adult and made her own decision, but I still feel responsible. I should have checked in on her again last night, made sure that we were all on the same page. Instead, I was distracted by thoughts of Adiron just across the hall, and what our future might mean if we joined forces with the men.