innocent woman locked in the captain’s quarters motivated him to do so. The pirate crew couldn’t be allowed to get their hands on her, or she’d wish for death.
He dragged Mick’s body down the hallway to the airlock and shoved it inside. It took a little longer to cut the carpet under the two bodies sprawled on the floor of the living area and drag both to the same airlock, before sealing the inner door. He opened the exterior door and watched as the three bodies floated into space.
He sealed the outer door and opened the inner one again, shoving the fourth body—and the couch it had died on—inside. He opened the airlock once more.
The last body was more difficult to clean up. The guy had died half in a chair, half on the floor. Blade took the chair and the body to the airlock, as well as the carpet under both, so the decaying smell wouldn’t continue. After sealing the inner door, the airlock took the entire mess away.
Blade sighed. It would be difficult killing Clint and Craig at the same time. He could claim Mick was clearing the bodies while Blade piloted the luxury shuttle behind the Cracker, then open fire on the small transport once it had undocked. But Clint would never believe Mick was touching a dead body, nor could his youngest brother fly the massive shuttle.
They always made Blade do the dirty or dangerous tasks. That’s why they’d sent him inside to handle the crew alone with a useless weapon. It was for looks only. He was dispensable.
He needed a game plan.
He picked up Mick’s working weapon. It was an upgraded version of the one they’d allowed him to carry. He returned to the lower deck, an idea forming as he stepped out of the lift and moved toward the cargo hold with purpose.
Clint saw him the second he entered the room. “Where’s Mick?”
“He decided to check out the captain’s quarters. There are crates of weapons stored inside. He said that was more important than helping me deactivate the tracker. He’s also planning on scavenging the owner’s possessions, to keep the best stuff for himself. I wasn’t supposed to tell you that part…but my loyalty is to you.”
Clint cursed. “That fucking bastard. He should have gotten us first!” He stepped out from behind a tall crate of food supplies. “Craig, let’s go find that moron to remind him that we’re a team.”
Blade lifted Mick’s weapon the second Craig came into view. He fired and hit the male in the throat.
Clint reacted by going for his gun, but Blade had already targeted him. He didn’t hesitate.
Clint took a hit center mass and was thrown backward.
Blade advanced, prepared to fire again at either of them if they moved. Clint still breathed as he stopped next to him. The downed pirate clutched at his bleeding wound and appeared shell-shocked.
“Why?” he sputtered.
“I’m not your property, Clint. And that’s how you treat me. I put up with it out of gratitude for keeping me alive, but now I’ve found someone in need of protection. You’d never have let me to just take off with this shuttle—and the woman hiding inside. She’s young and innocent. But that wouldn’t last long if you got your hands on her. I refuse to allow you to sell her into sexual slavery. And I can’t allow you to live and just fly off in your ship. I’ve gotten to know you too well. You’d hold a grudge. You’d also put a reward on my head at the hub until every pirate crew was searching for us. I’m sorry.”
He fired again.
Chapter Two
Hailey woke and lifted her arm. Her wrist and hand had been neatly bandaged and splinted, and she wasn’t in any pain. She pushed off the covers and sat up. The doors to the corridor were wide open, but Blade was nowhere in sight.
A sound startled her, and she turned her head just as the bathroom door open.
The missing man himself stepped out, rubbing a towel against his wet hair. Her gaze lowered. He wore only loose sleeping pants. She recognized them from one of the closets she’d gone through in the room.
Blade dropped the towel away from his head and looked directly at her. “You’re awake.”
She had no words to respond. The tight uniform had already revealed that he had a buff body, but seeing most of it bared was something else entirely. The men on her planet didn’t look like him. Miners were