Home Front (Star Kingdom #7) - Lindsay Buroker Page 0,39

think your prince is about to get his ass kicked.

Shit. Can you help him?

She barely kept herself from spitting a caustic response about how the asshole had imprisoned her and Qin and she was rooting for Rache. And only because she worried Bjarke would be in big trouble if Jorg died—all those Kingdom people would be.

I don’t think so. My rifle was damaged. There are a bunch of crushers in here fighting Rache’s men, and Jorg and Rache are in the middle of it. They wanted to duel with each other, and everyone seems content to let them.

Jorg wanted to duel with Rache? What is that fool thinking?

Bonita might have explained the goading, but a stray DEW-Tek bolt blasted into the wall inches from her helmet. She scooted toward the airlock. She and Qin could wait in the chamber behind the hatch for the Dragon to attach.

Is Jorg still alive? Bjarke added.

For the moment. He and Rache are grappling instead of blowing each other’s brains out like normal, sane people. We’re waiting for you at the airlock.

We’re coming in with the crushers first. We have to rescue Jorg. Stand to the side until we pass.

When Bonita and Qin reached the airlock, Bonita grabbed a handhold to the side of the hatch. A porthole allowed her to see the Dragon outside, extending its airlock tube. For the first time since they’d been captured, her heart soared. Her ship was all right and she would be back on it soon.

“You bastard,” came Jorg’s voice, rough with pain, just audible over the weapons firing as Rache’s men continued to battle the crushers. The two Kingdom men who’d accompanied their prince were now floating near the ceiling, neither moving. “Cheating again. You’re enhanced.”

“I don’t need enhancements to kill you. Your knight’s training was a joke. Oku could have beaten you in a fight.” Rache’s voice was ice cold and utterly calm.

“Fuck you,” Jorg panted.

Rache gripped Jorg from behind, an arm around his neck, Jorg’s back to Rache’s chest. If they hadn’t been armored, it would have been an easy position for Rache to break Jorg’s neck. With his strength, maybe it still would be.

Qin lifted her rifle—she and Bonita were the only ones not engaged in battle, the only ones who might have done something. She aimed at Rache’s helmet.

Bonita pressed Qin’s arm down. “This isn’t any of our business.”

If she’d believed Jorg was a good man and that this was a true crime, Bonita might have felt differently, but he wasn’t, and she didn’t believe it was. Rache had set it up to be a fair fight, inasmuch as that was possible.

Qin must have felt conflicted, because she let Bonita derail her aim. A wrenching sound came from the pair as Rache twisted off Jorg’s helmet. Then a ringing snap echoed through the hold.

As Rache released the now-limp Jorg and pushed him away, the airlock hatch beside Bonita flew open. Two armored knights—that had to be Bjarke and Asger—shoved themselves out into the cargo bay, arrowing straight toward Rache’s men. A dozen crushers streamed out of the airlock after them.

Bonita was glad she wasn’t expected to stay and fight because she had no idea how to tell the new crushers from the old unless they were standing right next to each other—Casmir’s were a little larger. Would they all engage in battle against Rache’s team? Or would the old crushers, with no leader to command them, default to defending the ship from all intruders?

“Captain Lopez.” Tristan, protected only by a galaxy suit he’d scrounged and not armor, stood in the airlock chamber, a rifle in one hand as he waved for her to come with the other. “And Ms. Qin. It’s time to go.”

Bonita didn’t have to be invited out of this hellhole twice. She pulled herself past him and into the airlock tube. Good riddance to the Kingdom and Rache.

“Jorg’s crushers are fighting ours!” Bjarke yelled. “Tell Casmir to do something!”

Bonita paused, her hand on the hatch to her own airlock, her own ship. The alarm in Bjarke’s voice made her pause. If she’d had a working rifle, she would have turned around to help him, but he was right. Casmir was the only one with a shot of turning the Kingdom crushers from foe to friend. If that was possible.

The sounds of weapons firing and explosives detonating boomed on the other ship, the din echoing down the airlock tube. Kim raised her rifle as someone rushed through it toward the Dragon’s