Hunted By the Alien Pirate by Celia Kyle Page 0,28
stand.”
His eyes narrow to slits, nostrils flaring with barely contained anger.
“Sit. Down.”
Then I remember I’m supposed to be a poor, dumb blonde girl scared for her life. I meekly seat myself and tremble visibly.
“That’s better. A good woman is an obedient one. Now, explain to me what you and your allies were doing trespassing on our compound?”
“Compound?” I tilt my head to the side. “I—we thought this place was abandoned. We were just looking for our friends who went missing on a supply run. Perhaps you’ve seen them?”
“The only stupid humans I’ve seen are you and that other one with the two-dicked cretins who penetrated our fortress.” Tarsk sneers at me. “Don’t play dumb with me, trollop. I’ve no patience for it.”
It’s not hard to work up some waterworks, considering I really am scared.
“I’m—I’m sorry. I don’t understand. We were just looking for our friends, I swear. Please don’t hurt me.”
His silver lips twitch in a smile, and then he leans back in his seat and steeples his fingers before him.
“You are an excellent actress. I was nearly fooled, but I pride myself on my observational skills. You came into here, armed to the teeth, and somehow hacked into one of the servers my folks have been tasked to protect.”
His brow comes low over his eyes, and they glitter with anger.
“You have made us look bad, human. Very bad. I will have to explain my failure to Councilor Opak, something I have never had to do in my entire career. But if you tell me what I need to know, I can make things easier for the both of us.”
“I don’t know anything. I swear. And I know what you do to human females, so I don’t feel much comfort in your promises.”
He arches an eyebrow and then grins.
“So be it. I’m not all that concerned, nor am I fooled by your clever lies. We’ll find your friends soon enough. They are only an inferior species after all.”
Tarsk rises from his seat and moves around the desk to loom over me. I can’t repress a shudder as he reaches for me, but all he does is gently stroke my cheek with the back of his hand.
“So pretty, and so very young. You will command a high price on the auction block. Consider my warning. I will return shortly and ask you one more time to tell me what you know.”
He goes to the door and programs it to remain locked with a passcode he takes great pains to conceal from me. Then he exits the office, leaving me very much alone.
Alone with his computer console. What an arrogant prick, thinking that this poor, dumb woman is helpless in his grasp.
I wait a few moments to be sure he’s gone and then swiftly, silently rise from my seat and rush behind his desk. The console is password protected, if you can call it that. It only takes a couple of minutes for me to convince the console I’m an admin and get full access.
That’s what you get for underestimating me, Tarsk. Now your secrets will be mine.
Chapter Sixteen
Montier
The doors to the bridge slide open, and I inch my way inside, both Grantian and Swipt struggling to keep me back to no avail.
Solair turns about in his swivel sweat, his face creasing with a frown at the sight of my return.
“Didn’t I throw you off the bridge?”
“It didn’t take.” I stagger another step, dragging Swipt along the floor as he clings to my ankle.
“Hold him.”
“We’re trying. He’s as strong as a fucking Odex.”
Solair sighs, and shakes his horned head.
“Let him go, men.”
They release me, and I stagger a few feet into the bridge before I regain my balance. Solair looks at me with a lot of sympathy in his gaze, but also more than a little anger.
“Montier…if there were any way to rescue Fiona without endangering the entire ship and crew, you know I would do it in a heartbeat.”
“Solair, I was among the first to join your crew when you came into possession of the Ancestral Queen. We’ve been in danger almost the entire time. It goes with the territory of being a privateer.”
I look about the bridge and encompass the crew in my gaze, studiously avoiding the nav console where Fiona normally sits.
“I look around me and I see brave men and women who are more than willing to risk their lives to save one of our own. We do not shy from battle.”
I turn to Grantian, who stands a