Hunted By the Alien Pirate by Celia Kyle Page 0,34
stand up, grabbing his wrist and slamming the top of my head under his chin. He makes a gurgling noise and topples over.
The other patrons, at first startled by the sudden tumult, go right back to their drinks. Apparently this sort of thing is quite common here.
“Settle down, Montier. Don’t make a scene. Fiona will be fine.”
At his words, I sit back down. It’s not long before a pendant on Solair’s bracelet begins to flash with a subtle blue hue.
“That’s our cue. Time to roll, ladies and gentlemen.”
I’m ready to roll, but I have no intention of being a gentleman about it.
Chapter Nineteen
Fiona
“Varia?” I shake my head in disbelief as she straightens up to her full height and tosses the rest of her dirty hair out of her face. “How in the world did you end up here? I take it my message got through?”
“It got through, all right.” She favors me with a grin. Our fellow captives gape in astonishment. “Grantian used his contacts from his mercenary days to locate the nearest body merchant auction. Turns out it was right here on Perseus all along.”
“But—but how did you end up here?”
“Solair ‘sold’ me to a merchant on consignment, guaranteeing I’d be put up for auction on this particular block. Don’t worry, I’ve come prepared.”
She turns around and faces the wall, peering back over her shoulder for a moment.
“Watch out for guards while I extract my equipment.”
“Equipment?” I turn to watch the door as I hear her grunting with discomfort behind me. “What equipment? You’re wearing the same sleazy crap I am. How did you sneak anything into this cell?”
“How do you think? In my women’s prison wallet.”
I grimace at that thought. Couldn’t have been the least bit comfortable, though I praise her strategy.
“Okay, got it.” She turns back around, holding a small silver sphere in her hand. Varia twists it, the upper and lower hemispheres moving against each other, and it begins to flash blue. “That’s the signal sent. Now let’s see if Grantian’s contacts paid off again.”
“Bet Solair will want to smell that transponder when you’re done here,” I say with a smile.
“Honey, you have no idea,” Varia says with a smile. “He’ll probably also be jealous that something else was all up in there.”
Varia moves to the far wall and starts feeling about the clay with her fingertips. Eventually she stops and picks at it with her fingernails until she’s dug out enough of the red clay to reveal a line of twine or rope. She gives the rope a tug, and it peels away from the wall in a rectangular shape, revealing a hidden compartment.
“Right where it’s supposed to be.” Varia reaches inside the aperture, getting clay on her arms and face, and then extracts a small hand-held plasma cutter. “It pays to have friends in low places sometimes.”
“Is it just you? I mean, us?”
“Nope.” Varia smiles widely. “The whole team is here, minus Swipt who’s got the Queen on standby, ready to take off at a second’s notice.”
“The whole team? Does that mean Montier as well.”
“What do you think?” Varia puts her hand on my bare shoulder. “He’s not the type to let his fated mate go unrescued for long.”
She whistles and shakes her head.
“Oh my god, you should have seen him carrying on when we were on the bridge and Solair refused to come back to Perseus. They nearly came to blows.”
“Really?” I wince, knowing I shouldn’t be gratified, but there’s a certain thrill in knowing a man will blacken an eye for your honor. “I never would have thought he’d do something like that.”
“It was something else, I’ll tell you that. Grantian and Swipt combined couldn’t drag him off the bridge. If Solair hadn’t agreed to his plan, I don’t know what would have happened.”
“His plan?” I brighten up. “Then this is all Montier’s doing?”
“Most of it. I came up with the idea of infiltrating the auction disguised as a piece of merchandise, but the rest of it comes from him. Simply put, we’re going to rescue the women who are facing auction, rob the slavers, and get the hell out of here while making a tidy profit.”
“Leave it to a pirate to figure out a way to make money during a rescue op.”
Varia bends at the waist and uses the cutter to free herself of the ankle manacle. Then she turns the blue-hot arc onto my own restraints, freeing me as well.
“What are you doing?” The golden-skinned woman gapes as Varia frees