I lifted one of the bottles out of the container and stared at it. The pink liquid shone in the bright overhead lights. I’d never tried gallberry juice, but I knew it supposedly tasted a little like strawberries. I’d always wanted to try it, but it was too valuable to waste on me when there was nothing physically wrong.
But this time? This time I was taking a fucking bottle for myself. It would help get rid of my stupid cough and hopefully heal whatever the hell the fucked-up translator was doing to my brain.
“I’m gonna be rich,” I whispered and then stuffed the bottle into my backpack before reaching for a second. There were two dozen bottles in the container. I could probably fit about a dozen into my backpack. Still, even just a dozen would be more than enough to get me the fuck out of Iowa and start a new life. Somewhere hot with a beautiful beach and a crashing blue ocean. I’d never seen the ocean before.
I grabbed another bottle and stuffed it in beside the first. I was reaching for the third when the hollow thud of footsteps in the cargo hold reached my ears. I froze, my brain screaming at me, before I snatched up the lid of the shipping container and notched it back into place.
I scanned the room desperately as I shrugged into my pack. I couldn’t go further into the ship. It would just be harder to get out without them seeing me. As the footsteps grew closer, I sprinted toward that narrow door, yanking it open and peering inside. Like I suspected, it was a small storage space that, thank fucking God, was empty.
I squeezed myself into the space and eased the door shut, just as the door to the room slid open. I breathed shallowly as male laughter filled the space.
“Galan, you worry too much. We will be home well before the storm.”
My breath lodged in my throat when a deep voice spoke directly outside of my hiding spot.
“You worry too little, Krey. Does he not, Sigan?”
A little shiver went down my spine. I was in deep fucking trouble, was now really the time to be thinking about how sexy that voice was?
The third Draax’s response was too low to hear. Or maybe I just couldn’t hear it over the pounding of my heartbeat. Fuck, I needed to get off this ship before they left Earth.
Stay cool, Ellis. Stay cool. They’ll go further into the ship. The minute that door closes behind them, you sprint for the cargo hold, lower the door and get the fuck off the ship.
Easy peasy.
“Sigan,” that low and sexy voice was speaking again, “are you not joining us?”
“No. I will sit back here. It is too crowded with all three of us.”
“Suit yourself.”
My heart stopped. It just fucking stopped in the middle of a beat and two seconds later, kicked back in. I was trapped. He wasn’t leaving and I was trapped. What the fuck did I do?
Sit back and enjoy your free trip to Draax?
I groaned inwardly as the door to the cockpit slid open and then closed. I listened carefully. Maybe the one named Sigan had decided to join them after all. The creak of the seat as he sat quickly killed my hope.
Adrenaline rushed through my body as the throbbing behind my ear grew steadily worse. I’d never even left Iowa before and now I was about to fly to freaking outer space?
I was one hundred percent fucked.
Galan
Krey flipped the switch to auto pilot and sat back in the seat. “Another couple of hours, and we will be home.”
I stared at the black nothingness, my stomach still churning from our trip through the jumpgate. Space travel always made me sick, and I stared at the blinking lights on the dashboard of the ship as I shifted in the co-pilot’s seat. “Did you put in the correct coordinates for home?”
Krey laughed before grabbing the apple he’d bought from the market on the way back to the ship. I did not care for the taste of most Earth food, but Krey loved it. He bit into the red fruit and wiped away the juice from his chin.
“Yes, Galan. I will return you home safely. Besides, we are in our own solar system, there is no fear of getting lost.”
I rubbed at my roiling stomach. “The Idalia system is one of the biggest in the galaxy.