Page 10 of Tortured

I lunge forward and catch her. Her eyes meet mine and everything around me goes as quiet as the sarna fields at home.

All I can see or feel is my own heart thudding in my body and the way her glittering eyes flash with gold fire.

6

LACEY

The ship around us shudders and the alien holding me grunts, his big body cushioning me.

“What the hell is going on?” I ask breathlessly, not really sure where I am or who the hell this guy is but at least he isn’t as horrible as the other aliens.

“We are under attack. You and your friends need to come with us to the bridge so that we can keep an eye on you.” He nods to where another strange, blue man is lifting Jenna out of one of the tubes we were in. She’s still got her eyes closed but I see her arms and legs jerking and shaking. “Gardon will stay down here and care for your friend as she cannot be moved.”

I shake my head immediately. “I don’t think that we should separate. We’ll stay down here.”

His rock-hard jaw tightens and I glimpse a dark anger behind his pansy eyes. “That is not acceptable. Gardon cannot be responsible for all of you. That small one needs more help than you three. He can better take care of her if he’s concentrating on her.”

I shrug my shoulders and pull out of his arms and away from him. “Then we’ll help him. She’s our friend.”

“Not acceptable.”

My brow lifts and I purse my lips. “Are those the only two words you’ve learned in our language? You’re overusing it.”

He huffs and I swear for a moment he looks like a small child that’s gone surly because he’s not getting his own way. “No. I know more words but is is unacceptable. You are not prisoners but we still need to watch you to make sure that you stay out of trouble and safe. Therefore you must come with us and leave Gardon to take care of your friend.”

By now, I see that Jenna’s eyes are open but that’s about all I can say. They’re vacant sapphire blue orbs with no sign of life at all. The alien holding her seems fascinated by her but he holds her gently as he cradles her gently.

“Trust me. He will not hurt her. He will protect her with his life.”

I glare up at him. “He better.”

His firm lips quirk and he struggles not to smile. “I promise you he will. And if he does not, I will take care of him myself.”

He nods to the other alien and that one shoots all of us a glare. “You’re upsetting her. Get the granth out and leave me be.”

The big blue jerk looks at me and quirks a white eyebrow, pushing a hand out and gently prodding me forward. I whip around and glare at him. “Don’t touch me!”

He rolls his eyes and the other men lead all of us out. My eyes dart around and study the ship carefully. Hopefully we’ll get a chance to get out of this place and go home.

“Don’t even think about it, little star. The vastness of space is a horrible place to die and you know nothing about the galaxy except for your tiny little planet that barely takes up a single click of space and time.”

Alex grunts and shoves at the black-eyed one. “Keep your hands to yourself, freak.”

He glares right back at her. “You are as surly as a two-headed radnor.”

She jerks to a halt. “You know, I know that you just said something really nasty, so I’m not pretending that you didn’t. You’re an asshole.”

He nods his head. “I think I like that word. I think that you should continue to call me that.”

I groan and turn to look at Ruby. She’s happily chatting at the biggest guy’s back. He’s ignoring her and I swear I just saw him rolling his eyes at her prattle.

Too fucking bad. We didn’t choose to be taken off of our home planet. We didn’t choose any of this and I’m really fucking sick of the whole situation.

But if I go off like I’d like to, I’m not sure I’ll be able to figure out how the hell to get out of here.

Alex and I share a look and then as soon as we make it to a strange door and one of the men moves his palm across the bright, lighted square, it beeps and then lets us through.

When he starts to push me through, I grab onto his hand and jerk him back and then forward, slamming him into the wall.

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