Page 25 of Angel Condemned

Jody

“Guards,” my voice caught as Axton glared at me with hatred in his golden eyes. It shouldn’t bother me that he figured out I was playing him. Hell, I didn’t even know him. Yet my body had responded to him like we were old lovers reuniting after years of being apart.

His touch had left me feeling vulnerable. Like a hint of something that threatened to sweep me away. And I couldn’t allow that to happen. I was here for one purpose only: get pregnant and give the Roulex a baby. I wasn’t falling for an obnoxious alien. No way. Even if he was sexy as hell with magical fingers and mouth and tongue. I squeezed my thighs together.

I’d seen how much he had wanted me. What had made him pull away? Then my damn ego with a chip on my shoulder had screamed at him. I’d never had a guy not want to have sex with me and Axton’s refusal stung.

What the fuck was wrong with me? It shouldn’t matter what he thought about me. But he believed I was no more than a paid prostitute or worse. I wanted him to like me, to want to be with me as much as I desired him. Yet I’d blown any chance we may have had outside of my bargain with the Roulex.

I couldn’t do this.

My body trembled as I turned away from Axton and shook the iron bars. “Let me out! Let me out now.”

“They won’t save you,” Axton’s voice took on an edge that had me backing up.

Hatred radiated off him in waves that struck me to my core.

Three Roulex guards bounded down the hallway. They hit Axton with some kind of greenish device, and he froze in place.

“That’s not necessary,” I said against the lump forming in my throat.

The Roulex swung open the door. When he stood in front of Axton, he spat. “He’s scum and I wouldn’t trust him not to rip our hearts out if given a chance.”

He punched Axton, trapped in the beam, over and over.

“Stop.” Unease spread through me that maybe I’d been wrong about the Roulex and Axton was right.

The Roulex smirked and turned away. “Come on.”

I hurried out of the cell more to keep the guard from deciding to hurt Axton any more. We passed the other cells with prisoners either cowering or shouting insults. All of it, and what I’d witnessed, made me feel like I made a horrible mistake coming here.

At the end of the corridor, one of the Roulex laid a clawed hand on the panel and the doorway swished open. We continued down another hallway with lights buzzing overhead and my thoughts drifted back to Axton.

I didn’t have to look back to know Axton would never forgive me for this. All he knew was that I had betrayed him. And it shouldn’t bother me. He was a criminal…an insane one.

One of the Roulex guards opened the metal door and the hinges groaned. I looked back at Axton, he was frozen in the tractor beam. But his eyes…a pain stuck me to my core…his eyes showed pure disgust.

I followed two guards away from Axton before I changed my mind. Before I rushed back to Axton and asked for forgiveness. But I couldn’t.

The door banged closed behind me and I cringed at the feeling of finality. Axton would never forgive me for this. I could see it in his eyes. To him, I was the enemy. It shouldn’t bother me what he thought, but it did. Made me want to run back to him and explain. Tell him why I’d agreed to this and how I didn’t have a choice if I wanted to save my dad.

I blinked back tears and swallowed down the bitterness stinging the back of my throat.

Best to get this over and done with. The Roulex wouldn’t be happy, but I couldn’t lie anymore. And I couldn’t stay with Axton no matter how much I wanted to. My stomach twisted in knots.

This was crazy. I shouldn’t care what Axton thought of me. My dad was more important than some alien I barely knew. What if I offered something else up to the Roulex? Become a surrogate for another alien species or give them a few of my eggs. There had to be another arrangement we could come up with where my dad still got his transplants.

I followed the Roulex guard down several hallways. Moans and whimpers echoed around me, and I swallowed hard. Was Axton right about the experiments and torture they did to the prisoners here?

The guard led me into a medical-looking room with white-stone walls, several gurneys and instruments that appeared to be crafted from nightmares more than medical equipment.

“Have a seat, Jody,” a Roulex in a dark brown uniform said walking into the room behind us.

I backed away, but the guard snatched my arm and hauled me to one of the beds. When my body hit the side of the bed, chains rattled underneath.

“Secure her.”

Shock spiraled through me. “No, we had a deal.”

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