Page 27 of Her Lawless Prince

“I need blood,” Yevgen stated. When he walked, it sounded like gears grinding beneath his skin. “My organs are not doing well.”

She stepped around Fuse to eye Rita and the third crewman. “We’ll secure the prisoners and find a transfuser.”

“The fallen one can go into the cargo hold. They have a coffin ejector for burial in space,” Yevgen said.

“After you get into a medical booth,” Nyle insisted.

Payton glanced down at her naked body. “Where are my clothes?”

“I dropped them in the corridor when Nyle attacked me,” Yevgen said.

“Isavedyou,” Nyle countered.

“Grab your lady friend. We’ll put her with her son.” Payton gestured at Rita, interrupting the bickering before they could get going again. “I’ll carry the little guy.”

Payton grabbed the man’s arm and hefted him over her shoulder.

“Aren’t you going to put your clothes on first?” Nyle asked.

“After everyone on the ship is secured.” Her tone was purposefully flippant because she knew it would irritate him.

Nyle dragged Rita by her wrist out of the cockpit. He stopped to pick up Payton’s clothing. She heard him muttering under his breath. “I don’t know if I want to strangle you or kiss you. You are one frustrating woman, Princess.”

9

Nyle watchedas the device wrapped around his forearm turned red. The transfuser pulled the blood from his body and filtered it through a flat tube into Yevgen. His arm tingled beneath it, not painful but definitely noticeable. The cyborg made small noises of pleasure as Nyle’s blood reached him.

“We can turn you off for this part of the process,” Nyle offered.

“Then who would fly the ship?” Yevgen asked. “My wife needs me.”

“Autopilot?” Nyle glanced at the controls. When they had returned to the cockpit, Yevgen had programmed a star route, and the ship flew itself.

Payton stood before the viewing screen. She glanced back at them and smirked. The darkness of star-dotted space framed her, and for a moment, he could forget where they were.

Nyle had refused to give Yevgen blood until she went into a medical booth. The unit had fixed the worst of her injuries—two broken ribs and nasty blaster burns. After that, she’d thankfully dressed. Already every inch of her was emblazoned on his mind, which made it very hard to concentrate on the fact that they were in deep space on a stolen ship with a bunch of mercenary prisoners while on the run from the Federation.

“Where are you flying us?” Nyle asked, staring at the expanse of stars.

“Torgan airspace,” Yevgen answered.

Payton again turned her attention toward them. “That’s where they were taking us. They said they were going to cage me and sell me on Torgan.”

“They would have made many space credits off of you.” Yevgen glanced dismissingly at Nyle. “Not so much for you.”

“How do you know that?” Nyle asked Payton.

“She’s a shapeshifting princess. You’re nobody,” Yevgen answered.

“I overheard Captain Rita’s orders as we were approaching.” Payton ignored the cyborg. “They said Yevgen was their payload. I was a payday.”

“And me?” Nyle tried to meet her gaze. He was a little light-headed from all the blood Yevgen required.

Payton went to Yevgen and examined the transfuser on his arm. “They wanted to eject you into space and find someone else to repair Yev.”

The cyborg laughed. “Payload, Payday, and Space Trash.”

Nyle tapped the controller on the transfuser to stop the device.

---