Page 5 of Stealing Mercury
Giving in to instinct, she leaned in and breathed him in. The ordinary citrus tang of a commercial cleanser common throughout the sector surprised her. Beneath that, a hint of something wild and utterly masculine teased her senses.
The scrape of boot heels behind her startled them both, and his attention flicked to something over her shoulder. He released her, then snarled and threw himself at the bars.
Samantha jumped and stumbled back. Her surroundings snapped back into focus, and she realized Sevti had been calling her name. He pulled her away from the cage as a brutish hulk of a man barged past her. The man jabbed a stun-stick into the cage. The stun-bolt crackled as the Arena Dog’s body jerked. Was this why they used such a ridiculously designed cell? All the easier to torment the men inside?
A chorus of howls went up from the other Arena Dogs. The steely-eyed man who’d held her wrist so tenderly crouched in the corner of his cage, tossed back his head and howled.
Loud, terrifying, heartbreaking.
“Shit-for-brains pilot.” The new arrival, dressed in work trousers the color of rotting leaves and a simple shirt, towered over her. Tufts of short brown hair stood up in clumps atop his head, making him look as if he’d received a shock from his own weapon.
“You didn’t have to hurt him.” She ground it out through clenched teeth.
He scowled. “You’re cracked. These Dogs are trained to fight to the death. Trained to make it gory for the arena fans.” His face had colored up in angry red splotches. “They’d as soon eat you as hump you.” He shook his head. “Shit for brains.”
A second man stalked into view. “Funny how the brainless always choose that insult.”
The idiot looming over her stepped aside. “She should be thanking me, Drake.” He gripped his belt, adjusting it on his hips. “That Dog had a grip on her.”
“And you played the hero, giving you the right to berate the lady. Is that it, Resler?”
“Yeah. I mean no. I mean...” The man shifted his feet. His jaw tightened, a muscle twitched as he bit off whatever he would have said, making it clear that the other man held the authority.
Sevti spoke up, filling the void. “Gentlemen. Let me introduce you to Samantha Devlin.” He introduced Ivor Resler and Jansan Drake, the two men Owens had chosen to accompany her. Just great.
“Mr. Resler is an arena guard and Mr. Drake is a trainer.” Sevti’s smile slipped as he continued. “The title is whip-master, I believe.”
Drake was lean with close cropped hair and a narrow chin strap beard. He dressed shoulder to ankle in soft, black synth—comfortable and practical without looking it. Bracers circled his wrists and a coiled whip made of brown leather hung from his belt, providing the only contrast.
“Let’s not stand on titles. My apologies, Sam.” He extended a hand. “For my rude colleague and for any trouble our Dogs were causing.”
She gripped his hand firmly, noting the roughness of calluses that lent credibility to the whip he wore like an accessory. The oil he used to care for the leather tinged the air and wrinkled her nose.
Drake looked her up and down, subtly. Not rude, but not indifferent, either. The personal scrutiny bit at her like a sand burr against her skin.
“We should get out of the loading crew’s way.” His eyes narrowed and something cruel glinted in the soft brown depths. “These three Dogs have caused my boss a good deal of trouble. He wants them gone as soon as we can get them loaded.”
“Of course,” Samantha said. She offered Sevti a restrained farewell, then watched him stride away. She hadn’t felt so adrift since she’d been left on a nowhere planet, staring at the empty platform where her father’s ship should have been waiting.
“You’re lucky, Sam.”
Drake’s comment pulled her attention back to him and the men caged behind him. “Am I?”
“You picked the right Dog to be careless around.” Seemingly unaware of the verbal slap he’d delivered, he strode over to the cage, wrapped his hands around the top bar, and leaned forward. “This is Mercury.”
The man inside tensed, his gaze locking onto a slender green code-key dangling from Drake’s neck. It was clearly a taunt. The code-key might unlock the cages and, if Mercury tried for it, the cord around Drake’s neck could serve as an improvised garrote. Resler moved around behind the cage, stun-stick ready and eager to inflict pain.
“Mercury is actually the least bloodthirsty of this lot,” Drake continued. “He’s the thinker. The others look to him. His leadership made their group one of the most successful in the arena.” An undercurrent of bitterness laced his words.
Samantha pressed her hands flat against her thighs, resisting the urge to tighten them into fists. “You call them dogs, but you credit him with leadership?”
He straightened, tucked the cord beneath his shirt, and met her gaze baldly. “I trained them. I know what they are and what they’re capable of, and I know my job. I’ll stick to my job and you’d better stick to yours. Do that and I’m sure we’ll all get along.”
With a flash of teeth, Drake’s expression shifted. His whole body softened from hard-ass to swagger. “I sense you’re feeling sorry for them and that’s dangerous, Sam. Mercury and his pack were champions of the arena until they took part in a pointless insurrection. Last week they made it over the arena barriers, got into the crowds, and attacked a group of our high-profile patrons.” Drake strode toward the next cage, motioning her to follow. “This is Diablo and over there...” He pointed at the third cage where a brawnier male with shoulders as wide as a shuttle and sad eyes howled softly. “That’s Carnage.”
Samantha licked her dry lips. From behind the bars, Diablo studied her with night black eyes. Red embers flecked the black, making it easy to see how he’d come by his name. Like Mercury, he was leanly muscled with dark hair and pointed ears, but his jaw was more pronounced and prominent canines pressed against narrow lips.
A large hand landed in the middle of her back with a firm shove. One minute she was standing there and the next she went flying forward. Drake’s fist in the back of her pack stopped her short of tumbling into the cage. A hand full of claws swiped at her so close the brush of air whispered against her cheeks. Samantha jumped back, colliding with Drake. She gulped air past the constricted muscles of her throat, heart racing. The howls of the other two caged men turned into low growls that vibrated through her body.
