Page 83 of Tempting Jupiter
“I seriously doubt you need him. But you do need to know an unauthorized ship just appeared in the landing bay. Whatever you’re planning to do, you should make it quick.”
Seneca stood next to her. He vibrated with aggression, but he didn’t make a move toward Cervenka. “Can you hack in from here without Morgan’s codes?”
She looked at Sen over her shoulder. Despite everything else that was going down, she was way more worried about Sen. “Maybe. But I might have to go to the central security station. But Sen—”
He squeezed her shoulder softly. “I’m okay, Fee. Now isn’t the time.”
He was right. They had a rescue to pull off. “Okay. Good to know. But we need to find the code-key for the cage.” She shot Cervenka a look. “And I am not searching that mess of a body.”
Sen bent over the body to search for the small crystal-like object that was key to getting Jupiter safely out of the cage. They’d done their research well and knew Morgan carried it with him during auctions.
Feeona pushed away from the terminal and stood. “Cervenka is right about the ship. I’m getting chatter on the com about an invasion force in the bay.” She stepped into the old man’s space. “Are you going to be more of a problem?”
Andre sighed in a way that rolled through his whole body. “I’m afraid our intentions are at cross purposes.”
Fury flashed through her. She poked her finger into his chest. “You’re never getting your hands on Seneca again.”
He smiled sadly. “He’s safe from me.” He placed a hand over his heart as he shifted his focus to Seneca who now stood with the code-key in hand. “I’ll always love you my boy, but I am content with my memories.” His gaze slid back to her. “As you surmised, at a certain age my young loves no longer satisfy my physical needs. Even so, Seneca was hard to let go.”
She wanted to cut his balls off. She counted to ten before she could speak normally.
“Besides being a pervert, what are you doing here?” Her attitude probably wasn’t helpful, but the man didn’t react to her provocation. “My old friend Grande Owens sent me here to clean up his mess.” His eyes shifted back to Seneca momentarily. “I told you I was a fixer. It’s just not broken things I fix, only broken situations. I never lied to you, my boy.”
“He’s a man now,” Feeona snapped. “How exactly are you supposed to fix things?”
He frowned. “I have a team planting explosives at crucial points in the ship. Grande wants no survivors to go telling tales. He wants to kill the rumors of escaped Arena Dogs.”
Seneca finally allowed disgust to slip over his face. “He’d kill everyone on this ship to do it?”
Andre shrugged. “Mmm. Barbaric isn’t it.”
“Evil,” said Seneca. “This isn’t your sort of sin, Andre. You can’t seriously mean to kill all these people.”
“Sadly, I do.” Cervenka shifted his focus back to Feeona, suddenly serious. “But I refuse to kill Seneca. I don’t care about the other Arena Dogs or you. Don’t give a damn if the rest of you manage to escape the explosion. I don’t imagine you’re planning to be very visible after this. So, you get Seneca off this ship and we’ll agree to stay out of each other’s way in the meantime.”
“Staying out of your way leaves too much up in the air.” Feeona eyed the built-in terminal on Morgan’s desk. “So, bring me up to speed.”
She pulled up a map of the ship on the screen. Cervenka stood beside her and pointed to several areas. “These are the locations for each member of the team. They’re targeting strategic bulkheads, the main power relay stations. The team leader is quite expert at this sort of thing.”
Feeona had studied the ship’s systems enough to agree. “Call them off, Andre.”
He shook his head. “I can’t do that. Why do you care about any of these people? They’re all in the slave trade. Criminals. You have plenty of time to get off the ship.”
She would never work for a slaver, but her hands weren’t clean enough to condemn every crew member onboard. Some of which had nothing to do with Morgan’s business and might be there as a last resort. And then there were the slaves. “How long, Andre? How long before these explosions go off?”
He checked his very snazzy palm display. “Fifty minutes.”
“I can work with that.”
“So pleased to hear it.” Andre’s words dripped with boredom.
Seneca growled. “Don’t be. That means she doesn’t need you anymore.”
Cervenka’s face twisted in confusion. “Seneca—”
“I can’t let you hurt another boy.” Sen was on him in a flash. There was a sickening snap and the older man’s body slid to the floor.
Seneca took a deep breath then locked his gaze on hers. If he was looking for condemnation, he wasn’t getting it from her. He moved cautiously forward and took her hand. “I did love him, or thought I did at the time. I hated him for that most of all.”
