Page 14 of Auctioned to the Convicts
Ren moved toward Hannah, Sersie, and Ky’Li, glaring at the woman the entire time. She didn’t know what she was in for. She risked everything Ren had been working for, and yet Vaughn applauded her decision. She’d built a good unit with diversified skills, men who weren’t troublemakers. Except for the new guy, Ky’Li. He’d be trouble, he’d attract trouble. Already had.
“Don’t expect me to use my credits to heal him,” Ren said as he reached Hannah. She was struggling to support the wounded and quite large soldier, and Ren had no inclination to help her.
“You’d deny a person medical treatment?” Hannah asked, her sweet face betraying not only her shock but her worry. She cared for the soldier, with more than gratitude. The way her face had bloomed in recognition of the man when he’d stepped forward to challenge Griggs in her place spoke to a prior relationship.
“I’ll help carry him to the med-center if you want,” Ren said. “I’ll even take his place in the mines if I must, but I’m not using my credits on him. They’re earmarked.”
“Earmarked? For what? What could be more important than another man’s life?”
“None of your business, and don’t try to guilt me, woman.”
Ky’Li pushed away from Sersie and Hannah, using his full height to tower over Ren. Even though he was only a few inches taller than Ren, Ky’Li with his broad frame and thick arms would intimidate any man, including Ren who took a step back.
“I don’t want your kriken credits,” Ky’Li said. “But if you speak to her like that again, you’ll need to use them to pay for your own medical treatment.”
Hannah inserted herself between the men. Krike, she was brazen, inserting herself between the two in a situation that could easily come to blows. Ky’Li backed off immediately.
“The man’s whipped,” Griggs laughed, with his unit circling around him, all watching the disaster of a unit taking shape. “He needs to make her submit, or she’ll take control of that unit.”
“It will just make breaking her that much more fun when we take her,” Falco said.
Vaughn held back his own curse as he packed up his field kit and walked away from Griggs’s unit. He was reconsidering having used that nanite on the miner. Perhaps he should have let the man suffer. It was too late now. What’s done was done.
“Marconi,” Dresden called a miner from the crowd of solitaries.
The woman, Hannah, had chosen the fourth man for her unit. Vaughn’s hopes sank, even though he knew he wasn’t a good choice for a unit. Neither was Marconi for that matter. The miner had an evil streak in him, and Vaughn suspected him of raping a food worker five months ago.
“Everyone get back to work,” Dresden ordered.
Vaughn had always feared the idea of a unit, of being held responsible for a group, because of what he knew would happen, eventually. He’d be the one to tear them apart, the one who’d destroy them in the end. But the idea of being with this woman, even in a unit, felt right.
He should have spoken up, asked her to accept him. Then again, he’d only drag her down, her and anyone else in her unit. They were all safer without him, not that it mattered now.
Marconi pressed past Vaughn and Griggs as he broke through the crowd that had filled in around them. Vaughn felt defeated as Marconi raced up to the unit, strutting like he’d just won a lottery. He had.
“No. Not him,” Hannah said, shaking her head vehemently as Marconi approached her. She backed away from the man, toward Ky’Li who placed a protective arm around her. Marconi stopped advancing when he realized taking her wasn’t going to be as easy as he’d thought.
“That’s who you pointed to,” Dresden said.
“No, it wasn’t.”
“Too late. She chose me. I’m in,” Marconi insisted.
“Who, Raines?” Dresden asked, ignoring Marconi.
“The guy with the blond hair and scruffy beard. The doctor. Vaughn.”
* * *
HANNAH
Hannah pointed at the doctor who had treated Ky’Li initially, the one whose voice had held regret when he was reminded by Dresden that he wasn’t allowed to treat Ky’Li without proper payment to The Company. A doctor would come in handy in a unit, especially now, when she wasn’t sure they had the credits to pay for treatment, even if Renzel contributed his share.
That engineer was going to be a thorn in her side, she could see it now. And yet she couldn’t take her eyes off of him. Was it his fierce blue eyes that even now followed her every move or the defiance in his face that stirred her? Hell, why couldn’t he be as easy-going as Vaughn or Sersie? Even Ky’Li with all brawn and alpha attitude didn’t scare her the way Renzel did. The engineer was intense and so full of anger.
Hannah eased out of Ky’Li’s hold, making sure Sersie could support him before stepping over to Vaughn. “Doctor, would you become part of our unit?”
Vaughn’s mouth dropped open for a moment, then he said, “I shouldn’t be in a unit with you.”
