Page 29 of Auctioned to the Convicts
Ren leaned back against the wall and closed his eyes. This planet, this colony, were toxic. He’d kept his distance from the men here as much as possible, the rougher ones at least, the ones who by all rights should have been designated as 5s. He may have just sailed straight past them to Level 5 by trying to take her against her will.
Fuck Dresden and all his rules. The woman belonged to Ren, but that didn’t mean he could simply take her. He needed to get off Narkos, before the planet destroyed what was left of him.
“Why shouldn’t I kill him?” Ky’Li’s angry voice pierced the thin walls.
“Because he didn’t do anything wrong. He owns me,” Hannah’s shaking voice replied.
Owns.
That wasn’t how it was supposed to work. Men didn’t own women on Argus.
More crying. Feminine, filled with fear.
He didn’t deserve her protection. He didn’t deserve being ripped from his life as a solitary either, but she certainly didn’t deserve what he’d done to her, what he’d said to her.
Fuck, his life was so screwed up.
Vaughn moved to the kitchen to retrieve some ice from the chiller. “Sersie, can you whip up a batch of that healing compound for me, the topical that breaks up blood clots faster and reduces swelling? I prefer not to show my face at the med-center again for a while.”
“Stealing again, Vaughn?” Sersie said, standing in the door to the house. The man had just arrived.
“That’s rich, coming from you,” Vaughn shot back as he handed the bag of ice to Ren.
“Sorry, I’m not as perfect as you, Dr. Caster. Sersie pushed his wayward hair back as he shuffled toward his room. He stared at the door, confused.
“He’s high,” Ren forced the words out. Vaughn’s frown confirmed it.
Already, the decline of the unit had begun. Sersie had been clean for months. Hannah’s presence or the pressure of being in a unit must have sent him backward.
Sersie would have to miss his next two shifts to dry out, which meant the rest of them would have to pull extra time to cover his quota. Ren and Vaughn both had a one-to-one ratio with Sersie’s quota, job-wise, but every extra hour that Hannah and Ky’Li worked would only equal half of one of Sersie’s hours. Quotas had to be fulfilled by end of the rotation, three days away. It would be tight.
“I’ll see to Sersie,” Vaughn said, leading the twenty-seven-year-old into the middle bedroom. “You write up the extra hours for everyone and submit along with Sersie’s notice of sick-leave. He’ll need—”
“I know. Two days, minimum,” Ren said as he pulled himself off the floor. Already, he could feel the bruises and not just on his neck. His shoulders, his back. . . He was sore everywhere thanks to that beast.
“And don’t give Ky’Li more than three additional hours a day. He’s still healing, and he’s been assigned to Mine 33.”
Ren almost felt sorry for the bastard. Of all the mines, Mine 33 had the worst work conditions. He grabbed a datapad and submitted the information to the supervisors at the med-center, the research lab, engineering, the port, and Mine 33. Then he edged his way along the hallway to his bedroom door.
As he lifted his hand to knock on the door and demand his bedroom back, he heard her sniffling. He’d hurt a woman, one who was smaller than him, one who had stood up to him, declaring her intent to make up for pulling him into this unit however she could.
He’dhurther.
The enormity of that began to sink in. He’d been too mad to hear her apology.
Ren knocked on the bedroom door. He wasn’t sure she’d accept his apology, or that it would do any good, but he needed to try.
“Leave,” Ky’Li said through the door, the rage in his voice unmistakable.
“I suggest you keep away from her,” Vaughn cautioned. “from both of them. And watch Sersie. I need to grab a blood monitor from the med-center. Vaughn snagged his jacket from the back of the chair in the common area. “I had hoped not to show my face there again tonight,” Vaughn half-mumbled as he headed out the door.
“You’re taking a lot of risks lately, Vaughn. For Sersie, for her. . .”
“Sersie’s my patient.”
“How many times are you going to cover for him? If Dresden finds out he used again, he’ll throw Sersie into the mines, not us. Problem solved.”
“He won’t throw Sersie down there. He’s too valuable in the lab. But Dresden will find another way to punish us, all of us. We’re part of a unit, Ren,withSersie. His crimes are now our crimes.”
