Page 63 of Auctioned to the Convicts
“Ky’Li?”
“Sleep, sha-vi. You need rest.”
“I messed up,” she said, her words slurred and barely audible. Vaughn’s medicine was finally kicking in. “Pushed you away. Slept with Vaughn. He wasn’t ready. And you. . . I hurt you and I endangered Sersie. Ren’s so mad. . . Everyone’s mad. Please don’t hate me.”
“Never, sha’vi. All will be well, I promise. Now, go to sleep.”
Ky’Li sat on the bed with his arms around her while she slept until someone knocked lightly on the door. Sersie poked his head in a moment later.
“Ah, good. Vaughn said she’d be asleep by now. We need to speak.”
It was the most Sersie had said to Ky’Li in the two weeks that he’d known the man. Ky’Li slid free of Hannah, careful to wrap her in a blanket before leaving the bedroom.
In the common area of the house, Vaughn leaned against the far wall, arms folded over his chest.
Ky’Li’s eyes bore into him.
“If you’re planning on killing him,” Ren said. “Do it outside. I’m not in the mood to make repairs.”
“You said you needed to speak,” Ky’Li said instead, addressing Sersie. He had nothing to say to Vaughn right now. He had yet to decide how he’d deal with the doctor.
“We have a plan,” Ren said, instead, as Sersie grabbed his jacket and shot out the front door.
“Sit down, Ky’Li,” Vaughn said. “Please.”
Ky’Li took a seat at the kitchen table, a new table made of a caramel-colored wood with two benches on either side and a single chair at one end. Enough room for five people. He hadn’t noticed the details before, as he’d been bent on harming, if not killing the doctor.
“A larger table?” Ky’Li asked. The question, the words were neutral. He suspected that would please Hannah, to know he did not intend to kill Vaughn, at least not yet.
Ren shrugged. “I thought Hannah would like it, you know, so we could all sit and eat as a unit.”
“You won’t touch her,” Ky’Li said, then his gaze fell on Ren. Krike, he could not stop any of them from taking her, or her from taking them. Killing them would do nothing but drive her away from him. She cared for these males.
Krike, krike, krike. He had started to care for them too.
“I didn’t take advantage of her,” Vaughn said, his voice determined.
“That’s the only reason you’re still alive.”
“The problem with having a woman in a unit,” Ren said, succinctly. “But we have bigger problems than the two of you fighting over her, so I suggest you learn to tolerate each other for a few minutes.”
“Ren’s right,” Vaughn began. “We’ve been living here for two weeks as strangers, wasting time fighting when we should have been anticipating and planning to avoid events such as what happened today. Our hang-ups, whatever they may be, could have cost her tonight. It already cost Sersie.”
“He’s weak,” Ky’Li said.
“In some ways, but we’re stuck with one another. Sersie included. And he cares about Hannah. We all do, which is why we better start working together because I guarantee you, sooner or later those savages out there will gang up against us, against her.”
There was truth to what Vaughn said. Krike. Ky’Li wanted to hate Vaughn, not agree with him. “Go on,” Ky’Li said.
“Ren’s got a friend in scheduling. It will take some doing, but he thinks he can convince the guy to make sure our shifts are aligned, so that Hannah is never alone. There will always be one of us to escort her to and from work—on the railcar—and anywhere else she needs.”
It was a good idea. “And at the port?”
“She’s not allowed to carry a weapon. None of us are, but Sersie has an idea. He went to work on it.”
“I’ll teach her how to defend herself,” Ky’Li replied.
“We thought you’d say that. But there’s one more thing we need you to do.”
