Page 109 of Auctioned to the Convicts
“Medicine?” She looked at the dark red powder again. It looked like the stuff in Sersie’s lab. NK something, but that was light red.
“What the hell are you two doing!” Conway shouted from across the bay. He was barreling toward them, fuming. Both Hannah and Quinn backed away from the spilled inventory.
“Can’t leave you two alone for five minutes, can I? What’s so hard about watching from floor level and giving him directions to guide the pod into the cargo hold of the ship, Raines? It’s not like this is a zurlite load that fucking weighs a ton. He only needed verbal directions. Verbal, Raines. E-A-S-Y!”
“Not her fault, boss. I. . . ah. . . I didn’t wait for her.”
Conway’s face twisted. “I should lower you to a 5 myself, Quinn.”
Quinn turned white. Hannah was afraid he was going to pass out. “We’ll get it cleaned up,” she said.
“Damn right. Starting with that red stuff. You’re going to get a vac in here and suck up every granule, repackage it personally, and walk it into that cargo hold. Is that clear! Damn morons used a wooden crate! And glass! Dealing with idiots everywhere I go today! Get moving!”
She and Quinn raced for the vacs in the maintenance room. “Sorry, Hannah,” Quinn said as they got to work.
“Let’s just get this done,” she said as they started to clean up the red granules. Conway shut down the entire bay, calling in several workers from the receiving dock to help with clean up. Most of the containers and their contents weren’t fragile.
An hour into the massive cleanup, Hannah felt overheated and light-headed. She worried that Ky’Li or whoever was supposed to meet her at the railcar would be panicked by now. She couldn’t step away to send her guys a message from her work station.
“Your bag’s leaking all over you,” Quinn said when he returned with a series of metal containers ranging from eight ounces up to a quart.
She glanced down at her clothing. Sure enough, she had dark red powder on her shirt as well as her hands.
“Conway said, and I’ll quote him, ‘Use metal containers this time in case another moron decides to drop a shipment from twenty feet in the air’.” Quinn frowned as he slammed the metal containers down. “I didn’t drop it. The cable snapped.”
“It was swinging, Quinn,” she said as the smell on her shirt made her smile. She couldn’t resist the urge to pull the fabric to her face, shove her nose in the powder, and inhale the lovely fragrance deep into her lungs.
“But—”
“Beyond the red lines on the floor,” she added, smiling as a surge of energy moved through her.
“It snapped because of how I had the cargo swinging,” he finally admitted. “I’m so fucked.”
“Volunteer for extra shifts. Tell him your vision was blurry and you think you’re coming down with the flu.”
“Lie? You, Hannah, are telling me to lie to Conway?”
Quinn stood there, staring at her with his mouth open. It was a very kissable mouth. So like Vaughn’s. And Ky’Li’s. She hadn’t slept with Ky’Li in weeks. She’d have to sneak into his room tonight. The room he shared with Sersie. Ooh. . . maybe she could do both guys at the same time.
“Are you listening to me, Hannah?”
“Huh?” she said, fanning herself as her eyes dipped to Quinn’s crotch. Her panties felt wet, and the feel of her bra scraping against her nipples was soooo good.
“I said, if Conway catches me in a lie, he’ll lower me to a 5 and Dresden would ship me off to a Level 5 colony. He has to keep the number of 5s down here so The Company won’t designate Narkos a level 5 Colony.”
“Then don’t lie,” she said, wondering what Quinn would do if she started licking his neck and kept going lower. From the bulge in his pants, he looked big. Maybe not as big as Ky, but she could probably have fun with Quinn.
“I think I’m coming down with the flu,” Quinn said, faking a cough. “I better report to Conway that I’m dizzy.” He stumbled through the cargo bay.
He was leaving her? He’d be perfect to ride, get a little friction going. “Wanna kiss, Quinn?”
“Are you kidding me? I’ve seen that miner that meets you at the railcar. He’d tear my head off if I touched you.”
“Ky wouldn’t do that.”
“That’s not what he said. I gotta go, Hannah. Finish transferring the product to the containers. I need to catch Conway before he leaves.” Quinn coughed again, intentionally. “Wish me luck.”
“Luck!” She giggled at her own joke as she glanced at the clock on the wall. The quicker she finished, the quicker she’d get to see Ky’Li and Sersie.
