Page 44 of Auctioned to the Convicts
“Just checking in to see how you’ve acclimated to my colony. If you’re not happy, I can make life easier for you.”
“I’m fine. My unit is fine.”
Dresden kicked the chair out from under her, causing her to fall hard on her knees and hands. She rose, only for him to tower over her.
“I could easily take you, Raines. Maybe I will one day, but quite frankly, you’re not my type. This is just a friendly warning to make sure you don’t cause any trouble, given your job in the control room.”
“My job?”
“Calculating and ensuring each ship receives the proper amount of fuel based on the loads is an important job, not one I had planned for you.”
“W-what had you planned for me?”
His smile sent a chill through her. “Doesn’t matter now. Conway needs at least five people who can handle the job and most of the prisoners sent here don’t have the right education or training. You do. The man you’re replacing, well, he got in some trouble and I had to ship him to Veenith.”
“Veenith?” she said, dread pooling in her belly.
“It happens every so often,” he said with a sigh and a slight shake to his head, trying to appear sorry, but he wasn’t. “A prisoner causes trouble and finds his rank lowered to a 5, and I just can’t have too many 5s on Narkos. The Company would change the planet’s designation and, well, that causes issues for me. Fortunately, I have the authority to ship Level 5s to Veenith. It’s a real shit show there. You’re not a troublemaker, are you, Raines?”
“No, Manager.”
“That’s good. Real Good,” Dresden said as he ran his hand through her hair. Hannah strained not to jerk away. “I run an efficient colony. I get the zurlite off planet and to The Company on an aggressive schedule. I keep The Company happy and they let me run the colony how I see fit. Since they’d notice if I sent a woman to Veenith, you need a different incentive to stay out of trouble.”
“I won’t cause any trouble, Manager,” she promised, hoping her word would be good enough for him.
“I know you won’t, Raines. Because if you give me any trouble, I’ll see to it that those unit mates of yours are replaced.”
Replaced?Hannah opened her mouth, but nothing came out.
“Yes, there. . . That’s the reaction I wanted to see. You care about them, or you’re smart enough to know you can do a lot worse than the ones currently assigned to your unit.”
“A unit is permanent. You said—”
“The Company doesn’t make the rules here, Raines. I do,” he said, with an upturn to his mouth that ended in a sneer.
“Y-yes, Manager.” Hannah wrung her hands together in front of her.
“Cause trouble, and I promise you, Raines, one by one, I’ll ship them off to Veenith. And their replacements will be the worst I can find, starting with Griggs.”
Chapter Ten
HANNAH
I’ll ship them off to Veenith.
Dresden’s words played over and over again in Hannah’s head as she boarded the railcar portside. Now she understood why the colony’s manager had allowed her to choose the men for her unit, why he’d allowed Ky’Li to fight for her. He needed someone in a key job at the port, but he also needed a way to control that person. If she did anything to screw up her job and made him look bad, he’d retaliate against four men that were not the animals that Griggs and his unit were.
Hannah shuddered as she took a seat on the empty railcar. The thought of Dresden sending anyone from her unit to Veenith terrified her. And what constituted trouble? What if she did something wrong by accident, an innocent mistake? Would he listen to an apology or just send guards to collect her men, one at a time?
Max jumped aboard the railcar just as the doors swooshed closed.
Hannah averted her eyes. The ride to West Side was short, five minutes with no interim stops.
When Max slid onto the seat next to her, Hannah moved to the doors, holding onto the safety bar while watching the scenery zip by.
Rough, calloused fingers gripped her by her neck and spun her around.
“Let go!” she screamed as Max slammed her against the steel wall.
