Page 38 of Rescued By the Convicts
“When do we leave?” Ivan asked Hawke, turning his back on her. “I’ve been on this fucking planet two years too long.”
“Tonight, Perilov. Let’s move.”
* * *
The walkto Hawke’s camp—fortress, rather—took an hour. Ivan and Jayce said little, and neither man glanced her way, not that she knew of. She’d stopped trying to get their attention, stopped pleading for them to end this. Reality slowly seeped into her brain, her heart, her soul.
Betrayed. They’dbetrayedher.
Twice she stumbled as tears streamed down her face. Each time, a brute hauled her up by her hair. She needed to find a way to escape. If she made it back to the med-center, she could stay there. No, Jayce had access there. He’d hand her over to Hawke. Again. There was no safe place to go.
Reece. A sliver of hope bloomed in her chest. She didn’t know where he was, but he’d find her. She surveyed the camp. There were at least thirty men here. All under Hawke’s control. There’d be nothing left of her when he finished passing her around.
Then she heard a familiar laugh. Her heart nearly stopped. Forty feet away, gathered around a firepit, five of Hawke’s men laughed as they tossed heppa pods into the fire and watched them pop. Zev was among them.
The sight of Zev laughing and slapping the backs of Hawke’s men stole the air from her lungs. She’d forgotten Zev had inserted himself into Hawke’s unit. He would help her escape!
Zev turned their way. His smile fell for an instant, and then returned as he excused himself from the group. As he approached, he ignored her but addressed Ivan and Jayce instead.
“I told you Ivan would come through, Hawke,” Zev said.
Zev was behind this? No. . . it couldn’t be! He’d been working for Hawke all along! Melina swayed, but the men held her up.
“Don’t act like we’re buddies, Zev. This is a business deal, nothing more. You’re a low-life henchman that Hawke sent to spy on me.”
“More like a recent ally,” Hawke corrected. “When he said he could get me the girl, I found him a place in my unit. In time, he’ll earn his way off Veenith like a lot of other prisoners.”
“I don’t give a damn what happens to him. I want to get off this rock. As promised. When’s the transport going to be here? And what are we going to do about these tatts? We’ll be spotted at any port we go through. Zev said you have some plastic to cover them up.”
“Zev was talking out of his ass.”
Zev shrugged. “I needed something to convince you.”
“You bastard,” Ivan said.
Hawke pressed a knife against Ivan’s chest before he could lunge at Zev. “I’ll get you off-planet, Perilov. And my employer has a deal, one that includes getting rid of your tatt.”
“A mission? I don’t do suicide missions anymore, especially not for The Company. Not since they killed my squad.”
“You won’t be working for The Company. You might even be able to get some revenge.”
Ivan raised a brow. “Keep talking.”
“You’ll get instructions once you’re off Veenith. Follow Lucas and join the others. The transport will be here sometime tomorrow or the day after.”
Ivan and Jayce were led away. “Ivan,” Melina called out, still holding out hope, but he never turned to look at her. He’d made his choice, and it didn’t include her.
“I bet that hurts,” Zev said. “Being betrayed by the men who promised to love you.”
She wanted to say they loved her, because she still felt like they did, in her heart down deep where she held them tight. She couldn’t accept any of this. And yet she had all the proof that she meant nothing to them.
“Love is an illusion, Melina. A temporary state of mind when the brain needs something to hold onto amidst the despair. They never loved you. You were a distraction from the everyday hardship and horrors of this place.” Zev traced the side of her breast. “A soft body to give them a release.”
“You used me,” she said, the words tumbling from her mouth as she stared at Ivan and Jayce walking away. She didn’t want to look into Zev’s black eyes, to see the same coldness she heard in his voice.
“Did you think I’d turn down sex? That any man would? I never ringed you because there was no need to. And now you belong to Hawke. Like I once said, I’m not against sharing.”
“Why are you doing this to me?”
