Page 72 of Rescued By the Convicts
Her head struck the wall over and over until there was nothing. She’d slumped to the ground. Pain ravaged her entire body. Even opening her eyes hurt, but she forced herself. She wanted to watch Namir die, to know he’d never hurt anyone again. But mostly, she wanted to see Ivan, Reece, and Jayce’s ship take off. They deserved to be free.
A thump. A body fell beside her. She forced her eyes open. On the floor, next to her, Namir’s lifeless eyes stared at her. Oddly enough, it wasn’t the nanites that killed him. His neck lay at an impossible angle compared to his torso. That wasn’t something the nanites could do.
“Oh, Mel,” said a soothing voice as she was lifted off the floor. “What have you done?”
“Zev?” she asked as she tried to force her eyes open. If she was going to die, she’d rather Zev’s be the last face she saw, not Namir’s.
“Yes, precious. I’m here.”
Her body shifted against Zev’s as he held her with only one arm. Then she heard gunfire and cursing.
“Dump him,” Ivan said.
She heard grunts and then a thud.
“Clear the bay and open those doors or we’ll go through them and let all of you be sucked out into space,” Ivan yelled across the bay.
Someone picked her up again as she heard a clicking and pressurized sound of a hatch closing. Was she on the ship? With all of her men? It was too much to ask for.
“Ah, little bird, why did you do that?” Warm lips pressed against her forehead. “Reece, we need to get her strapped in for takeoff.
Large hands moved over her torso, feeling every part of her. She winced, and the hands withdrew. “Een. . .”
She heard the pain in Reece’s voice, and she had no energy left to tell him she’d be fine. A set of lips warmed her forehead. Gently. Reverently. Reece.
“She’ll be fine,” Ivan said to Reece, his hand cupping her face. Ivan’s hand shook, which startled her. Ivan never showed fear. “She’ll be fine,” he said again. This time, she heard the fear in his voice. She wished she could tell them that she was sorry for what she’d done, but it wouldn’t be the truth. She’d do it all over again to save them.
Fingers stroked her hair. “Sleep, little bird.”
Melina felt safe again. She was home, with her four guys. And no one would separate them again. Finally, she let go and allowed the darkness to take her.
* * *
ZEV
“No,Ivan. We wait. She did something to those nanites she gave Namir. I’m telling you, if I hadn’t broken his neck, the man would have died in a few minutes, anyway. I wasn’t willing to wait just to see him suffer. I needed to get her out of there.”
“We have nanites, but we can’t use them?”
“Correct.”
“Then we go back. To the med-center.”
“No. We won’t get a second chance to get away. Namir’s dead, but the station manager was in his organization. I need to contact my superiors.”
“She needs medical attention.”
“First aid only. Do the best you can, without the nanites. Let me make contact with my superiors. I’ll get us to the closest med-center. We have to do this right, or we’ll waste precious time trying to circumvent security.”
“I hate this,” Ivan grumbled as he left the cockpit and moved back to the cabin.
Ivan wasn’t the only one who hated their situation. Zev had been monitoring the security channel when he heard about the shootout in the public docking bay. He’d heard a convict had been shot, and he’d feared the worst. He’d made it to the med-center too late. Security was all over the place, but his unit had come and gone. All he’d heard was that a man had been hit with an ice bullet.
He’d made his way over to Namir’s section of the station, hoping Ivan would carry out Plan B. He still didn’t know how Melina had ended up in Namir’s hands, but he’d nearly beaten her to death. Then the bastard had taken the nanites from her hand to prolong her suffering.
Somehow, Zev’s sweet Melina had poisoned Namir with those nanites. Ingenious, the way she’d played him, but the cost had been too high. She might not survive. It’s the reason Zev would agree to anything once he hailed his superior.
It had been nine months since he’d talked to them directly. And so much had changed in the last three months. Getting Melina—and Jayce—the care they needed could result in all of them being sent back to Veenith. Zev had to risk it.
