Page 20 of Taken By The Alien Warrior Pirate

Inside, I was weighing the odds about whether we should move in for the attack, judging by the fact that we had an emotionally compromised engineer to deal with— Amada, and a crabby AI— Silver, as our only hackers on board. Their unpredictability was more than troublesome.

What made it even worse was the fact that Amada and Silver were constantly at odds, and I was always having to be the middleman peacemaker trying to get them to stop butting heads and doing their jobs properly. They got so easily distracted in their animosity toward each other. I was already dealing with enough without that added stress to frustrate me further.

“What are you thinking about?” Carmela peered up at me with such innocence that it made my stomach tingle.

My heart swelled a million times over for her.

I squeezed her hand and offered her the sincerest smile. “Nothing. Just that I’m glad you’re here with me.”

Her eyes brightened. “Me too. I had so much fun last night.” She tossed me a flirtatious smile and lightly bumped her shoulder against mine while gently nibbling on her lower lip. She was sexy without trying too hard, or at all, which made it even more appealing to be with her.

I hoped she meant what she said. She looked sincere, too, so I had no reasonnotto believe her.

I met her gaze and clamped my hand on her thigh. “I really need you.”

Her features shifted to worry again. “You mean to help with disabling the robot army?”

I nodded. “You might be the key to blowing this whole operation open.”

Carmela’s cheeks flushed a rosy-pink shade. Her smile was shy but resilient. “That’s a lot of pressure.”

“I don’t mean to put it on you, but I need to be honest.”

Carmela nodded. “I understand.” Her eyes flickered with perseverance.

“I just mean… with you… we have a much better chance of succeeding.”

Carmela’s eyes continued twinkling. “You’re going to give me a swelled head.”

“Maybe you need one.” I smiled.

“I am never going to say no to somebody wanting to help give me more confidence in myself,” Carmela said with a modest smile.

I roped my arm around her waist and hugged her close. “You killed it on that Harvester ship. I was so impressed with your incredible skill.”

“I did what I had to do.” Another humble smile from her, then her expression turned more serious as she met my gaze and held it. “I’ll do it again — as many times as I need to. I’m on board, and I want to be there to watch your pride shine through when you take your native planet back from those robot monsters who stole it.”

It was a perfect moment to kiss her. I was beyond overjoyed when she reaffirmed her commitment to not only me, but to my crew as well when we desperately needed her.

ChapterNine

CARMELA

Iwas in high spirits the next day, ready to set to work helping to be a new hacker on board with Cyburn and his crew — but my happy bubble didn’t last — and quickly burst.

My balloon of enthusiasm began to deflate when I overheard a rather unpleasant conversation taking place about me on the bridge of the ship. Cyburn wasn’t present, but as soon as I heard the mention of my name, I stopped in my tracks and hid behind the wall to listen in and eavesdrop on what was being said about me.

Marver, one of the engineers working under Amada had the floor. “Can we reallytrustthishumanthat Cyburn has enlisted to be on our crew?”

“I agree,” an unknown male voice said. It sounded like Rivis, one of the gunners working under Nix, but I couldn’t be sure without actually looking. “Don’t get me wrong. I don’t have anythingagainstthe humans, and I understand what he’s trying to do as far as rescuing them goes. I agree that we shouldn’t just leave them to be harvested by the Belic — but that should be as far as it goes. We bring them to the closest intergalactic embassy, and that’s it. We cut ties from there, and it is no longer our problem. Having themworkfor us, it’s a totally different story.”

“Atroublesomestory,” Marver added.

“Maybe we should just trust that Cyburn knows what he’s doing,” Silver added her two cents. She sounded irritated with how the conversation was going.

I was pleased that she was sticking up for Cyburn, even if it was in a roundabout way.

“Ohplease,” Amada scoffed. “You’re even more in love with him thanIwas.”

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