She watched as his large hands—each the size of her head—curled on top of the bar. She unobtrusively slid to the edge of her stool and let her feet touch the floor.
“Star-sucking bitch!” Krudon reared back and swung at her.
Nissa slid sideways and ducked.Here we go again.
Krudon whirled, and with a bellow, he swung again. She ducked under his arm. His huge hand dented the bar. Behind it, the syndroid started blaring a warning.
Nissa balanced lightly on the balls of her feet, adrenaline racing into her bloodstream. There was no way she could takeKrudon in a fair fight, but the Semper were best with weapons, not hand-to-hand. And besides, she didn’t intend to fight fairly.
She slipped a hand under her jacket, passed over her laser pistol and palmed her stunner. By touch, she switched it to the lowest stun setting. Krudon was an idiot, but she didn’t want to hurt him.
Before Krudon turned, she slammed a boot into the back of his knee. He went down, swiveling as he did. On his knees, he was the same height as her.
“Enough, Krudon. You keep attacking me every time you get out of the brig and you know what happens every time we do this dance.” She leaned a little closer. “I beat your ass and put you straight back in a cell to cool off.”
He yelled a word in his own language and since her lingual implant didn’t provide a translation, Nissa suspected it was some nasty Semper curse word. He lunged forward, his huge body slamming into hers. Nissa stunned him.
It didn’t do much. At the lowest setting, a man of Krudon’s body weight probably registered a mild sting. They crashed to the floor and unfortunately, she was on the bottom.
His immense bulk knocked the wind out of her. Fighting to draw air, she felt something sticky on the side of her neck.Ugh, she did not want to know what was on the floor of Moonrakers.
She jammed her stunner into his side. “Do that again and I’ll set it high enough to knock you out cold.” Her words were husky from lack of air.
His huge jaw lifted, his wide eyes were filled with a mutinous glow.
Yeah, yeah, you don’t like me. I get it. A lot of that going around today.“Get off.”
That mutinous look again. With a long sigh, she knew she was going to have to stun his ass again.
Then suddenly his weight was jerked backward and she could breathe.
“Nissa!” Justyn appeared in front of her, grabbing her arms and pulling her to her feet.
Krudon stood beside them, swaying slightly, holding his bleeding head.
“Don’t you move, asshole.” Justyn stabbed a finger at Krudon before focusing on Nissa again. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.” He’d dived in to help her. Despite everything, something warm bloomed in her chest, but she couldn’t focus on that right now. First, she had to deal with Krudon. “Really, I need to?—”
Suddenly, the Semper lunged forward, knocking Justyn aside, and punching Nissa brutally in the stomach.
As she fell, she managed to lift her stunner. She saw Krudon’s body jolt, just as she flew into the side of the bar with a massive explosion of pain.
Justyn barely gavethe giant alien a look as he knelt beside Nissa. “Shit, sweetheart, that was a serious hit.”
“I’m fine.” She sat up. “If you hadn’t interrupted, I wouldn’t even be down here getting unknown muck on my hands.”
She was cradling her ribs, and as he reached to take a look, she pushed his arm away.
“Sorry for trying to help when a guy twice your size was beating you into a pulp.” Yeah, Justyn heard the sarcastic edge in his voice, but he was still raw from their earlier discussion.
“Sorry.” She huffed out a breath and grabbed his arm. “Sorry. Broken ribs make me cranky.”
The snarky apology almost made Justyn smile. Then he pressed a hand to her side and felt the knot on her ribs and winced.
She grimaced. “That bad, huh?”
“Ah, yeah.” He looked toward the bar. “Hey, Dob? Can you bring some ice?”
