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Air and blood whooshed out from the gash. The man frantically batted at the tear while Onnika floated back and then kicked him hard in the chest with her heel, sending him spinning one way, and her another…directly toward the air lock. Her path was erratic. She used her suit’s thrusters to correct her course, but one moment it looked as though she’d overshot her target, then overcorrected the next. Was she out of air? Panicking? Struggling to remain conscious? Aidan couldn’t tell.
Just when her body seemed to go limp, her inertia carried her into the airlock. Her body bounced off the hatch door and then began slowly drifting backward…back toward open space.
“Close the damn hatch!” Aidan yelled, even as the outer hatch was already closing. As soon as it locked in place, the small antechamber began decompressing, and the artificial gravity sent Onnika’s motionless body to the floor. Aidan didn’t wait for the inner hatch to fully rise before shoving his way under it. He lurched toward her, feverishly unlocking her helmet and ripping it off her head. Her long white locks spilled free. Seemingly unconscious, she took in one large breath. Aidan nearly crumbled in relief. Then her eyes cracked open and she peered up at him. Whatever he expected, it wasn’t for her to give him that soft smile and voice a simple, “Hey.”
Boiling over with too many emotions that he couldn’t quite process, he railed at her, snapping and cursing and screaming. The wordstupidwas used a lot.Idiot,too. And a barrage of additional harsh descriptors he wouldn’t recall later and wasn’t really aware of as they escaped his mouth. All he knew was the sharp pain of his relief, the toxic sting of it fraying his nerves, and that he never, ever wanted to experience anything like it again, and that he was so damn mad he couldn’t think straight. He might have snapped that last part aloud.
When he was done, he had to suck in several harsh breaths to calm his dizzy mind.
She blinked at him, then glanced around, taking note of the rings still hiked around her shoulder. “Did I win?”
He threw his head back and bellowed.
“All right, all right,” she said, sitting up. “Calm down. I was just doing what you asked.”
He pulled her to her feet. “Did I ask you to get yourself killed?”
“Am I dead?”
“Not for a lack of trying.” Moments later he had her stripped of that fucking spacesuit and was ready to drag her back to the ship and lock both her and Caryn in their bunk until they could all leave this godforsaken place when a man strolled up to them. He had dark, ruffled hair and a crooked nose, the look of a man who’d survived more than a few brawls.
The man glanced out the porthole where her competitor’s body floated and then back at Onnika. “I see you’re still in the habit of leaving men to die.”
Onnika stiffly clutched Aidan by the arm, and there was a look on her face he’d never seen before.
Stark Fear.
Caryn, who was still nearby, had gone sheet-white.
Noticing the atmospheric change, his crew glanced between the girls and the newcomer.
“Who are you?” Aidan demanded.
Instead of answering, the man replied, “I see she’s got her claws into you now. Figuratively and literally.”
Aidan glanced down. Did Onnika realize how hard her nails were digging into his bicep?
“Good luck with this one,” the man said. “Just know she’ll betray you first chance she gets. No soul, no loyalty.”
Asher stepped forward, his expression menacing. “I think you should leave.”
The man raised his palms in surrender. As he headed away, he called back, “See you around, Oni.”
Now Onnika seemed frozen in fright, her tremors flowing into Aidan by way of her grasping fingers. Pulling her close with one arm, Aidan found his anger over her stunt had completely drained away. With tempered movements, he hooked his finger under her chin and guided her to meet his gaze. “Let’s get your vouchers and get back to the ship. I wager we have enough now.”
She blinked at him as if coming out of a daze, a small crease forming between her brows. Finally she nodded, releasing her grip on him. Oddly, he noted, he would have been fine had she kept hold of him all the way back toDragoon.
