Chapter 13 Roxi
I barely get myself upright and moving again when a bright blue bubble shield slams into me and levitates my body, freezing me in place.
CSP has captured me. Not Venoms.
“This is my end, Fracture. I will miss you. I am happy to die for your freedom, but you have to be free.”
Fracture calls my name again, shouts it over my com, but the feed is already breaking up because of the frequency screen built into this very specific kind of prisoner capture.
I would know.
“I w…nt you…oo liv…for…ove.”
Fracture’s last communication wrecks my conviction and makes me regret leaving him. But it’s too late now.
The bubble lowers me to a capture pad. My boots are offline, the rockets disabled, and I’m settling into the gooey platform that won’t let go until whatever asshole is in charge decides he’s tired of me.
A human man walks around me and stops. When I look up at him, my heart catches in my throat.
He shifts in closer until I can see the tracework etched into his cruel irises.
“Hello again, my disobedient little fireball.” He licks his lips like he can’t wait for a taste.
“This time,” he whispers, coming in uncomfortably close to my face. His breath falls over my mouth, but I can’t move any further away. I’m already straining in my boots.
He grabs my suit, rips the collar open, and grabs me by the neck with bruising force. His lips sweep over mine while I try not to show just how much rage I keep inside because of him.
“Roxi…” He clicks his tongue like I’ve been naughty. “What am I going to do about you and all the trouble you’ve caused me?”
I can hear the ship leaving in the distance and listen closely, fearing an explosion, or worse—a lot of them.
“Let them go. They just wanted food,” I tell him.
He sighs and squeezes my throat. I gasp and want to claw his hand off of me, but I can’t move. “You are a terrible liar, but your kind always was.”
“What does that say about you for dating such a terrible disappointment?” I sass. I don’t know why I pester him, only that when I go out, I want to be as much of a pain in the ass as possible.
“Have to stretch my legs from time to time.”
I try to punch him in the face, but the shield freezes me before I can make contact.
He bites my lip hard enough it bleeds, then he licks the blood from it. “Still human.”
“Mostly, no thanks to your cougar obsession with Sin.”
“What is it going to take to see you cry?” He hums a note like he’s tasting something delicious. “I love the way your lips plump up when you cry.”
“You already killed my friends, my family, my crew, and everyone else on my base.”
“And where have you been since? Hmm?”
When I don’t answer, he slides his thumb up under my chin and tilts my head back. Sharp, augmented teeth bite into my throat.
“A bounty hunter picked me up.”
He draws blood. The warm drops roll down my skin. He licks it up again. “And?”
“Just Sin.”
“That is what I plan to do with you.”
I choke down my disgust. “Sin got a hold of me on a Ravenger. I was there for a few years with Lenarro and a KillStar. I only recently escaped.”
He straightens and looks me over with just a hint of disillusionment. “And after?”
“I was with a rebel group. But they left. I’m not worth the risk. Too many of you and too few of them.”
He leans in against my ear, pulls himself to me until I can feel his erect cock digging into my belly, and whispers, “You are more useful alive than dead. The Titans will come for you. Until they do, you are mine.”
“There is nothing you can do that Sin or her crew has not already done to my body.”
“Good, then I expect a lot less fight from you.”
“If you are what I have to endure again, I’d rather you just make my end quick,” I bitterly remark.
A Solcrue steps forward and warms a gun. But he isn’t looking at me. He’s looking at my captor.
“Ah, so you still don’t call the shots on your own crew,” I remark. “They don’t want me dead. But you’re supposed to coax info out of me, I suppose.”
He grabs my armor and jerks my face to his. “You listen to me, you little metal-head groupie.”
“I’m waiting.”
He kisses me hard, inhales deeply, and brushes his lips over mine. I can’t escape him, but I don’t have to respond. So I let him do his thing while I tuck myself in a quiet place in my mind with memories of Fracture instead.
Then he leans back and looks down at me.
“Behave, or I will hunt down every single one of your favorite little tinker toys, and drain them of their precious nanosolution until they shut down. Then I will smash their ultromotors and cut out their cores and wake them inside new, vicious machines of destruction, capable of eliminating everything.”
“You can try. We did.”
He squints just a little.
“But you cannot corrupt a Titan’s soul.”
He snarls, opens a portal behind me with a button, and front kicks me through it.
Pressure screams through my core as I’m thrown through hazy blue light and slam into a concrete wall.
The force of the hit knocks me forward, and I fall to my hands and my knees on the floor, my bleeding side in miserable agony.
He steps in after me and closes the portal. Then he frees the weapons from my body and tosses them to someone standing in the door to my cell.
When he reaches for the blue pulse Solcrue destroyer in my hand, I flip the disintegrate switch and depress the button. It turns to ash that rains from my hand.
He sways his head. “You always were a pissy little thing.”
“At least my pecker isn’t little.”
He crosses his arms. “You, of all people, know it’s not.”
I squirm, hating the memories that re-emerge. “I fell for your lies. That’s on me.”
“Know what else is on you? The life of everyone you’re not smart enough to protect.”
Fury storms through my body. I charge him. He counters my attack and spins me away from him. That’s the trouble with training under the same man. Neither one of us ever gets ahead. He pins me against the wall with his weight while I get him twisted in a painful position.
“Where is KillStar?” he demands.
“How would I know? I haven’t seen her in years.”
“You lie!”
“I’m not, you short stick.”
He grabs me by the chest of my suit and smashes me into the wall, grinding on me. “Did you forget?”
“You still are a little prick!” I shove him off of me and spread my feet. “I’m not talking. Torture me or don’t. It won’t make a damn bit of difference!”
He chuckles in a sadistic way as he gets up. “Oh, I will torture you, just not physically…of you. But you will suffer.”
He walks to the door and storms out. “Probably more than they will.”
He’s going to torture Titans and make me watch.
I slump down on the bench and run my hands through my hair. The Titans will figure it out. They will come for me. And he will be waiting with the Solcrue.
I thought I could escape after the last time this happened on Earth Minor. But I see now that I was wrong. I just hope Fracture and the others have learned enough about CSP tactics and tricks that they can avoid capture or worse, decommissioning.
I brace my bleeding side and close my eyes.
Fuck.