Chapter 4
FOUR
Three Weeks Later
The sudden, insistent blare of Shay’s alarm startled her awake.
Her fist reflexively flew up and smacked her nose, sending sharp pain across her face.
With a curse, she lifted her head and fumbled with the holocom on her wrist, trying to remember through her grogginess how to turn the damned thing off.
Once there was silence, her head fell back on the pillow.
Just another day in paradise.
She opened her eyes and squinted at the holocom’s display, which was blaringly bright in the otherwise dark room. 05:01. Not that it meant much in the Undercity, which was locked in an eternal night broken only by the vibrant, obnoxious neons and holograms on almost every street.
With a groan, Shay rolled onto her back, rubbing the throbbing bridge of her nose as all her other twinges and aches made themselves known—stiff back, sore hips, immense pressure on her bladder. Despite all that, she enjoyed this rare moment of peace.
Slipping her hands beneath the blanket, Shay settled them on her rounded stomach and closed her eyes. Little feet kicked against her palm from within.
Shay smiled. “Good morning, Baby.”
Baby. That was all she could call it. Shay didn’t know whether it was a boy or girl, wasn’t sure of the due date, didn’t even know what she was going to do when the time finally came.
But she did know this baby was the only good thing in her life regardless of its conception and despite the piece of shit sperm donor, and she’d do her best not to fuck this up like she had everything else.
Shay might have made a mess of her own life, but she wasn’t going to ruin her baby’s. She’d do better for her child.
Just how she was going to accomplish that remained a mystery, but she would.
It didn’t help that she’d been taken from everything she’d ever known, sold and thrust into this dangerous new world where some viewed her as weak and small, as a curiosity, a possession to be claimed. As a fucking animal.
Never again.
It’d been three weeks since her escape from that damned prison cell and every day had been a struggle.
She was paranoid, always on guard, always looking over her shoulder, always anticipating the moment when they’d find her.
And she was stuck here in Arthos. She had no ID chip and couldn’t get one through the United Terran Federation because of her criminal record—she had at least one warrant out for her arrest back on Earth.
If she went to the embassy, they were guaranteed to see that warrant, and she’d be taken into custody. She was royally fucked.
Well, you wanted a fresh start. Doesn’t get much fresher than this. You’re nobody here.
“So, we make do with what we got, right Baby?” she asked softly, running her hand over her stomach as the baby restlessly shifted.
Pregnancy was a state she hadn’t wanted, one she couldn’t afford, but she didn’t resent it.
Fortunately, she’d been granted a better start than she might otherwise have had thanks to the azhera who’d purchased her from Murgen. He’d had chips with several thousand credits on them stashed in his pants pocket. But credits only went so far when you didn’t have an ID chip.
“And money isn’t going to make itself.” Despite those words, Shay lay on her pathetic excuse for a bed—an old, thin, lumpy gel mattress on the floor—and cherished the quiet moment with her baby a little longer.
She didn’t bother suppressing her groan when she finally rolled out of bed. “Lights on.”
The overhead lights along the upper walls hummed and flickered on, low and dim at first before strengthening to an uneven glow. Several were burned out.
On her hands and knees, Shay slipped her hand beneath her pillow, curled her fingers around the handle of her blaster, and pushed herself to her feet. Her bladder chose that moment to remind her of how long she’d ignored it.
She hurriedly snatched clean clothes from the dresser and crossed the small studio apartment to enter the bathroom.
She set the blaster on the counter, shoved her underwear down, and relieved herself.
The moan that escaped from her was embarrassing, but who the hell cared? No one was around to hear.
She took a moment just to glare at the auto-washer embedded on the wall—it was a sliding door about a meter wide and tall, and like everything else in the apartment, it was unreliable at best. The wash function worked well, but it was crapshoot as to whether her clothes would actually be dry when the done light came on.
More than once, she’d been forced to drape damp clothing over the shower rod and let it air dry.
Once she’d finished on the toilet, she took a quick shower and got dressed.
The bathroom contained a tiny shower stall, a sink, and a bowl protruding from the wall that was her toilet, and it felt about the size of a coat closet.
Despite being crowded and leaving her with bruised elbows a few times, it was enough for her.
Better her arms than her belly, anyway, which seemed prone to bump into everything. She wasn’t used to being so…ungainly.
She was brushing her teeth when the door buzzer went sounded.
Shay paused, her mouth fully of toothpaste, and looked at the front door—which was behind her in the main room—in the mirror. She settled her free hand atop her blaster.
The buzz came again.
Trying to ignore how nauseous the toothpaste made her, she spat into the sink, set the toothbrush down, and quickly rinsed and wiped her mouth before stalking into the main room.
Pressing a shoulder against the wall beside the door, she raised the blaster and checked the charge. The view screen mounted near the doorframe hadn’t worked since she’d moved in. Any time she opened the door, she was doing so blind, and that was especially concerning in a place like this.
Her visitor pounded on the door. Shay felt the vibrations through the wall.
“Who is it?” she called.
“Open up, terran,” demanded Vrisk, her so-called landlord, his voice muffled through the closed door.
“What do you want? I’m busy.”
“Your payment is due.”
Shay pushed away from the wall to glare at the door as though she could see Vrisk through it. “The fuck you say? I paid for a month!”
“It’s been a month. Hand over the credits or get out.”
Righteous fury burned in her belly. Shay gritted her teeth, switched the blaster into her left hand, tucked it behind her back, and disengaged the locks on the door.
“I so don’t have time for this shit,” she muttered, slapping the open button.
The door—the only thing in the apartment in decent working order—whipped open to reveal her two-hundred-ten-centimeter tall landlord, an ilthurii with dark brown bark scales and crimson eyes.
He was one scary motherfucker, but that hadn’t stopped Shay from approaching him when she needed a place to stay, even if this was a dump.
Desperate times…
His hairless brow ridges were drawn down—whether in annoyance or in constipation, Shay neither knew nor cared. It was the look he always seemed to wear.
“It’s only been three weeks,” Shay said, glaring up at the overgrown lizard. “The deal was a month.”
Vrisk leaned down, the spines around his face and head flattening as he grunted. “If I say it’s been a month, it’s been a month. I want my credits, terran.”
“You’ll get your damned credits in a week.”
“I am not running a fucking charity.” He held his hand out. “I want what is due.”
Shay smacked his hand away. “You’ll get what’s due when it’s due.”
Vrisk snarled and stepped closer, shoving a clawed finger in her face. She barely managed to keep herself from shoving her gun into his.
“You will pay now, terran, or I will sell your room and everything inside it to another by the day’s end,” he said.
Shay’s jaw hurt from how hard she clenched it to keep her words from spewing out. Oh, the things she wanted to say to this asshole.
Think of the baby…
Shay tucked her blaster into the waistband of her pants and hid it under her shirt. “Stay there.”
She turned around and walked across the living space, listening closely for any indication that he might’ve followed her inside, to snatch up the belt draped over one of the chairs at the table.
She fished the credit chip she’d been saving for next month’s rent out of one of the pouches.
When she turned back toward the ilthurii, he was still standing in the hallway—and still looking like someone took a shit in his breakfast.
Striding to the door, Shay drew her arm back and snapped it forward, releasing the chip. It flew through the air and struck Vrisk right between his eyes. He flinched and shuffled backward, scrambling to catch it.
“There’s next month’s payment. You try and cheat me again, and I’ll blow your goddamned head off.” She hit the control button. The door shut immediately, cutting off Vrisk’s glare and any words he might have said.
A kick in her stomach startled Shay out of her anger. Shay settled her hand over the spot and closed her eyes, releasing a long, slow exhalation. “You’re right. Mommy’s gotta calm down.”
Once her heart slowed, she opened her eyes and glanced down at her holocom.
Shit!
Racing to the bathroom, she snatched a hairband from the counter, gathered her hair, and tied it back. She returned to the living room and shoved her feet into her boots, nearly falling over in her haste. The near fall was enough to give her pause.
Bracing a hand on the wall, she took in another calming breath and muttered, “Slow down, Shay.”