Beka's eyes weren't lying; it was definitely him. She had to look up to see him because he was so tall, but she'd liked that, as well as his dark eyes and the little bit of stubble that scratched her face when she kissed him. He certainly was a beautiful man.
"Let's go somewhere more private to talk," Alex said smoothly, discreetly grabbing her gun from its place at her hip and pinning the muzzle to her back.
"Anything for you, dear," Beka replied sarcastically. He led her outside to the back of the bar and threw her against the side of the building so he could blindfold her and tie her arms behind her back. "Didn't know you were into this sort of thing."
"Are you trying to get shot?" Alex asked, his strong grip on her again as he pushed her along.
"If that were the plan, you would've done it already," she answered as they walked unnoticed into the woods behind the bar. When they'd been gone about five minutes, she heard Alex call some one on a com, then they continued with Beka trying to goad him into telling her anything about what was happening.
"You tried to steal my ship."
"And I got laid in the process. Bully for me."
"You know," Beka quipped. "That's why I fell for you- 'cause you're such a gentleman."
He chuckled, trailing a finger down her arm. "It was nice while it lasted."
"Stop it."
He laughed again and leaned into her. "What are you gonna do about it?" She lifted a foot off the ground and tried to kick him in the shin, but he dodged it. "Don't worry. I'll preserve your virtue. Well, you don't really have much of that left, but the little you have you can keep."
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They'd walked for about at hour when the ground began to slope and the air grew chilly.
"Hey, boys, you'll never believe this!" Alex shouted. Beka heard footsteps, then catcalls and laughter from what she thought must be fifty men. The blindfold was unceremoniously ripped off and she realized it was more like fifteen. They were standing underground in some kind of cave. "It's my girl. Think she'll fetch a good price?"
"Oh, yeah," replied a muscular man with a shaved head and stained clothing. "Girl like that, we could probably get a warship for her."
"A warship, you say?"
"You guys tried that, remember?" Beka asked. "You failed miserably."
The bald man reached out and backhanded her so hard she fell to the floor. "Not miserably. We've got a plan B, now." He helped her to her feet just to throw her to the ground again. "I figure we let these guys have a go at you for a couple hours, take a few pictures, and your captain will come running to save you, maybe make a trade. Or you could just give us all the codes this time."
Oh, Divine, thought Beka. Have a go, have a go, what does that mean? Calm down, she thought. Try to talk them out of it. "There's a flaw in your plan," she began with a shaky voice. "After what you made me do, they'll be glad to see me gone."
"Then you'll be gone."
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"Rhade, did you run into Beka down there?" Dylan stood in front of the giant Rhade-head on the screen in the command deck. "She's been gone for hours and our departure time was hours ago."
"She took off in the Maru as I was leaving. She didn't say where she was going, but I saw her enter Terazed's atmosphere from my slipfighter."
"Damn it," Dylan cursed. "Thanks, Rhade."
"Wish I could've been more help."
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Eyes followed him as Rhade strolled through the little dive that he knew Beka frequented when she was on Terazed. He knew she liked places like these because she could always find some kind of side job there. He also knew that he stuck out like a sore thumb.
"I'm looking for this woman," he said as he reached the bartender, holding out a flexi with her picture. "Have you seen her?"
"She was in here earlier. Left with Alex."
Rhade's senses went into overdrive as the name was uttered. "Alex? Is he a regular?"
"Oh, yeah," answered the bartender. "He and his boys are in here all the time."
"His boys… do you know where they went?"
"Alex comes and goes, but I don't know where. He won't even tell me what he does for a living. Just says he's a 'politician,' but their kind stay on the other side of the planet."
"Thanks," Rhade muttered, walking outside and looking around. Had she gone back to him? She was smarter than that, but she was lonely, too, and every moment she was with Alex was an opportunity for her to divulge critical secrets about the Andromeda.
He walked around the bar until his enhanced senses picked up on something. Raising a finger to the wall, he lifted a long blond hair from the brick. She'd been letting it grow and he liked it that way. She still wore it partially pulled back, but some times when it got tousled it would fall around her face in waves. He'd always wanted to touch it.
Bringing his mind back to the present, he assessed the situation. She'd been up against the wall at some point, but in what capacity, he wasn't sure. He could still track her, though. He knew her scent well enough and the trail was pretty warm. He set off and kept a look out for long blond hairs.
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Apparently, having a go meant being tossed around like a rag doll while ten or more men took punches and cheap shots. Beka's lip was bleeding, her wrist was broken, small pieces of metal had been jammed between each of her fingernails, and blood was running down the side of her face from somewhere on her head. They'd taken her shoes and were having fun making her walk across jagged rocks.
"Got anything to say yet?"
Beka closed her eyes and swallowed. What could she say? No one knew where she was. No one was coming. She was going to die- she just didn't know how long it would take or how painful it would be. "My pain belongs to the Divine," she whispered. "It is like air, it is like- shit. That doesn't work." She took a deep breath and tried to think about the Maru.
TBC
