CHAPTER FIVE

He knew he set a punishing pace. Beside him, the girl labored for breath as they ran across the barren tundra. Twice he'd had to reach out and steady her when she missed her footing on the frozen ground. He told himself he didn't particularly care if she fell, but he sure as hell wouldn't let her slow him down.

She represented everything he despised about the world; wealth, power and privilege. Beauty and brightness.

Weakness.

Still...there was something about her that roused a long-dormant protective instinct in him. She reminded him of her. The woman-child he'd rescued from the monsters on the desolate planet they'd crashed onto while en route to New Mecca.

It had been five years since he'd dumped the girl known as Jack on Helion Prime. He'd left her in the care of a holy man and he hadn't looked back. He'd left in order to keep her safe. At the time, he'd had mercs on his neck. He'd always have mercs on his neck. He wouldn't risk her life by letting her travel with him, though he knew that's what she had hoped for.

Maybe someday he'd go back.

He glanced over at the girl by his side. He hadn't been able to get a good look at her face due to the survival suit and the tinted face plate. He'd remedy that once they reached his ship, an antiquated if serviceable space craft he'd jacked from a merc back on Helion Prime.

He'd been headed for the distant Calonion system when he'd run into a meteor shower that had forced him down onto this bleak rock. He'd been here for five years.

He'd seen the girl's ship come in; had watched it cartwheel across the horizon in a spectacular cloud of black smoke and debris. He'd sprinted across the frigid landscape toward the wreckage, not daring to hope the craft's power cells had survived. But they had. Along with the two females.

He glanced back over his shoulder as they negotiated their way across another fissure. The pilot was unconscious. He'd seen that the last time he'd had to haul the sled over a crevasse. He knew her type; tough on the outside, but weak underneath.

The girl...she was something else. He'd smelled her fear back there in the ship, when she hadn't known what stalked her in the darkness. Still, she had chosen to confront him. She hadn't had a chance against him, of course. He'd held her effortlessly. Beneath the bulky thermal suit she wore, he had felt the curves that told him she was no child, though she seemed scarcely bigger than one.

The winds had increased in intensity and snow had begun falling in a thick, blinding blanket. Soon it would be too deep to travel through. Peering through the swirling gale, he saw a ridge of jagged rock rising up before them.

"This way!" He hauled on the harness and dragged the girl alongside as he made his way toward the ridge. The sled was heavier now as snow piled up on top of the pilot, but he scarcely noticed. They were almost there.

They were through the entrance to the cavern before he even knew they had reached it. The snow was whipping around them so fiercely he hadn't realized they'd actually reached the ridge. It was only through sheer luck they had found the narrow cleft in the rock wall that led inward to the twisting maze of tunnels and caverns he had called home for the past five years.

The blinding fall of snow ended abruptly and darkness surrounded them. He felt the girl falter and move subtly closer to him. She stiffened when he leaned toward her and released the harness strap from around her body. She was nervous. He could almost hear her heartbeat kick up a notch. He definitely heard her catch her breath when his fingers brushed briefly against her breast.

"Relax, Princess," he drawled. "I'm not in the mood."

She gasped, and he could almost see the outraged expression on her face and sense her shock. He smiled. Stepping out of the harness, he turned away from her, toward the sled. Beneath the thick layer of snow that blanketed her, the pilot was still unconscious.

"Is she...is she still alive?" The girl's voice was breathless.

"She's alive," he said dryly. Without bothering to sweep the snow aside, he hefted the woman over his shoulder. She groaned but made no other protest. "Let's move."

"Wait."

He turned back to the girl. "Is there a problem?" He sensed her hesitation.

"I--I can't see anything. Maybe...maybe I could hold onto the edge of your cape...?"

"What's the matter, Princess? I hope you're not afraid of the dark." He pushed back his goggles. In the penetrating darkness, he could see her clearly. That was the benefit of having had a shine job done on his eyes years earlier, while doing time in a slam in the Medonion system.

Jack had liked his eyes; had sworn she was going to have the same done to her own.

He wondered what the Princess would think of his eyes, once she got a good look at them. Not that it mattered. He'd be unloading her and the pilot just as soon as he could. He sure as shit didn't need the excess baggage.

"Sure," he replied in response to her hesitant query. "Hold on if you'd like. Just be sure you can let go when it's time."

He felt the pull of fabric as she grabbed a fistful of his cloak. He set out, moving quickly over the uneven terrain. A dizzying network of umbilical tunnels twisted outward from where they stood and he selected one with unerring accuracy. It wound steadily upward, sometimes so steeply he had to haul the girl along behind him. He scarcely noticed the weight of the pilot over his shoulder, but found he was acutely conscious of the woman who clung to his cloak as she struggled to keep pace.

The tunnel made one final, sharp turn and then they were in a cathedral of chiseled rock. The walls vaulted upward to an opening in the ceiling overhead, and frigid air rushed inward from outside. In the center of the enormous cavern sat a ship. It was ancient by any standards and the exterior hull bore testimony to the abuses inflicted by the last meteor shower it had endured, but once the new power cells were installed, it would get them all the hell off this rock.

He carried the pilot into the ship and lowered her into a seat behind the cockpit. Her body sagged sideways and she was in danger of sliding to the floor when the other woman rushed to support her.

"Isn't there someplace she can lay down?" He could hear the anxiety in her voice.

"Like I said, Princess, this ain't a pleasure cruise. Find something to tie her to the seat." He turned away from her. "I'm going back for the power cells. Don't touch anything while I'm gone."

He heard her small, sharp intake of breath. "You speak to me like I'm a child, which I assure you I am not!"

"No," he agreed with a sneer. "You're worse. You're a princess."