Planet Athion: The Complete Series by Angel Lawson
32
Mercy
I trymy hardest to keep up with Barron’s giant form as he strides down the long hallway. It’s not easy in this ridiculously tight dress and my death-trap shoes, not to mention I’m off balance with my hands still bound in front of me. He takes a sudden right and I start to topple—that’s when I realize there’s another person in the hall.
My escort with the turquoise blue eyes.
Once I’m upright I jerk away, not wanting his Trad hands on me. I’ve been violated enough for one day. “Keep moving, Amias.”
Amias? Is that my guard's name? Or is he Barron’s guard? Or…the Master himself?
I have no real clue where we’re going except that at the end of it is this “Master” that has purchased me. Is he the same one Dimka spoke of in the fighting pits?
Barron stops abruptly and presses his thumb to the pad on the wall. A door slides open and he steps onto an elevator and Amias does as well. I’m still outside and hesitate. This could be my only chance. Barron and I lock eyes and the elevator chimes. I step back preparing to bolt, despite my heels and dress, but two hands latch on my upper arms and drag me into the elevator. The door slides shut.
“The dumbest possible thing you could do right now is try to run.” My back is pressed against Barron’s chest and his thumbs dig into my arms. “The dumbest. Possible. Thing.”
I exhale and wiggle away, shoving him off of me. “I’m just supposed to go willingly?”
“Yes, actually, you are.”
“Can you at least tell me what’s going to happen to me?”
Barron and Amias exchange looks. I don’t like it. They could easily overpower me in this elevator. No one would know. No one would care. I belong to Barron—or at least, his Master. But my paranoia is for nothing, he simply slides a hand into his pocket and waits for the elevator door to open.
We’re on a landing pad.
“We’re going on a ship?” I ask. This gets an answer.
“Yep.”
“To go where? To your bastard 'Master' and wherever he’s hiding out from the Custo? Because they’re looking for him, you know.” I take it a step further. “They’re looking for me.”
He cuts me another look but this one is accompanied by a small smirk. We pass a dozen workers scurrying around the landing pad. Barron loosens his tie, and shrugs out of his expensive coat. An attendant, a woman in a jumpsuit and boots, walks up to him and hands him a more casual jacket that he slips on. I could be wrong but if I had to guess, it’s made of leather. From a cow. From Earth.
Who is this man?
“Thank you, Cassidy,” he says. “Is everything ready to go?”
“Yeah, but the clock’s ticking.” She glances at me uneasily. “We need to depart soon.”
He approaches a small ship—well, not small—larger than an airplane, but it’s sitting inside this larger ship so it’s all relative. A cargo door with a ramp is open at the back and he strides up with a sense of ownership. Cassidy follows, punching into her data pad. I stop, staring at my feet. I feel Amias standing behind me, waiting for me to try to bolt again.
“Mercy, get on the ship,” Barron says, his voice echoes against the metal.
“No.”
“Get on the fucking ship.”
“No,” I say, then add, “once I leave this place I’m gone for real. Lost. There’s no more Mercy Ladd. I’m just a slave. A number. Nothing.” I look up at Barron, who stares down at me with one solitary raised eyebrow. “At least here I had a name. Don’t you understand that?”
He inhales and shifts his eyes over my shoulder. “Get her inside.”
Amias is quick and before I can blink his arms are wrapped around me in a tight grip. I struggle but it’s no use. He’s huge. Strong, and even though I keep fighting I know it’s pointless the instant he carries me up the ramp and into the ship.
“Toss her in her quarters. Lock the door,” Barron says, vanishing deeper into the ship. I’m still fighting when that’s exactly what happens, the door closing behind me with a whooshing snap.