Hijacked by Lolita Lopez
Chapter Fourteen
Night had fallen, and after spending hours in the hot hangar inventorying and sorting the pallets of supplies that had been dropped at Sara’s bustling secret base, Camila wanted something to eat, a shower and a bed. Scratch that. Something to eat, a shower, a bed and Misko.
She hadn’t seen him all day. He and the rest of the cyborgs had been busy doing cyborg things. Much more important things than organizing packages of instant meals and feminine hygiene products, she figured.
From working among some of Sara’s fellow anarchists, Camila had come to a better understanding of what her sister had accomplished and how the group’s mission had evolved. It seemed that Sara’s desire to simply sow discord and cause problems for the emperor and his evil policies had morphed into finely targeted attacks.
Eventually, her small group of anarchists had connected with other groups, some large and some tiny, to create an anti-government network. They shared resources and intel and managed various space routes that funneled refugees to safe sites beyond the emperor’s reach. Sara was one of five leaders among the network. Everything related to tech, communications and hacking fell within her purview. The other leaders were in charge of the militia, medical, logistics and refugees.
“Camila?” A woman asked from the doorway of the hangar.
“That’s me,” she said with a smile. “How can I help you?”
“Sara needs you in the SCIF.”
“The what?” Camila doubted she would ever learn all the acronyms they used around here.
“It’s the secured intel room,” the woman explained. “I’ll show you.”
Camila nodded and turned toward the two helpers assigned to her earlier that morning. “I think we’ve done all we can today. The organization diagram and the inventory database are on the network so if one of you beats me here in the morning you know where to start.”
After bidding each other goodnight, she fell into step beside the woman who, after a few strides, said, “I met you a few years ago.”
“Oh?” In the darkness outside the hangar, it was hard for Camila to see the woman’s face very well.
“I rushed your sorority,” she explained. “When I got a bid, you pulled me aside and told me I was too smart, too nice and too good to bother with those harpies. You told me to decline and join one of the academic societies instead.”
Suddenly, she knew exactly who this woman was. “Vera.”
“Yep.” Vera touched her wild blue hair. “I was a brunette when we met.”
“Was I right?” Camila wondered. “Were you better off in an academic society?”
“Much better off,” Vera confirmed. “I was upset at first. I thought you didn’t want nerds and ugly girls in your sorority.”
“You are not ugly!” Camila reacted in shock. “And I would never—”
“I know,” Vera assured her. “Later, when I calmed down, I understood what you were trying to tell me. I went to a couple of academic society info nights and found the perfect fit.”
“How did you end up here?”
“My sister was killed on Bionus,” Vera said sadly. “She had joined the cyborg unit and was EOD.”
“EOD?”
“Explosives,” she explained. “She died fighting in a campaign she didn’t believe in and that she felt was illegal and immoral. I couldn’t ignore it after that. I couldn’t ignore what was happening on Bionus or what the emperor was doing. I left the morning after her funeral and found my way here.”
“I’m sorry about your sister.” Camila couldn’t even imagine the loss of Willa or Sara. She could, however, imagine that losing them might spur her into a similar course of action.
“You would have liked her. She could party like no one else. A real social butterfly,” Vera said as they approached a building separate from all the others. “Here we are. The SCIF.”
A pair of guards outside the building checked the lanyard dangling from Camila’s neck and motioned her into the building. As soon as she crossed the threshold, the door behind her was pulled shut and locked. Surprised Vera hadn’t followed, Camila took the brightly lit corridor to another set of doors where another pair of guards checked her lanyard before admitting her.
On the other side of the doors, she found her sister, Branko and a handful of other civilians standing around a data table projecting holographic images. Camila scanned the room until she found Misko skulking in a corner. Their eyes met, and she grinned at him, earning a small smile back from him. Quietly, she skirted her sister and the others to join Misko in his shadowy corner.
“What’s this?” he asked, the corners of his mouth lifted with amusement. He flicked the plastic badge Sara had hastily designed, printed and slipped into a lanyard sleeve. “Boss Bitch? Lady of Logistics?”
“It’s a joke between sisters,” she explained before lifting on tiptoes to kiss his cheek.
Not content to simply receive her chaste kiss, he cupped the back of her head and lowered his mouth to hers. His kiss lingered for a moment before he kissed her forehead and her crown. “I missed your bratty mouth.”
“I have a few ideas about how you can make up for lost time with my bratty mouth,” she whispered, delighting in the desire that flashed in his eyes.
“I’m sure you do.”
“Cammy?” Sara called gently. “There’s something you need to see.”
At Sara’s words, Miskp placed his hand on her lower back. Camila found that curious and glanced over at him, wondering why he thought she needed support. The look on his face filled her with dread. What horrible thing was Sara about to tell her?
She moved closer to the data table and took in the holographic images shimmering above it. They were satellite and radar images of the prison transport explosion and the various escape pods and transports that jettisoned from the prison ship. Taken aback, Camila said, “So many?”
Sara nodded. “There were thousands on the ship. We figure at least eighty-percent made it off the ship. Whether they all survived is anyone’s guess.”
Camila winced when she realized some of the fleeing prisoners had jettisoned toward Kirs. “These shuttles probably didn’t make it.”
“If they did,” Branko interjected, “they probably wish they hadn’t.”
Sara cast a perturbed look his way before motioning Camila closer. “Over here,” she said and pointed toward the large screen on the opposite wall. “We’ve been monitoring the news feeds from Kirs to see how the government is spinning things. There were protests immediately after we broke into the primetime programming to show proof of the emperor’s treachery. They continued for the entire night and most of the morning before the emperor’s forces came in and crushed them.”
Camila gasped at the footage of protestors being trampled and thrown back by water cannons and other projectiles. She shuddered to think what happened to those brave protestors once they were loaded into those scary transports. Knowing how the emperor had treated the cyborgs for daring to secretly disagree with him, she could only imagine what hell awaited the protestors who chose to publicly rally against him.
“The chaos has calmed down in the capitol,” Sara said, scrolling through images. “The emperor and his mouthpieces are squawking nonstop to scare everyone into compliance.”
“Of course,” she muttered, thinking how easy it was to use mass media to terrify the populace.
Sara hesitated. “Cammy, this part is—it will be difficult. I’m sorry.”
Wondering what could have made her sister so serious, Camila worried her lower lip. She turned her gaze from her sister’s concerned face to the screen and waited. When the footage appeared and began to play, Camila staggered back in shock. Misko was already there, his strong chest and powerful arms bracing her.
On the screen, her entire crew was dead. At first, she thought perhaps it had been an explosive decompression. She and Sara had come across some absolutely horrid images in their father’s lab one cold winter night when they were nosing around like little burglars. The images were taken after a sky racer had malfunctioned, killing the two pilots and their engineer. What was left of those three women had given her nightmares for weeks.
But, no, the images on the screen weren’t from any accident that befell the shuttle. No, the crew had been murdered. Viciously, cruelly, violently murdered. There wasn’t an inch of the shuttle’s interior that wasn’t painted with blood. Jagged wounds had torn apart their bodies. She couldn’t stare at any one image too long or else her stomach tried to revolt.
Her gaze settled on something in the last image. Two bloody fingers and a messy drawing on the wall next to them. Only four letters had been scrawled in blood. C-Y-B-O.
Camila glanced at Sara. “There’s no way cyborgs did that.”
“I agree. Their kills are cleaner, faster.”
“Yes, and they aren’t psychopaths,” Camila replied. “This is the emperor trying to frame them.”
“And stir up support for his bullshit war against them,” Sara said and scrolled through more images until their father appeared on the screen. She tapped his face, and he began to speak.
“The deaths of my daughter’s crew were barbaric,” their father said angrily. “These rogue cyborgs have proven yet again that they are a threat to our society, to all life on Kirs. The emperor was criticized for his harsh sentence against the cyborgs and their civilian collaborators, but this attack on my daughter has proven that he was correct in his assessment of the danger they posed.”
Camila met Sara’s eyes as their father shook his head and seemed overcome with emotion.
“I have already lost one daughter, and I refuse to lose another.” He held up a digital frame with Camila’s image in it. “I am offering a cash reward, no questions asked, for the return of my kidnapped daughter, Camila. Her biometrics and other details can be found at the address on your screen now. Her ship, the Misbehavior, was hijacked by cyborgs and is likely under their control. The Misbehavior was last seen...”
Camila turned away from the screen as her father continued to speak. She shrugged out of Misko’s arms and made her way to the data table. The holographs of fleeing cyborgs commanded her attention. The death squads the emperor would send after them were nothing compared to the mercenaries who would answer her father’s call. The ludicrous amount of money he had offered would bring out the very worst types of mercs, the bloodthirsty, relentless kind who would stop at nothing to find her.
How many innocent people would die because of her? How many cyborgs would be captured? How many cyborg families would be caught and tormented?
Behind her, she was vaguely aware of Sara asking everyone to clear the room. Misko squeezed her shoulder and kissed her cheek, his tenderness filling her with such sadness. When he left her side, she felt bereft, cold, empty. I can’t stay.
As if reading her mind, Sara tugged her away from the table and into her arms. Crushed in her sister’s hug, Camila began to cry. “Oh, love,” Sara said gently and rocked her gently. “It’s all right. It will be all right.”
“It won’t,” Camila sobbed. “You know what our father is like when he sets his mind to something. He won’t stop until I’m back on Kirs. The longer I’m missing, the more the emperor will be able to dig his claws into Father. Shui will use him to manipulate others, to gain more support.”
“I know.” Sara pushed her back carefully and brushed the hair from Camila’s eyes. “We still have the smaller escape pods from your ship if...”
Camila inhaled a trembling breath and wiped her face. “Can they track me back here?”
“No. I’ll make sure of that.”
“How long will it take me to get back to Kirs?”
“A few days,” Sara said uncertainly. “We’ll have to find a way to cloak you from radar sweeps. I don’t want you getting picked up by space pirates.”
“How much time do you need to do that?” Camila silently prayed it was more than a few hours.”
“Not long,” Sara said carefully. “Two or three hours at most.”
Camila deflated. “Oh.”
“You don’t have to go tonight.” Sara placed both hands on Camila’s shoulders. “You can wait a few days. Take some time with him. With your cyborg.”
Camila shook her head. “No. The longer I stay, the harder it will be to leave.”
“Do you...? I mean...,” Sara sighed. “Do you love him?”
Camila began to cry again as she confessed, “I’m not sure what that kind of love feels like. I’ve never loved anyone but you and Willa and our parents.” She roughly wiped her eyes again. “All I know is that the thought of leaving and never seeing him again is making me want to die.”
“Oh, love.” Sara hugged her tightly. “I think giving up your happiness because you know it’s the only way to keep him safe means it’s love.”
That made Camila cry even harder. It seemed silly to believe that she could love someone after knowing them such a short time, but there was something about her connection to Misko that was extraordinary. It had to be love, maybe in its earliest stages, but it was love.
“Are you going to tell him?” Sara asked carefully.
“I don’t know if I can,” Camila admitted.
“He deserves to know,” Sara warned. “You owe him that.”
“I know.”
Sara nodded. “Well, I’ll get the pod ready to launch from one of our other ships.” She glanced at her watch. “Why don’t we meet at 0400?”
“Where?”
“Hangar 7.”
“Right. Hangar 7. 0400.”
In a daze, Camila left the SCIF. Outside the second set of doors, just beyond the guards, Misko waited for her. He held out his hand, and she grasped it, drawing from his strength and bravery. He let her lead the way back to the quarters she had been allotted, a spacious set of rooms right next to Sara’s in a secure housing wing.
Her appetite gone, she walked straight to the bathroom for the shower she desperately needed. Misko followed her and turned on the water. She toed off her sneakers, and he reached for the bottom of her shirt. He tugged it up her body and over her arms, stopping when the shirt was just above her nose. He swept in for a kiss that caught her by surprise and made her giggle.
That moment of levity broke through her sadness. She shook off her self-pity and centered herself in the here and now. With frantic kisses, they stripped one another naked and managed to get into the small shower cubicle without falling. Forced together in the tight, steamy quarters, they made use of the soap and water to explore each other’s bodies and stoke the fire of their passion.
They didn’t even bother with drying off. Misko swept her into his arms and carried her out of the bathroom, his feet sure and steady on the tiled floor. He dropped her onto the bed hard bed, and Camila grunted at the unexpected firmness that met her back and bottom. “Oof!”
“Sorry,” he apologized with a smile.
“Forget about it.” She reached for him. “Come here.”
He complied with her order, covering her smaller body with his much larger, warmer one. She wiggled under him, trying to free her legs to wrap them around his waist, and he groaned. Wanting to hear him make that sound again, she grasped his erection and stroked him a few times. When she let her hand slide lower to cup his heavy sac, he gasped and thrust against her thigh. “Camila!”
She grinned up at him and nipped at his jaw. “Yes?”
“Stop,” he urged and covered her hand with his. “You first.”
“Well, I’m not going to argue that,” she said and dramatically flopped back onto the bed.
“No, this way.” Without warning, he manhandled her with his impressive strength until he was underneath her. He dragged her higher up his body until her sex was directly over his mouth.
“Oh!”
Misko grabbed her thighs and hauled her pussy right to his mouth. Her eyes widened with shock at the first touch of his tongue against her clitoris. She moaned with excitement as his tongue mapped her body. He chuckled darkly and then groaned with appreciation. She suspected he had been hoarding this fantasy somewhere deep in the back of his mind. His enthusiasm for the position made her enjoy it even more.
She leaned forward and gripped the metal bars of the cheaply made headboard. Misko’s hands caressed from the backs of her thighs, along the curves of her ass and up her back. His wicked tongue dipped inside her vagina and then returned to her vulva, gliding right back to her clit. His slow flutters made her stomach wobble and her legs shake. She felt impossibly exposed like this and hyper sensitive to his touch.
He latched onto her clit, dragging on it until she gasped and shuddered at the overwhelming sensation. When he released the now throbbing nub, he set his tongue back against it, lapping and licking. Pleasure coiled low in her belly, and she rocked her pussy against his willing mouth. She chased her orgasm, sliding herself back and forth against his tongue as the coil in her core tightened and tightened.
“Mis!” She came with a shout, gripping the metal bars and snapping her hips. His tongue gave her exactly what she needed as she rode out the rapturous waves of her climax, and only when she thought she actually might die from sheer pleasure, did she lift away from his skilled mouth.
He didn’t even give her a chance to catch her breath before he was moving, sliding out from under her and grabbing her by the waist. He dragged her back down the bed, pressing her head down toward the mattress his big hand planted between her shoulders. A thrill coursed down her spine as he embraced his need for dominance over her. She wanted this so badly.
His thick fingers probed between her legs, checking to make sure she was wet enough, and then the blunt tip of his cock pressed into her. Wanting to feel all of him, she pushed back, sheathing his entire length in her slick heat. She whimpered at the sudden stretch and encouraged him to keep going. “Fuck me, Mis.”
And—by the stars—he did. He absolutely wrecked her with his deep, hard thrusts. He let go of his inhibitions, winding her hair around his fingers and clamping a hand on her hip to hold her right where he wanted her. The bed squealed, and the headboard clattered against the wall. He pounded into her, shifting the angle of his thrusts until they were sliding over that sensitive spot inside her pussy that made her toes curl.
Desperate to come again, to feel him inside her as she climaxed, she reached down to where their bodies were joined. She rubbed her clit in tight circles, just the way she liked, and begged him not to stop. Never one to disappoint, he gave her exactly what she wanted. As amped up as she was after that first orgasm, she climbed the heights of pleasure even faster this time. “Mis!”
Climaxing with his cock thrusting inside her was almost too much. She cried out his name again and again, her entire body pulsing with wave after wave of ecstasy. Both his hands gripped her waist now, his fingers biting into the soft flesh of her curves, and his pace stuttered as his orgasm arrived. Her name left his mouth on a grunt, and he buried himself deep, rocking against her as he enjoyed every shudder of his climax.
The collapsed together on the bed, their bodies still joined. Misko draped his leg over both of hers, tucking her in tight against his chest. He nuzzled the back of her neck and then her cheek as she clutched his hands and enjoyed the heat and security he offered. Eventually, he said, “I’m sorry about your crew.”
“Thank you,” she whispered, still feeling the raw grief of losing them. “What happened to them was unfair. They didn’t deserve that.”
“I know.” He brushed his hand down her side and kissed her shoulder. “I thought we did the right thing setting them loose on the shuttle. It never occurred to me that the emperor would do something so depraved.”
“Me either,” she admitted. “Maybe it should have.”
“No. You can’t beat yourself up about this, Camila. This is no one’s fault but Shui’s.”
“I know, but that doesn’t make it any easier to accept.”
He kissed her shoulder again, and she closed her eyes, enjoying the soft touch of his lips and wondering if she would remember how it felt once she was long gone.
“Your father’s reward will make things difficult,” he said finally. “There are ruthless mercenaries and bounty hunters in this galaxy.”
She swallowed hard at the reminder of her plans. “I know.”
“My brother and I are staying here to help with the rebellion in whatever way we can.”
“I’m glad to hear that,” she said honestly. “I think you can make a real difference here. Sara needs all the help she can get.”
“And you?” he asked carefully, his voice tinged with hope. “Will you stay here and fight?” He hesitated. “I have no right to ask, and I know I shouldn’t.”
“But?”
“Will you stay here with me?”
Her heart broke at his entreaty. Unable to face the ugliness of the truth, she took the coward’s way out and rolled over in his arms until they were eye to eye. She caressed his handsome face and brushed her nose against his before kissing him tenderly. Tears burned her eyes as she whispered, “There is nowhere else I would rather be.”
