“I don’t even know who Cerberus
is,” I replied. “I told you, I was matched to Trion, and my mate was murdered.”
I shucked the old pants, donned the new ones. Without panties.
“You said Bertok killed him.” He hadn’t moved while I changed.
“That’s right. At first, I thought he did it because he wanted me for himself. That guy doesn’t have high regard for women,” I grumbled.
I heard Isaak’s laugh. “Women on Trion are to be cherished and revered. And submissive.”
It was my turn to laugh. “Well, I think the testing was wrong then,” I told him. “I’m far from submissive.” I figured Isaak had probably already realized that after our crazy getaway. “Got any shoes?”
He turned, looked down at my bare feet, then slowly worked up my body. I felt that stare as if it were a caress.
A funny sound escaped his lips as he turned back to the magical machine. Within seconds, he handed me socks and sturdy boots like his own.
My eyes widened, and I couldn’t help but stare. “Wow. Thanks.” I dropped back onto the bed, put them on. “What about you, space pirate?” I asked, tugging up a sock.
“What about me?”
I glanced up at him. “Why were you under the dome?”
“I kill Hive, take their integrations and sell them.”
“Why?”
His broad shoulders went up in a quick shrug. “Credits. Why else?”
“Yet you’re from Trion.”
“And you’re from Earth.”
I pursed my lips, looked away and put on the other sock.
“Got a space mansion somewhere?” I asked. “A secret hideaway? Bat cave?”
“You’re riding in it.”
I sat up, looked around. It wasn’t fancy, that was for sure. But it had definitely done the job and got us off that hell hole. I wasn’t going to complain. Since it was my first spaceship, I had nothing to compare it to.
“You mentioned something about Ulza, the wicked witch of the west—although she’s blue instead of green—taking credits back?”
He leaned against the wall and slid down it, so his butt was on the floor, his knees bent up before him, his wrists resting on them. Since I was on the bed, the only other place to sit was the floor. We were more eye level than before. “Ulza was my primary buyer. I sold her some Hive integration pieces right before I heard about you. Once I helped you escape, she retracted the credits.”
“That sucks. She shouldn’t be able to do that. Can’t you complain to the bank? Or whoever you aliens use to hold your money.”
“Banks? We don’t use banks. Not for hundreds of years. Too much power in one place, too much corruption. We exchange credits in a free market system.”
“So what, you’re like Bitcoin all grown up?”
He shook his head, his gaze oddly intense. “You say such strange things. We trade in credits. The payment systems are maintained by the Interstellar Coalition of Planets. Every planet answers to Prillon Prime if they do not maintain the security of the credit system on their planet.”
More than I needed to know, but I was sorry to hear that he’d been screwed out of his money. “I’m sorry you lost your money, but I’m glad you helped me. Thank you.”
He lifted a hand to rub the back of his neck. “There was no other option. During my transaction with Ulza, I heard about a human female being under the dome.” He was quiet for a second then added, “I finally had enough to buy an upgraded ion cannon.”
“That sounds big,” I said, not sure how to compliment him. The only cannons I knew about were on pirate ships or shooting out T-shirts at sporting events. But… if he was a space pirate, then I had to go with the first.