Page 89 of Tempting Jupiter
“Do it.” She shouted it to make it absolutely clear. A gut-wrenching snap and another then cursing signaled the Arena Dogs slamming into a security field.
“Fee.” Seneca was still looped in and he sounded blessedly calm. “You have to let Jupiter help you.”
Nothing could happen to Jupiter. She couldn’t live with that. “Knock?”
“Nothing yet.” Panic filled his voice.
How much time had there been left on the bomb? “Knock, lock off this corridor with the safety system.”
“But, I—”
“This! Do this.” If the bomb exploded it would minimize damage to the ship.
“Feeona!” Jupiter sounded furious.
“Fee!” Seneca’s voice boomed through the intercom. “Don’t you die on me. I’m coming to you, now.”
Jupiter and Seneca shouted again but this time they were threatening Knock if he didn’t let them through. No! Her mind screamed it. But she had to set it aside and trust Knock to keep them safe.
Fee stepped into the airlock, dropped to her knees, and pulled off an access panel to the plasti-sealant conduits. The essential material was right there, running through transparent tubing, in easy reaching distance. Poor design.
Pulling one of the alloy styling pins from her hair, she grabbed the nearest safety handle with her other hand. She worked her arm under and wrapped it around the bar.
“Knock,” she had to concentrate to keep her voice steady. “If Jupiter and Mercury aren’t behind a sealed door, tell them to hang on to something.”
They were strong. They would be okay.
She crouched down, took a deep breath, and smashed the pin through the conduit.
Jupiter slid into her, slamming her body against the bulkhead. “Fee?”
“No time. Hold on.”
The whoosh of air registered first. Then pain. It was so big it filled her mind. It took her a second to remember why she was clinging to the side of an emergency hatch. After the powerful jerk on her body, she was definitely feeling the emergency. She felt it in her shoulder and where Jupiter’s arm wrapped around her waist like an alloy safety band. He shouldn’t be there. I didn’t want you to die, big guy. She wanted to tell him, but she had no air to speak. The sound of it venting into the vacuum of space screamed in her ears. It felt as if an enormous hand had reached in and was trying to rip her out of the ship.
Light began to bleed out of the corners of her vision. She let her chin fall to her chest and watched her feet swing above space. Her boots were gone—what an odd thing.
There was no way to close those external doors.
Jupiter’s heat was a beacon, the only warmth in the cold, cold airlock. He should let her go. With his strength he might be able to climb free.
Vibrations rippled through the ship. The bomb.
Jupiter pulled at her body, pressed her back against the bulkhead and covered her mouth with his. He breathed into her mouth and she sucked the small traces of oxygen into her lungs. She lost track of time. She had a sense of movement, of things happening around her, and then she slipped away.
***
Jupiter paced in theAbundance’smed-bay. It was a large room with beds for several patients at once. He thought he’d lost her—Fee. She lay in an aftercare bed, curled on her side, blue cushions under her head, supporting her back, and keeping her arm and shoulder comfortably aligned. The bed was wider than a typical med-bed and he wanted to crawl into it with her. He would have if Mercury’s small, lively mate wasn’t sitting on the side of the bed. Her name was Samantha, and she’d been brought there to supervise Morgan’s medics, whose allegiance was uncertain. When they’d found no damage except Fee’s dislocated shoulder and bruises, he’d taken over the task of moving her bones back into place. It seemed right. After all, she’d taken care of his injuries back on theSalley Ho.
Six weeks. It had been six weeks since he’d woken up on the resistance ship. Six weeks since he’d first seen her. When she’d slipped into unconsciousness in that airlock, he’d feared she was gone. As his brothers worked to drag them past the interior hatch so Knock could shut it, he’d shared the oxygen his lungs were so efficient at using and conserving. Then he’d had to stop and help get them clear.
Seneca appeared in front of him. He’d been leaning against the wall, watching him pace. A gentle anger had dominated his expression since they’d gotten Fee to the med-bay. “We are fortunate she is so strong.”
“Yes, but I would rather she did not risk her life so readily.”
A muscle in Sen’s jaw twitched. “If we’re to keep our mate safe, you’ll have to accept that she will always risk herself.” There was censure in his tone.
This was a side of him Jupiter had rarely seen. It confused him coming from the sensual, painted Sen. “Were you nude when she painted that dog on your chest?”
