Page 50 of Time Traveling Space Bastards
“Big Daddy, I’m still mad you let me get kidnapped.”
“It had to happen like this, Big Mommy. It fixed your murder investigation and Omi couldn’t have attacked him and won. He gave the appearance of being unarmed, but he had a weapon on him. She would have died.”
Shit. He had me there. I’d gladly get kidnapped and stuck in Kevin’s stinky, shit-ass house if it meant I got to keep Omi as a sister. Valtens said he never went anywhere without that gun. It was tiny, but it also meant he had it in the bookshop with us this entire time.
Tangilique and I both would have quit if we knew Kevin had a gun in the back of his pants, even if we would have thought it was a regular human gun. He was unhinged and ill-tempered on a good day and we wouldn’t have wanted to be in the same shop as him while he was armed.
I’d had Kevin’s ass right in my face while we were putting new stock up. I never noticed. I mean, I avoided looking at the man’s ass because I was sure it was unwashed, but if I hadn’t noticed in ten years, Omi probably wouldn’t have, either. None of us did before he pulled it out and aimed it at me.
“Thank you for saving my sister,” Torrek said. “But how did you know everything would work out with Baxter?”
“Because I knew where Valtens was and knew none of you would let anything happen to her. I also know the rules of the contest and can see the entire past of it. Kuka would have been justified killing Valtens just for kidnapping his Velne. It’s happened before.”
“How does this work?” I asked. “Everything happened the way it was supposed toexceptmy murder investigation. I thought we faked my death the entire time, but now I’m thinking that’s wrong if it needed to be fixed.”
“You actually could have been murdered before. Your crime scene was pristine, except for your blood. They were able to piece together what happened from the blood spatter, but there was no other evidence. Which means there was an Enix involved. If Valtens murdered you, he would have come back to turn me back on to get rid of your body and evidence. He would have used me for an alibi, too. I wouldn’t have liked it, but I probably would have done it because he was my owner, and he would have threatened me.”
“Well, fuck. Now he’s dust, and I never got to punch him in the dick. What happens next?”
“We have to get a move on to stage your murder scene. Then, we have to travel seven thousand years into my past to leave your books behind and I have to figure out how I’m going to explain everything when we get home. I don’t think we should tell everyone you’re the Devouring Mother, but I need to come up with something to fix the present and future.”
“You can do it,” Omi said. “And Enix should be as good as new since we all know how Baxter wants to thank him.”
“Only if he’s okay with that!”
I kept repeating that because I wanted Enix, but I didn’t want him to reciprocate or do anything because I was theirDevouring Mother and he thought he had to. I wanted him to want me formeand I never wanted him to do something he was uncomfortable with since I knew what his past was.
Enix stood and gave me this smoldering look.
“Oh, he’s definitely okay with that,” he growled.
Game on.
Ishouldn’t be nervous about sex. I was a pleasure model. I was literally built and programmed to give pleasure. I might have hated every minute of it, but I had zero complaints from people who bought me when I was at the brothel. And I had plenty of repeat customers.
I just tended to retreat into my mind and let my programming take over in the brothel. I didn’t want to do that this time. I wanted it to be good. I wanted to be right there with her the entire time and enjoy myself.
I’d never done that before, so I was actually terrified.
She gently took my hand. She could tell and she’d never say anything about it.
“I’ve never fucked in a sentient time machine before. Want to take this back to your bedroom?”
Yeah, we could do that. Kuka took a lot of care with the sleeping quarters in Big Daddy. He could have done barracks and had us all sleeping in bunks, but we all had our own roomand Kuka made sure they were perfect for each of us. Mine had a comfortable bed and a desk, but he’d also gotten me books on literally anything I might be interested in.
All the books he’d bought me were things from the royal library. The public wouldn’t have access to them, so I wouldn’t be able to access the content by scanning for it. There was just something relaxing about sitting and reading a book instead of having it instantly downloaded and processed. Kuka knew that.
Baxter enjoyed reading, too, so she made a beeline for my books. She picked them up and stroked the spine lovingly.
“Omi was going to put the chip in so I could actually read the back, but Valtens showed up and we both got gassed before she could.”
“Do you want to go have that done? It’s a pretty quick procedure.”
“Fuck no. I want to be right here with you. We can do whatever you want. Unless you don’t want to.”
I never wanted her to think that. She opened my eyes to so many things and she never looked down on me. I waseatingbecause of her and I loved it. She even convinced Ghol to turn against his abusive owner. I wanted her. And I loved that she wanted me back. Baxter didn’t want me because I was a pleasure model, either. She wantedme.
“No, I want this.”
