Sarah's Pirate Read Online Free PDF Page B

she saw that several very large crew members stood at the door. Witnesses? Was he trying to protect her from them? Or was he about to prove that he was the last person in the universe she should ever have considered trusting? She nodded carefully. Did she really have a choice? She reached for the jumpsuit that he’d thrown at her and managed to pull the clothes on, not really caring if she exposed herself to the audience at the door.
    “Hurry up,” he said, grabbing her arm and dragging her to the door. “We haven’t got time for this. Grab your damn boots. You can put them on when we get there.”
    He shoved the boots into her arms, grabbed her upper arm again, and dragged her out the door.
    “Captain?” his first mate asked. “What if she blows your cover and tries to escape?”
    “Not a chance,” Jordan proclaimed arrogantly. “She does what she’s told or she gets punished. My belt stings against that pert little ass, doesn’t it woman?”
    She nodded warily, still trying to catch up with the situation. He was treating her like a possession, pushing her around as if he had a right to, but he was referring to punishment that had never actually happened. When he’d first opened the door her newfound trust in him had wavered, and the sight of all of those pirates on her doorstep brought back all the fear she’d felt just a few hours before. Still off balance, and fluctuating between abject terror and absolute trust in the man, Sarah sucked in a deep breath and fell back on her training. She quickly decided to play whatever game he was playing and see where it led. It sounded like they were getting off the ship and she was definitely all for that.
    They stepped through the door, Jordan’s grip on her arm punishingly tight, and headed away from the cabin and into the docking bay. She managed to mask the soft sound that she made when she saw her tiny vessel. It seemed that it hadn’t moved since they’d landed on board fewer than twenty-four hours ago.
    “Get in,” Jordan growled loudly, pushing her towards the open cargo door of her little ship. “Andrews,” he said, turning to his first mate. “Keep the ship out of sensor range of the planet. I’ll contact you as soon as I know more.”
    His first mate nodded his understanding and stood back as Jordan stepped into the ship. “Start the engines and close the damn door!”
    Sarah rushed to follow his orders, her hands shaking, either from fear or excitement or both. She was in her ship and she was leaving the pirates behind, so things were definitely looking up, but she was careful to hide her excitement, lest the man beside her wasn’t the honorable man she’d begun to believe him to be.
    So many questions, so few answers. Geez, her head hurt.
    She started the ship, relief pouring through her when all systems registered as functional, and she was able to maneuver out of the larger ship’s cargo hold.
    “Where are we headed?” she asked him as she tried to swallow against her dry throat.
    “Heltor,” he said, looking at her calmly for the first time since they’d left his quarters. “Our buyer failed to make contact, so you and I need to find him.” She input their course into the helm and then turned to give him a quizzical look.
    “The medicine?” she asked, still confused. “Why not just give it to the children it was meant for?”
    “Sweetheart, that’s what I’m trying to do.”
    She shook her head, her confusion growing as she tried to understand what he was saying.
    “Sarah, the government on Heltor is corrupt. They’ll take the intergalactic aid and give it to a selected few and either stockpile or sell the rest. The children it’s meant for will never see it.”
    “So that’s what this is all about? You’re selling it on the black market so that it actually reaches those who need it.”
    “Something like that,” he hedged, clearly uncomfortable with the conversation.
    She glared at him and held his gaze until he shrugged