Her prayers weren’t going to be answered today. As the man walked away from Raze’s desk, a loud growl followed by a quick gurgle erupted from her tummy. Dizzy’s fingers curled into tight fists. She gulped nervously. Did he hear that?
Heavy, quick footsteps pivoted back toward the desk. Before she could move the man roughly shoved the desk out of the way and forced her out into the open. Dropping her bag and tablet, she scrambled to her feet as the sky warrior leered lecherously.
“Well, well, well. Aren’t you a pretty little thing?”
“Stay back!” She held up her hands but it was a futile move. This soldier wasn’t quite as tall or as solidly built as Venom but he still dwarfed her. “My husband—my mate—will hurt you if you try to touch me.”
“What mate? I don’t see a collar on that neck.”
She gulped and reached up to touch her naked skin. She frantically glanced around the room and spotted it on the floor. Before she could reach it, the soldier cornering her grabbed it and stuffed it in his pocket. She noticed his name tag. Axis was his name. “Give me back my collar!”
Axis shrugged. “What collar? Besides, collar or not, I don’t see this mate of yours hanging around here. You’re alone—and that makes you fair game.”
“If you take one step closer, I’ll scream.”
A sickeningly triumphant grin stretched his mouth. “Go ahead. No one will hear you. All of the SRU teams are deployed. We’re all alone.”
Oh god. “Please—just leave me alone. Venom will be back soon. He’s going to be furious.”
“He should be furious at himself for leaving such a tempting little morsel alone.”
The way Axis licked his lips disgusted her. She had no doubt that this brute wanted to get her naked and underneath him as quickly as possible. Well—screw him. She wasn’t going down without a fight.
Snatching the closest chair, Dizzy hefted it up with all her might and swung it right at the man who had broken into the office. She caught him off guard and slammed the chair into his shoulder. It knocked him off balance. He stumbled backward, tripped over a stack of ammo boxes and fell flat on his ass.
Dizzy booked it.
Out in the hallway she headed straight for the elevator that had brought her to the SRU offices but she couldn’t get it to activate. That was when she remembered her ID chip would only allow her to access certain areas. Cursing the stupid chip, she spun on her heel—and spotted an enraged Axis racing out of the office.
She darted across the hall into the gear room. Slamming the door behind her, she tried to get it to lock but it was activated by a code she didn’t have. Grabbing a broom, she fed it through the handles of the double door and raced deeper into the gear room.
There weren’t many places to hide—but there were more than enough weapons. She couldn’t fire a gun, of course, but there were plenty of heavy things for her to throw and sharp things for her to stab at him.
Axis gave the door three good kicks but couldn’t get the metal broom handle to give. He wasn’t about to let that stop him. She could see him through the glass wall. At first he looked as though he might try to break the see-through pane but then he ran down to the next entrance.
Shit.
Dizzy hadn’t counted on that. His boots hit the floor hard as he raced through the other door and closed the distance between them. Grabbing anything that wasn’t nailed down, she chucked things at his head. More often than not, she hit her target. It still wasn’t enough to stop him. Axis was a man on a mission and he wasn’t leaving empty-handed.
When she ran out of things to throw, the man snatched for her. She twisted away but he grabbed a handful of her skirt. With one good jerk, he tore the delicate fabric. She kicked out at him and screamed as she realized how very close she was to being assaulted. “Leave me alone!”
“Give it up!” Axis gripped her forearm hard enough to leave bruises and swung her around to face him. “You’re mine now.”
“Like hell!” She smacked him right in the face. “I belong to Venom.”
Axis laughed and pushed her down onto the floor. “Not anymore.”
“No!” She put up both hands and shoved at his chest as the man pinned her to the floor. “Get off me!”
“Leave her alone!” Another male voice, this one booming and angry, cut through her panic. She glanced at the doorway and saw a man in exercise clothes standing there. His gleaming silver leg got her attention. She had never seen anything like it.
Despite his injury, the man with the metal leg sprinted across the room with such speed and finesse. As if kicking a ball, he slammed the toe of his metal prosthesis right into the other man’s gut. Axis flew off her and hit the floor—but he didn’t stay down long.
The man with the missing leg snatched Dizzy up and tossed her onto the closest counter. Squaring off with Axis, he lifted his hands and made a come-and-take me motion. Like two wild street dogs, the men rushed each other and began to brawl.
Crouching on the steel counter, Dizzy decided she was never leaving their quarters again. These men were all crazy!
She could hardly stand to watch as the two men pummeled each other with their fists. Every now and then one of them would land a good punch. The sounds of knuckles smacking against flesh sickened her. She had never been able to stomach violence. Seeing it up this close was too much for her.
Over the constant growling and punching and cursing, Dizzy heard the faintest ding of the elevator. She crawled to the very end of the countertop and didn’t stop until her face was basically pressed against the transparent wall. The moment she spotted Venom and his team coming down the hall she started to pound on the glass.
“Venom! Venom! Hurry!”
Her mate’s blue eyes widened with shock. She could only imagine what she must have looked like, hiding up on that counter with her hair a mess and dress torn. His gaze flicked over her shoulder to the brawling men behind her. The cold glare that replaced his stunned expression chilled her to the very bone.
Oh, boy. It’s about to get ugly.
Chapter Fifteen
“Dizzy!”
The sight of his sweet mate’s terrified face and ripped dress enraged Venom. If it hadn’t been for Raze’s hand clamping down on his shoulder, Venom would have put his boot through the glass to get to her. Instead he managed to shove down the overwhelming urge to protect and defend her so he could think straight.
He sprinted into the room and edged around Mayhem and a sky corps soldier he didn’t recognize. Though he wanted so badly to join the brawl and beat on the man who had scared Dizzy, he recognized that she needed to be comforted and reassured more than he needed to satisfy his desire to hurt that bastard for scaring her.
“Come here, sugar.” He stepped up to the counter where Dizzy perched like a bird. The moment he was close enough she launched herself at him. He caught her easily and cradled her. Burying his nose in her sweetly scented hair, he whispered, “Are you all right? Did he hurt you?”
She sobbed against his neck. “He tried but I’m okay.”
Though her dress was shredded from the waist down, she didn’t seem to have been molested any further. It was a small comfort to him. Already her arms were purpling with fingertip-shaped bruises from being grabbed. He gingerly brushed his palm over the spots marking her soft skin. “Oh, honey…”
Guilt wracked Venom. He had promised to protect her but he had left her locked in a room where anyone could have gotten to her.
And someone had.
Still holding Dizzy, Venom glared at the man Mayhem had in a headlock. “Who the fuck is he?”
“Name tag says Axis,” Fierce answered in that slow, country-boy drawl of his. “He’s not a face I know.”
“He’s an engineer,” Cipher supplied. “From down in the coding department, I think. He works in IT for the ship.”
“Is that so?” Raze stood in front of the man and leveled an icy stare. “I suppose that’s how he busted the lock on our office.”
“I didn’t, sir. It was unlocked. She was out in the hall.”
Dizzy gasped. “I was not. I was hiding under the desk when he broke into the room!”
Raze used the toe of his boot to lift Axis’ bloody chin. “You want to try that again, skyboy?”
Axis swallowed nervously. “Okay. All right. Yes. I hacked the keypad.”
“Why?” Raze demanded.
The engineer hesitated. “I heard you were making the shortlist of invitations for the next round of SRU tryouts. I tried to access the list from my work console but your system is walled off from the rest of the ship.”
“For good reason, jackass,” Cipher retorted with frustration. “It’s to keep rubberneckers like you from digging through our highly sensitive files.”
Axis didn’t respond to Cipher’s cutting remark. He turned accusing eyes toward Dizzy. “She came on to me.”
“I did not!” Dizzy’s hold on Venom’s waist tightened.
“She’s not even wearing a collar.” Axis gestured toward her. “She practically begged me to take her away from you.”
“Enough of the lies,” Venom growled. “My mate is shaking with fear. Her dress is torn.”