Captain's Captive Read online

  She’d just have to settle for a private dance.

  As I turned to make my way back across the room I looked over the men, but then my breath caught. And it wasn't because of any of the men up on stage or circulating through the room. No, I found myself captivated by a man sitting at a table with another guy who seemed more interested in dicking with his phone than he was in actually looking at the show going on around him.

  Not that I was particularly interested in the guy dicking around on his phone. No, I only had eyes for the gentleman next to him. God he was gorgeous. He had shaggy hair that somehow managed to look at both unkempt and perfectly coiffed at the same time. Broad shoulders and a tight shirt that showed he was just as muscular as any of the other guys in the room.

  As I stared at him I reflected on what a damn shame it was that he was probably gay. Here at a male strip joint? Sitting with another guy who looked a little annoyed?

  Yeah, that positively screamed a couple that was out with one half of said couple not particularly caring for the ambience.

  Yeah, that was just the luck. I see a hot guy at the bar that isn't one of the dancers and of course he would be gay.

  Only he looked at me and his eyes smoldered. That stare was pure sex. It went to the core of my being. That look shot straight between my legs and I felt like I needed a fucking cigarette by the time he was done giving me a once over. I hadn't had a good eye fucking like that in forever.

  As long as I didn't count the stuff Jake did on an almost daily basis at the office, that is.

  Then he looked away. Scanning the room as though he was looking for something, but it clearly wasn't the gentleman moving around the room that he was looking for. My eyes narrowed. What the hell were those two guys doing there? Were they here to rob the place or something? I felt uncomfortable, though I couldn't quite explain why. They just seemed odd. Out of place. As though they didn't belong.

  I shook my head. I was being ridiculous. They were probably just a couple of guys who were very secure with themselves and here with some girls or something. Maybe they were even here to pick up girls up. It would be a novel idea. Show up at a place where girls were already revved up by the sexy dancers and offer them a nightcap. On any other night I might’ve been interested if that was the case, but of course tonight I had my bachelorette party duties to attend to. Which was a damn shame.

  Speaking of bachelorette party duties and damn shames. I walked over to Vanessa to break the bad news.

  "So when do I get up on stage?" she asked .

  I frowned and shook my head. Her own face turned to a frown.

  "What's wrong?"

  "I just got done talking with the DJ. He's a real asshole, and it looks like they lost my reservation.”

  "They lost your reservation? What the fuck!" Vanessa shouted.

  I winced at the strong language. Oops. She was loud enough to be heard even over the music, and a few people turned in our direction.

  "Whatever," Vanessa said. "If they're not going to let me get up on stage then we'll just have some of the dancers come over here. How about that?"

  I smiled. And inside I was relieved. Really fucking relieved. I figured in her half drunken state Vanessa could either get very upset about getting screwed over or decide to roll with the punches. And it looked like she'd decided to roll with the punches. Talk about a weight off my back.

  "That sounds like a plan!" I said.

  I wasn't sure how to get a guy over to us, but Vanessa had it all figured out. She reached in her purse and pulled out a twenty. Held it high. Immediately that summoned a dancer over to us with a smile that never quite reached his eyes. I got a weird vibe from the dude. The same vibe I'd gotten from the DJ.

  I tried to shrug it off, but it was difficult. What the hell was going on here?

  "How can I help you ladies?" the dancer asked.

  "I'm getting married in a week and I want a dance sexy man!" Vanessa said with a giggle.

  Tiffany immediately appeared on the other side. "I want one too!"

  I blinked. Now there was a surprise. I didn't expect her wanting a dance from this guy. Watching the guys on stage was one thing. Coming up and hitting on them was another thing entirely. Talk about weird.

  "Come on big boy," Vanessa said. "Get to dancing!"

  Another man appeared as though out of nowhere on the other side of Tiffany. He put his arms around her and she turned, jumped in surprise, but then seemed okay with it when she realized it was one of the sexy muscle men wrapping his arms around her. I glanced over my shoulder and saw Danielle getting up close and personal with another one.

  "If you want a dance it will have to be in private," the first one who came up to us said.

  Vanessa got a pout on her face. "Are you sure about that? You can't make an exception for us?"

  "All dances tonight are private," all of the men around us chorused in unison.

  Okay then. Maybe it was because I was the most sober person in our group, but that was really fucking creepy. What was even more creepy was that no one else in our group seemed to notice just how fucking creepy it was.

  "Fine," Vanessa said. "Where do we go?"

  The guy pulled her up off of her seat and started pulling her back towards a door near the back of the club. Presumably to an area where they could have some privacy. I had no doubt exactly what went on back there, and I wondered if David would really approve of what Vanessa was probably thinking of trying.

  Danielle looked over her shoulder at me. "Are you coming?"

  I looked down at my drink and then up at the creepy guys who’d surrounded all of my girlfriends. There was even one standing and looking down at me. I wouldn’t exactly call his look hopeful, none of these strange zombie dancers seemed capable of that much emotion, but he definitely seemed to be anticipating something. I thought about it for a moment, seriously considered it, but ultimately shook my head.

  "You all go and have your fun," I said. "I'm going to sit here and nurse this drink. Someone has to say relatively sober tonight, after all, and I'm the one in charge of festivities."

  "Party pooper," Danielle said, but she still allowed herself to be led off along with the rest of the girls.

  Meanwhile I took a sip from my drink, watch them disappear behind that door, and had that uneasy feeling again. The feeling as though I shouldn't have let them go back there, though that was ridiculous.

  So I ignored the feeling and pulled out my phone. I probably had a good while of sitting here by my lonesome while the girls were off having their fun.

  7

  Flin

  I should've been concentrating on the women in the room. On counting the numbers going into that back room. I should've been concentrating on the scans Jorel was running, but I couldn't keep my mind on any of that.

  No, I only had eyes for that captivating creature.

  "I'm having trouble getting anything," Jorel said.

  I continued staring. She was perfect. I couldn't believe something that beautiful could exist on any world. And I'd been to a lot of worlds. I'd been with a lot of women on those worlds.

  "Captain?"

  I turned my attention back to Jorel. Shook my head. "I'm sorry. What were you saying?"

  "I was saying that I'm having trouble locking down any signal. There are all sorts of signals traveling around here, a lot more interference than I'm used to on one of these worlds, and they're all different from what we have on our worlds."

  I frowned. "I think an Imperium signal would be pretty easy to pick out from that noise, don't you?"

  "Normally I'd say yes," Jorel said. "But there's just too much going on here."

  I shook my head. I hadn't thought to bring someone skilled in communications technology. Why bother? It wasn't something we usually needed on any of these worlds.

  I should have known better on this world though. It was obvious they were more advanced. I should have anticipated there would be all sorts of interference down here that would make
it more difficult for us to pin down the Imperium agents.

  I turned back to the girl again. Several of her friends were approached by dancers and then started getting up and moving back towards that door of no return. I felt fear clutching at my chest. Was she going to go back there with them? Was she going to be captured by the Imperium?

  I tensed, almost ready to jump into action. I don't know why I felt protective of her in particular, but I did.

  Only to my relief she stayed at her table while the rest of her friends moved back. I felt a pang of guilt. I felt like I should go over and tell her that she was sending her friends into a trap, but I couldn't very well do that when I wasn't entirely sure if there was a trap.

  I glanced down at my communicator on the table. It seemed safe enough to leave the communicator out. After all, everyone else had the things in this room. Just not quite my model.

  It was so odd finding a world this advanced out here in the uncharted territories. Not that it wasn't possible, just that the only thing we ever found were primitive worlds where people hadn't risen above the level of subsistence farming at best and petty squabbling amongst hunter gatherer tribes at worst.

  Not that there was anything wrong with that. It was a hell of a life if you didn't mind the lack of medicine and other modern comforts, but still. Finding a technologically advanced world tickled something at the back of my mind.

  I refused to believe this place could actually be the Origin. Too many interstellar human civilizations had been searching for the place for far too long for me to think it was anything other than a fairytale, but still. I felt a tingle of excitement that I hadn't felt since I was a young cadet and still believed in that sort of thing.

  A technologically advanced world out in the uncharted territories with nothing but primitives surrounding them? That had all the hallmarks of a formerly advanced human world, and not just one of the offshoot colonies which tended to devolve into the aforementioned hunter gatherer societies because they were so small and cut off when the fall came.

  Sure this place wasn’t as far along as the interstellar worlds, but still. The Origin had supposedly been one of the last holdouts of the sufficiently advanced human worlds. If it was one of the last to be burned to the ground then that would mean it would also be one of the last to arise from those ashes. It made logical sense for it to be a little behind the rest of us.

  Or maybe not. The rise and fall of civilizations could be a funny thing. You learned that picking through enough of their ashes flying between worlds.

  I pushed those thoughts out of my mind, though. I needed to concentrate on this mission, so I turned my attention back to my communicator which wasn’t telling me anything.

  Nothing from Keva. She should have responded by now. There should have been some commotion if she ended up shooting her way out.

  Maybe I was jumping at shadows. Maybe she was enjoying herself, and there wasn't anything going on here. It wouldn't be the first time that an officer enjoyed themselves on assignment. I smiled thinking back to the many times I'd done a bit of enjoying of my own while I was supposed to be off saving some planet or another.

  No, I couldn't begrudge Keva having a little bit of fun now that there was some male eye candy for her to enjoy.

  I glanced over to that girl. My eye just kept returning to her. I couldn't help myself. I was a Ravenous Tervingian Blood Beast drawn to the scent of my prey. Only in this case I was looking for a date rather than trying to hunt something down and…

  Actually, on second thought, perhaps the Ravenous Tervingian Blood Beast wasn't the best comparison to use.

  I frowned. I seemed to be doing that a lot on this mission. There was just too much I didn't know. And the worry about Keva ate at the back of my mind. Either I'd overestimated my enemies or she wasn't as much of a ball busting hardass as I'd thought.

  None of those thoughts were the cause of my frown, though. No, I was more worried by a group of dancers moving to surround the girl I'd had my eye on all evening. She looked irritated. As though she didn't want the attention. And why not? I had a sneaking suspicion they were all mind controlled drones being used to lure women to a slaving pen. She probably picked up on that as well. She seemed like the kind of smart girl who would be able to recognize that sort of thing.

  Or maybe I was letting my dick do the thinking. Giving her abilities that she couldn't possibly possess just because she looked so damn good in that outfit.

  Either way, it looked like those dancers weren't taking no for an answer. It was time to act. Worst case scenario, it turns out this was just a club where they had male dancers and I'd embarrass myself a little. Best case scenario? I'd end up figuring out for sure whether or not those guys were actually mind controlled drones.

  Even if discovering they were mind controlled drones would probably put me in very real mortal danger.

  "I need you to get ready to broadcast a signal that will block Imperium mind control devices," I said.

  "But I haven't been able to find one, Captain," Jorel said, the frustration obvious in his voice.

  "You don't have to know it's there for sure to interrupt the thing if it is there," I said. "Now be ready to jam on my signal."

  I stood.

  "Captain? What's the signal going to be?"

  "You'll be able to figure it out when it happens," I replied.

  I stumbled over towards her table, ignoring Jorel’s frantic calls as he tried to get my attention. I figured he could at least figure out something as simple as activating a jamming signal, even if he wasn't quite up to full communications officer status. Not that I should expect something like that from a security grunt in the first place.

  I tried to weave and stumble as though I was really drunk, and to be perfectly honest it wasn't that difficult. I didn't have to put on much of an act at all. No, the alcohol might be overpriced in this place, not that it mattered since I had limitless amounts of money as long as I got off world before I could be arrested by the local police, but it was definitely far more advanced than the alcohol we usually found on more primitive worlds. Stuff that amounted to nothing more than interstellar moonshine.

  No, they knew their stuff here, and it had taken a hit on me. Sure we had drinks on the ship, but it wasn't something I messed with that often. The burden of command and all that. I never knew when I'd be called on it to make a split-second decision, and split-second decisions weren’t of the best when I was under the influence. Like right now.

  Damn it. I should have thought that through better when I grabbed a drink in the hopes of better blending in with the locals. Now I was operating at less than peak efficiency, and that wasn’t good.

  "I told you I wasn't interested!" the girl said as I got close enough to hear even over the loud music.

  Okay then. So I wasn't interrupting or anything. She sounded like someone who was interested in a rescue, and I was more than happy to swoop in and save the damsel in distress, even if it turned out there wasn’t a single Imperium agent hiding anywhere in this place.

  8

  Melissa

  "Look, how many times do I have to tell you I'm not interested in a private dance?"

  It was irritating when there was only one guy coming up and up bothering me, but now there were three of them standing around the table looking down at me and talking in that creepy monotone. The same one that I recognized from the DJ booth.

  Yeah, the more time I spent here, the more I thought I'd been absolutely fucking right. There was something supremely fucked up going on at this club, and these guys surrounding me insisting that I go with them for a private dance were proof positive of that. They stared down at me. None of them moving. None of them taking the hint. None of them blinking.

  Creepy.

  "Would you guys leave me alone?"

  "Don't you want a dance?" one, a blonde guy with blue eyes that would've been striking if they weren't so vacant, asked.

  "What I want is to be left alone with my drink
so I can wait for my friends to get back. I'm kind of the designated driver tonight."

  Okay, so maybe that bit about being the designated driver was a little white lie considering we still had the limo waiting for us outside. I didn't care. All I wanted was to get these guys off my back. They were being pushy above and beyond what I would expect from some guys who made their living from tips.

  "You can come and join your friends," one with dark hair said. "They’re waiting for you. They're calling for you. Help us Melissa. Please help us."

  Okay. We just went from creepy to downright chilling. I had the feeling I was in the beginning of a horror movie. How the fuck did he know my name, and what was all that business about my friends calling for me?

  "What the fuck? What have you done with my friends? Where are they?"

  "They are getting their dances. Join us for a dance," they said. At this point a fourth one had stepped in and joined them. What the fuck.

  "Excuse me," someone slurred.

  A man equally as broad shouldered as any of the dancers but fully clothed in a clashing ensemble that looked like he had no idea how to put on clothes stumbled through the crowd. I would've said he was drunk except for a quick look that he flashed me. That wasn't a drunken look at all. No, those eyes were perfectly sober and aware of their surroundings.

  I felt a thrill as I saw that man. It was the one I recognized from earlier. The one who'd been staring at me from across the room. He was even more gorgeous up close and personal than from across the room. And he was acting drunk for some reason.

  I suppose at this point the weirdness and fucked up meter at this club was so far off the scale that this guy showing up and acting like he was drunk off his ass was hardly something to remark about.