Chapter Four
Bit watched the captain storm away. He was angry again, but for once she didn’t think it was with her.
She glanced back at the little room Calen had arranged for her. Though it was small, it was private, and she had never had a private room before. Bit glanced up at Calen.
He was watching her, a gleam of mischief in his eyes. She didn’t think he would do anything like what Jack had insinuated. Bit was starting to suspect Calen was the sort of man to tie another man’s bootlaces together.
“Let’s get some grub,” he said, guiding her to the stairs that led downward without actually touching her.
They headed downward. At the base of the stairs, Calen took the lead, opening a door across from the bottom of the staircase and ushering her in.
“We need to get you clothes that actually fit,” he said as they entered the large room.
It was an enormous rectangle, with long tables filling up the first half of the room. The second half was left open, with what looked like a padded mat covering the floor. The burly man she had seen before was watching as two younger men grappled each other. They paused for a moment to eye Bit and Calen before continuing the exercise.
Based on the sweat glistening on the fighters’ brows, she suspected they had been practicing for a number of minutes, and yet within a few seconds of her entrance, the man with the longer hair had his opponent on the ground and pinned.
“Why don’t we sit over here,” suggested Calen, ushering her to the furthest table from the practice area. “I’ll be back with some food.”
Calen disappeared through the only other door in the room, presumably into the ship’s galley. Bit did her best not to look at the men practicing. The sight of their muscles working to dominate each other reminded her of how little power she actually had in this cage full of men.
Bit clamped down on her bottom lip, determined not to be afraid, or at least not to show it. The captain would protect her, and if he didn’t, she’d just have to protect herself. She refused to be the victim anymore. Strangely enough, it had taken being thrown into a ship full of men who could very easily hurt her to make her bold. Well, bolder.
Slowly, other crew members began filling the mess hall. She recognized some of them, but not all. Though they all took turns staring at her, none of them sat at her table. Bit kept her eyes down, hoping they would continue to leave her alone.
But it was not to be.
A man she had not seen before spotted her and gave her a sloppy grin. His dirty brown hair was in need of a cut. It flopped in his eyes and he brushed it aside, his smile still in place.
“So this is the chick?” he asked to no one in particular as he crossed to her table and sat down on the bench next to her. “What’s your name, sweetheart?”
Bit tried to pull away from his touch, but she was already pressed against the cold metal wall. He gently tucked a long dreadlock behind her ear, pausing to caress her cheek.
“Bit,” she whispered.
He leaned in to catch her words.
“Ah, Nolan, leave the girl alone,” the blond-haired man from the cantina said. Bit thought his name was Forrest.
“The girl and I were just talking,” Nolan said as he lowered his hand to the back of her seat, his thumb rubbing her back between her shoulder blades. “How’d we get a pretty little thing like you to join our crew?”
Before she could answer, a man appeared behind Nolan’s seat. His hand snaked out, catching Nolan by the neck and slamming his head down on the table. Bit jerked back, hitting her own head on the wall as she looked up to see who had come to her defense. It was the man with all the tattoos and piercings.
He might have a soft face, but the ripple of the muscles running up his arm was pure strength and testosterone.
“I don’t think she’s much interested in talking to you,” Oden growled.
“What is going on here?” demanded Jack from the doorway.
Bit flinched. It felt as though the entire room was holding its breath. She wasn’t the only one afraid of Jack, though he was not the obvious fighter in the room. She spotted Calen standing beside the door with a plate piled high with food.
“Well?” asked Jack when no one answered.
“Nolan was giving the girl a hard time.”
“Wassna,” mumbled Nolan, his lips distorted as Oden pressed his face against the table.
“Oden, Nolan, get away from her. Everyone get some grub and take a seat.”
As if on cue, another man slid a large tray of finger foods onto the counter connecting the galley and the mess hall.
Calen made his way to sit in the seat Nolan had begrudgingly vacated and slid the plate over to her, along with a cup of something she didn’t recognize.
“Eat as much as you want,” he said as if he knew her hesitancy.
Bit had never been given so much food in one day, much less at one meal. With Calen sitting next to her and blocking her from the other men, she relaxed a little and dug into the food.
Slowly, the others got their food and took their seats. Oden sat across from her, working to keep his eyes off of her. Forrest took the seat next to Oden. She was beginning to suspect the two young men were close friends with Calen. She wanted to like them all if nothing else than for Calen’s sake.
After all, Calen’s luck in poker had freed her from Mr. Asselstine. She might be terrified of the men around her, but it wasn’t any worse than her former employer all by himself. Or at least she hoped that was the case.
Eventually, they were all seated and ready to listen to Jack. Bit stopped eating. She knew whatever he said was likely to be about her and bring more attention to her. She didn’t want to be stuffing her face when the entire crew turned to stare.
“As I’m sure you’ve all heard by now, Calen was clever enough to win a person in a game of poker. I hope this incident will not encourage you all to try and emulate him.” Jack took a deep breath. “I’d like to introduce Bit to you. I’ll let her tell you the story behind the name.
“I realize that having a woman in our crew is going to be a little difficult on some. We have already arranged a room for her, and Dirk is currently fixing a lock on her door, to which only she and I will have a key.”
The room echoed with the titters of half-concealed laughs. Jack let his dark gaze cross the room, silencing the few who had dared to laugh.
“If any of you touch her without her expressed permission, I will personally see you floating in space. Do we have an understanding?”
The men nodded, their eyes flicking to her and back to the captain. One man dared to raise a hand with a question. Bit recognized him as one of the men grappling on the mat when she first entered the mess hall.
“Yes?” Jack asked, nodding to him.
“Umm… permission to speak freely, sir?”
Jack nodded.
“Does this mean we are to consider her yours?”
Bit dropped her eyes to the half-eaten food. She didn’t know what Jack’s answer would be, but she knew it would define her future.
The room descended into silence. Whatever his answer would be, Bit hadn’t expected it to take long. The silence brought her gaze back to his face. Even from this distance, she could see the wheels in his head turning, as though he had to think on his answer.
Bit’s breath caught in her chest. He was thinking on it. He was truly debating over what answer he would give. She had thought the captain an honorable man, never imagining him capable of forcing a woman into his bed. It had only been her past that had made her frightened of him. Now that had all changed.
Eventually, he shook his head.
“No. Bit is a grown woman. She is free to do as she likes in that department. Who knows, one of you may be lucky enough to get her to like you. I wouldn’t have high expectations, though,” he added, trying to make a joke. “The point is, I will not have any one of my crew forcing themselves on another member of my crew. Is that understood?”
All the men nodded.
“Good. I don’t know where Bit will be working yet. We’ll have to figure that out as we go along. For now, I expect each of you to show her the ropes, be courteous, and, above all, get your jobs done. Dismissed.”
Before she could take a breath, five more men had joined her at the table.
“So, where’d the name Bit come from?” Oden asked before anyone else could speak to her.
Bit glanced around at the faces. Even Nolan had been brave enough to join her table, though he looked a little chagrined. She swallowed the lump in her throat. For once, she wasn’t going to be afraid. None of them were angry with her. There was no reason for her stomach to be doing cartwheels.
“When I first became an indentured servant I was five.”—More men joined the crowd listening to her story.—“My sister became an indentured too. She always called me Little Bit. My first employer picked up on it and it kinda stuck.”
The men chuckled.
“What’s your real name?” asked one of the fighters.
“Larissa.”
“You prefer Bit?” asked another man.
“Why don’t we let her eat,” Calen said.
Another wave of chuckles spread across the crowd.
“All right, boys, back to work,” said the strong, older man she had seen before.
He began tapping his fighters on the shoulder and directing them back to the mat.
“Shouldn’t at least one of you pilots be on the bridge?” he asked before turning and leaving.
Bit watched as Calen and Oden eyed each other. Before either could say anything, Jack settled the debate.
“Oden. Aren’t you on duty?”
Oden let out a sigh before tossing her a wink and climbing to his feet. “Yes, sir.”
As the pilot left, Dirk appeared in the doorway.
“Her lock’s all done,” he said as he dropped two keys into Jack’s hand. “And why the hell are my assistants huddled around that skirt?”
Forrest scrambled to his feet, running his grease-stained hands through his hair before smacking another man on the shoulder. Bit eyed the other man. “Man” might not have been the right term. He was by far the youngest member of the crew, with soft brown skin that looked as though it had never been touched by wind or sand or dirt, though she did spy some grease under his nails, just like Forrest. They sauntered off with Dirk, the old man who had been in the cantina when Calen won her debt.
“Nolan,” called the slightly plump man from the kitchen doorway. “We have work to do.”
Nolan rolled his eyes as he left the table and joined the other man in the kitchen, leaving Calen and Bit alone. Presumably, Nolan was the assistant steward. Bit frowned as she watched the man leave. He didn’t look like the sort of person to work as a steward. Bit tucked that mystery into the back of her mind.
“You still hungry?” Calen asked, glancing down at her half-finished meal.
Bit picked up her fork and tried to eat some more. She had long ago trained herself to eat anything placed before her, even if she was full, for fear that it might be days before her next meal. She picked at it unenthusiastically.
“You don’t have to eat more if you don’t want.”
Bit shrugged. She didn’t want to tell him about her past periods of starvation.
“We’ll be having dinner in a just a few hours. Don’t want to totally ruin your appetite,” he said, sounding as though he had read her thoughts.
She set her fork down. “Yeah. Good idea.”
“Calen,” Jack called from near the doorway. “Why don’t you let Bit rest? She’s had a rough day so far. If you want, of course, Bit.”
With that, Jack left the mess hall.
“Remember how to get your room?” Calen asked.
Bit nodded. He let her out of the narrow space around their seats and left her to find her own way back up to the main living floor. She spotted a man she had only seen when she first came on board, earlier in the morning.
“You must be Bit,” he said with a happy smile.
He was middle-aged, with a head nearly completely shaved clean and firm lines in his face.
“I’m David. I’m second cousin to Jack and Calen and happen to be the Executive Officer. Sorry I couldn’t meet you with everyone else. Someone had to stay on the bridge.”
She accepted his offered hand in silence.
“You’re probably off to rest. Quite the day, huh?” he asked with a laugh.
Had she not been so tired and emotionally drained she would have liked him, but at that moment he was simply another obstacle between her and her hammock.
“Well, I won’t keep you,” he continued. “But Jack wanted me to give you the key to your room. It locks from the inside. He’s keeping his key just in case you accidentally lock yourself out.”
Bit accepted the key and nodded. She wasn’t worried about Jack having access to her room. Nolan, on the other hand—Bit pushed those thoughts away, determined not to be afraid.
Finally, David left her in peace and she entered her new bedroom, alone and relieved.