Hauk scoffed at Caillen. "Sex isn't always the answer, you know."

"Bullshit," Caillen said with a laugh. "You obviously ain't never had a really good lay or you'd know better. Nothing clears the head faster or changes a man's direction about where he wants to stay."

Syn concurred. "I'm siding with Caillen on this one."

"Me, too," Jayne said.

Nero nodded. "Add me to that list."

Hauk rolled his eyes. "You're all morons." He looked at Nykyrian. "You're with me on this one, aren't you, Nyk?"

"No. I'm definitely with them. There's no one in this universe who can defeat or weaken me. But Kiara can bring me to my knees with one single pout, and when she takes me into the bedroom, nothing can pull me back out. I have absolutely no will where she's concerned, other than to make her deliriously happy."

"Well, that explains all the kids," Hauk said under his breath. "Since I've obviously been doing something wrong-"

"Yeah," Jayne raked him with a sneer, "lay off the cheap 'hos, and try finding a decent woman for once."

Hauk started to respond, then he must have realized he was about to bring a knife to a blaster fight. "Fine. Maris, can you seduce him?"

That might work if Darling were gay. But...

It did get him thinking.

"Give me a couple of days to work on something, okay?" Maris cut the transmission as he drummed his fingers against his thigh while he thought through the one thing that might save Darling's soul.

Zarya was the only woman Darling had ever loved. Before all of this had blown up, he'd been willing to die for her. To risk everything he had, even his beloved family, to claim her as his wife.

"Jayne, I couldn't care less what you do with her so long as I don't ever have to see her face again."

That had been a harsh sentence Darling had handed down, but Zarya was the only member of the Resistance Darling had spared from death. He had torn the rest of them apart as soon as he located them.

Was it possible that Darling might still love her?

C'mon, Mari... he's in enough pain. The last thing you want to do is add to it.

Don't even consider what it is you're thinking.

But what choice did he have? Maris knew no other way to reach Darling.

You're a friggin' imbecile. If Darling truly hates her now, he will never forgive you for returning her to his life.

It'll end badly...

For all of them.

But it was all they had. I've tried everything else. Nothing had worked.

If anyone could seduce him, surely it was the woman who'd claimed his heart when no one else had.

Would Darling ever forgive her though?

Was it possible?

Maris had never taken a lover back after they'd broken up. But then he'd never been in love. Not really. Not the way Darling had been with Zarya.

It's worth a try.

Worst thing would be that Darling killed her. And then he'll probably shoot me and add me to his monument in the yard.

But if he was right about Darling's feelings...

Zarya could save him from his suicidal path. She alone might be able to get past his rage and touch the human part of him again and bring him back to all of them.

With no other recourse, he called Jayne to find out who'd bought Darling's girlfriend.

As soon as he had that information, he headed for the dealer, praying he could bribe Zarya's owner's name from the man and then buy her back.

Please let this work.

Zarya held her spoon tight, trying to pry open the door of her cell so that she could escape. Yeah, okay, so she'd been trying to do this for weeks, but...

It was better than blithely accepting a fate she didn't want. So long as there was breath inside her, she would fight.

C'mon, Z. You can do this...

In only a few hours, she was going to be stripped naked and then marched outside to be bid on like a piece of merchandise. Because she wasn't a virgin, strange men and women would be able to grope and examine every private inch of her body at their leisure. She couldn't imagine anything more humiliating.

C'mon, fate, work with me here. Don't let me go to auction.

She'd rather die than be put through that.

As she ground her teeth and strained to get more torque without bending her spoon, she heard footsteps in the hallway.

They were headed toward her cell.

She jumped away from the door, and hid her spoon under her pallet. The last thing she needed was to have it confiscated. Not that it was all that much. Still, it was the only thing she had.

The door opened slowly to show her dealer. He stood there with a harsh glower on his face as if he wanted to hurt her.

What had she done now?

"Come here."

Panic ripped through her. Had he moved up her auction time? The thought made her sick.

She shook her head no.

Cursing at her, he pressed a button on her controller and forced her to obey him.

Gah, how she hated that device. If she could have three seconds of freedom, she'd rip it off his arm and shove it somewhere really uncomfortable.

As soon as she reached him, he stepped aside for a man to examine her. A man whose face she remembered clearly from the worst day of her life.

He was the one who'd pulled his helmet off to help Darling...

Maris, that had been his name. And by his ornate orange and yellow robes, she could tell he was an aristo with a lot of money and power. One who was used to having people bow and scrape before him.

The kind of aristo she loathed with every molecule of her being.

Narrowing his eyes on her, Maris nodded. "She's the one I'm looking for. I'll have the funds transferred to you immediately."

The slaver handed him the bracelet. "Trust me, you're going to need it. If you want to activate her sex drive, it's the red button. The blue stalls her. Green makes her obey whatever your last command was. Yellow releases her to her own power... Yeah, that's not really something you want to do. She's a lot stronger than she looks. The black button will knock her unconscious. You might want to keep a finger near that one until you break her in. She's a handful even with the collar on."

Maris passed a haughty look at the slaver to let him know he'd been summarily dismissed. It was the type of smug insolence that made Zarya despise the ruling class.

The slaver smirked at her before he left the room. "Enjoy her, my lord. You certainly paid more for her than anyone else would have."

As soon as they were alone, Maris placed the bracelet on his wrist, then pressed the yellow button.

Zarya was grateful that she had control of herself again, but..."I'm not about to be your sex slave, buddy. You can forget it."

Maris laughed at her angry indignation. "My bracelet says otherwise."

She glared at him. "If you think-"

"Stop with the threats and relax," he said with a purely feminine wave of his hand. "Trust me, hon, you fully lack the anatomy I need to be attracted to you."

"How so?"

He arched that regal brow again. "What are you? Blind? I'm as gay as they come, sweetie. Your body holds no appeal for me whatsoever. At least not sexually."

"Then why did you buy me?"

His gaze burned into her with a malice that actually scared her. "You're the one who was sleeping with Kere, correct?"

Zarya didn't dare answer. Even now, after everything she'd suffered because of him, she refused to betray his trust. Why? She had no idea.

Actually that wasn't true. She knew why. If nothing else in her life, she was loyal. Even when it was stupid.

Maris tsked at her. "Oh, that look says it all. You are definitely the one I need." He took her arm and started forward. "Come with me."

Zarya refused to blindly follow him or anyone else until she had more information. She stopped dead in her tracks. "Where are you taking me?"

"To save my best friend's life."

She felt as if they were speaking two entirely different languages. So much for having learned Universal. "I don't understand."

He pinned her with a warning glower as he let go of her arm. "You and your little rebel friends have destroyed the best man I have ever known. You took a noble, kind hero and turned him into a self-serving beast who is bent on total annihilation of everyone around him, including himself. So it only stands to reason that ye who broke him, might be the one to fix him."

Those words made her see red. "If you mean Darling, he's the one who sold me. I don't ever want to see him again. I'm done. You hear me? No one treats me the way he has. No one." What she wanted to do was beat him until he hurt as much as she did.

"And I'm the one who bought you, which means you will do what I say." He tried to pull her forward.

Shaking her head, she refused to be budged. "You send me to him and I will kill him for this."

"I seriously doubt that, sweetheart. Over the last month, I've seen him take down six League High Commanders without breaking a sweat. Three of them attacked him at once. And you don't want to know how many of their assassins he's killed in total. It's actually kind of scary when you think about it."

That she didn't doubt. She'd seen with her own eyes just how skilled Kere was in a fight.

And Maris was right. In spite of her skills that were superlative, she was no match for him... which brought out a whole new fear. "He'll kill me."

Maris shrugged nonchalantly. "So he kills you. So what? If he gets five seconds of pleasure from either screwing you or killing you, then I'm happy."

Yes, but she wouldn't be.

Disbelief over his attitude flooded her. "Are you out of your mind?"

"No, but Darling is." Maris glared at her as if he wanted to beat her as much as she wanted to strangle his friend. "Did you ever really love him? Tell me the truth."

She started not to answer, but for some reason, she couldn't keep it in. "More than my life."

"And now?"

Zarya tried to stamp down her tears, but against her will, they swam in her eyes as she thought about Kere and everything they'd had.

Everything she'd lost.

There were so many tender memories. So many nights of laughter over their links. Sharing their dreams and hopes.

Their deepest fears...

No matter how bad she felt, he'd always made her smile. Just the sound of his voice, the smallest whiff of his skin, set her on fire.

She'd never felt for anyone what she felt for him.

But he'd betrayed her. He'd thrown her away like she was nothing, condemned her to this hole without a single regret or thought.

That was unforgivable. She wasn't trash to be discarded the moment it became unpleasant.

Still, her emotions were tangled where he was concerned, and they weren't simple. How could she love and hate someone as much as she did him? And all at the same time. It didn't make sense.

Despising herself, hating her situation, and none too pleased with Darling or Maris, she sighed. "I honestly don't know. Yes, I still love him. I hurt for him and I'm so mad, I could stomp him into the ground, and laugh while I do it. He's hurt me worse than anyone ever has."

One black brow shot north as if he couldn't believe her words. "You? You were hurt?"

"Yes."

He looked at her as if she repulsed him. "Are you in total denial or are you really that stupid? Or are you just that selfish? Please tell me. I have to know."