the ship with a deafening blast. She shut her eyes and said a final prayer as she lay on the dirty floor. She waited for the suction to start. She’d read about what happened to ships with breached hulls. In a matter of seconds that breach would enlarge as objects sucked in that direction widened the hole and in minutes, if a person were unlucky enough to survive that long, all air would be sucked into the vacuum of space. She would die painfully but quickly.

Metal groaned loudly close by. She tensed. Mira squeezed her eyes shut tighter, waiting for the suction to hit her. She was actually grateful for one thing. She was tied down so her body wouldn’t be sucked out into space to float out there forever. At least inside a ship her family might one day have closure should her body be discovered.

Men screamed and then she heard popping noises. She frowned, recognizing the sound. She’d seen enough action vids to know that pack guns made those noises. She opened her eyes and turned her head. Shockingly, she saw cyborgs enter the cargo area. Above her she saw a mutant leaning out of a hatch firing down on the cyborgs . Mira turned her head and saw Flint. He held a pack gun but he didn’t spare her a look as he took aim to fire again.

Above her a male screamed, causing Mira to jerk her head up just in time to see a mutant fall from the hatch. He slid face first down the deck about eight feet from where she lay. He skidded limply down the tilted deck until he slammed into the wall of the cargo area with a sickening thud.

“Get her,” Flint snarled. “We’ll cover you.”

Flint had come for her. Mira stared down at him where he braced against the wall and the tilted deck.

He held a pack gun firmly in his hand, pointing it toward the area from which they’d taken fire, still not glancing at her. She saw movement below her and turned her head. Iron was using what looked like hooks to climb up the floor toward her. She met his eyes, seeing how pissed off he was as he glared at her. He climbed the deck until his large body was next to her and stared into her eyes for long seconds before yanking a knife from his belt.

“You’re in deep shit,” he growled softly at her. “I wouldn’t want to be you when we get on the Rally .”

She swallowed hard as Iron sliced through the ties that bound her wrists, using his leg to pin her to the deck so she didn’t go sliding away. He shoved his knife back into his belt and wrapped his strong arm around her waist. She didn’t even gasp as the large man rolled her on top of his body so her back was to his chest. Iron yanked the hooklike tool from the floor, setting them free, and they started to slide down the deck toward Flint and his men.

Iron braced his feet, lifting them so when they hit, his legs took the impact of colliding with the wall. He softly cursed as he rolled her over. He was on his feet in a heartbeat, reaching down and grabbing her around her waist to yank her off the floor. Iron held her like that as he climbed out of the blown hatch with Mira folded over his arm. It hurt but she didn’t cry out from the pain—she was too terrified. In seconds he had her through the sleeve that attached the Rally to the pirate ship.

Iron stormed into a room that was nothing more than a hatch room. If the seal of the sleeve broke this room would keep the jumper shuttle from a hull breach. He hit the button that opened the doors. A second later she was in a much smaller cargo area. She saw two large cages set up. Iron set her on her feet and grabbed her by the back of her neck.

Mira saw five human women locked in the larger cage. They wore blue space jumpsuits that were comfortable for travel, sporting their company logo on the br**sts of their suits. She only got a glance at them before Iron tore open the smaller cage door and shoved her roughly inside. She fell inside and cried out as the metal floor bruised her knees. The door slammed shut behind her.

“If you were mine