Once she was off Earth she sent a message to her sister, my aunt, and for years she would contact me through my aunt to tell me she loved me but she believed in her cause.”

Rena would have wiped her tears but she had her arms pinned to her sides so they just fell down her cheeks untended. “She abandoned me to my father, so yes, I knew you survived and existed. She left her two-year-old daughter and her husband to free five cyborgs.”

He blinked, no emotion showing on his features as they stared at each other. “You must hate cyborgs for the loss of your mother.”

She hesitated. “No. I don’t. I did when I was a kid because my father hated cyborgs and blamed them for the loss of his wife, but my aunt was a sympathizer and explained the truth to me. Cyborgs were victims and my mother did what she thought was right, risking her happiness to do what she believed in. I respect that.”

Something softened in the man’s gaze. “She’s telling the truth.” His hold on her eased slightly. “Tell me about what was done to the detained cyborgs.”

“Each was implanted with a chip when they processed them into the detention centers. The chip can send out a current to their brain to knock them out and disable any other chips, forcing them to stay down for ten minutes, and then rebooting them. My father told me the code words, making me remember them as a kid.”

“Why would he do that?”

She hesitated. “I think he was afraid my mother would send a cyborg after me to kidnap me from Earth. He knew she was with those five men she freed so he figured she’d send a cyborg to take me to her. He wanted me to be able to defend myself by being able to say the words to knock him out so I could run to safety by the time he woke.”

Gene frowned. “Did one ever come after you?”

She shook her head. “No. Never.”

He blinked a few times. “Are you planning on killing any cyborgs?”

“No.” She frowned at him. “I’m not a killer.”

He turned his head, meeting Blackie’s eyes. “She’s telling the truth.”

Blackie slowly stood up, staring at Rena. “Tell me how to shut down cyborgs.”

She hesitated. “You can just remove the chips. They didn’t tell the cyborgs what were done to them for fear they’d remove them. Once they are removed then they couldn’t control them anymore.”

“Give me the vocal codes to activate the sleeper chip.”

Rena stared at the man, her eyes narrowing. “Why? It’s irrelevant.”

“Tell me.”

Gene frowned. “She’s right about the trigger not being important. We’ll have to have Wire scan every brain, find what they have in common, and remove that chip.”

Blackie frowned. “Is there just one vocal code? Is shutting down cyborgs the worst that can be done? Are there vocal codes to kill them outright?”

“As far as I know they were given that one chip which shuts them down. I don’t know anything else.”

“She’s telling the truth,” Gene shifted his body, adjusting his hold on Rena and inching her higher on his body. “Are we done here? She’s not heavy but she smells damn good, feels even better, and I’m starting to get annoyed with telling my body to not respond to her, or I’d be so damn hard you could take my pulse with my dick.”

“No, we’re not done here. Stop wasting energy on your body responses and just pay attention to hers. I want her to give me the vocal command, because if we could put one of them on the table while Wire is watching and shut him down while the scanner is on, it will save time. When the chip activates she’ll have it mapped.”

“Logical.” Gene turned his head, staring into Rena’s eyes. “Damn you have pretty eyes, sweetheart. Tell Blackie the vocal codes.”

Distress tore through Rena as the cyborg swelled against her thighs, his arousal obvious, causing her heart rate to increase. The cyborg gripping her grinned at her, studying her face closely and then frowned.

“Not arousal. She’s afraid of me.”

“Good,” Blackie moved behind her. “If he scares you because you turn him on, you’d be terrified if I was holding you since I’ve been hard for half an hour. I miss humans.” His hands cupped her ass. “I remember f**king them and they are a hell of a lot softer than our women.” He kept hold of her ass. “There was this one scientist bitch who would order me to f**k her over and over for so-called endurance testing.”

Rena tried to struggle but she ended up trapped between both men as Blackie slid his hands to grip her hips, his body pressing to her backside, molding to her, pinning her body tightly between both cyborgs. Gene looked away from her to stare over her shoulder, smiling at Blackie.

“I remember too. I had a few female guards who let me nail them when they realized we were big all over. It’s the one and only damn thing I miss on Earth besides some of the places we were sent on assignment.”

Blackie nuzzled her hair, pushing it out of the way so his nose pressed against the back of her throat. He breathed against her skin. “Tell him the codes so we’re done with the interrogation.”

“The code is spectrum three-three-three-six,” she blurted out. “Now let me go.”

“Truth,” Gene said softly, staring into her eyes. “And she’s terrified.” He paused.

“Did you f**k Steel?”

She looked away from him and closed her eyes. “Please let me go.”

The hands left her h*ps to go over Gene’s arms around her waist and then Rena gasped, her eyes flying open as Blackie cupped her br**sts on the sides where they weren’t smashed against the other cyborg holding her tightly to his front.

“Answer him now.” Blackie’s tongue darted out to lick the back of her neck. “Even her sweat tastes good. You holding her in this hot room made her overheated.”

“The heat makes sure that she’s not cold. Otherwise it’s easy to mistake a shiver for a lie. Maybe we should take off her clothes.” Gene’s arms tightened around her waist. “If she won’t answer the question we could investigate if she’s had sex.”

“Yes,” she whimpered. “I had sex with Steel. Please let me go.”

Blackie chuckled, his cheek brushing the side of her throat. She jerked away but didn’t have far to go as his hands tightened against her skin. “Well, I think we’re done with the interrogation.”

“Too bad. It was just getting interesting.” Gene loosened his hold on her a little as he looked at Blackie again over her shoulder.

Blackie chuckled. “We’ve learned all we can from her. Steel said he was going to give her to one of the engineers but I think I’ll keep her. I’m willing to share her since she will probably put up a fight. I’ll take her first and then I’ll hold her for you.”

“No,” Rena whimpered. “Let me go.”

Blackie chuckled behind her, his hands releasing her br**sts. “Do you know what humans are to us? Property. You’re like a chair ordering us not to sit in it.” He backed away from her.

Rena took a deep breath, relaxing now that Blackie wasn’t touching her, pretty sure they were just trying to scare her. She’d heard Steel order the black-haired cyborg not to hurt her. She gasped when his hands gripped her briefs, his thumbs working into the waist of the material as he slowly started to tug them down. Rena screamed, her hands going up to shove against Gene.

“Stop it.”

Gene frowned at her. “She’s really not interested, Blackie. She’s terrified. She’s not playing coy.”

“I don’t give a damn what she wants.” Blackie tugged her briefs down her thighs, baring her lower body. “I’m more interested in what I want. Hold her around her waist and I’ll take her from behind then I’ll hold her upper body while you take her from the front. I can change her mind.”

Panic gripped Rena. In her teens her father and his military friends had wanted her to be able to defend herself so they’d taught her to fight. She wiggled in Gene’s hold and then grabbed his shoulders. She brought her knee up into the vee of his thighs right as she threw her head back into the man who pressed against her back. His bare skin pressed against her ass now that he’d lowered his pants.

Pain exploded in the back of her head as she made contact with Blackie’s jaw. He grunted, staggering back. Gene reacted by dropping her as pain from her knee slamming into his balls registered in his brain. She hit the floor and yanked on her shorts, jerking them up her hips, moving into a corner, knowing she was trapped in the small room with two cyborgs.

Gene bent over, grabbing his front, his eyes closing as he hissed out curses. Blackie glared at her, rubbing his jaw, and then turned his head to spit blood. He looked infuriated as he took a step toward her, his pants open enough to show her he didn’t wear briefs.

“You want to play rough, human?”

“I don’t want to play at all. I heard Steel tell you that you couldn’t hurt me.”

He let his hand drop from his face. “I am going to seduce you.”

“I don’t want ‘seduced’, if that’s what you call rape.” She pressed snugly against the corner. “Leave me alone.”

A grin split Blackie’s lips, revealing bloodied teeth. “I like a challenge. I’ll try to not hurt you.” He opened his arms, inching forward. “If you’re not into threesomes just say so and I’ll send Gene out. I doubt he’s up for it anyway after you hurt his nuts. I’m going to pin you down and make you beg me to f**k you.”

“It’s too hot in here for hell to have frozen over.”

His dark blue eyes twinkled. “I like you.”

“It’s not a mutual feeling, believe me.”

He lunged. Rena pushed away from the corner, diving out of his way, her hands taking her weight as she flipped over to land in a crouch. She turned and kicked out, hitting the surprised cyborg in the ass. He stumbled and slammed face first into the corner wall with a loud grunt. She spun, rushing for the only door.

It was locked, the handle not turning, but she jerked on it again, desperately studying the electric lock, seeing it wasn’t a good one. She pulled her hand back, used her palm and hit the thing as hard as she could to crack the cover. She pulled her hand back again but an arm wrapped around her waist, jerking her off her feet.

Rena screamed and clawed at the arm. She heard Blackie cursing as she tore into his skin, making him bleed as eight long cuts opened up under her nails. He dropped her, cursing. She threw her elbow back, hitting the guy in the stomach. She spun, one fist going for his crotch, the other one going for his throat. She punched both, throwing herself back after she made contact. Blackie staggered, gasping curses.

* * * * * Steel had been irritated since yesterday when Flint had given him the human. His life was screwed up enough without adding a woman into the mix, after women had made his life hell for months. First he’d been stuck with a bunch of them, stranded on a planet until repairs to his ship could be made, and then he’d found out his female in his family unit had voided their contract, taking up with another male.

He walked into the command area and saw some of the cyborgs not at their stations.

They were all watching a small screen on the security feed. He frowned.

“Why aren’t you at your stations?”

One of the men glanced up, grinning. “Sorry but it’s not every day you see a human woman fighting with Blackie.”

Another cyborg chuckled. “She’s giving him hell too. She drew blood.”

Steel experienced pure rage as he moved forward, shoving one of the men out of the way to stare at a live feed from one of the interrogation rooms. Gene was standing against a wall looking grim while Blackie stumbled back. He had blood on his jaw and down his throat while Rena backed away from him. Steel took in what she was wearing and cursed.