Brutus (Moon Hunter's Inc. Book 4)
Moon Hunter’s Inc.
Book 4
Brutus
By Catty Diva
Cover By Jesh Art
Editing By Addicted to Reviews Editing
2016 Copyright by Catty Diva
Any resemblance to any persons living or dead are simply a coincidence. Any locations or events are fictitious or used in a fictional manner. The story is strictly a product of the author’s imagination.
This series is a spinoff from the 10 book series The Mating games. Razar
The Mating Games series
Book 1
Razar needs a mate, but on his planet there are nine males to one female. Humans look like they are compatible, but if they find out the secrets of his kind they will refuse to send them mates.
Lista needs money for her mother's operation or she will die. Her sister has volunteered her to be a bride for an alien. If she wins the mating game, she will be free to keep the money and return home.
Can she outwit him or will he claim her heart before it's game over?
Moon Hunters Inc.
Book 1
Justice
When did the good guys get so bad?
Justice comes on swift wings in the dark. His friend and boss, Cash, has sent him to Earth to exterminate a criminal convicted on Oison and protected by the corrupt Earth government. While carrying out the judgement, he finds her.
Envy is a pet kept by her evil master. Luckily, he's old and incapable of breeding, so she is still innocent in many ways. Justice has come to make her master pay for his misdeeds. Can she convince him to free her so she can live life on her terms? Will the handsome assassin accept her innocence as a payment for her freedom or will he demand her heart as well?
Moon Hunters Inc.
Book 2
Cyn
Deadly as Cyn, she’s sent on a mission after a bad guy. Alex is sexy as hell. Can he really be the monster her boss believes he is? It’s up to her to prove his innocence or take him out. If he’s really the anonymous mastermind behind the secrets at space station Alpha and the heinous lab hidden at Pluto, can she take out a man she’s grown to love? And how can she love a creature that loves to kill the innocent?
Alex doesn’t know what to make of the beautiful but distant woman who was sent to negotiate a contract with him for Oison. One minute she’s hot as she shows interest in him as a man, the next minute she’s once again the cold negotiator. How can he find a way to get to the woman inside?
With so much at stake and so much muddying their relationship, can they ever find their way to the heart of the matter?
Moon Hunter’s Inc.
Book 3 Terrik
She had escaped somehow and he felt guilty for not stopping her. The female was the chief of security, guilty of heinous crimes and must be brought to justice for them. Terrik felt guilt for another reason, too. How could he feel drawn to a woman so evil? It was his inability to react that had allowed her to escape. He’d frozen because of the attraction he’d felt for that woman, Lorelai.
Lorelai had almost gotten caught. She’d been like a deer in the headlight as that incredibly sexy man had stared at her. Luckily, reason had returned and she’d gotten out of there. There was a job to be done and she was the only one that could do it. All she had to do was explain to the commander over all the labs, how she had been the only one to escape and make him believe it. The sexy stranger had to be cast to the back of her mind as she prepared to perform her duty.
On opposite sides, was there any way they could ever get together?
Prologue
Brutus didn’t know what he was headed to as he moved out to meet with a team that would deal with the latest lab that they had uncovered. Space Station Gamma was calling him to his fate, but what was it? Dreams of a beautiful woman, one tortured mentally and physically, were the focus of his dreams and he couldn’t say if he would meet her there or not.
If you asked him, there wasn’t much he could tell anyone. Cash had given him no information on this mission except the location and that it did hold a verified lab. He’d felt that was plenty to get his hunters started, and it was more than they sometimes had to go on.
Shari was alive, she knew it because of the pain she felt daily. A child grew in her stomach and it took what it needed, leaving her with the crumbs that remained. If they didn’t start feeding her more, she would die and the child with her. Her dreams of rescue no longer plagued her; she had given up all hopes and dreams, except those of an easy and painless death.
Chapter 1
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Back Up
Brutus was famous for being used in support positions on big missions and being sent on little one man jobs the rest of the time. What did that mean? He wasn’t the most sociable guy or the team’s most happy hunter. Leave him to himself and he got the job done, whatever that job might happen to be.
Right now, he was nearly to space station Gamma and Jazzy was waiting. What a small team could do was pretty much nothing, except hold and watch for any changes in routine or follow anyone sent away. The farther from Earth they got, the larger the labs seemed to get and that made This lab bigger than they had ever imagined one being. That was frightening because that meant these labs had ruined even more lives than originally thought.
The whole thing was mind boggling. “Brutus, are you out there?”
“Jazzy, girl, is that you?”
She giggled. “Yeah, it’s me. How far out are you?”
“Not far. I’ll be docking within the hour.”
“It’s bad, really bad, and I can hardly stand to see what’s going on.”
“Sit tight, little one, and I’ll be there before you know it. Don’t let that soft heart get you in trouble.”
“I’ll wait and watch you take it all apart,” Jazzy agreed.
“You’ve never stood back and watched a day in your life,” Brutus mumbled.
“Too true, Brother. But I will wait for you to get here.”
The lady moon hunters were all class acts. They were also tough as nails on the outside while soft hearted on the inside. They’d all grown up hard and fast on the streets or in juvenile centers for some part of their youth. Cyn had probably had it the easiest and Jazzy the hardest. Brutus well knew and loved all the lady moon hunters, but he had never dallied with any of them and never would.
While he kept a close relationship with each of the lady moon hunters, it wasn’t the romantic kind. Sure, some of the other guys thought it was and some of them tried to get the ladies’ attention. A few of them even managed to grab some of that attention, but it never worked out well.
“See you when I get there.” Brutus ended the call.
The station was one that had been plagued with rumors of dark activities and hauntings. It all made perfect sense now and should have been the first place they looked, but the owners had always encouraged the rumors even bringing in a film crew to document odd activities and sounds some of which were caught from the planet below.
“The lab is on the planet below, but we suspect some activity on the station as well, in an area blocked off to the general public.” Cash said.
“Why send me now, before we wrap up this New Cairo mission?”
“I’m worried about Jazzy. I want her to have support until a large backup force arrives. The mission you’re on right now has plenty of he
lp. Just get your ass to Jazzy. Safe guarding her is your mission. She won’t leave and I’m afraid she may blunder in and try to save someone. Those people look worse than the ones you just found.”
“They’re still alive?” The ones they found had been in bad shape. He would have guessed any worse and they’d be dead.
“It seems the body can survive enormous abuse. Maybe the worst part, is a pregnant female who is being starved to death. Jazzy cries when she talks about her.”
“I understand. I’m on my way.”
That had ended Cash’s call and Brutus had left immediately. Jazzy had been through enough, she didn’t need to get herself captured by the labs again. It was his job to make sure that didn’t happen. It wasn’t long before the station came into view on his long range screen.
This station had always been an odd duck. It was shaped like a scorpion and he’d bet the private area Cash had mentioned was the scorpions stinger. The place had been built by an eccentric gazzillionaire as his private playground. He’d opened it up to the public when he ran into financial trouble for overspending on projects just like the station. With a nickname like scorpion and rumors of supernatural goings on, it was an instant success.
The owner had died like he lived, oddly. He was found, eyes wide open in fright, at a viewing window looking down to the planet. No one ever figured out what he saw, but it gave him a massive heart attack. His death only fueled the success of the station which was bought by a financial group as an investment.
Brutus speculated the lab was there right in the beginning. The rich playboy that owned the station probably had no idea what he was harboring. The same might not be said of the financial group that had bought the station for pennies on the dollar.
As his ship drew near the station, Brutus was amazed by the exterior of the huge place. It would be a working ship, all stations were built that way in case of an emergency like being in the path of a meteor. This station was even bigger than Brutus had imagined. The metal it was made from was a rare alloy that he’d never seen before and the scorpion’s tail was topped off with a shiny jewel that looked like a diamond. It looked just like the rich man’s playground it claimed to be.
“Come in, ship on approach. This is scorpion docking control. We have your transmitted ID and you have been named as Brutus LaPorth. No reservations show so you will need to make them as soon as you land. A docking specialist will meet you at Dock 51 to help you engage your docking clamps. We hope you have a wonderful stay with us.”
Brutus snorted, everything was automated and there had been no need for them to send a message. He supposed it was that personal treatment they were known for. It didn’t surprise him that he was being met. They would probably lock his ship into place to make sure he was paid up before he left. All the top stations that had gambling and prostitution did that to ensure they got their pay.
His ship was guided into stall 51, one of the small docks for a two person ship like his. The big docks were designed for the large ship, the huge ones used shuttles to send over their people. The procedure took scant minutes, but the docking guys held out their hand for a tip. Tossing them a couple of credits, he hurried on his way to meet Jazzy. He wasn’t sure if she would be happy to see him or not.
Chapter 2
The Patient
Shari looked up and opened her senses as much as she could. The things she sensed were sometimes beyond what an average person could. Right now, she knew someone was hiding in the vents spying on everyone. She didn’t care, she’d grown up with her every move being watched even in the bathroom. If she’d ever had any form of privacy, she might be bothered by the female, yes, it was a female judging by scent that peeked out of the vents at all of them.
Knowing that the female had been watching her made her curious. It wasn’t like the female could hurt her any more than the males in here already had. She knew it would only take a little to push her over and end the pitiful life her body clung to. Even the baby that grew in her tummy that she loved more than her own life wasn’t enough to make her happy to survive one day after the next.
“Who are you, Female?” She asked as she looked down. Her voice was rough from not speaking in so long. The only sound the guards liked to hear were screams.
“You know I’m here?” The female questioned.
“I have superior senses, even though they do me no good.”
“My name is Jazzy. I want to help you, but I can’t do it alone.”
“I see no help and expect nothing but pain. Give me no false hope. That would hurt me more than anything.”
“Okay. If I don’t see you again, best wishes.”
“Same to you.”
The female left, the faintest of sounds moving off into the distance. Once again, Shari was truly alone, except for the little one that grew inside her. The baby rolled around and squirmed, wishing it was time to come out into the world and leave behind the small womb that currently trapped him. It didn’t hurt much, not yet anyway, but the last baby that she had nurtured in her body had gotten large and it pained her when she moved while still inside.
That hadn’t hurt nearly as much as it had when they had torn her newborn from her arms when the baby was about a month old. It was the same path that she was set on now. Her life was full of holes where everyone she loved was taken away one at a time. That path had started when she was a young girl and had been torn away from her mother. So much heartache and pain for one so young.
She’d had four children, but they had told her one had died. It was impossible to say if it was true or not since these guards lied so easily. Shari would swear she’d heard the baby cry, but they denied it was true. They claimed the boy had been born dead, a blue baby that had never drawn breath. A tear ran out of the corner of one eye, but she wiped it away. Here, a sign of weakness would be used to destroy the little left of her soul.
“Hey, Bitch. Did you give someone a blow job? You’re getting a full meal today.” The guard, he was the one she’d nicknamed Asshole, yelled to her as he slid the tray through a slot on the floor.
“Dumb bitch can’t talk, Dan. You wastin’ your breath.” The other guard, she called him Bastard, mumbled. “She too skinny to fuck anyways, so why be wastin’ your time?”
“They are fun to torment, Bass. When will you learn how to let go and enjoy being here?”
Asshole asked.
“Never, this place scary as shit,” Bastard answered. “I outa here in a week anyways.”
“Damn, man. I’ll miss you.”
“Really?”
“Hell no. We’ll get a new guy and he might be more like me.”
“I feelin’ sorry for da inmates already.” Bastard said. Maybe he wasn’t as bad as the asshole, after all.
“You a bleeding heart, man?” Asshole derided.
“Go fuck yourself!” Bastard cussed.
“What are you two doing hanging out in front of this cell?” A female voice asked. Oh, yeah, that Bitch, the Ice Queen.
“Just trying to figure out why my buddy likes these prisoners so much. He plays nice with them.”
“If you do anything to this one, and she dies, that would get your pay docked for a big pile of money. Maybe Bass is just smarter than you?” She questioned.
“They never charged for them before,” Asshole pointed out.
“We could replace them easier before. We’re losing them faster than we are gaining new ones. If you’re caught abusing them, it’s your money now,” She added.
“Fuck! That was half the fun of working here.”
“Looks like the fun is all gone,” Asshole said, with a hollow laugh.
The female head of the guards walked away.
“You think that last female will be alright?”
“If she’s lucky, she dies. Then, she sees you no more.”
“Fuck you, Bass. They won’t know I messed with her. No way they’ll know.”
“Cameras don’t lie,” now, Bass laughed for real.
“I gotta do nothin’.”
“Fuck you asshole.”
Shari looked at Asshole Dan. If you didn’t know how dark his soul was, you might think him handsome. Straight white blond hair just past his shoulders and ice blue eyes that females probably thought attractive. A nice body, lean but muscular and the asshole was tall, well over six feet. The pretty package hid a grisly secret. He was heartless and his soul black as coal.
The other guy was the opposite with his tan complexion where Asshole Dan’s was pale. His curly shoulder length hair was black as the ace of spades but shiny. His eyes were black, too and where Dan’s nose was narrow but long, Bass’ was wide and shorter. He was a pretty boy too, but he seemed tougher. She’d admit he’d never hurt anyone on purpose that she knew of, but he hadn’t helped anyone either. But Bass didn’t seem very smart or maybe he just lacked education and verbal skills.
Judgement was harsh in this place and she had no love for either of them. If she had a gun in her hands, they’d both be dead. Dan would go first because he was the worst. That didn’t mean Bass would escape, his death would only be delayed by seconds. This was what she did when the pain got bad. She fantasized about killing those who held her here and those who hurt her and the others.
In the past, she had gotten the comfort of being with others. This pregnancy she was held by herself. Maybe they suspected others had given her food or too much comfort. It was true their presence had eased her discomfort. One male in the big cage had rubbed her shoulders and whispered sweet words to her. He’d told her about the outside, a place she’d never seen and never would.
“Psst! Shari,” a voice whispered as loud as possible.
“Raven? Is it you?” She asked. Raven was her sister or at least that was what she’d always been told.