Free Taming the Wildcat (Sargosian Chronicles) by Bethany J. Barnes Mina Carter Page A

some of the sweetest things she saw came from imagining how Roz would look the day she would tell him she carried his child. She could imagine the tender look on his face as she finally presented him with a daughter or son. With her luck, she’d probably have twins, since they ran in her family. She didn’t care, she wanted to give him everything.
    Three days with him and she’d seen her future. She’d seen it when she looked in his eyes that morning, and she saw it now. It all flashed before her again, crushing her with the intensity of what she felt for him.
    She slammed back to full awareness and the present with a gut-wrenching jolt. She could almost feel his arms around her and smell his warm skin. She remembered the way he’d plunge his fingers into her hair to kiss her.
    This time, she noticed the tears streaming down her face. She sobbed uncontrollably. She couldn’t do it. She couldn’t go through with a suicide run. She couldn’t take the risk of never seeing him again. She loved him too much to give up her life like this.
    Laser fire and torpedoes came at her so fast they were blurring. Of course, it could have been her tears, but she doubted it.
    Spinning away, she aimed for clear space. She didn’t care where she ended up, just as long as she got out of this hellhole. She entered coordinates into her flight computer and hit the button. She did a blind jump, and left all the death and destruction behind her.
    * * *
    In the foothills of a planet in the ass-end of beyond, the name of which none of the Wildcats knew or really cared about, Roz looked around his men.
    “Everyone got that?” he asked, swiping his hand over the dirt at his feet. He’d constructed a crude map of the terrain they were about to traverse. Looking about the small group, he received grim-faced looks in return.
    Geared up for war, it hardly seemed possible that these lethal-looking warriors were the same ones he’d seen less than a week ago, falling over themselves to please a tiny human woman. Naked to the waist, they wore tactical rigs over camo-covered skin. The dark tattoos across their arms were artistically smudged with green and black, as were their faces. Each carried enough weaponry to arm a small Fleet marine squad.
    They weren’t anything as nice as Fleet marines. They were Wildcats, and they were paid to kick ass.
    “No questions, good.”
    Straightening, he checked his rifle. He had a full charge and three other power packs in reserve. His backup weapon wasn’t energy but projectile. A nasty piece of kit from back home.
    “Right, when we make contact, I expect nothing less than gratuitous violence from the lot of you. Just because we're on the Fleet’s payroll doesn't mean we need to give them the warm and fuzzies. Keep your fire groups tight, get in and kick their fucking teeth out in close quarters. Or you’ll be facing me tomorrow in the practice ring, understand?”
    The response was immediate, if quiet.
    “Yes, Lead!”
    “Good, move out in two.”
    He turned, trusting them all to cut the crap and do their weapons check before he signaled for them to clear out. As he did, Jei frowned, touching his earpiece. The section radio op, he was the only one in contact with their ship, hidden above them in orbit.
    Roz paused. He knew Jei, and that look on his face didn’t bode well. Slinging his rifle, he checked his secondary weapon and shoved it back in its holster.
    “Okay. Let me have it,” he ordered, looking directly at his unusually quiet second-in-command.
    * * *
    Dead. Jei’s words echoed in his head and slammed through his body like a hammer against an anvil. Pain was his world. It roared through him, starting at the empty place in the middle of his chest where his heart used to be and radiating outward.
    She was gone. Summer was dead.
    Her ship had been destroyed half a day ago. She’d been gone a whole twelve hours and he hadn’t known. He’d slept as the woman he loved…the only woman he’d ever