Free The Other Side Of Gravity (Oxygen, #1) by Shelly Crane

span of ten minutes. What was wrong with them? Was the oxygen level low in here?
    “It’s about principles. And you not having any. Or ethics. Or morals.”
    Havard laughed hard and leaned in closer. “Who gives a monkey’s pink butt about principles?”
    “I do,” Maxton gritted out, then yanked the handheld metal detector from the back of his waistband before slamming it across Havard’s head. He went down with a thud and stayed down.
    “Let’s go,” Maxton beckoned, taking my hand in his, with no fanfare or thought to Havard at all except to look and make sure he was still down.
    He dragged me to the door and then let my hand go, tucking the metal detector under his arm so he could punch in the codes to open the door latch.
    “It’s dead,” I said.
    “What?” he said distractedly as he worked.
    I took the detector from him. “It’s dead.”
              He took it back and looked as if his world had been undone. “No. No,” he said with such anguish. He closed his eyes for a few seconds and then opened them. “I’ll try to find another one.” We both knew that would never happen. Detectors were expensive and as precious as the silver and food we ate and oxygen we breathed. It would be impossible.
    “Yeah,” I encouraged and nudged his arm. “Let’s get out of here before Hook wakes up.”
    He gave me a wry look and smiled. “What’s a Hook?”
    “Nothing,” I told him and couldn’t stop the small smile as I looked at the wall behind his head and thought about my dad’s stories. Havard was kind of like a pirate.
    “What’s that look for?”
    I shook my head. “What look?”
    His head shook, too. “One day, I hope someone looks off into space and has a look like that on her face while thinking about me.”
    My lips parted at his perceptiveness, but before I could say anything, not that I had thought of anything to say, he had already turned back to punch the codes into the door.
    “My dad,” I supplied after a few seconds. I didn’t know why I did. But he had told me—well, nothing—about his sister, but I at least knew a sister existed. And for some reason I didn’t want him thinking there was someone else—I shook my head. How would there be someone else? I was a slave. And for that matter…why did it matter?
    He looked back over his shoulder for a second at me and gave me a small, sweet smile that I’m sure he reserved for less straggly company. But I appreciated it all the same. He nodded his head once, letting me know that he understood, that we were comrades in the lost parent parade, and went back to work.
    Then the snick of the door had us both moving back.
    He gripped my arm and pulled me as he looked once out the door before letting go. “All clear. Let’s split.”
    Yikes. Just like that, huh. “Well, it was nice knowing you.”
    I started to go and he yanked me back, me falling against his chest in the alcove of the ship’s door, still hidden from most people. A lot of people bustled along the dock.
    “What are you doing, crazy girl?” His breath puffed against my ear once before he turned me to face him. “You think you’re leaving? I break you out, ruin everything for myself, turn myself into a convict for you, and then you think you’re just leaving the second you get free—”
    “You said Let’s split .”
    He squinted before he smiled. I wanted to hit him. “Let’s split. It means let’s get out of this place, shake a leg, get a move on, chop chop, let’s go, why don’t we skedattle, let’s blow this joint before it blows us—”
    “I get it.”
    He smiled wider. “You’re stuck with me for a while. If we split up now, we’ll never make it.”
    “Agreed. I don’t want to split up.”
    He took the busted detector that he had tucked into his belt again and tossed it in the corner. “Have to figure something out about some silver and shelter soon.” He looked at me. “At least we—you have your common metals,” he said with