Page 84 of Through Uncharted Space

They could try and sneak out.

Once, she would’ve done that. Or just hidden and waited for Korrdo and his team to leave. Anything to save her own skin.

But not now.

She squeezed Dare’s hand. Now she needed to do everything in her power to save this treasure and Dare. He glanced down at her with a quizzical frown.

Before she could talk herself out of it, she released his hand, rounded the pillar, and sauntered out into the temple.

Dammit to hell. Dare watched Dakota stride across the temple. He stayed back behind the pillar, out of sight. He controlled his urge to rush after her…barely.

“Korrdo, I see you finally bumbled your way here to join the party,” Dakota drawled.

Korrdo whipped around. The man’s gaze moved past Dakota, searching the rest of the temple.

“I’m alone. I finally ditched the Phoenixes. Stars, they were such bores.”

Korrdo smiled. “Yes, there’s no way you’d share the treasure with anybody, is there, Dakota?”

She ran a hand through her hair, moving her fingers through the tangles. “That’s right. You know me so well, Korrdo.”

“So, you’re stuck here…alone.”

“I always have a plan, Korrdo. You should know that by now.” She gave a nonchalant shrug. “Well, I may have had a slight problem with my sub. It malfunctioned.”

She was moving slowly through the temple, brushing past Korrdo’s men, pausing to look at the treasure. Dare realized she was studying each of the men, assessing strengths and weaknesses.

Damn, he loved her. Every wild inch of her.

Now, they just needed to get out of the temple alive.

He looked around. He needed a weapon. There was no way he could take on Korrdo and his men without one.

He knelt and patted down Korrdo’s man. In one of the man’s pockets, he found a stun baton.

Hmm, probably the one that Korrdo had used on him back on Sulla. He shook the baton, and extended it. He worried that if it had been in the water, there was a chance it might short-circuit. He tested its weight in his hand. Still, even without a stun, it was heavy enough to do damage.

He ducked down and crept along a low row of altar tables. He saw Dakota go up the steps to Korrdo. The man reached out and gripped the ends of her hair, pulling her close. She leaned into him and, for a second, Dare thought she looked like she was enjoying it. His jaw clenched so hard he was surprised it didn’t crack.

“Come with me,” Korrdo said. “Be mine.”

Dakota reached out and fiddled with the front of his suit. “In return for what?”

“Share my bed, and you can even keep some of the treasure. But really, you won’t need it. I’ll give you everything you need.”

She tilted her head. “And you’ll decide what I need?”

“Of course.”

“So you’ll cage me. Force me to follow your rules, and then give me little trinkets when I’m a good girl. You’ll turn me into a whore.” She tapped her chin. “No, thanks.”

For a second, Korrdo’s face was a comical mix of confusion and anger.

Then Dakota reared back, lifted her leg, and kneed him between his thighs. As he doubled over with a groan of agony, she reached over him and slid his laser out of his holster. She spun, and started shooting.

She raced back down the steps, then crouched low, rolled under an altar table and came up on the other side.

Dare rushed forward, swinging at the Golden Nova man closest to him. He slammed the stun baton under the man’s chin and stunned him. He fell in a jittering pile.