My Cyborg Savior (Crimson Romance) by Honoria Ravena Page A

was a throng of people waiting outside the club that they could disappear into.
    “Oh, Galen. Why didn’t you say something?”
    He grunted. “Doesn’t matter. Can’t feel it. I managed to get over the wall anyway.”
    He lowered his hand and she snatched it. “Wait. Let me bandage this, give me your other hand.”
    She pulled him around and grasped his other wrist to examine him. The worry on her face surprised him.
    “Don’t worry about it. If you bandage it, they’ll seem suspicious this close to the border. Besides, it’s not like the barbs went through my hand. I heal fast enough. The bleeding is already slowing.”
    “At least let me wipe off the blood.”
    He sighed. “In a second. We need to get farther away from this alley.”
    He grabbed her arm and hauled her out of it and down the street between the groups of people waiting to get inside the bar. He released her wrist, wiped his hands on his jacket, and tossed it in a garbage incinerator.
    “Where to now, Jamila?”
    She nodded and grasped his hand, entwining her fingers gently with his.
    He leaned down the whisper in her ear. “You never answered me about getting back. Are you going to cross that wall again?”
    Reaching into her pocket she pulled out a remote, and hit a blue button on it. “Nope. Since I reprogramed my ship, it’s actually gotten much easier to get out of the zone than to get into it on foot. Unmanned vessels sometimes go to and from Haven delivering the scant amount of supplies they’re allowed. The government won’t look twice when mine joins us in the Forbidden district. It’s also not safe to be in the zone after dark.”
    “It’s not safe to be
here
after dark. In fact, it’s probably more dangerous.”
    “Either way, I’ve started picking up next week’s food supply after I drop off. This is the only time he’ll meet with me and when my father is in town it’s the only day I can get away.”
    He laughed. “I didn’t know the old model ship had a remote calling option.”
    She grinned. “I had it installed.”
    He arched an eyebrow. “Why go through all that work to make an old ship do that when you could borrow a newer model?”
    She snorted. “I do hope you’ve been out of contact with civilization for a while. Otherwise there’s no dismissing your ignorance. Newer models are outfitted so they can’t fly into the zone. It seems I’m not the only one helping these people, and when the government found out they created them with certain no fly zones built in. And if you over ride that, the authorities are alerted. I did a little research before I started flying into Haven because I’d heard of people being caught doing it. I’ve taken every precaution I can think of not to be caught.”
    She chewed her bottom lip. “But it’s only a matter of time before the government demands all vehicles be updated with the new protocols. I don’t know what they’ll do then.”
    “I wasn’t aware that the government was doing that to ships.” His people didn’t exactly have the latest intel on ship building. They were more focused on other things. He’d have to remedy that. These ships were probably made with other features that could be a problem for them if they stole a newer model.
    “Oh yes, and it wasn’t easy to find out because of all the censorship and spying. Luckily, I do remember something of my academy days in hacking, and was able to get a five minute private conversation with someone. Yay for government training.”
    The only problem with that was no conversation was private over the communications network. They were all stored. She’d have to remember more than a little hacking to get around that problem. Either he’d underestimated her, or she’d left something behind. He would bet on the latter. Most citizens didn’t know exactly how much they were tracked by the government. How little privacy they had left. They’d probably protest if they had any idea. Even a government employee would