by Layla Nash
“I hate you both,” Violet said. “Let me talk to someone sensible. This isn’t funny, and I’m not laughing. I’ve been kidnapped.”
“Technically,” a rough voice said, and Violet froze. Her head turned until she saw Faros standing in the door to the bathroom, his arms folded over his chest. “You’ve been detained. I’d expect a lawyer to know the difference.”
She lurched to her feet and tried to slam the door in his face, but his massive arm blocked her and the pirate loomed over her in the tiny space. Violet clenched her jaw and braced for a fight.
Chapter 5
Faros
Faros meant to check on the Earther and make sure she’d eaten and rested, as instructed, since his conscience twinged just a bit at having taken her onto the ship against her will. And then he found her crouched in the bathroom, muttering to someone about where they were going and needing help. And something about letting her hair down.
Not that he’d let that distract him.
Although she did have a lovely tail of rich brown hair. Faros wondered if it was as soft as it looked. She really needed to add feathers or bones or something.
She looked for a moment like she’d attack him and charge through the door to freedom, but something changed in her expression and she leaned away with her hands up defensively. Faros’s eyes narrowed as he studied her. Maybe she truly thought him capable of attacking her. He’d done nothing to deserve that kind of reaction, even if he’d thrown a sheet over her head and hauled her out of the jail over his shoulder. Earthers were strange creatures.
Or maybe it was just females who objected to that sort of handling.
Faros relieved her of the communicator and leaned against the doorjamb, studying the lawyer as she glared at him. “Who is giving her such terrible advice?”
“This is First Cultural Attaché Jess Barnes,” another Earther female said, and Faros rolled his eyes.
Of course. She’d called back to the Galaxos and Frrar’s little team of troublemakers. Do-gooders, all of them. Faros reined in his temper and stepped out of the bathroom, gesturing for Violet to get out of the corner. She straightened her shoulders and marched out, as haughty as a queen on coronation day, and muttered, “Don’t tell him anything.”
Faros didn’t wait for the Earther on the other end of the communicator to go on, and spoke over her when she tried to negotiate something. “Once we’ve completed our little mission, I’ll leave our guest somewhere safe and notify the Galaxos of her whereabouts—if no one attempts to interdict me.”
“We can’t control what the rebellion does,” the Earther said. “The Galaxos won’t chase you, but we must remain in contact with Violet, to verify she’s alive and well.”
He laughed. “You’re very bold. And stupid, if you think I’ll fall for that. She’ll contact you when my mission is complete. Do not interfere.”
Before the Earthers could add anything, he ended the transmission and crushed the communicator under his heel. Violet stared at him, her face reddening. “Why did you do that?”
“So you won’t be tempted to call anyone else,” he said. Faros folded his arms over his chest as he watched her, a little impressed. She was more resourceful than he’d expected for such a straitlaced lawyer. “We will come to an understanding, you and I.”
“Or?” she demanded.
Faros didn’t care when people feared him; he relied on it to get his way, most of the time. “I’ll strand you somewhere... uncomfortable, and come back for you later. Or perhaps we’ll forget where we left you.”
Instead of falling in a dead faint, like he’d almost hoped she would, the lawyer clenched her fists and glared more. “Threatening to murder me is even less likely to get my compliance than simply asking nicely for me to be patient and tolerate your criminal enterprises.”
The red in her face fascinated him. The Earthers only turned a few colors, and shades of red seemed to be most of them. Faros wondered how deep the red got—perhaps they turned purple eventually, given enough anger? He couldn’t help but imagine what else would drive the Earther to turn so crimson. “It’s not a threat. It’s a fact, Earther. The mission is more important than any individual.”
“I didn’t want to be on this ship,” she said. Her lips disappeared into a thin line and her cheeks turned the color of the dying suns on Xarav. “I don’t care about your mission. Just let me leave.”
He leaned forward, irritated that she retreated. “You’re not going anywhere.”
“You’re holding me hostage so the rebels won’t destroy your ship? Is that your plan?” Violet’s gaze went to the door behind him, and Faros pushed away the instinct to check his back to make sure no one sneaked up on him. Her voice shook as she went on. “What if they attack you anyway and I end up dead or accused because of you? How could you do that to me? I was trying to help you.”
He steeled himself against the quaver in her voice and a sudden sheen over her wide eyes; the moisture meant more emotions, he knew that much. Faros didn’t have time for coddling a former Fleet officer. She’d dedicated her life and career to serving the bastards who exploited the whole of the universe, and she must have dealt with worse situations.
“As I said, the rebellion leadership isn’t concerned with what I’m doing. But now you’ve got your friends in the mix—so perhaps you ought to consider how you could do that to them. You’ve brought them into a fight they’re not prepared for. That was your choice.”
He didn’t enjoy intimidating females. Getting a reaction out of someone, particularly a former Fleet officer, entertained him in general, but he didn’t get any particular joy out of making females emotional or afraid. There wasn’t any point to it, really.
The one in front of him clenched her jaw until the muscles jumped. “Get out.”
“You can’t order me around on my own ship,” he said. “Arrogant Fleet officer. Remember where you are.”
“How could I possibly forget?” She cast around and picked up the charging stand for the panel. Faros had a split second to wonder what she meant to do with it, then had to duck as the heavy contraption flew at his head. He realized his mistake—she wasn’t upset or sad, she was furious. “How could I forget? Betrayed by the Fleet, chased by brigands, captured by pirates... Thank you for reminding me of my continually decreased circumstances.”
His eyebrows arched as he studied her, startled by her vehemence. “You’re welcome.”
A growl of pure rage escaped between her clenched teeth, going high at the end until she made his ears ache, and Violet snatched up a reference manual from where some fool left it behind. She didn’t just lob the book at him—no, she hurled it like an athlete. The air split next to his head as she almost got him. Faros refused to retreat. It was his ship. A petite Earther with dark eyes wasn’t going to frighten him on his own ship.
Violet clenched her fists at her sides and glared at him with enough energy he assumed he’d burst into flames. But she took a deep, shuddering breath and managed to speak without splitting his brain open from the octaves. “Get. Out. Now.”
Someone spoke from the door. “Boss, got a message for you. From…you know who.”
Faros didn’t bother to look at Wyzak. “On my way.” He sensed his second-in-command’s retreat, and waited for Wyzak’s footsteps to fade before he stepped closer to the Earther and lowered his voice. “Keep your head about you. I thought you had more sense than this.”
“Why would you think that?” Her mouth twisted down with bitterness, an expression she did not wear well. “I went along with defending a pirate in an illegal court. What about that said sense?”
“You’d be surprised,” he said. Faros studied her from head to toe, then jerked his chin at the cupboards in the back of the room. “Clean yourself up and change. Someone will fetch you for dinner.”
Her eyes narrowed and she lurched at him, like she meant to hit him directly, but Faros took the opening to saunter out the door before she could react.
H
e made sure to lock the door and disable the controls on the inside panel, just to make sure she wouldn’t go wandering about the ship snooping. Faros shook his head and turned his attention to more pressing matters, even if the Earther’s fury and flashing eyes distracted him. He had to be at his best, on his toes, to deal with the Tyboli merchant ship fast approaching the Sraibur.
Chapter 6
Violet
Violet wanted to destroy something. She hated crying when she got angry, and her eyes welled up the more the pirate captain spoke and ratcheted up her temper. The barbarian made her incoherent with rage, implying that she’d endangered her friends and the Galaxos by asking for help. He didn’t have to put them in danger. He hadn’t had to kidnap her.
And for him to argue whether it was kidnapping or detainment...
She growled in frustration and whirled in her pacing. She needed Griggs around so they could spar and Violet could work out her anger until exhaustion overtook her. She had no doubt the pirates had a gym or space for strength training, but there was no way the pirates would let her take advantage of it.
The last thing she wanted was to “clean up,” like he’d said, and sit across a table from that asshole to eat dinner. If she had to bear their company during her detainment, then she’d hide in her room as much as possible. Maybe all the pirates weren’t as odious as Faros. She hadn’t had much opportunity to speak to the others, since her defense of Faros took precedence over defending the crew. If the captain was found not guilty, then the crew went free.
She crouched to scoop up the remains of the comms panel, sifting through the pieces to see whether she could patch it back together. Violet didn’t have Rowan’s way with machines, though, and Faros did a fair job at crushing the important components. She gritted her teeth and went back to pacing. She didn’t even have anything to read to pass the time.
An eternity passed before the bells chimed to announce someone outside her door; Violet folded her arms over her chest and glared. Nothing moved. The bells chimed again, and again she waited. She damn well wasn’t going to invite someone into her prison cell. The door finally slid open to reveal Wyzak. The normally impassive Xaravian looked just a touch uncomfortable, his scales tinged with orange. “Dinner.”
“I’m not hungry, thank you,” she said. No reason to be rude before she absolutely had to be. Maybe the second-in-command could help her. Mutiny, while illegal, could be justified in the course of getting rid of a crazy or dangerous captain. She could definitely find the legal defense for it, if she could just get the rest of the crew on her side.
“It’s not a request,” he said. He tilted his head at the door. “Let’s go.”
“I’m not eating dinner with him. I’ll stay here and starve.”
The Xaravian’s eyes narrowed and he made an exasperated noise as his scales rattled. “This is not the hill to die on, Earther.”
“I hardly think—”
“Go eat dinner. He’s in a good mood. He might agree to let you go if you don’t keep throwing temper tantrums.” The pirate’s shoulders bulged as he flexed, then held out his hand to hustle her along. “The alternative is dragging you out of here.”
“Your kind do seem to excel at manhandling people,” Violet said under her breath. She eyed the Xaravian. Could he possibly mean what he said, that Faros was in a good enough mood to release her? Maybe Jess and Griggs had been right; if she flirted a little, even pretended to be interested in his skewed view of the universe, she could gain her release. She steeled herself for an exhausting performance. “Fine. I’ll walk.”
Wyzak didn’t gloat, at least. He didn’t bother to hold her arm or shoulder to prevent her from running, although Violet figured that was more because he knew she couldn’t escape and he had confidence in his own ability to maintain control of the situation. And for the time being, he was right. She accepted that.
There would come a time when she would have the upper hand, and then that casual confidence all the Xaravians radiated would work against them. Just like on the space port, right after they were purchased by the Galaxos, when the whole crew escaped and Isla led the way to safety. Violet clenched her jaw. It was so much easier to be brave and confident when surrounded by friends.
The second-in-command didn’t go far before entering a shared dining room or meeting room, waiting for Violet to go in before following. A round table stood in the center of the room; Faros sat there, frowning at a series of tablets and a projection of a star map over the center of the table. He didn’t look at her as he pointed at one of the other chairs. “Have a seat.”
Violet stuffed down her irritation and calmly drew out the chair on the opposite side of the table. Wyzak flopped into another chair and leaned to retrieve the meal generator from the wall behind him. Violet concentrated on breathing normally and coming up with a plan for how to engage with Faros. It was just another problem to solve. Another twisted legal knot to untangle. Instead of convincing a judge she was correct, she needed to convince the pirate captain he was wrong.
The Xaravian adjusted the star map, his expression serious for the first time she could remember. “How much do you know about the ungoverned space?”
“It’s ungoverned,” she said. “The Alliance doesn’t trouble itself with the ungoverned.”
Faros’s dark eyebrow arched and he shot her a strange look right through the star map. “You’re joking.”
“I never joke.”
Wyzak snorted and she glanced at him, wondering what was so funny. Faros pinched the bridge of his nose and gestured at the map, turning and focusing the center until he found the spot he searched for. “The Alliance does all kind of dirty business out in ungoverned space. The Fleet might not spend all that much time out there, but certain unmarked ships do.”
“If they’re unmarked, how do you know they belong to the Alliance?”
The corner of his mouth tilted up. “We have ways. Different signatures, comms signals, the structure of the ships and their speed, defensive systems, what missions they take on... Only the Alliance goes to those lengths to conceal their hand in such nefarious dealings. The rest of us just accept it and do what we must to preserve a veneer of respectability.”
“Is that what this is?” Violet folded her arms over her chest and leaned back in her chair. “Respectability?”
“You don’t know the half of it,” he said. He smiled, apparently pleased, and dismissed the star map so nothing cluttered the air over the table. “If I were a true pirate, I’d have put you in something slinky and left you chained up in my quarters to take advantage of.”
She scowled, even though her guts tightened in alarm. She’d wondered if that was part of his plan, if that fate awaited her.
Before she could come up with an appropriately scathing response, Faros went on. “But instead, you’re an honored guest at my table, enjoying the fruits of our labors, and traveling in style.”
In style? She resisted the urge to insult his ship, even though it far outstripped the Galaxos in comfort and modernity, and instead searched for something that came close to flirtation or at least didn’t cross to outright hostility. “An honored guest. I’ve never been one of those before.”
“I find that hard to believe,” Faros said. He glanced over as Wyzak loaded trays filled with smelly Xaravian food onto the table. “What with your sparkling personality and quick wit.”
Violet gripped the arms of her chair. Jess should have known that pretending to flirt with the pirate was impossible. She abandoned that idea relatively quickly, since it seemed destined to fail regardless of what she tried, and instead relied on her legal training. She just had to sort out what Faros thought he was getting out of the situation, line that up against what she wanted to happen, and figure out the best way to bring those two positions together.
Easy.
Chapter 7
Faros
Faros didn’t enjoy dealing with the Tyboli. Merchants focused on payouts, on buying low and selling high
, regardless of what the cargo was. At least he and his crew had bigger objectives than just profit.
He put the Tyboli out of his head as he reached for the food. They’d settle the debt, pick up the cargo, and get on with their lives out in the ungoverned space. When the heat died down and the rebellion forgot about his little escape, he’d arrange to pick his son up from his brother. They’d have their adventures, the two of them together, and Faros wouldn’t have to worry about dealing with the rebellion, the Fleet, the Alliance bastards, or females like the prickly Earther lawyer.
Her nose wrinkled as she picked at the Xaravian delicacies that Wyzak ordered up. Faros studied her while she wasn’t paying attention. The Earther had made an effort earlier to be less prickly, almost conversational, but that seemed to have faded. Took too much energy to maintain, he assumed.
The spicy red paste burned his mouth and cleared his sinuses, reminding him of home and his mate’s cooking, and melancholy nearly swallowed him whole. He didn’t miss many things about Xarav, but the food was definitely one of them. It never tasted the same, no matter where they found it in the universe. Unless his mother’s or mate’s hands prepared it... it just wasn’t the same.
“How long will we be in ungoverned space?”
Faros glanced up at the lawyer’s soft question. She watched him with clear, dark eyes, very little on her face to reveal what she was thinking. He drummed his fingers on the table and debated how much to tell her. He had no delusions that she’d decided to cooperate and cease her escape attempts. A female like that wouldn’t give up so easily. He just wished she had scales that changed color to give him a clue about her mood. “As long as it takes to finalize a little transaction. I need you to review a contract.”
He didn’t, not really. He already knew the contract was airtight, since the Tyboli were not known for allowing trading partners any escape from their exorbitant rates. He much preferred dealing with the kind of people who didn’t want anything written down or recorded or otherwise preserved. Plausible deniability was the name of the game. But maybe if he gave the Earther something to do, a small task like reviewing the impossible contract, it could distract her and keep her out of his way until he decided what to do with her.