“It was actually after. Or maybe it started then. I’m not sure.” She shrugged. “I must like the tortured, unattainable type.”
I squeezed our linked arms and bumped her hip again. The others were almost within earshot, so I lowered my voice. “I think you like the kind, capable, desperately-needs-you type.”
Her eyes brimmed with tears. She slammed her lids shut. “Shit. What’s wrong with me?”
I stared at her in shock. Fiona. Did. Not. Cry.
She turned, hiding her face, and I jumped forward to intercept the others. I said something inane to Shade, which I didn’t remember two seconds later, and then dove into Jax’s cooler to slow him down. I rummaged for a food I recognized. “Oh! Melon! Excellent!” Triumphant, I held up the green and yellow ball as though it contained the keys to the universe.
Everyone looked at me as if I’d lost my marbles. Fiona cracked up behind me, which was all I needed. My mission accomplished, I slipped the hard-coated fruit back into Jax’s container, careful not to bruise it.
Once they got over my fruitastic outburst, the group’s attention inevitably turned to the stranger among us. Whisking out a hand, I introduced the tall, sure-footed woman carrying the final stash of complimentary goodies from the bungalow. “This is Sanaa Mwende. She’s General Bridgebane’s personal bodyguard.”
Jax whirled on Sanaa with a scowl. “What the hell is she doing here?”
“How did this happen?” Fiona’s question was more reasonable, although her eyes shot daggers that would rival the lieutenant’s hidden arsenal.
Merrick set down his food cargo, instantly fighting ready.
“We ended up on Reaginine and ran into my uncle.” We’d already warned Sanaa that the crew didn’t know about the blood exchange. They only knew that Bridgebane hadn’t harmed me on Starway 8 and that he seemed to want to protect me from the Overseer. “It went surprisingly well, all things considered.”
Protests erupted, almost deafening as they echoed around the hangar only we occupied. I held up a hand for quiet. “Not only did he agree to drop the bounty on Shade, but he’s trying to get us information about Shiori.”
Jax whirled on me now, his eyes widening. “Where is she?”
“Starbase 12.” The significance wouldn’t be lost on any of them. Reena Ahern. Shiori. We had two prisoners in one location.
“Is she okay?” Fiona asked.
“He didn’t indicate that anyone had harmed her.” She’d harmed herself. I just couldn’t bring myself to say it.
Fiona’s eyes zeroed in on Shade’s bruises. “If it went so well with Bridgebane, what happened to your face?” The med wipe had cleared up a lot of the damage, but it was no miracle sick-bay laser.
“It ran into a bounty hunter’s fist.” Shade lightly touched the still darkened skin beneath his left eye. The swelling was a quarter of what it had been. “The other guy looks worse.”
Jax looked more freaked out by the second. He eyed Sanaa suspiciously. “But you just said he dropped the bounty. What happened?”
“Ambush,” Shade answered. “And then Tess found a way for two shitheads to leave us alone forever.”
“Did you kill them?” Fiona asked me.
“What? No.” I frowned, taken aback. “Not necessary.” She and I had different viewpoints when it came to fighting off enemies. My conscience wouldn’t stop me from killing if it was the only way to defend myself or the people I cared about, but I couldn’t do it with unapologetic flair like Fiona did. “We gave them something they needed in exchange for them forgetting all about us.”
“Something they needed?” Merrick questioned, scrutinizing Sanaa as though she were a ticking bomb he might need to defuse in a hurry.
Sanaa lifted her brows, meeting his mistrustful inspection head-on. Merrick’s eyes narrowed.
“A special newfangled ‘cure-all’ for their dying daughter,” I answered.
Everyone knew that was code language for my blood, although there wasn’t a single person here who didn’t already know about my A1 anomalies.
“Since my uncle is suddenly all about helping me—he covered our butts on Korabon, by the way, and passed that whole battle off as a surprise training exercise—he decided to get over Shade betraying him to protect me and dropped the ridiculously huge bounty. Now, his hunters can go after some other prize, and we can concentrate on what we need to do.” In other words: breaking into the most secure location in the galaxy.
Fiona swung a probing look at me before her focus shifted to Sanaa, whose ability to remain expressionless when she chose to almost rivaled my uncle’s. “Did he erase footage? That Red Beam caught all our faces.”
“I think so.” I glanced at the person who would know for sure. “Sanaa?”
She nodded in confirmation.
“Why would he give you information on Shiori?” Merrick asked, seeming more skeptical of my uncle’s motives than of the actual intel he’d provided.
It was a reasonable question, and perfectly reasonable to doubt. “Because I asked him to.”
Merrick shook his head, his dark eyes hardening. “That’s too simple. It makes no sense. Even if he helped you a few times, why would you believe anything he says?” He glared at Sanaa, clearly lumping her into the untrustworthy category.
I didn’t take his hesitation lightly. I understood it all too well, in fact. But when I reached deep down, examining both my heart and my mind as well as my gut instinct, everything in me clamored that there was a lot more to my uncle than I’d wanted to believe in a very long time. That growing conviction made me speak freely in front of Sanaa.
“I don’t think Uncle Nate is loyal to the Overseer. I think he’s been walking a tightrope for years, making choices that no one should ever have to face.” Emotion and a good bit of hesitation roughened my voice. Was I really ready to shift my thinking this drastically? “I’m starting to think he might be the only thing standing between a madman and the entire galaxy.”
“Finally, Daraja sees.” Sanaa Mwende looked at me in satisfaction, dropping the impassive mask to look smugly pleased.
“Yes, well, unfortunately for you, you won’t have the pleasure of pinning my eyelids back,” I said dryly.
She grinned, displaying a row of even white teeth except for one eyetooth that twisted a little.
“None of this explains her presence.” Jax looked at Sanaa, still wary but less hostile.
I’d been dreading this moment and now felt slightly headachy after a fitful night’s sleep and the accumulation of enough confusion, anxiety, and heartache to almost rival Jax’s emotional baggage. “If Bridgebane gets any info that might help us retrieve Shiori, he’s going to leave it in a secure location four days from now. He wouldn’t tell me where. Sanaa’s supposed to take me there.”