Page 34 of Dustwalker

“So, you’re just leaving me here. Alone.”

“Would you prefer I take you to the market, where all the humans and bots will see the two of us together?”

The displeasure in her expression deepened. “Will I be safe here?”

“Yes. There’s a lock on the door.”

She laughed. It was a strange sound to Ronin, akin to a word in an unfamiliar language. He understood only that it was devoid of humor. What would her laughter sound like when she was genuinely amused?

“I’m sure that’ll do wonders to keep bots out,” she said.

“Most of them, yes.”

“But not all.”

“You walked into this part of town with me, Lara Brooks.”

“You can drop the Brooks. That’s not how humans refer to each other.”

“I’m not human. Am I now expected to conform to your norms?”

“Sarcasm from a bot? Just when I thought I’d hit rock bottom…”

“My point, unless you plan to go on another tangent, is that you saw what this area looks like when you came in. Do you really think I have anything in here that a bot can’t get elsewhere? There’s no reason for anyone to come in.”

“Guess this pit’s even lower than I thought.”

Ronin narrowed his gaze, studying her face. There’d been a subtle change in her expression—more light in her eyes, a slight tick of her jaw. Small differences, but they didn’t strike him as good.

“You’re offended,” he said.

“I am not,” she replied quickly. Too quickly.

“I’m afraid I don’t understand what I said to upset you.”

“You’re afraid? There you go again, using words you don’t mean.”

Once again, her tone suggested an intent to insult him. He reviewed their conversation, analyzing every word, hoping to determine whathad provoked Lara’s reaction, but he found no answer. “Explain it to me.”

“I’m not some meatbag, bot-banging whore!” She hopped off the table and approached him, bare feet slapping the floor.

“No touching,” he said carefully. “That was the agreement.”

“As if I’d willingly touch you.” She stalked past him toward the stairs.

Information blazed across his processors, threatening to blow a circuit. There had to be a reason. He’d said something wrong, but what? Had he simply underestimated the complexity of humans and their emotions?

And yet…her anger had sparked something inside him. Something hot, akin to the impatience he’d experienced with the gearheads earlier. No, impatience wasn’t correct, he knew that much, but he could get no closer to understanding it.

He strode after her, his boots far louder on the floorboards than her feet, catching up as she reached the bottom step. “You do notget to say things like that to me and then walk away.”

Lara paused with a hand on the railing and twisted to look at him, her expression hard. “I’m not walking. I’mstorming.” As though to prove it, she continued up the stairs, stomping her feet. “See? I said what I meant, and I’m doing it!”

Ronin followed, despite a brief risk assessment warning of a chance of receiving further damage in the process. Humans were volatile, and Lara took the term to a new level. An electric tingle arced across his palm. An impulse, perhaps due to damaged coding deep in his operating system, to reach out and grab her arm. To force her to stop and talk.

That would guarantee an unfavorable ending to the confrontation.

The heat in his mind faded. This situation was beyond his ability to comprehend, enough so that it was almost amusing. It had to be the result of a simple miscommunication. He’d failed to say precisely what he’d meant, she’d interpreted his words in an unintended fashion, and it had escalated into this.