Page 91 of Tempting Cargo

The ydouir didn’t ask for extra detail, just fixed us with a long stare before responding. “Let me be entirely sure I understand. If your business is unsuccessful, I might be stranded on a hostile planet with no clear means to escape?”

Shohari growled. “That is what I said. May I remind you, I didn’t ask you to be here. This is a trading vessel with its own itinerary.”

“And I expect a trading vessel’s itinerary to involve trading, not warfare. Or is that an unreasonable assumption?”

“Does it matter if you’ve vowed a lifedebt?”

“Enough.” Tokki rose to stand. “This is a rescue mission, and unless you want to put down on the nearest station and find your own way to your contact, you can shut up, or you can help us.”

Coerril looked down her nose, her tail flicking towards him. “I will not interfere in the business of a proscribed planet. Not even for a lifedebt.”

“Do I look like I’m from a proscribed planet?” Tokki said. “This is not an internal matter. We are rescuing one of ourpeople, and we are doing it as soon as possible. And we arenotgoing to fail.”

The hope on Shohari’s face was fleeting, but it was there, and I squeezed her hand again.

“I need to send a comm.” Coerril’s voice was cold. “May I connect to your ship’s system?”

Shohari stiffened. “Absolutely not.”

“You have mission-critical information,” Tokki said. “We can’t afford for you to leak anything.”

“You should have thought of that before telling me.”

“You didn’t give us much choice.”

“Out!” Shohari’s shout left my ears ringing. “Everybody get out.”

Beyond the anger and the power in her voice, I was sure no-one else would detect her vulnerability, but it was all I could hear. I yearned to hold her, to support her, to reassure her.

She dropped my hand and stared at a spot on the wall. “Everybody. Please.”

My gut twisted. Along with the others, I headed to the door, but before I went through it, I stopped.

I backtracked to the drinks machine. She didn’t say anything, and neither did I while it whistled and rumbled, but I left the mug of chrya in her hands, brushing a kiss on the top of her head, in that dip before the ridges grew into headspines, the one that made her shiver.

Damn keeping my distance, at least for this moment. “I’ll be in bed. Don’t sit here stewing too long, sweetheart.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

Dangerous cargo

Shohari

I STARED atthe galley walls for an hour. When I remembered the half finished chrya in my hands, it was already cold.

Why was this so skykking hard? We were supposed to have a perfect plan, execute it, and win. Not race halfway across the quadrant with argumentative, unasked-for companions and a beautiful, maddeningly sweet distraction.

Skykking ydouir. Who did she think she was?

I could hear her loitering in the corridor leading to the cargo bay, waiting to sleep on my sofa, no doubt.

But mostly I thought about Garrison and how his future rode on this just as much as mine. Coerril’s stark observation hit home for me what the stakes were. I’d been focused on the threat of Rokharu, but my companions? They were risking their lives, and they wouldn’t do that if they didn’t think we could win.

Or if they didn’t care about me.

I wasn’t used to it. To people caring about me. I’d been trained as a trader, used as a pawn, obeyed as a captain, but this? This was… something.

A puff of vented air tickled my headspines, and I pushed up off the sofa, needing the cold metal of theDorimisaunder my feet.