Page 10 of Smuggler's Beauty

When she couldn’t eat another bite, she set down her fork. She wiped her mouth with a napkin and turned to look at Aiden. He was pushing around a bowtie in his bowl, pretending to eat.

“I think I’ve been a pretty good sport about all of this, but I think I’d like to know why I’m here now, Aiden.”

The conversation came to a grinding halt for a second time that night.

“Join the club,” Nannette said.

“Okay, cards on the table,” Aiden said. He set down his fork and proceeded to tell her about the woman who’d hired him, the job he was supposed to be on, and the trip through the facility that led him to her pod chamber. Cairn threw in the odd editorial comment, having seen everything through Aiden’s glasses.

“And then I woke up,” Evelyn said. She didn’t need everyone at the table to know she’d been woken up by a kiss from a stranger.

“And then you woke up,” Aiden agreed, obviously relieved.

“Yep. You sure did.” Cairn grinned. Evelyn arched her eyebrow at him and he winked at her. She was surprised he hadn’t taken the chance to needle Aiden again.

Interesting.

“It seemed, to say the least, hinky,” Aiden said. “The overprotective droid squadron that tried to subdue us on the way out also seemed off. So my question for you, Evelyn Alpertti, is who the hell are you, and why were you in that stasis chamber?”

Nannette gasped, wide eyes turning to Evelyn. “Alpertti? Princess Evelyn Alpertti? Of Tanalia?”

“You’ve heard of me?” Evelyn huffed a bitter little laugh. “That’s a first.”

CHAPTER FIVE

Princess.What the ever-loving fuck had Vinnie gotten them into? Aiden started cataloging the possible repercussions of his ill-planned rescue mission as the rest of the crew made little noises that signaled their disbelief, or in some cases, history nerd boners.

“Well, I can see at least one of you keeps current with galactic affairs,” Evelyn said, the bitterness in her words barely tempered by the sarcasm in her tone. “Although I suppose it’s galactic history, now, and I’m required reading. Where are you from anyway, Aiden?”

“Earth. Other side of the Milky Way from where we found you.”

“I should have known! No one does red sauce like Earthlings. You know, some planets never developed alliums and their ideas about red sauce are horrific. You never want to eat pasta cooked by someone from —”

“Proxima Centauri!” Nannette finished the sentence with Evelyn.

Evelyn nodded and grimaced. “Repulsive. The last time I was on Earth, you hadn’t discovered interstellar travel yet. I had to get special permission to work on my thesis and everything.”

“We cracked the tech about eighty-five years ago. Got the visit from the Galactic Planetary Collective about a month later and joined within the year,” Lillian said. “From what I understand, it was a very exciting time. My mother had scads of saved news clippings from the induction.”

“You were on Earth working on a thesis?” Aiden asked, trying to refocus the crew. Red sauce and news clippings were all well and good, but he needed information. In a few days’ time, and what Evelyn told them may well decide if they were going to show up at all. The more he could figure out about Vinnie’s intentions, the better.

“Sure was. Earth not only has the best red sauce, but in my opinion, the best storytellers. I was studying pulp literature in pre-interstellar societies. Everything was going swimmingly, and then I started to get very troubling messages from home. Which is how I wound up in that damn pod.” Evelyn sighed and raked a hand through her hair. “You have to understand, I’m the third child. You know the phrase an heir and a spare? I’m the spare spare. I was never groomed to do anything important in regard to the affairs of state. Honestly, I’m super lucky. I saw the toll being the next in line took on my older sister.”

Nannette’s grip on her coffee mug tightened ever so slightly. Aiden knew she was far too familiar with the sort of pressure Evelyn was talking about.

“I basically got to be a very well-funded academic. I got to immerse myself in the culture I was studying. But then Aunt Corrie started sending me these messages. . . Tanalia was part of a small interplanetary alliance that formed before the GPC came to power. As such, our formal treaties were still in effect with the other sister planets in the system.” She closed her eyes for amoment, and Aiden could see her going back in time, memories flooding her mind and drowning the joy in her eyes with sorrow when she opened them again.

She sipped her tea and took a fortifying breath. “Tanalians were some of the first documented humanoids to develop extrasensory abilities. My family has a rare secondary ability that set us apart from the majority of the planet. We’re what are called Amplifiers. That’s how we wound up as monarchs.

“There was a fair bit of intermarriage with a lot of our sister planets among my cousins’ families, and as a result, the trait has popped up on their planets as well. The only planet in the sister system that one of us never wound up on is called Bauder.”

Nannette made a noise of disgust. Aiden watched Evelyn turn to Nannette and give her a quick once over.

“You seem a lot more well informed than the rest of the crew,” Evelyn said.

“I’m from Cygnus Colony,” Nannette said. “We take galactic history very seriously. They haven’t quite figured out how to impart its importance on Earth yet.”

“We’re slow learners, but excellent cooks,” Aiden said. Nannette smiled into her coffee mug. Aiden turned back to Evelyn. “I take it Bauder didn’t like being left out of the genetic lottery?”