Page 76 of Smuggler's Beauty

He terminated the comm. Pearl cringed as the screen blinked out, and she let out the breath she’d been holding. Tension ebbed from her shoulders, only to be replaced by nagging doubt. Contacting theDawnhad been more difficult for her than she thought it would be.

She’d have to have half a bottle of tequila in her to callhim.

Pearl knew that from experience.

Tequila had been banned from their transport.

“That sounded awkward,” Ivan said. “But you did manage to stretch it out long enough for the tracer bug to activate. We should have a location within the hour.”

She turned around in her desk chair to see Ivan tapping at the controls of his data unit. He finished his command and leaned back in his chair to peel an apple with the knife he was never without, a butterfly blade he flicked through his fingers when he was thinking through how best to hack difficult computer systems. She’d given it to him with the earnings they’d made from their first off-planet gig for Anika. The sentimental attachment would have shocked anyone else had they known about it. Ivan had gone to great pains to eradicate any semblance of his own humanity from the public record.

She shook her head and refocused on the task at hand. “I shouldn’t have called Tariel. He could tell I was full of shit. Nannette would have just screamed at me,” she said.

Ivan shrugged and kept working the peel off the fruit. “So he knows you lied. It’s part of your job description more often than not. The more interesting thing to consider is, did he lie back?”

Pearl leaned back in her chair and kicked her feet up onto the desk as she ran through the various tells Tariel had. He’d displayed none during their call. Her hands cupped the back of her neck as she stretched.

“He did not,” she said. “But he did get off the call as quickly as he could without avoiding answering at all.”

“We have to call this in.”

“To the client? Or the boss?” Pearl nudged an empty mug on her desk with the toe of her boot. It almost toppled over before she removed her foot. She did it again. Focusing on little things rather than the way that little comm call had just compounded the worst regret of her life was the only thing that would keep her sane. It was a lot of pressure to put on a mug.

“You know Anika doesn’t care about progress reports. Just progress.”

“We should wait until the trace comes back. Hell, we should wait until we find them.”

“Agreed. But it’ll still have to be reported.” Ivan finished cutting up his apple. He closed the knife with a complicated flourish Pearl couldn’t have managed without cutting off a fingertip. She was more accomplished with blasters than blades. Distance made the job easier for her. It made it less fun for Ivan.

“I just really hate this guy. He’s so smarmy.” The mug finally toppled over. Pearl removed her feet from the desk and righted it.

“I like the way he twitches when I stare at him.”

Pearl snorted. “You would. You can call him, then.”

Ivan tilted his head to the side, considered. “I don’t like it that much.”

Pearl shook her head as she realized he was trying to back out of their deal. She rose from her chair and walked the few paces to Ivan. “We can’t settle everything like this. It’s not sustainable.”

“Bullshit. You just don’t like your average.”

“That’s a factor in the sustainability of the practice.”

They both made fists, then bounced their fist on their flat hand three times.

“Rock, paper, scissors, shoot!”

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

To Aiden’s surprise,Tariel led him and Mathias out of the supply cabinet to the kitchen. He was more surprised when the rest of the crew was already seated around the table.

“That must have been some comm call,” he said, pulling out a chair and gesturing to Mathias to take the seat next to him. It was the one directly across from Nannette. Aiden watched Mathias hesitate for a split second before he pulled out the chair. The man flashed Nannette a grin that would have given Aiden butterflies before he’d met Evelyn.

Nannette flicked her eyes up and down Mathias’s body and returned her attention to what Lillian was doing at the head of the table. Her face remained as expressionless as a mannequin.

Ouch.

Tariel pulled out a chair on the other side of Aiden. He sat down in it more forcefully than Aiden had expected him to. Tariel was one of the most controlled men he knew. He did not flop into kitchen chairs in frustration, and never in front of an outsider.