Page 91 of Smuggler's Beauty

They wouldn’t have gotten out of this alive without her.

Again.

Nannette came up behind him and poked him in the shoulder. “Blaster. Gimme.”

Aiden reached under Evelyn’s cardigan and retrieved the blaster, grateful Nannette liked him enough to ensure he didn’t accidentally slap at her. She’d put him on his ass on principle. He passed her the blaster over his shoulder, unwilling to remove his gaze from Evelyn’s sleeping form.

“Did you two finally bang?”

He jerked his hand away from Evelyn’s sleeping body and turned to Nannette in shock at the wildly inappropriate comment.

“Wow, that wasn’t invasive at all,” Aiden said. He had been too startled to deflect well, and he knew it.

“Okay, Mr. ‘Evelyn is mine,’” she said, snorting. “I just wanted to know if you were posturing or not.”

“We got a good night’s sleep,” he said, unable to keep the smirk off his face.

“Mmmhmm. Kay. And sleep is why you were creeping around with boxes going in and out of the guest suite all morning?” Nannette tucked the blaster into a carrying case.

“We need to get you a new hobby. Watching the ship’s security cameras can’t be emotionally fulfilling. Maybe you should take up crochet.”

“You absolute dumbass. I have a security alert set on her quarters because she’s a fucking target.” Nannette pointed to the view screen. “Exhibit A. Unlikesome people, I take the ship’s security seriously.” She glared over her shoulder at Tariel, who looked appropriately chagrined. He was handing his communicator to Lillian to update the settings, nodding as she gave him a lecture on the importance of cybersecurity. All things considered, Aiden felt sorry for him. He never wanted to piss off both his moms and Nannette on the same day.

He wouldn’t be able to sleep with both eyes closed for at least a month if he did.

“The taste of my foot in my mouth never gets better,” Aiden said, raking his hands over his face. “I’m going with the whole ‘actions speak louder than words’ thing.”

“Good luck with that. Maybe you’ll stop mooning at each other longingly across rooms if you’re ‘getting a good night’s sleep’ on a regular basis.”

Mathias snorted. They both turned to glare at him. He pretended to fiddle with his communicator. Aiden thought he heard him mutter “unlikely” under his breath. He chose to ignore it.

Veselko had rounded up the rest of the stray blasters and presented the cases to Nannette. “Is that code? Did they finally do it?”

The volume his friend considered appropriate for a conspiratorial whisper was about three decibels louder than anyone else would attempt. Aiden wished fervently for a wormhole to open up in the floor. He could drag Evelyn into it, and they could disappear into a quiet, peaceful existence devoid of meddling friends and pesky revolutionaries.

He was torn from this fantasy by an anguished cry he heard coming from the lobby.

“Ah,” Veronique said. “Cairn’s seen the plants.” She handed Aiden the scanner and left to sort out her husband.

Aiden shoved the scanner into his pocket and elevated Evelyn into his arms, using the barest hint of his telekinesis to avoid jostling her. He was still bristling with the effects of her Amplification, though he’d used the majority of it to stop the Twins. The blood had stopped dripping from his ear, but the blow he’d taken on the back of his head still throbbed.

He strode down to the lobby, taking measured, gentle steps to avoid waking her. Aiden didn’t really think anything short of a defibrillator would rouse her right now, but he didn’t want to be the one to keep her from getting the rest she needed to recuperate. As he entered the lobby, his steps faltered, and Nannette almost ran into him as she followed him off the bridge.

Cairn’s beautiful botanical paradise was a shriveled, dry imitation of the wonder it had once been. It was now a massive display of kindling. Cairn stood in the center of the destruction,turning in a sad, slow circle. Veronique was patting his shoulder and murmuring reassurances in his ear.

“You’ve wanted to diversify the species in the lobby for months,cher. We can make a list.”

Nannette sidestepped him and let out an appreciative whistle. “Hot damn. That is one crispy ass pile of leaves.”

“No wonder she’s out cold,” Aiden said. He nodded at the ex-plants. “This had to be a hell of a lot more energy than the electronics she was messing with.”

It was the first tangible example they had seen of the destruction Evelyn could wreak if she wanted to. The fear of her ability to siphon that had been drilled into her made a little more sense to Aiden as he took in the display of her power. He still disagreed with the way her family had decided to handle her abilities, but he understood the knee-jerk impulse now. Power this strongwassomething to be feared, especially in the wrong hands.

A trickle of fear ran down his spine as he thought of Emil learning Evelyn’s true potential, a weapon more powerful than any he had hoped she could Amplify into existence for him.

CHAPTER FORTY-THREE

The ship stopped spinning longbefore Pearl’s stomach caught up to the stillness. Feeling the ship lurch out of its steady trek was one thing, but being an unwilling participant in its impression of a giant top was not an experience she wanted to repeat.