Page 39 of The Only Way Out Is Up
“Turn around slowly,” Ky says, striding forward.
Weslai rotates in place with arms stiff at his sides, like a mannequin on a turntable. His face is badly savaged by acne scars, and the thin blond mustache clinging to his upper lip does him no favors. His eyes widen at the sight of us, and he puts on the least sincere smile I’ve ever seen.
“Kyyyyyy,” he says.
“Hi, Weslai,” she replies.
“So good of you to, um, break into my home. How have you been?”
“Not so great. Hold very still, will you?”
His eyes flick down to Star’s blade. “I wasn’t planning on—”
Ky punches him in the jaw, snapping his head back and sending him staggering against the crates. Before he can recover, she slams one booted foot up between his legs with a force that makes me wince. Weslai collapses to his knees, keening, both hands clutching his groin. Ky kneels to bring her face level with his.
“You remember the deal you set up for me, Weslai?”
“The… the marriage thing.” His voice is squeaky and tears run freely from his eyes. “Something went wrong?”
“You might say that. Have you ever met Pader Cavcante?”
The fixer shakes his head, very carefully. “No,” he squeaks. “I hear he’s a prick.”
“You weren’t going to mention that to me?”
“His father said—”
“It was just going to be a convenient alliance, right. But as soon as we were behind closed doors, Pader got all rapey.”
“Oh. Shit.” Weslai seems to want to look anywhere but into Ky’s eyes. “Are you, um, okay?”
“Thanks to Taj and his little friend, I’m only lightly strangled. He did to Pader what he’ll do to you, if I don’t like your answers.”
“Shit. He’s dead?”
“I spent most of an hour washing his arterial spray out of my hair. Yeah, he’s dead.”
“Shit. That’s… um. Are you going to kill me?”
Ky stares at him for a long moment, then heaves a sigh.
“No,” she says, sounding disappointed. “I still need your help. But you owe me big-time, Weslai, and I don’t want you to forget it.”
“Um, understood.” He lets go of his injured crotch and raises a hand to point to Star. “Can you get this thing off me?”
Ky shoots me a look. I pass an instruction to Star, and he pulls his blade away and jumps to the floor.
[Advice: tell her to warn me next time before she punches someone. I nearly slit his throat by accident.]
Noted.
Weslai takes a deep breath and slowly works his way back to his feet. When Ky approaches, he flinches, but she only pokes him in the chest.
“We have a new plan. Or, rather, a new version of the backup plan.”
“The backup—you mean the Ascent? I thought that was a joke!”
“Do I look like I’m joking?” Ky snaps.
