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Then, she boops my nose and leaves the room.47JERROKThe male in Bethiah's hold glares at me while I wait for my cousin to return to the ship she's stolen.
"I'll pay you handsomely," the male grates out. "Just let me free and help me take control of my ship once more."
I say nothing. Truth is, I'm irked that Bethiah has a prisoner in her hold and didn't tell me. What if Sophie had come up here? What if this male grabbed at her or made her scared? The thought pisses me off. Worse than that, he now knows my location, so something's going to have to be done about that.
Damn it all, Bethiah knows better than this.
"My name is Jamef sa Raan," the male states. "Guild bounty hunter. I can pay you handsomely—"
I can't help but notice that he's got rough prosthetics himself. Sa Raan is not a strong family name. "Were you on Thresh III?" I ask, nodding at his limbs.
"Two," the male says flatly. "Three years of siege only to end up like this." He gestures at his body, at his bright red cybernetic eye. "But that's in the past."
"So it is." Except I keep trying to leave it there and the universe keeps reminding me of it.
My cousin bounds into the ship, breathless, and then glances over at Jamef. She smirks at him and then leans against the wall, beaming at me. "So, do you think you can fix this old beast up? Disguise her? Maybe strip off the markings?" Bethiah gives me a keen look. "It's got a secondary dark-matter drive as a back-up that you can tear out and keep if you're so interested."
The male in the hold—Jamef—growls low. "You're not stripping my ship."
"No one's talking to you," I mutter, and grab Bethiah by the arm, hauling her away from the caged male. "Cousin, do you want to tell me why you're keeping another bounty hunter captive?"
She leans in toward me. "No."
"Let me rephrase that. You need to tell me why you've got a captive."
Bethiah grins. "It's called flirting."
I bite back a groan. Bethiah has been—and always will be—completely impossible. "Does he know that's what it is?"
"He'll figure it out eventually. So, do you think you can help me disguise this ship?" Her tone is airy and light as she slings an arm around my shoulders. "It'll mean staying here for a few days, but I'm sure you and your friend Softie won't mind—"
"You came here to snoop on us, didn't you?"
"Me?" She feigns incredulity, and then ruins it with a grin. "Maybe. Are you two keffing yet?"
"None of your business." This is why I like living alone. I move out from under her arm and head toward the bridge of the small ship. It's well-kept for all that the owner looks to have parts as low-rent as my own prosthetics. He must sink all his credits into this ship. A secondary dark-matter drive is pricey, and his nav set-up looks to be state-of-the-art. No wonder Bethiah stole this ship instead of just re-selling it to someone else. "What are you going to do with your prisoner?"
"He's playing hard to get right now, and don't change the subject." Bethiah thumps into the seat across from me and leans over the nav panel, her chin resting on her folded arms. "Do you need to know where the human clit is? I can instruct you. Heck, I can even join you two in bed and show you the ropes. I promise not to make it weird."
My cousin volunteering to show me how to pleasure my mate? It's already weird. But she knows that, and it's just more of Bethiah's antics. "Pass, but thanks."
"So you do know where the clit is. Hmm. Very interesting." Her eyes narrow. "This makes me happy, cousin."
If the “clit” is that little bud that Sophie touches when she comes, yeah, I do know where it is and what it does. My neck gets hot at Bethiah's praise. "She's just visiting, don't get your keffing hopes up."
"Just visiting your bed, you mean?"
"No, I mean she's leaving when the va Sithai return."
Her eyes widen. "Oh." Her voice drops in a whisper. "Should I make sure that they don't return? They're friends, but you're family, Jerrok. I can take them out for you."
"Don't take out anyone, Bethiah," I say tiredly. The last thing I want is to destroy people I consider friends simply so Sophie has nowhere else to go. If she wants to stay, it needs to be her choice, not mine, otherwise I'm no better than her first captor. "You can't go around killing everyone that gets in your way."
"Do you even know what a bounty hunter does for a living?" She scoffs. "But fine, you play around with little Softie, diddle each other until they come back…and then what? You're just going to wave goodbye and let them go?"
