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Chapter Eight
Adreax
“Stupid woman,” I muttered under my breath.
“I told you it wasn’t worth our time,” Herod repeated.
“I don’t remember asking you. Just take these and put them to good use.”
I shoved the stolen instruments into Herod’s hands and brushed past him, headed for my bunk.
“What the hell do you want me to do with this junk? We need parts for our ship, Adreax, not just some odds and ends you swiped.”
I could hear the exasperation in his voice, and my patience was wearing thin. I turned on him, coming to stand face to face with him.
“I’m still waiting for a better idea from you,” I challenged, staring him down.
“A better idea? I’ll give you a better idea. We take their damned ship.”
He dropped the instruments into the dust and laid a hand on my shoulder.
“Think about it, Adreax. There’s nothing to stop us. They wouldn’t stand a chance against the two of us.”
I balked at the idea. It felt risky. Too risky. We didn’t know enough about the humans or their ship to guarantee we could make it safely away from here. But, then again, staying here wasn’t a good option either.
“Fine. We can take their ship, but we still have a few things to do before we go. First, we need to make sure we get all of the goods from our ship onto their ship. No sense in running if we can’t take the delivery with us. Second, we need to destroy our ship.”
“Destroy our ship?” Herod’s face blanched. We were both feeling the sorrow of letting something so personal go.
“Can’t risk someone finding it and tracking us down later. Our whole lives are tied to her. She’ll have to be destroyed before we go.”
Herod set his jaw and nodded. “You’re right. So how do we do it?”
I threw an arm around Herod’s shoulder and led him into the Greedy She-Devil. If we were going to make this work, we needed to do a thorough job of it, and there was no sense in wasting time.
#
“What do you want now?” Alec called, coming out to meet me before I reached the perimeter of their camp. There was no mistaking the violent look in his eyes, although I was not at all threatened by him.
“I-uh… I want to make an apology. For earlier.”
Alec turned and whistled, a shrill noise that caught Tayla’s attention. I saw her head perk up from behind the table, and my heart sank. Had she been sitting there since I stormed out of the camp? Even at this distance I could see the raw fury in her face.
“You!” She screamed, getting to her feet and charging at me. “You ruined everything! How dare you?”
I took a step back, shocked by the ferocity of her words. I had expected her to be sad, or perhaps annoyed. I had hoped to apologize and earn some good will.
“I’m sorry—” I started.
“You better be,” she snapped.
I gave her a moment, expecting more attacks, but when she stood across from me silently fuming, I began again.
“I came to apologize. I was not on my best behavior earlier, and I dishonored you. As the captain of my ship, I am supposed to set the example for my crew, and I’m afraid I didn’t do a very good job of that, either. I would like to apologize on behalf of Herod as well.”
Tayla’s eyes narrowed, and her face turned from rage to a mere scowl. Was that progress? I hoped so.
“And what am I supposed to do now? Without that equipment, I can’t finish my experiments and tests. I see you didn’t bother bringing any of it back.”
