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That makes her pause. “Another human, you say?” She taps a finger on her chin. “Rhonda didn’t mention that. You think she knows?”
“Impossible to speculate.”
“Oh, come on. Speculating’s fun.” She crosses her arms under her breasts and spins around toward me once more, expression thoughtful. “If I was to speculate, I’d say that Nerit was sticking his dick in another little human, and Rhonda spaced them both in a fit of rage. Now she’s playing victim in the hopes of snaring a new master.”
Not a bad theory. “Except that doesn’t explain the second mesakkah or where they’ve all gone. Or who’s using his credit records.”
Bethiah pats her data-pad. “I’m downloading his files here and we’ll see if he has anyone else logged. Hopefully that will give us some answers.”
“We could always ask Rhonda. Get her version of events.”
She groans dramatically and slumps in the chair. “Yes, but then I have to talk to her crazy ass. And she’s gotten me in enough trouble as it is.” She tilts her head and studies me. “Unless you’re suggesting…”
“No. No torture.”
Bethiah looks appalled. “I was going to suggest we spy on her on the ship or get Dora to sneak it out of her. Damn, Jamef. And here I thought you had no claws.”
My face heats.
Ninety-Eight
BETHIAH
I’m not entirely surprised to find that the records on Lord Nerit’s ship are entirely blank. There could be a lot of reasons behind it. If I was smuggling contraband, I’d abandon an easily tracked ship and wipe its records. If I was murdering someone, I’d dump their ship and remove any trace that I’d been on board. If I was running from something, I’d hide all of my digital footprints.
It’s clear that Lord Nerit il’Aiven is hiding from something or someone, if he’s even still alive.
I ponder this as we return to our ship. Jamef is equally quiet, no doubt turning the problem over in his mind. No one from the resort seems to notice that the two guards are missing, and no one stops us as we take public pathways through the bustling port to return to the Pleasure Spot. If I was going to rob someplace for credits, this resort would be a very likely scenario, as the security is incredibly lax. There are rich lords everywhere, flaunting their wealth, and with our uniforms, it’d be easy enough to come back and clean several very rich vacationers out.
But Jamef probably wouldn’t like that. Dora, either. I sigh at the thought. It’s no fun when you’re the only rulebreaker. I’m probably going to have to retire the corsairing part of my life and stick to the bounty hunting part, just to keep my mates happy.
Ah well. There are worse things.
We return to the ship and as we board, Jamef leans over and presses a kiss to my cheek. “I’m heading for the bridge to check if we’ve received any more credit pings.”
There haven’t been any in three days. I frown at him. “Don’t you want to talk about what we found on the ship?”
“No.” He heads for the bridge and I stare after Jamef, frustrated. This is our first bounty hunting job we’re working on together, so maybe he doesn’t take to the whole “art of the chase” very well? Still, following dead ends is the biggest part of the job. If everyone was easy to find, there’d be no need to hire a bounty hunter.
I’ll give him his space for a little while, I guess. Maybe he needs to mentally decompress alone for a bit. That means I’m responsible for telling Dora what’s going on. She didn’t come out to greet us, which is a little concerning, so I check the ship’s computer. Dora’s in the combat training room, and I’m proud that she’s using this time to brush up on her skills. We’ll make a corsair out of her yet.
Or a bounty hunter, whatever.
I check the computer records once more for Rhonda, and her signature shows…not in her quarters, but in the prisoner hold.
Uh.
Immediately, I head to the combat training room to talk to Dora.
The computer chimes an alert as I enter, and Dora immediately turns, lowering her blaster. The red light targets dance on the practice wall and she ignores them, giving me an overbright smile. “Oh! You’re back already?”
“We are indeed.” I return her smile and move to her side, turning off the practice program and then sitting on the control panel. “Didn’t find out as much as we wanted, but that’s just part of the game.”
She sets her blaster down and comes to stand between my thighs, looping her arms around my neck. “I’m glad you’re back, at least. I have something we need to talk about. By the way, where’s Jamef?”
“Sulking on the bridge. I guess he was more disappointed at what we didn’t find than I thought.” I run a hand down her back absently, thinking about his strange mood. “Has Jamef been acting weird to you?”
