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The bounty hunter whips his head up at the sound, startled as I am.
“Who is that, I wonder?” When he looks back at me, he sees the fear written all over my face. “Friend of yours?”
“I’ll go with you right now without a fight, okay, and I’ll tell you everything you—” As I’m desperately bargaining to distract him from Raffa’s presence, he pulls a cloth out of his jumpsuit and shoves it in my mouth.
“Don’t worry, we’ll chat more soon,” he says, indifferent to my offer as he turns to investigate the source of the air bike’s noise. It’s gone silent now, and I haven’t caught a glimpse of Raffa. Could it be he got to the station and sent DJ out here? There’s no way he had enough time to pull that off, so it must be Raffa on his own.
I wiggle and worm my way onto my knees, mostly helpless as the bounty hunter tiptoes toward the house.
Fwip.The hat on the hunter’s head flies up into the air.
“What the—”
Fwip.His gun is snatched from his hands. It flies away, and I know in an instant it’s the work of Raffa’s airwhip.
The hunter backpedals toward me.
“Whoever you are, think carefully,” he warns as he moves to grab me by the scalp. Raffa descends from the roof, appearing for a moment before he slams his full bodyweight down on the bounty hunter. They both roll away from me, wrestling for dominance. Raffa growls like an animal, throttling the full-grown male with a fury I’ve never seen him show. The Zaledian male has the advantage of his tail, but Raffa is slippery enough to flip out of the way and get on his feet before the tail takes hold of a limb.
“A baby Kar’Kali,” the bounty hunter goads him. “How cute. Don’t make me kill an endangered species now, brat… Let’s have a conversation, and then I won’t have to hurt your human friend there.”
I manage to spit out the fabric, having desperately worked my tongue against the suffocating thing. I don’t dare say a word, because distracting Raffa won’t help him now, but I creep forward, inching myself behind the bounty hunter. Raffa’s panicked eyes dart a look toward me, but he quickly focuses in on the foe between us again. He drops his arm, letting theikanislip into a looser grip.
“That’s it,” the Zaledian coaxes him. “Lower the blade and no one gets hurt. Tell me, why are you here on a human colony, hm?”
“I’ll tell you what you need to know,” Raffa says slowly. The bounty hunter prowls forward, shoulders sagging in relief.
“There’s a smart boy. Give me the blade, and I’ll untie the female. We can all have a—”
“You talk too much.” With lightning quick fingers, Raffa throws the knife, and it sinks into the male’s gut. I take the chance to launch forward and grab the male’s tail. It forces his momentum backward as he groans in shock and pain.
I clutch the tail between my bound hands to keep the crippled male from making any more moves toward Raffa. He struggles against me, flipping furiously to grab my hair and pull it hard enough to make me scream.
“Stupid slut,” he growls. “Let go—”
He’s weakened enough by his bleeding that I can throw my weight on top of him to keep him down. Then he goes stiff suddenly, and I know it’s over. I roll over to see Raffa falling to his knees beside me. He’s panting as he quickly pulls at the ropes on my arms and legs.
“Are you okay?” he asks, hands trembling.
I check him head to toe for injury, but he doesn’t have a scratch on him. I finally feel like I can breathe, so I pull him into my arms. He shakes and shakes as I gently stroke his hair.
“Yes, I’m okay thanks to you, sweetie. Take a deep breath, okay? Are you okay?”
He nods wordlessly into my shoulder.
“We’re okay…” I rub his back. He’s huge, but he’s still just Raffa to me. I make up my mind to exude absolute calm. I have to be brave to show him this is all going to turn out alright. I pull back to take a good look at his face. He’s pale and shocked, staring over my shoulder at the lifeless body.
“Raffa, where’s your bike?”
“Parked it on the roof.”
“That was really clever. Can you go get it and drive out to my skimmer? Pack the bike on the back and then come back and meet me here, okay?”
He nods again. “Okay. Yeah, I can do that.”
“Good. Go, go,” I urge him.
I turn to deal with the bounty hunter. I root through his things until I find every comm device he has— two tablets, two comms, and an earpiece. Raina will have an incineration generator in her shed like most colonists, so I quickly take the items there, dialing the sheriff as I walk. My legs are still adjusting, shivering and not cooperating with me.
