A shadow fell across the table and I camouflaged my smirk by sipping my drink.
A redhead stood next to Dax.At least two decades older than me, her pale skin glowed in the bar’s dim light and her body radiated displeasure.Moya of Moya’s Place.“You upset my waitress.”
“It was her fault.”Finn was quick to point at me.“She’s trying to feed us some bullshit story about some big explosives and spooky sublevels to scare us into doing things her way.”
What an asshole.I’d roll my eyes, but I didn’t want to piss Moya off when I needed her help.
Moya turned her disapproving gaze on him.“Bolton isn’t a story.”
Her gaze swept slowly over our entire table.Burn’s hand dropped below the table.I wanted to wave her off, but I wasn’t sure she’d listen to me.Next to me, Dax tensed.
Then I was the one pinned under her gaze.She studied me for a long moment.Did she know who I was?“Y’all don’t look like folks who have business with Bolton.”
“We—”
She cut Finn off with a slash of her hand.Damn, the number of times I’d wanted to do that and I’d just met him.
“We need cargo,” I said.
Her finely arched brow raised.“There’s plenty of cargo on the station.Have you considered pukka berries?”
My lips curved into a half-smile until I caught it and smoothed it out.“Looking for a something a little richer.”
She didn’t say anything.Just waited for one of us—me—to fill the silence.
I relented because I wasn’t sure how much patience my companions had.“Stupid shooters.”
The words hung in the air.Then she laughed.A deep, rich belly laugh.
“Oh, you’re precious.”
Both Burn and Dax tensed beside me.I just prayed Finn didn’t do something stupid.
“Assuming you can even get a meeting with Bolton, what makes you think you’re qualified to run stupid shooters?”
The tension around the table ratcheted up and I knew things were about to go to hell.And Finn would be the reason.
Best-case scenario: we’d get kicked off planet and lose our cargo...and my chance to go after Layla.Worst case?We died in a bar fight.
“I’ve done it before.”I focused on Moya and ignored the other three.Their stares were a weight on my shoulders.
“Sure, sugar,” she drawled.“Who’d let a pretty young thing like you run dangerous cargo like that?”
I knew she was baiting me.I still didn’t know if she’d recognized me.Fuck.I didn’t see any other way out.
I took a deep breath and blew my current situation up.“Orpheus Blazer.”
28
Lacy
Moya gaveme a barely there nod.Yeah, she’d figured out who I was.Blazer didn’t talk much about his daughters and those who knew kept their mouths shut.I had to trust she’d keep doing so.
But I didn’t have time to dwell on that now.Now, I had to deal with the fallout of my announcement.
Finn reacted the most predictably.He practically tripped over himself in his hurry to get away from the table and accuse me.“You work for Blazer?Did you know about this?”he demanded of Dax.
I cringed at his volume.The last thing we needed was to draw more attention.
