“He’s the captain.”I jerked my head toward Dax.
She glanced at him, then back at me.“Un-huh.”
“She’s the cargo master,” Dax gritted out.
“I am?”Dax squeezed my thigh.“I mean, I am.”
“Lord save me from amateurs,” Moya muttered.
I opened my mouth to argue, then snapped it shut.She wasn’t wrong.Wewereamateurs.I’d never done this on my own and Dax hadn’t done it at all.
“The only reason I’m giving you this information is because of your Blazer connection.I take no responsibility for anything that happens as a result of this information.”
“How do we know it’s not a trap?”
Moya ignored Dax’s interruption and kept her focus on me.
“It’s not a trap,” I reassured him when she paused to let me do so.“That would be bad for business.”
Dax mumbled something that sounded an awful lot like “fucking smugglers,” but Moya and I both chose to ignore him.
“If you get blown up, I’m not responsible.If you anger the men you’ll be working with, not my responsibility.”
She continued to list her non-responsibilities.None of them were a surprise, but listening to her rattle them all off was boring.Finally, she came to the most important piece of information.“Fifteen hundred credits.Upfront.”
“For what?”Dax asked.
I winced.I hadn’t expected negotiations to start quite like this, so I hadn’t warned him beforehand.Nothing was free on Rigel Naught, not even information.
“For the location I’m about to provide.”
“Why the fuck didn’t you lead with that?Then you wouldn’t have wasted all that time keeping your hands clean.”
Fuck, this could get messy, fast.I placed my hand on Dax’s thigh, not gripping it the way he had mine.Just a gentle, soothing touch.His quad tensed and flexed under my palm.“That’s how it works, Dax.”
“It’s bullshit.”
“Yep, it is.”I flashed Moya a placating smile.She rolled her eyes and shook her head, but let me continue.“Bullshit is everywhere.I bet you dealt with your share before this, right?”
“That’s why I got out.”
I shrugged.“Welcome to life.”
Well, shit.That sounded just like my father.Except he usually added “baby girl” to that pearl of wisdom.It was annoying as fuck.
I took a deep breath and completely overstepped my bounds as cargo master.“Information now, 3 percent later?”
Moya’s light laugh was out of place in a spacer bar.“Talk about bullshit,” she said.“Twenty percent.Stupid shooters are dangerous business.You walk out of here without paying me, I may not see you again.”She pressed the fingertips on one hand together, then forced them open, mimicking an explosion.
I shuddered at the thought.
Releasing Dax’s leg, I leaned back against the booth, keeping my muscles loose and relaxed despite the tension riding me.“Pfft.That’s too high and you know it.Five percent and we’ll throw in Finn as collateral.”
“The one I just had escorted from the bar?”She shuddered delicately.“No thanks.I’m happy to take the captain off your hands, though, if you’re looking to abandon crew.”
My teeth ground together.The thought of bargaining Dax away bothered me a lot more than getting rid of Finn had.“No deal.”
She smirked at me.
