“But how? How can I find my place? I’m here. I’m stuck here.”
“I’ll tell you how,” I said with a fierce determination. “You are going to fight for what you want. You are going to fight for the type of life you want to live, and for who youwant to live it with. And you are going to start by helping me get that boy back to his mothers.”
Tano waitedfor us at the cave entrance, his stance wide, his arms stiff at his sides. “Where have you been?”
Reya’s head ducked under his intimidating glare.
Mine did not. “You know what they say.” I gave him a wink. “Never rush a woman in the bathroom.”
Those paleBrock Karlovichcheeks of his flushed bright pink. “Get back inside.”
“Yes, sir,” I said obediently, then, glancing at him under my lashes, I gave him a very obvious, very intentional,very suggestivethumbs-up before letting my knuckles brush against his as I stepped past him into the cave.
Looking over my shoulder, catching his gaze dropping to my ass while a crooked, self-satisfied grin spread across his face, I knew that Freddie’s warning about the hand gesture being a Kravaxian come-on had been right on the money.
As if on cue, Marisia grunted, scowled at me, then glowered at Tano.
“What are you doing?” Sai asked when I returned to sit by his side, his brows knitted. “Doesn’tthumbs-upmean sex stuff on Kravax?”
“Sex stuff?” I repeated, shaking my head at him. “How do you know these things?”
“Seriously. What are you doing?”
“My job, darling.” My lips quirked at his puzzled expression. “It’s simple distraction,” I explained. “If Tano is busy thinking about me, and Marisia is busy thinking about him…”
“Then they’ll both be less busy thinking about us.”
While I nodded down at him, he smiled up at me and said, “Sunny, I think you might be a teeny bit terrifying too.”
We passedthe day by telling stories, picking at the tart yellow berries Axel had harvested for us, and—in the brief moments when we were alone in the cave—discussing our escape plan. Sai was worried that Reya wouldn’t go through with the admittedly thin plan we’d made out in the woods. But while Sai knew puzzles, I knew people. Reya would come through for us. I only hoped she wouldn’t get punished because of it.
After sunset, Tano returned to the cave from wherever he’d been all day. Sitting across from Sai and me, he stoked the fire while Marisia, Axel, and Reya left, presumably to hunt for dinner. Poor Sai would be skin and bones if I didn’t get him out of there soon. He couldn’t live on berries alone.
“So, what’s the plan here, Tano?” I asked boldly. In my experience, his type always responded best to directness. “How long are you planning to keep us in this cave?”
His eyes narrowed into slits. “And what makes you think I will tell you anything?”
“No harm in asking. It’s not like we can go anywhere or talk to anyone.” Leaning toward him, maybe far enough for him to just see down the top of my jumpsuit, I said, “Your secrets are safe with us.”
He only grunted.Charming.
Overt flirting not doing the trick, I changed tactics. “Is Marisia your wife?”
He grunted again. “I have taken no wife.”
“Really?” I asked. “Why not? She seems like she’d make a fine enough wife.”
What I could see—and Tano could not—was that Marisia had returned, and now she stood outside the cave with a sizable dead rodent dangling from one hand, her crossbow from the other, and the wrath of a thousand suns blazing in her eyes.
“She would not makemea fine wife,” he said as the flames picked up, golden light flickering in his eyes. “She has no fire.”
His head turned when Marisia made a strangled, disgusted noise, hurled the rodent at him, and stalked back out into the graying twilight.
“Are you sure about that?” I asked. “She seems prettyfieryto me.”
Grunting for a third time in as many minutes, Tano moved the rodent to the side of the fire, pushed himself to his feet, and grumbled, “Mind your own business. I will go find the boy more berries.”
Saiand I sat in silence, watching Tano, Axel, and Reya chew on roasted rodents, and Marisia—refusing to eat—chewing on her resentment instead. While she sent Tano scathing glares, I passed him fleeting, furtive glances under my lashes, popping berries into my mouth, taking my sweet time licking my fingertips clean. Kravax might have cornered the market on violence and intimidation, but they had much to learn about interpersonal relationships. And how easily those relationships could be manipulated to sow dissent among the ranks by someone like me.
