“I took that same oath. I’m willing to make an exception here. I don’t trust this bastard of a flit.”
“I have information you need!” Hayde added. “I know where Janka is!”
Kinzer gritted his teeth. “I don’t give a fuck.”
“Yes, we do, Kinzer!” Quintz insisted.
“I can tell you where he’s hiding out,” Hayde pressed.
But Kinzer wasn’t having it. “A lie. Or a trap. I don’t want to hear it. I’d rather just hurt him.”
“That’s not true, Kinzer. If he’s telling the truth, then—”
“Then what? We get this information about Janka and then leave him, never knowing if he was lying to us? Are you kidding me?”
“No, we don’t leave him. That would be insane. We obviously ask him, he tells us, and then we take him with us to verify.”
“Take him with us?Oh, this plan keeps getting better and better, Quintz. I don’t think you’ve noticed, but your entire plan went to shit today.”
“How could I have known? How couldanyonehave known—”
“That Janka would choose one of the busiest days at the colosseum as a time to attack? I don’t know. It’s kind of brilliant in hindsight.” Kinzer turned his glare back on Hayde.
Kinzer knew better than to trust anything the flit said. He could see it in Hayde’s eyes, the deceitful traitor who’d killed Maggie. He couldn’t be trusted. Quintz couldn’t understand. Not yet. Not until this fucker turned on them. Till he found a way of gaining their trust only to pull it away ever so quickly. Such a brilliant little flit who’d hurt him so much.
“I don’t trust him enough to take him with us,” Kinzer said. “He could turn on us at any moment, as soon as he gets one of us to let our guard down.”
Kinzer was referring to himself.
“I might have a solution for that,” Quintz said.
Hayde glanced between them, clearly wondering what Quintz was talking about.
“Oh, you should be scared,” Kinzer said. “Quintz may have some oath he needs to uphold, but I don’t give a damn at this point. So give me a reason. Give me any reason, and I will slit your throat. Do you understand me, Hayde?”
“I do,” was his only reply, his expression unchanging as though he was working hard to conceal some great secret from Kinzer. His reason for being there. Whatever the reason he was trying to get information from them or their help, Kinzer wanted no part of it.
