Xokat blanched, his fingers flexing on the hilt of the phase blade. Rolling my eyes, I dug the sellah pen out of the bodice of my ruined dress and took a long drag.Badass. Fucking. Mob wife.I could do this. I just needed to keep this dickhead talking until Yiri came for me.
“I’m curious, Xokat,” I drawled, propping a fist on my hip and dangling the sella pen like a long cigarette in my other hand.Channel the vibe. Be one with the mob wife life.“Why’d you do it? Was it money? Jealousy?”
He bared his teeth. “Revenge,” he snarled.
“Classic,” I said, bobbing my head. “For what, though? Was it something I said?”
His jaw clenched, and his gaze flickered away for a moment. “It’s not about you,” he said.
“Oh, nice. ‘Cause I thought we were good.”
His shoulders inched up, closer to his ears. “We are good.”
“Were.” My casual tone faltered for a second. “Weweregood. But then you kidnapped me, wanted to sell me, handed me over to some guy to be murdered, and now?” I gestured with the sellah pen at him and the phase blade. “Whateverthisis. So, no. Me and you are no longer good, Kat.”
He waved the blade in a small circle. “Yeah,” he agreed. “Right. But it’s not about you. You’re nice.” He glanced at the water, where things had calmed down considerably by now. Blinking, he added, “I think.”
“I’m nice until someone betrays me,” I said.
“So am I,” he said.
I snorted. “Please. What did Yiri do to you? He pays you well, doesn’t he? And he had you guardingme, so I have to assume he liked you.”
“He doesn’t even know what he did to me,” he said. “Tous.” He nodded toward the water with a stricken look. “In’vion… he’s my half-brother.Was.” His eyes flashed at me with totally undeserved malice. “And Yiri killed our dad. No warning or anything. He took Masoh out just so he could set another one of Zacal’s nephews up in his place.”
I mean, that sounded bad, I guessed, but it still didn’t excuse the kidnapping. “I’m sorry that happened,” I said without much feeling.
“Are you?” he asked doubtfully.
“Not sorry enough to die for it.”
“I don’t get you,” he said, pushing off the wall, coming a few steps closer. “You seem like a good, sweet female, but you came all the way here for a guy like that? You know what he is, right? Did he lie to you to get you here or what?”
“He didn’t tell me everything, but I knew enough.”
“Forgot to mention the cekets, I guess,” Xokat said, taking another step closer.
I eyed him warily but held my ground. “He did mention them, actually. You know he’s taken me swimming with them? They were very gentle with us.”
“Fucking psychos,” Xokat muttered. He had inched too close for comfort, and I considered jumping into the water. But truth be told, I wasn’t sure the cekets would remember me post feeding frenzy. Could the grannies hold the kids off when they were all riled up? I’d save that option as my last resort, and give them as much time as possible to calm down.
“You could just go,” I suggested. “I’m unarmed. I can’t stop you. But if you leave me alone, maybe I can convince him it’s not worth hunting you down.”
“So he kills my father, you kill my brother, and you think I’m going to shrug that off?” He gave a humorless laugh. “It’s too bad our mercenary didn’t get you. Things would have been a lot cleaner if he had.”
Cleaner. My death or sale to god only knows what kind of male on Ibaruta would have beencleaner. My husband should have just let the guy kidnap me off the warehouse dock to avoid all this unpleasantness, causing Xokat to have to get his hands dirty. How inconsiderate of us.
“Don’t jump,” Xokat said, and for one second, I thought maybe he was having a change of heart, until he said, “A phase blade to the throat is less painful than a ceket attack.”
I’d have to take his word for it, because I would not be doing either of those things. Xokat’s stability was questionable at best. When he lunged, I’d be ready.
But he didn’t lunge. Not at first. His gaze swung up to the sky behind me, and a second later, I heard it. A vessel.
Yiri’s here.
I didn’t need to look to know he’d come for me. A wicked sneer slanted across my lips.
“What’s your move, Cool Kat?”
