“I’m not letting you get killed without me.Harlow is only slightly less terrifying than Caius when in a rage.”
Kira didn’t have time to argue as Pye’s assault ceased.
“Thezuipi’snot working,” Pye called in a panic.
By that point, it was too late for Kira and Bez to retreat.They were already halfway to the schooner.
Kira ducked and weaved to make herself as difficult a target as possible.
“Shield!”Bez shouted.
Yeah, that wasn’t possible for her.
One of the sniper’s shots burned across Kira’s outer thigh.She threw herself into a forward roll, fetching up awkwardly against the side of the ship.
Another set of shots hit the ground beside her hand, sending shrapnel ricocheting to slice into her face.
Kira rolled away, scuttling to put the ship between her and the sniper.
Bez threw himself behind her.
“You’re worse than Caius,” he groaned, breathing heavily.
“I told you not to follow.”
“How’s the leg?”Bez asked.
“What do you think?It hurts.”
She’d live though.
“You realize that you were the only one they were aiming at,” Bez observed, his breathing stabilizing from his dead sprint.
“That had occurred to me.”
The sniper could have changed targets once Kira reached safety.Instead, he’d continued aiming at her.
Thinking back, the first shot had been directed at her too.As had every shot afterward.
Something in Bez’s expression shifted as he came to the same conclusion Kira had already made.
The sniper was acting under orders.Either he’d targeted Kira because of her history with the pirate clans or because of her status as Roake’s heir.
Kira was betting it was the latter.
As many enemies as she’d made among the clans, she doubted she was so infamous that even a low-ranking sniper like the one who’d been left behind would recognize her on sight.
More likely, there was a mole in their ranks.Someone who’d told the sniper’s handlers who she was and what she meant to Roake.
The only people who could have done that were those on this planet with her.
Kira rolled onto her stomach before crawling over to wedge herself into the small gap by the stabilizer.Whatever the case might be, she’d worry about it later.
How was she going to siphon off this fuel?
Bez peered into the hole after her.“Are we going to talk about this?”
“What is there to talk about?Will it change our current set of circumstances?”
