In a Jam
Time to getserious—and talk Dy down from her current tree.“Goldilocks, this is Bandit.What’s your status?”
No reply.Well, shit.Dy had just been on there.Had things gone that bad that fast?“Goldilocks, repeat, this is Bandit.Come back.”
Still no reply.
“That’s bad, right?”Azul asked.“I swear I didn’t mess up the mechanism.”
“No, she was just there.”She switched back to the gold channel.“Heya riders.Bandit here.Anyone got eyes on Big Betty?”
“Upchuck here, Bandit.I’m drafting Big Betty on the Thirteen a couple of leagues from the big black line.She looks mighty fine to me.”
Huh.What then?Cha thanked Upchuck absentmindedly, then thumbed back to marcasite.“Goldilocks, drop a clue.Pretty please, with sugar on top.”
“Do I want to know why he’s called ‘Upchuck’?”Azul asked in a pained voice during the long pause that ensued.
“He earned the handle fair and square,” Cha answered, frowning at the silent path-box, then glanced at Azul.“No, you probably don’t want to know.”
The box crackled and Cha’s heart jumped in relief at the sound of Dy’s voice.“I’m here.I’m just not speaking to you.”
“Aw, honey.Don’t be like that.I am responsibly right behind you and will hold your hand for BX.What kind of heat have you got?”
“If you were off eating candy, Bandit, I swear I’ll sic Mama Bear on you and you’ll be toothless.”
“I swear I wasn’t, was I, Charming?”She threw him an expectant look, pointing at the box.
He cleared his throat.“If that means what I think it means, then no.I remain unconsumed and intend to stay that way,” he added with offended dignity.
“I was deaf for other reasons.Good ones,” Cha said.“I’ll explain face to face.”
She wove through the slower traffic, ignoring the slight sting of Azul’s dismissal.She didn’t expect every man to want her.Sometimes the sparkle was sadly one-sided.Besides he was too fancy for the likes of her.And there was the fact that he had more fae blood than a person running around in human lands should have.Though the things she’d heard about fae lovers…Well, just say that there’s a reason so many humans succumbed to fae seduction despite all the very good reasons not to.Like losing all memory of yourself and disappearing forever into the fae lands, dancing yourself to death or losing your humanity altogether.Or worse.She needed to keep those consequences firmly in mind.Even though the prince wasn’t actually fae.
She was pretty sure.Just to verify, she sneaked a glance at his ears.No points protruding through his curling, deep blue hair.There was an iridescence to the color though, dark as a deep ocean with glints of indigo magic.It looked like the color emanated from the inside, the curls almost coiling of their own accord… Nah.It was just a really good dye job.Still, the color served to highlight his pale skin, his profile as delicately etched as a sculpture, made sensually alive by that full pouting mouth.She could imagine all sorts of things that mouth could—
“What?”he demanded, turning abruptly so that he caught and held her eyes, his as intense and full of secrets as that magically deep ocean she’d fancied.
“Just making sure you hadn’t fallen out,” she returned lightly as she wrenched her gaze away.Definitelynotblushing, because she wasn’t some inexperienced schoolgirl with a crush on the wealthy, unobtainable and noble, pretty boy.No, she was the Bandit.Hardcore and hard assed, with her pick of willing lovers.On a life-changing smuggling run fraught with danger.Nowthatwas the kind of fraught-ness she thrived on.
“Arantxa,” Azul began, a troublingly serious note in his voice.
To her relief, she caught the familiar buzz of Big Betty on the ley line ahead.That had been quick.“Aha!”she exclaimed, pretending she hadn’t heard him, and hitting the path-box.“Good news, Goldi, I’m just about caught up.”Dy didn’t reply.Still pissed then.
Cha poured on the speed, weaving around the considerable convoy drafting Big Betty, all of them going awfully slow for that.A number of them sent up greetings as she passed.
“Do you know all of these… people?”the prince asked.
“What can I say?I’m a popular gal.”
“Apparently,” he noted drily.
She ignored the subtext he loaded into that observation.Traffic was slowing to a halt, a logjam of rumbling carriages filling the black width of the Thirteen.“What isgoing on?”she muttered.
“The traffic has stopped moving,” Azul said helpfully.
“Thanks ever so, but I did observe that for myself,” she returned acidly.
“You asked.”The thin smile he produced positively reeked of false innocence.
