Evie blushed, pushing the plate in Ally’s direction. Ally picked one up, studying the small puff pastry filled with cream. Her stomach screamed at her to eat it and every other scrap of food in the room, but she fought back against the temptation, putting the pastry back on the plate.
She didn’t like the way Lyk was watching her, didn’t want him to realize what an enormous treat the sweets were for them. Ally had no idea what their situation was, and anything that could be interpreted as a sign of weakness must be hidden until she could figure out if the pirate could be trusted.
Lyk finally looked away from her, his focus moving to his crewman. “How are things in the mess?”
“Holding steady,” Celdrake responded. “Rigellus’s men don’t seem the type to foment rebellion. Most of them seem like they’re strictly service oriented. They were employed to keep Rigellus content, not duke it out with pirates.”
“You’re telling me the fat man had no security? How is that possible?”
Celdrake smiled. “Payoffs, mostly. He had a skeleton security crew of three men, one of which is the guy who gave me all Rigellus’s information. The inside man told me that Rigellus mostly depended on the interstellar police to have his back. In fact, they’d planned to rendezvous with the cops about a third of the way into their journey.”
Lyk nodded. “I want to talk to those three and the rest of Rigellus’s crew. Let’s head down to the mess and see if we can change some hearts and minds.”
Celdrake chuckled. “Sure, Captain. I know how persuasive you can be. I’m sure you’ll win them all over.”
Ally expected Lyk to bask in his crewman’s compliment, but a grimace crossed his handsome face instead at the wordpersuasive. She wondered why, but before she could find out more, the two left the room, not before Lyk turned back to address her.
“Stay put,” he said.
The door closed behind him, and she heard the click of a lock. Ally frowned. “I’m getting really tired of being locked up.”
Evie shrugged. “At least we’re not in chains this time.”
“And we have food.” Now that Lyk was gone, Ally grabbed a pastry and popped it into her mouth, shoving in another one before she’d completely swallowed the first. “Mmm, these are divine!”
Evie stood, moving over to a counter that was lined with cupboards above and below. “Those pastries aren’t the only treats.” She started opening cupboards, exposing more food than Ally had seen in months.
She joined Evie at the cupboards, pulling out things that she hadn’t eaten in ages. “Let’s have a feast! We don’t know how long it will be before we have this opportunity again.”
Evie giggled, and they proceeded to grab whatever they had a desire to taste. Soon, a healthy pile of food sat before them on the table. And not long after, Ally leaned back in her chair, holding her swollen belly.
“If I eat one more bite, I’ll explode these coveralls.”
Evie laughed, then groaned. “I think you’re going to have to carry me to our quarters.”
Ally’s good mood started to evaporate. “Assuming they assign us quarters. We might have escaped from the slaver, but now we’re stuck on a pirate ship. Who knows what they’re going to do to us?”
Evie frowned. “The Captain doesn’t seem like a bad guy. Even if he did send Rigellus to his death. The fat man deserved it, even though I couldn’t watch it happen.”
“We have no idea who the Raven really is. So until we do, we watch our backs.” Ally looked around at the massive quantities of food still surrounding them. “It also wouldn’t hurt to stash some of this away, just in case.”
Evie nodded, and the pair started hiding packets of food on their person. “These coveralls might not be the height of fashion,” her sister said as she helped Ally fill her clothes with food, “but they’re definitely great for smuggling snacks.”
Ally laughed, then took a deep breath and held it as they fought to get the zipper up. It might not be comfortable, but at least they wouldn’t be going hungry again anytime soon.
Her belly full, she realized she had yet another debt she owed to the Raven. He’d paid their way off Gamma-17, then saved them from a slaver. And now, he was feeding them. Ally vowed to get off this ship and as far away from Lyk as she could, as soon as she could. She didn’t want to go back to depending on someone else to meet her needs. Those days were over.
No pirate is going to take better care of me than I can take of myself.
She desperately wished those words were true, but deep down, she had her doubts.
CHAPTER 9
LYK
The mess was large enough to accommodate fifty or more, even though his crew was less than half that number currently. Rigellus’s crew were arranged in chairs in the center of the room, guarded by an equal number of Lyk’s men.
Lyk scanned the line of men in red livery. The security detail was easy to spot. All on one end, these men weren’t afraid to meet his gaze. He kept his eyes trained on them as he delivered his speech.
