Together, Jax and I headed for the smell of strong coffee. Jax made the best cups.
We met Fiona in the entranceway to the kitchen. Her hair was still damp from her shower, and she looked fresher than I’d felt in days. It had been her turn today. Miko was next. I’d get a shower again after that.
Maybe Shade knew where to buy half-priced water and discounted recycling tanks. In the meantime, luckily for all of us and our noses, extra-strength deodorant was cheap.
“Who’s the tall set of muscles poking around our ship?” Fiona asked me with a bit of a grin.
“Shade Ganavan.”
Her eyebrows slowly went up. “Got anything more to say about that?”
I fought my own grin and started with the most obvious. “Easily six foot two, two hundred pounds, dark-brown hair, light-brown eyes, flirty in the afternoon, grumpy in the morning.”
Fiona laughed. “Maybe he needs some coffee.”
Maybe. Or some rest. The guy looked like he hadn’t slept a wink. He definitely hadn’t changed his clothes or shaved.
Something uncomfortable slid sideways through my chest. Had he flirted with me and then gone off and been with some other woman all night?
I forced the slight pang to keep going and slide right on out. None of my business.
Miko had eggs, bacon, and potatoes on the table for her and Shiori already. Jax was pouring the coffee for everyone, so I got his, Fiona’s, and my plates while Fiona peeled our daily orange and doled out the parts.
Oranges were often hard to split evenly into five, and if there was an extra wedge, Fiona always made sure that Shiori got it. Grandmother was the only one who couldn’t see that she was getting more than the rest of us, and no one ever told her.
“So how much are the repairs going to cost us?” Jax asked.
I told them, and everyone stopped eating. They’d go back to their meals eventually, but for the moment, they were absorbing the fact that our safe was about to get cleaned out.
“Are you sure this guy’s prices are reasonable?” Miko asked. “Maybe you should shop around before you let him get started.”
The idea of making multiple inquiries left me uneasy. The less any of us talked to other people or walked around Albion City—or anywhere, for that matter—the better. I was already going to have to go down to street level again to try to sell those books. I just hoped there were some people on Albion 5 who still liked reading old tomes. Even though the official ban had finally been lifted on many of the surviving texts, most people were still too nervous to pick up anything without the galactic seal of approval on it. Approved books were all propaganda-filled, glory-to-the-Overseer, brainwashing hogwash, but at least they didn’t get you harassed.
“It’s a little steep,” I answered about Shade’s pricing. “But I don’t think I’ll find much better anywhere else on this rock.”
Jaxon agreed, and he knew metal and labor costs even better than I did.
“Besides,” I added. “Shade offered to find us a new armored door for half price.”
They all stopped eating again. Jax looked at me as if I’d lost my mind.
I frowned. “What?”
“A guy doesn’t justgiveyou an armored door,” he said.
“I didn’t say he wasgivingit to me. I said it would be half price.”
“It’s practically the same thing,” he muttered, setting his coffee mug down a little too forcefully. “There must be something wrong with him. Or…” Jax’s eyes narrowed on me.
“What?” I asked again.
“We’re leaving this place, Tess. Don’t get attached.”
I did that turtle thing again. Turtles were on to something with their retractable heads. “You’re crazy, Jax. I don’t even know the guy.”
“If he’s giving you a deal like that on a reinforced door, he wants to knowyou.”
Low down, my belly clenched.Is that true?
