“Amen,” Becca said softly.
“She doesn’thateyou,” Shank said regretfully. But he’d chosen Allie over his mother. He was offering to surrender to the bats before betraying his mother to the SC, but he had stood with her against Anpaytoo. Allie did love this man. For all his easygoing ways, he had such prickles and defenses at his core, and he’d allowed her through all that.
He frowned at her, tilting his head slightly, but Allie just tightened her fingers around his and shifted closer.
Zeke stood and made eye contact with each of them. Every single one of them gave a quick nod, and Zeke smiled. “I’ll go talk to Commander Jasper and see if I can arrange to negotiate with the bats for trading rights with Shank’s people. Jac, do you want to find us some quarters.”
“Yep,” Jacqs agreed.
“Your room is near ours,” Copta said as she stood. “I’ll show you where, and then we can talk about shifting your belongings over.”
“I ain’t shifting nothing until we find out if we’re going to work for the SC, going to prison, or staying here,” Jacqs said, “but I’d appreciate you showing me our room.”
Allie watched as Copta headed out with Jacqs, Ben and Becca following. Zeke waited until they were gone, and then he reached over and rested his hand on Allie’s shoulder for a second. He then turned to Shank. “How would you like to be listed as the ship’s second?”
Shank drew in a quick breath and looked to Allie.
She smiled at him. “You have a lot more experience on the border than the rest of us. I think it’s a great plan.”
“But what about Jacqs?” Shank asked.
Zeke laughed. “Trust me. He does not want to be an officer at all, much less the second in command of an SC ship. If they agree to our terms, the only thing Jac is going to want is a promotion to sergeant, and that’s because he feels like he earned it.”
“Okay. Yes, I would like to be the second,” Shank said. He stood, went to raise his arm, probably to salute, but Zeke reached out and grabbed Shank’s hand. He shook it.
“Excellent. Now I need to go try to get them to agree to our terms.”
“Good luck,” Allie offered.
“Who needs luck? I’ll dazzle them with my negotiating brilliance,” Zeke said, but he definitely looked stressed as he walked out the door.
As the pilot, she didn’t have anything to do until they needed to fly somewhere, assuming they’d be allowed to fly anywhere. “Shank, are you okay with this?”
“My mother is going to kill me,” he said. “She’s going to skin me alive and leave my bleeding hide tacked to the side of her ship as a warning for all Sioux stupid enough to get tangled up in wasichu business. She’s going to space my remains after a ceremonial gutting.”
“Are you okay?” Allie asked again. She already knew Anpaytoo was going to be unhappy, but Anpaytoo didn’t make their decisions. “Are you okay with the idea of doing this?”
Shank pulled on her hand, and Allie got up and moved to him. When he sat down, she settled on his lap. She’d never done this with a man. She’d always felt somehow less powerful, as if she were being treated like a child. However, Shank gave her so much power and control that she found she didn’t mind letting him take some back.
She wrapped her arms around his neck and looked into his eyes. “Are you going to answer?”
“I’m trying to figure out how I feel.”
“We could stay here. Zeke and Jacqs seem to think it’s an okay place.”
“We could never have kids here,” Shank said softly. “I try to not obsess over that radiation exposure, but even if you were fairly safe in the ship, I was out in the open. I can’t risk having kids unless I get the resequencing done.”
“Trust me. TheCandiru’s hull did not provide much protection. We had the vents open to take the load off the life support. We all got irradiated. “
“If we want that life we keep talking about, then this is our only chance.” Shank pulled her close. He buried his face in her bosom, and she stoked his hair. He was right. If they wanted a family ship and kids and all things they’d talked about, they needed for Zeke to make this happen.
Allie hated relying on others, but this time she figured she had to.
