“Mother is brilliant and often compassionate and always shrewd, but she’s never been kind,” Shank said.
Cetan sighed and looked at him. “Back to your room, or off to see your crew?” he asked.
“Crew,” Allie said quickly. They needed to start coming up with some plans. It bothered her that this station they were headed for was thick with SC. It bothered her almost as much as the idea of running into Shank’s ex.
“Your mother really didn’t like Claire, did she?” Allie asked.
Cetan burst out with a bray of laughter so loud Allie jumped.
“Thanks, Uncle Cetan.”
“You’re the one who brought her home. But then I’ve always argued that you must have been hit too hard on the head as a child. I actually accused Paya of dropping you as a baby. She wasn’t amused. However, when you brought that one back, I almost believed it was true.”
Shank gave his uncle a withering glare. Strangely Cetan only grinned.
“I get the feeling I’m going to like stealing her ship,” Allie said.
“You’re stealing her ship?” Cetan gave a whoop and slapped Shank on the back. “Attaboy. Take back your balls.”
“Did Claire have them up until now?” Allie asked, giving Shank an overly sweet look.
“If so, I’m not sure what you’ve been playing with,” Shank retorted, but then he looked over at his uncle with panic-wide eyes and blushed madly.
Cetan chuckled and gave Shank another slap on the back. “That mouth of yours always has gotten you in trouble. So, do you have a plan to steal Claire’s ship?”
“Not right now, no,” Shank said.
Allie interrupted. “Did you know Anpaytoo thinks men can’t be trusted to make a plan?”
“She what?” Cetan sounded confused. That was rich. He was her brother, so there was no way he’d missed her ranting.
“She said that men can’t plan, that their plans are too dangerous.”
“Oh.” Cetan shrugged. “I’m the first to admit that I see a really good score, and I start thinking about all the cool toys I could get for the ship if I just grabbed one little diplomat or took out one luxury shipper. Paya spends more time worrying about the kids we have on the ship and the potential guards the luxury shipper might have following on his hyperspace thread.” Cetan talked as if it wasn’t a big deal.
“So you let her plan all the raids?”
Cetan stopped in the hallway and really stared at her. Then he turned and looked at Shank. “Do you ever talk to your woman, or do you two just spend all your time in a bed?”
“I’m right here,” Allie said.
“Yep, standing there saying stupid shit.”
“Anpaytoo is a blatant sexist,” Allie said. Cetan’s mirth vanished, and Shank seemed to flinch. Okay, that was not the reaction Allie had wanted, and she really regretted saying any of this in front of the woman’s brother. Clearly she had been infected with an alien virus that gave her diarrhea of the mouth. She’d been struggling with the infection for years, but this was...this was a whole new level of stupidity, even for her.
“She was talking about Shank’s plan, talking like men are boy-children who can’t be trusted with sharp objects,” she tried to explain.
“She might have just been talking about this one,” he said, pointing his thumb in Shank’s direction. “Even I have to admit this plan of yours has more holes than data—and I’m a man who enjoys a risky adventure now and then.”
Shank blushed, but he didn’t try to deny any of it.
“She thinks men are too thoughtless and careless to plan things.”
Cetan looked at Shank as though waiting for him to say something, but when he didn’t, Cetan shrugged and leaned against the corridor. “We’re raised on stories of men doing outrageously stupid things and getting all sorts of reward for doing it. Maybe men in general aren’t bad planners or too likely to take risks, but maybe the men of this family are. I make the raiding plans for this ship, and we’ve never carried out a raid where I didn’t decide everything from what boots people wore to the ordnance we’d throw at the enemy.”
“Exactly,” Allie said, jumping on that evidence that Anpaytoo was full of shit. Cetan was a man who looked like he could carry himself into a battle with a cool head, and to suggest he couldn’t because he had testosterone offended Allie down to her socks.
Cetan gave her an amused smile. “But Paya rejects at least half my plans before I get more than a dozen words out of my mouth.”
