“Right. And I should just trust those supplies because you’re such a dependable person.”
“I deliver on all my trades.”
“The way you deliver in bed?” Allie asked. “If I make trades that bad, Anpaytoo will have my hide. Come on. Let’s go.” Without checking on whether theMitakuye Oyasincrew followed, Allie turned and walked off the dock. They made a strange parade—her and Shank, Ben and Copta following him, with Lúta and Crow bringing up the rear.
Not a single pickpocket or merchant tried to cross their path as they headed back to the ship. Oh, yeah, they’d made an impression. Now Allie had to find out if Ben had gotten the information he needed to steal the bitch’s ship.
Chapter Twenty-One
Cetan met them at theside hatch. “Considering that was remarkably immature, it was both entertaining and effective. None of the guards seemed to notice Ben scanning the berth.”
Allie blushed as she passed Cetan and headed into the interior. Of course it’d been immature—she’d known that even as she’d thrown the verbal barbs. However, Claire had been throwing them right back, and her willingness to embarrass Shank over his sexual preferences left Allie wanting to set the woman’s hair on fire.
“I got great readings,” Ben said.
The second she was inside, Copta leaned against the wall, and then she slid slowly down to the decking. “Can we never do that again, please?” she asked.
Ben crouched next to her and rested a hand on her shoulder. “You did great. They’re going to assume you and Allie have some sort of power struggle going. That’s the sort of groundwork you always want to lay when you’re undercover. Make the other side think you’re divided, and someone is going to try and recruit you. It’s a sure way of making them do the hard work of creating trust.”
“I was actually just trying to not get shot,” Copta said. “I knew Allie would not stand for the woman’s insults and would likely annoy her to the point of homicide. So I thought that if I were an enemy of Allie, that Claire would be less likely to shoot me when people started to kill each other.”
“That works too,” Ben said. He stood and held out a hand to her before pulling her to her feet easily.
“That was fun,” Lúta said. He headed into the ship, and Cetan gave him a slap on the ass as he passed.
“It would have been more fun if we could have shot them,” Crow said mournfully.
Cetan laughed. “Next time, troublemaker. However, if you do shoot them, be prepared to explain it to your Aunt Paya after we haul your ass out of jail.”
Crow gave an exaggerated shudder. “Seriously, Shank, I don’t see why you ever hooked up with that woman.”
“Don’t make me tell him stories about your Lucia,” Cetan threatened. Crow paled and cleared his throat before hurrying past Allie and into the ship.
Shank sighed as the ship door slid closed and latched. “He’s right. She was a huge mistake.”
“We’ve all made worse,” Cetan said with a grimace. “Well, maybe not worse, but certainly we’ve all done as poorly at some point. You’re not unique in thinking with your dick. So, what did you get on the ship?”
