Shank sat in the seat next to Allie, the one closer to the commander. “I can’t report on the family ships.”
“Family ships?”
“Pirates,” Allie supplied. “Well, the sane end of the pirate pool. There are nonfamily pirates, but some of them aren’t well-balanced.”
Jacqs set his weapon down on the table with athunkand claimed the chair next to Zeke. “That ain’t the half of it. The smugglers who grabbed me up for labor back when I was a kid, they knew about the family ships and the nonfamily ones. They said you could tell the difference from their signals. When family ships got us cornered, the captain would order us all to our quarters, and we’d stay in lockdown until the pirates left with our cargo. But when nonfamily pirates were on our tail, the captain wouldn’t stop for hell or the devil himself. Once, he opened the cargo bay doors and let the cargo out into space. Told the pirates they could have him, or they could have their payday, but they couldn’t have both. So Grah’s right. Family and nonfamily pirates ain’t even close.”
Zeke nodded. “Shank, could you report on nonfamily ships?”
“Hell yes,” Shank said. “I would love to put some of them out of business, but I can’t keep this from my mother, and if she asks what I’ve been doing, I can’t lie. I won’t betray those bonds. I’m Wichiyena. I’m a Lacroix. I won’t turn my back on all that. If that’s going to be the sticking point, maybe I should take Jacqs’s place.”
“What? No!” Allie backhanded Shank across the arm. “You are not going to leave me, not after everything I went through to get these two back. Besides, think of what sort of stupid shit I would do to get you back. I mean, look what I’ve done this time around, and I don’t even really like Jacqs.” Allie grimaced. “I did not mean to say that last part out loud.”
Weirdly, Jacqs laughed. “Most folk think that way. I ain’t offended. Besides, it seems like I got a little confused about what it meant that you were hypersexual and all.”
“Yeah, well you’re annoying,” Allie said with a sigh. But there was another truth there she couldn’t ignore. It wasn’t fair to Jacqs. “But I love you like a brother even if I don’t always like you. It’s just the idea of you having sex is just as disgusting as the idea of my father having sex. So if you hit on me again, I’m castrating you and throwing your bits in the recycler.”
Jacqs’s mouth fell open, and Zeke laughed. “Okay, as the person who likes Jacqs’s bits, please don’t. That said, if he hits on anyone, you let me know because either he isn’t meaning to hit on them, or I need to kick his ass.”
Jacqs sucked on his front teeth. “And we know what that most usually leads to,” he said with a leer.
“Oversharing,” Allie said.
Zeke nodded. “Okay, what do we think of the plan?”
Allie turned to Becca and Copta. Neither of them were much for talking. While Allie had been humiliating herself, they had both sat at the far end of the table where Jasper had been. “What do you think?”
“Ben knows more than any of us,” Becca said slowly. “I’m going to trust his judgment on it.”
Copta simply leaned back and watched with those dark eyes of hers.
“Allie?” Zeke asked. “Where are you on this plan?”
Allie thought about it. At one point in her life she’d considered people who paired off fools who had sacrificed their own needs for some ridiculous ideal. She saw couples as sacrificing their own happiness, but now she understood that she couldn’t be happy if it meant Shank was miserable. “If Shank can’t go along, I won’t either. I’ll stay here first.”
Shank glared at her.
“Give it up,” she suggested. “Your glare does not work, and if you sacrifice yourself, you’re sacrificing me too. My life is not worth more than yours.”
“Allie...” Shank sounded supremely frustrated, but he let his voice trail off without saying anything else.
She leaned over and caught his hand in hers. “I can’t make your decisions for you. I get that. If you need to stay here, I will agree while silently cursing you out. However, you don’t make my decisions for me. I’m staying with you.”
Shank sighed and tightened his fingers around hers. “You’re the most annoying woman I know.”
“Try that lie on someone who hasn’t met your mother or Claire,” she said with a huff. Shank rolled his eyes.
“Okay, so we have a negotiating position,” Zeke said, cutting off the argument, if it could be called that. “If they can accept that Shank will be working with the family ships, which are much less of a danger than the nonfamily sort, he and Allie are in.”
Shank drew in a breath, and Allie waited to see his final word. After several seconds, he nodded. “Yeah. There are a lot of stations where the local authorities aren’t doing their jobs. If Ben says this offer is fair, I’ll take it.”
“Okay. Now Jac?” Zeke looked at him.
“As long as I got food and a bed, I ain’t much bothered by the rest,” Jacqs answered. “You do what you need to, and I’ll follow. You’re more the high-maintenance sort than I am.”
“Well that’s the first time I’ve been called that,” Zeke said, clearly amused. He leaned back in his chair and ran his fingers over the edge of the table. “My concern is the miners.”
“They may whine, but they ain’t all that bad off,” Jacqs said. “Trust me. There are plenty in the camps that would give a limb to get things that good. Seems like people just like borrowing troubles.”
