“Decided a washed-up treasure hunter didn’t make a good husband and three rowdy boys were too much hard work.”
She had no idea what it was like to have a mother or to lose her, but she knew from his tone that it hurt. “I’m sorry, Zayn.”
“I had Nik and Dathan.”
“And your father?”
A stony silence. Then Zayn spoke. “Dad turned…bitter. Started to drink.” She felt him shake his head. “Shit, you don’t want to hear this.”
She swiveled as far as she could. His face was all shadows, and she felt the tension in his muscles. She gripped one hard forearm, felt his muscles flex. “I do. Tell me.”
“He started knocking us around. Dathan worst of all. Dad made us work in his junk-yard, but he was never happy.” A whispered curse. “God, some nights we’d have to scour the streets to find what gutter he’d passed out in and drag him home. It was about that time that I dreamed of getting away. I used to race my beat-up, old desert speeder as fast as I could. I wanted to fly off at interstellar speed and never come back.”
Ria’s chest tightened. She pictured a small boy with big blue eyes full of suffering. “And a career was born?”
“A passion was born. I had a driving need to fly. I wanted to explore every inch of the galaxy and do it as fast as I could. Nik left for the Galactic Institute of Historical Preservation, and the day I turned fifteen, I was accepted into the Strike Wing Academy.”
One brother lost himself in books, the other in speed. But she heard the sorrow in Zayn’s voice. “It didn’t make you happy?”
“Oh, it made me deliriously happy. And for a while, I forgot that we’d left Dathan all alone to deal with our father.”
“Looks to me like Dathan’s done just fine for himself.”
“Yeah. Now. Finding Eos soothed something ragged in him. Dad had done a number on him, but for a while he wasn’t okay, and I won’t ever forget that Nik and I left him there.”
“Maybe being in the Guild wasn’t that much worse than family life.”
Zayn fiddled with her hair. “Families can be a challenge but my brothers…they’re always there for me. No matter what. I wouldn’t trade that for anything.”
Now siblings were something Ria didn’t know anything about. Her fellow Guild assassins were just as likely to assassinate her if ordered. “I always thought that at least the Guild gave me a sense of belonging. But the level of trust and loyalty I see you have with your brothers… I’ve never experienced that.”
“Yeah, but family can drive you crazy as well.” His voice sounded lighter now. “Belonging is good, too. I had that with the Strike Wing.”
“You miss it?”
“The ships, yeah. The camaraderie, sometimes. But Nik, Dath, Malin, and now Eos, they give me that and more. But the Wing, we weren’t the same as family. Vik used to say we werefamily…but it always came down to the chain of command and the rules. She and I…we never explored our connection because it was against the rules. And the more I think about it, I’m not sure I would have trusted Vik to pick me over her damned precious rules anyway.”
They both fell into silence, and Ria stared hard at the trees. Then she noticed the trees were getting taller. A twinkle of light off the side of the track caught her eye. “Zayn, look.”
He peered over her shoulder. “Hot damn.” He directed the horse off the track, and they stopped at the edge of a waterhole.
It glimmered under the light of the twin moons. It wasn’t large and was fed by what looked like an underground spring that bubbled at one end. A small cave was carved back into the cliff face.
Zayn slid off the horse. Ria was pleased to see his pain was under control because he moved with his usual sleek movements. He gripped her waist and set her down. Then he was striding to the edge of the water. He slipped off his shirt as he went.
Her mouth went dry. There was enough light for her to make out the hard ridges of muscle in his back. He squatted at the edge, scooped up a handful of water and splashed it over his face. It ran down his bare chest, and she watched a trickle arrow down toward the waistband of his jeans.
She managed to get her brain functioning. “Don’t drink it. We don’t know if it’s contaminated.” She pulled the scanner from her boot and strode forward. She swung it over the pool.
His eyes had narrowed. “I thought I told you no technology.”
The scanner beeped. “Water’s drinkable.” She slipped the device back in her boot. “Lucky I’m not so hung up on rules.”
He pushed to his feet. “Lucky no one found it. I’ll scout around, collect some wood for a fire, and if we’re lucky, I might find us something to eat.”
“Okay.” She tried not to let her gaze linger on that sculpted chest.
He touched a gentle finger to her temple. “You should give this a good wash. Don’t want it to get infected before we get back to the ship.”
