Suddenly Zayn leaped up, knocking the small table over and sending drinks crashing to the floor. Darwood jumped, his face blanching white. Zayn gripped his shirt and lifted the smaller man a few inches off the sofa.
“Who the hell is feeding you info?” Zayn dropped Darwood and plucked at the man’s ear.
Ria watched in horror as Zayn picked up the small comm device and held it to his lips. “Where the hell are you? Talk to us and quit being a coward.”
Ria dragged in rapid breaths. He didn’t know where she was. She was safe.
“What the hell do you want?” he demanded.
“I can’t answer that. Not yet.” The words were out before she could stop them. She knew she wanted the Guild off her back. But this man was a stranger despite the fact she felt a powerful pull toward him. She wasn’t sure what to do about those feelings yet.
Zayn stilled, his gaze probing the crowd. “You’re a woman.”
“Problem with that?”
“Show yourself.”
Ria stood, turning her back on him and heading for the door. “Not yet. What I want you to know is that I need your help. Yours and your brothers’.”
“Funny way to get our attention. Stealing our hunts out from under us.”
“I got it, didn’t I?”
“Yeah. You need us to hunt something for you.”
“Yes, she whispered. “Something big.”
“That’s what they all say.”
“It’s an old Earth treasure. Ever heard of the Lincoln Derringer?”
“Hang on.” She heard Zayn talking to the others. Heard Dathan’s excited exclamations and Eos’ indrawn breath. “Apparently, we’ve heard of it. It was a small handgun used to assassinate a famous Terran president.”
“Yes. Abraham Lincoln. A president of the United States of America.”
“Okay, we’ll talk,” Zayn said. “Come out.”
She paused at the exit of the bar, resisting the urge to turn and go to him. But she wasn’t ready yet, the swirling emotions in her conflicted for so many reasons. “No. I’ll contact you.” She couldn’t resist a glance over her shoulder.
He was still looking around the bar, turning in a slow circle. Then suddenly, his head turned her way and his gaze collided with hers for the briefest second.
Ria’s pulse spiked. She turned and left the building as fast as she could.
“Flame-burned piece of crap.”Zayn yanked his bleeding hand back and swiped at the cut. He kicked the piece of the ship engine he was working on. Stupid part was stuck.
“Here.” His cousin, Malin, leaned over and handed him a rag.
He eyed the dirty thing, covered in black smudges of engine oil. At least he thought it was engine oil. “I’ll probably get an infection from that.”
“Big baby.” She pressed the rag to his hand. Then she passed him a small, slim tool. “Laser cutter will help get that off before you lose a body part.”
“Thanks.” He fired up the cutter and sliced into the metal.
“No, thank you for helping me pull scrap off these junkers.” She adjusted the cap pulled low over her choppily cut dark hair. She was dressed in baggy coveralls that swamped her tiny frame.
Zayn knew that just like he lived to go fast at the controls of a ship, Mal lived to tinker around with engines and pull scrap parts off broken-down ships. He glanced across the hangar. Their moon, actually a captured asteroid, was covered in the ruins of ships, like some sort of spaceship graveyard. Mal ran the scrap business while he and his brothers ran the treasure hunting. But Zayn knew more about ships than the others and often helped her out.
“I’ve got another shipment coming in soon,” Mal said. “Actually, from our cousins,”
