I pursed my lips, looking down at my wrist, where he’d touched me. “Why is that lightsaber so important?”
“It just is.”
Which still wasn’t an answer.
“Sorry,” I mumbled, and tried to leave again, but with his long legs, he managed to get in front of me and block my way around.
“I just need to get off this planet,” he said.
I felt myself tense like a trapped creature. He was tall and broad, a certifiable brick wall I wouldn’t be able to budge, but Icouldscream, and that was just as potent. Then everyone in the hangar would come running…includingthe people looking for us both.
Which also wasn’t great.
“Please,” he added, and then seeming to realize he was blocking my way, he agonizingly stepped aside.
I should have fled then. I should have been halfway up the ramp to hangar eighty-nine. Instead, I gave it a thought. I really shouldn’t have. But he hadn’t lied to me yet, even if he wouldn’t answerallmy questions. He was on the run, and it did make sense that a tour ship was trickier to track than a passenger one. It was like running in a zigzag versus a straight line—harder to hit you if you kept them guessing where you’d turn.
And then there was the whole mess with those First Order goons….
I chewed on my bottom lip as I thought it all through. “You get off at the first stop.”
“That’s fine.”
“Tomorrow.”
“Perfect, I hate travel.”
This was a terrible idea. I’d already saved him once, but then again he’d savedme, too. And if anyone couldsmuggle him out, it would be me.Still…I bit the inside of my cheek. “Okay.”
Relief flooded his face. “Really? You mean it?”
“Yeah. I’ll go tell my dad—”
He gave a start. “No!No—the less people who know about me, the better. I promise you that. You saw how those First Order officers hunted me,andyou. I don’t want them after the whole ship.”
The chances of someone on the ship finding him were ridiculously high, and what if he did something while on the ship? Stole something? Vandalized? Ate one of Veebee’s rare century eggs? I outstretched my hand. “We’ll try, but while you’re on my ship, I’m holding on to that thing.”
His eyes widened. “What? No. Out of the question.”
“Then we don’t have a deal.”
Frustrated, he set his jaw. “You’re asking for the moon, Starlight.”
My eyelids fluttered at the nickname. It surprised me. “I’m…just asking for collateral. You’ll get it back when you leave.”
“How can I trust you?”
“And how can I trustyou?” I echoed.
He shifted, muttering to the creature on his shoulder, and then extended the saber to me. “Fine. It doesn’t work, anyway. It’s broken.”
“Even better. We don’t usually allow weapons on theStarfarer.” I put the saber into my leather jacket and then glanced one more time around the crate. It would be hard to smuggle him onto theStarfarer—and if we got caught I’d have to explain it all to my father, and I doubted he’d take Sian’s dodgy answers in stride like I did. Then there was Kotti, who couldn’t keep a secret to save her life, and if anyone else saw him…
My attention returned to the crate itself.perishables, it read, bound for theStarfarer, full of food to restock the galley. “I have an idea.”
He hesitated. “Will I like it?”
“Depends. Do you like pickled fleek eels?”
