“They didn’t know anything about it until the contract was signed. I was an adult, and it was my decision. They were not happy about it, but they couldn’t stay mad at me forever.”
Xaber chuckled and patted her hand. “I’m starting to see a pattern with you. Forgiveness instead of permission.”
“In my defense, this situation is vastly different. I didn’t know you at all when I told you my name was Tix. How was I supposed to know we’d wind up here?”
“You should have told us sooner,” Mace said.
She caught the note of betrayal in his voice and felt a pang of guilt.
“I thought about it more than once. It was just….” She sighed and blurted out the truth. “I was afraid that if I told you the truth, I’d lose all this.” She gestured around the cabin she’d made her own. A holo of her dads sat on a small desk in one corner. She’d asked permission to use ship’s fabricator to create some new clothes as well as several lengths of plum and gray fabrics that were now draped over the metal walls to soften them. She’d also created some pillows and a blanket to match.
“But mostly, I was afraid I’d lose you. Being with me wouldn’t be easy anymore. Everything about my situation is complicated.”
Mace growled. “How many times do I need to say this, temptress? Your battles areourbattles.”
Tears pricked her eyes as she turned toward him. “I think I needed to hear it one more time. You’re not the only ones with trust issues. I didn’t have a lot of friends growing up, because Amadox didn’t have many families living there. The ones I did have? They didn’t want to stay in contact once I signed away my freedom. Like being indentured was contagious. Boyfriends? Same thing. Zendi promised me that if anything happened to her, the contract would end. She lied about that. My whole life, the only ones who always had my back were my parents.” Sheswallowed to push down the lump in her throat. “Until I met the two of you. You changed everything, and I was afraid that telling you the truth would mean I’d be alone again.”
“You’re not alone anymore,” Xaber said. “But you still need to tell us what happened that day.”
“I think you can guess. Hamish saw me as his property. Not just as someone who owed him a set number of hours each day, but as a thing he could use any way he wanted. When hinting at what he wanted didn’t work, he got frustrated and tried to force things.”
Her stomach clenched as the memories took hold of her, dragging her back to that moment. “He grabbed me. I pushed him off. He punched me in the face. I grabbed a wrench and clocked him over the head with it. He dropped like a sack of rocks, and I ran. Staying wasn’t an option. I shoved a few things into my bag and took off before he woke up. I called a family friend who told my fathers what had happened. They figured out a way to get me off the station without being seen.”
She squeezed their hands. “I got a message less than an hour ago from my fathers. The first one since I left. They warned me that a bounty had been issued. I was in the shower, figuring out the best way to break the news to you when you came in bellowing like a pair of enraged Torskis. How did you find out?”
“Flek told us. He said we have a little time before anyone on the station finds out about the bounty on your head, but not much,” Xaber said.
“Which means your ass is staying on board this ship until we figure out our plan.”
“I appreciate the offer, but I can’t stay on theTrueforever. This bounty isn’t going away unless it’s paid, and I don’t have that kind of scrip.”
A thought occurred to her then, and she voiced her concern immediately. “And neither do either of you, so don’t even think about offering.”
“You saw the bounty posting? Did you see why it’s so high?” Xaber asked.
Something about his tone made her uneasy. “My parents sent me a copy of the first page, but not the whole thing. Just the bit with my name, photo, and the amount of the bounty. What else did it say?”
“You’re not going to like it,” Xaber warned.
“Tell me.”
She managed to stay quiet until Xaber reached the end of the list of her supposed crimes. Then she went ballistic.
“Thatqarfing,fraxxing, son of a star beast. The entire company wasn’t worth that much scrip, and there sure as hell wasn’t that much in his cheap, tiny office safe. A safe that he never locked because he couldn’t remember thefraxxingcode!”
She wanted to hit Hamish with a wrench again. Repeatedly. According to the information Flek had provided, that lying weasel had claimed she’d stolen a digital wallet from his safe. One loaded with a small fortune in scrip. In his version of events, the confrontation had happened in his office. He’d caught her breaking into his safe. When he tried to stop her, she had become violent and hit him over the head with some kind of weapon.
That part made her laugh. She didn’t need a weapon. She’d been in the garage, surrounded by tools. None of it made any sense. Especially the part where he claimed that along with the scrip, she’d made off with several expensive tools from the shop.
“How was I supposed to have escaped while carrying that lot?” she ranted. “Even if I only took one of each, I’d be lugging around more than thirty kilograms of crap.”
“I take it this asshole didn’t know much about the business he inherited. Do you think he picked the most expensive items listed on the shop’s inventory and claimed you took them?” Mace asked.
“That…is quite possible.” And it made perfect sense. “Hamish is both greedy and stupid. Insurance fraud would seem like a great idea to him.”
Xaber nodded. “Greedy and stupid are good. It means he’s not going to see us coming.”
“We’re going back there?” That sounded like the best idea ever and also the worst.
