Page 99 of Reaper Said Mine

“That sounded like a threat.”

“It was more of a professional forecast.”

He laughs then, deep and sudden, and the sound fills the negotiation chamber so completely that I forget the room was built for conflict. It rolls through me, warm as engine heat, and I feel the bond answer with a sharp little pull behind my ribs.

Gnash reaches toward the projection and closes one claw through the air, collapsing the notes into a neat encrypted bundle. “I will give you access to the prior drafts.”

My breath catches. “Gnash.”

“Limited access. Supervised archive room. No external transmission until we discuss what you find.”

“That last part is dangerously close to prior restraint.”

“It is dangerously close to keeping my station alive.”

I hold his gaze. “I won’t let you bury the truth.”

“I am not asking you to bury it.”

“Then what are you asking?”

His hand lowers to the table beside mine, close but not touching. “Help me understand the battlefield before I choose where to bleed.”

The words go through me cleanly.

For a moment, the chamber, the treaty, the factions, the station, all of it recedes until only he remains. Gnash, who could have treated me as a symbolic prize after publicly claiming me. Gnash, who could have dismissed my notes as civilian arrogance. Gnash, who instead stands before me asking for judgment because he has recognized the value of my mind.

Desire is dangerous enough.

Respect may be worse.

“I’ll help,” I say.

He nods once, solemn as an oath. “Then we begin tonight.”

“Tonight?”

“The drafts are ugly. You like ugly truths.”

“I like sleeping occasionally.”

“No, you do not.”

“That is unfortunately accurate.”

His mouth curves again, and I hate how much I like earning that expression from him.

I gather my compad and shut down the last of the holo-notes. “For the record, letting a journalist into restricted treaty archives because she annoyed your enemies is either visionary leadership or terrible judgment.”

Gnash steps toward the door, waiting for me to fall in beside him. “Skahar says most leadership is terrible judgment with better posture.”

“Skahar may be the wisest person on this station.”

“He will be unbearable if you tell him that.”

“I’m absolutely going to tell him that.”

“Cruel woman.”