“Is this really necessary? Flames can’t hurt me.” I pulled at the padded, metal-lined suit, complete with a shielded helmet made out of Gartian grade alloy. “You’re not wearing one.” I glared at Ash, who was standing beside me in his normal every day clothes. No bulky metal enforced suit for him, apparently.

“Yes, but I have the common sense to stay a safe distance away. You’ll probably go rushing right up to the pod before it even pops open. Flames may not be able to hurt you, but other things can.”

I lifted my head up to try and see the sky as the pod was brought slowly down to the docking deck. The helmet shifted and thumped against my forehead. “Ouch!” I said demonstratively. The helmet was a tad too big for my head. The lender was the size of a mountain, and I was the size of a hill.

“Calm down, you can take it off soon. At least I’m not like Dar and making you stay back completely like he is with Masha.”

I awkwardly folded my arms over my chest. “As if you could make me do anything.” He’d coerced me into the suit with guilt, not exactly the same thing as being forced. The same outcome though. Fidgeting, I stared up at the sky, the pod was only a few yards up now. The curiosity of who or what was on it was killing me.

“My point exactly. Hence the suit.” His gaze darted to me from the corner of his eye, a smirk tipping the corner of his mouth up.

That smirk is going to be the death of me. I simultaneously wanted to smack and kiss it off his face. Maybe one right after the other? “Shut up already.” I hated how he kind of had a point. I probably wouldn’t be able to contain myself by the time the pod was on solid ground. I might have the urge to rush it just like Ash claimed I would. He already knew me so well. It was both annoying and endearing at the same time.

The pod finally touched down, and I held myself in check for close to a whole thirty seconds just to prove Ash wrong. But as soon as the same Gartian who had extracted me made a move to peel open the door, I was propelling myself forward. My thoughts were whirling around possibilities. If it was Nina, how had she known where I’d gone? And if it was a trap, why were the Denards only now attempting anything hostile against the Gartians since the G-Pox? Maybe they’d use the fact that they were technically harboring fugitives against them. There were so many possibilities.

I was pressed up against the Gartian’s back trying to see around him when Ash pulled me away. “Let the man work.”

“Thank you,” he rumbled to Ash.

“Well?” I ignored Ash, and began doing an extremely awkward bobbing and weaving dance to try and see what was going on. “Who or what is in there?”

The big Gartian hesitantly stepped back as Nina pulled herself from the pod. She’d already removed her helmet and also had enough good sense to not travel naked like I had. Not that I’d really made that choice.

Her blue eyes immediately found mine, and she strode confidently towards me. “Jane.”

I ripped my own helmet off, letting it clatter to the ground. “Nina. What are you doing here and how did you find me?”

“Don’t trust her,” Ash commanded.

“Why not? She’s the one who saved me.”

“She obviously had ulterior motives. Ambassador Aralias probably sent her. She’s his little lackey.” Ash’s voice oozed disdain—hatred even.

I shook my head to disagree, but then I thought twice about it. She had been the one that bathed me after my beating. And she’d just appeared out of nowhere, all conveniently with the codes and key … and now she was here. “Stop where you are, Nina. Why should we trust you?”

Nina stopped mid-stride and brought her foot down. She reached into her pocket, and placed something on her palm in offering. Unfortunately, she was too far away for me to see exactly what it was. “Because I brought you this.”

“What is it?” Ash asked with blatant suspicion.

“The chip. I brought you the chip you need.”

Ash and I glanced at each other. Obviously Nina didn’t know that it was a fake, and neither did Ambassador Aralias. He’d be tracking her now. “Shit. He’s going to come after all of us with a vengeance. Especially you.”

“No, he will not.” Nina’s lips tipped up into a tight-lipped smile. “I killed him. I killed them all.”

My jaw dropped. “Whaa— How?”

“I’ve been biding my time and waiting for the opportunity to present itself. I—”

“I don’t believe it,” Ash growled.

“Ash,” I chastised. “Let her speak.” I silently tacked on, “What the hell is wrong with you?”

The Gartian who had opened the pod, joined by three others, approached Nina quickly from behind. Before I had time to register what was happening, Nina was in laser cuffs and being led away. She’d let the chip fall to the ground as an offering, and didn’t so much as make a peep in protest at her treatment.

“What. The. Hell?” I had no idea what was going on. “What do you all seem to know that I don’t?”

Ash came to me and started undoing the locks on my ridiculous suit. “She’s a Denard.”

What? “Impossible.” Are they all so pretty? There was no denying that if it wasn’t for his … flawed personality, Ambassador Aralias would have been swoon worthy. And Nina was still stunning despite her scars.

“No, it’s not.” I heaved a sigh of relief as Ash pushed the suit off of me and it clanked to the ground. He turned me around to face him. “She is, or was, depending whether or not you believe what she said about the ambassador, his wife.”

Wow. And the surprises just kept on coming. “But I thought—he did that to her—the scars on her face?” I guess I’d just assumed with Ambassador Aralias’ predilection for giving pain to other people that Nina was some kind of abused servant slash sex slave or something.

Ash intertwined our fingers, tugging me along as he made his way back to the building we were guests in. I dragged my feet. “He did do those things to her. But it doesn’t change the fact that she is, or was his wife, and a Denard.”

I halted, causing Ash to almost pull me over. “It makes every difference in the world. Every difference in the world.” I snatched my hand away from his and glanced over my shoulder in the direction Nina had been led off in. “I need to talk to her. Please, Ash.”

The muscles in his jaw flexed. “At least let us confirm or deny the status of Ambassador Aralias before you do anything.” He raised his eyebrows. “Okay?”

I scrunched my nose. “Fine. But now. I need to know now.”

Shaking his head, Ash rolled his deep blue eyes. “Zula is right. You really were born without any patience.”

I trudged past him, scowling. I wasn’t a fan of the fact that Zula and Ash were discussing my negative personality traits when I wasn’t around—even if they were true and they had every right to complain. If you love someone, you bitch about them to their face. Everyone knows that. I pushed my annoyance aside, focusing on the more important task at hand. “Are you coming or what?”

“Of course I am.” Ash smirked.

Damn smirk. I will smack it and kiss it off. Both.

 

 

“It’s highly possible that such abuse could have made her hate Ambassador Aralias so fully that it didn’t matter anymore that she’s a Denard, too,” Zula stated.

Ash and I both ignored her, but for different reasons. Ash, because he was already over Zula’s information drops and lectures. It was evident by the glazed-over look in his eyes. Me, because I was fidgeting behind the Gartian who was on a little fact finding mission.

“Anything yet?” The Gartian ignored me. Most Gartians weren’t that friendly, I was noticing. Polite, yes. Friendly, no. Most of the time they didn’t bother to introduce themselves, and I was starting to have to refer to a lot of them with job descriptions tacked on to keep them straight. Like … Computer Gartian, Pod Opener Gartian, Cook Gartian, etc.

Finally Computer Gartian responded, “I have just confirmed the death of Ambassador Aralias … and his wife, when their ship exploded a few hours ago. The incident is still under investigation, but it’s thought to have been an engine malfunction combined with some extremely bad luck.”

Relief washed over me. If the ambassador was dead, did that mean what I thought it could mean? I looked over at Ash with elation. “I don’t have to stop being a bounty hunter!” I shrieked. “He’s dead!” I threw my arms around him and gave him a big, wet, sloppy kiss. “He’s dead!”

“Are you sure?” Ash asked Computer Gartian around my head, as I peppered his skin with kisses.

“Yes.”

“Eeeep!” I let go of Ash and happily skipped my way around the room. “This is amazing news!” I stopped short abruptly. “We need to go get Nina out of wherever she is because she obviously didn’t lie, and she faked her own death. That has to mean something, too.”

“All right. I’ll see what I can do. It’s ultimately not my decision, I just want you to realize that.”

“I know, but who can deny what she’s saying now?”

Ash sucked on his teeth. “We’ll see.”

Yes, it seemed anticlimactic that Ambassador Aralias had been killed so easily. But the Universe owed me. I’d definitely take his death as payment for all the crap I’d been through recently. Things were starting to look up again. At least I hoped they were. After all, the Universe had been known to play tricks on me before. I pushed my pessimistic thoughts aside. This was real life, not fiction, and no matter who you are … death can come easy.