Miles inched closer to hear the conversation between Xander and Al. The moonlight helped him identify each man by their silhouette, but the overall darkness of the night made it difficult for him to clearly see their faces.
“Where’s my money?” Al asked.
“Money?” Xander spat back. “You’re as stupid as the rest of the Brigands. You weren’t supposed to leave any witnesses, and you left plenty. How’s life in Hell? It must be as shitty as it smells down here. Fucking Brigands.”
“You hired us to provoke the MPs, and we did.”
“Hardly. Dani took one of you out, and your other partner was caught. The Brigand council promised to handle the issue on their own, and they will once they find you.”
Miles tilted his head. It seemed odd to him that Xander would know Dani by name. Sure, Brigands knew her, but he was an MP.
“You can’t do anything to me, Xan. You’ll be shot for treason when the MPs find out you’re working for the Wardens.”
Xander’s arm arced out in a blur of motion. Al stumbled back, clutching his throat. Blood sprayed out from between his fingers. He made a few gurgling sounds before collapsing under the tree.
“Not if they don’t know,” Xander said with a shrug.
Xander had attacked the Brigand so quickly, Miles hadn’t had a chance to stop him from killing the other man. Miles reached for his service weapon and realized it wasn’t there. He’d dressed as a Brigand to meet Jace, so he didn’t have his pistol. They were impossible to conceal when wearing threadbare and tattered civilian garments. He gripped the hilt of his knife and emerged from the darker shadows, Jace beside him.
“Drop your weapon, Xander,” Miles said.
Xander’s eyes widened with momentary surprise that turned to a sneer. He turned the knife in his hand and wiped Al’s blood from his face with his other hand. “Always the pain in my ass, Miles.”
Miles stalked closer. Jace held his own blade ready as he knelt to check the fallen man.
“Dead?” Miles asked without taking his eyes from Xander.
“No, but he will be in a few more seconds,” Jace said. “An MP killing Brigands is bad news for MPs in Brigand territory. Good luck getting out of this one alive.”
“Drop the knife, Xander,” Miles said. “You’re under arrest.”
Xander laughed. “For killing a Brigand?”
“Murder and treason.” Miles really wished he had his plasma pistol instead of a knife. He’d killed the last MP he’d caught murdering Brigands, and he wanted to avoid having to kill another one.
“Treason? You’re taking the word of this piece of shit?” Xander pointed his blade at Al.
“I am.”
“You’re pathetic, stupid—and alone.”
Miles flicked his eyes to the side. Al’s corpse remained at the base of the tree, and Jace had vanished. Shit.
Xander lunged forward, and Miles darted aside. The blade still sliced through Miles’s shirt and caught the skin on his ribs. He winced at the injury, hating Xander more for his youth and speed. He wanted him arrested, not dead, but if forced to kill him, he would.
“Add slow to that list,” Xander said.
When Xander attacked again, Miles moved in to close the distance faster. He caught Xander’s wrist and twisted it to lock the joint, immobilizing his arm. Then he drove the grip end of his knife into the side of the younger man’s head. Miles kept his hold as Xander stumbled from the blow.
Despite being off balance, Xander managed to swing one leg out and clip Miles’s knee. Both men toppled into each other. Xander righted himself first, and Miles cried out in pain when Xander’s blade cut across his left jaw, leaving a deep gash. Miles rolled away from the follow-up attack, and Xander’s knife stabbed into the ground, all the way up to the hilt.
Miles rolled back toward Xander and drove his blade into his thigh.
Xander howled with pain. He growled and yanked his knife from the dirt. The pair tumbled on the ground, kicking and punching each other when able, and both men lost their weapons in the struggle.
Xander slammed his fist into Miles’s already wounded jaw, and Miles was stunned by the fresh wave of pain. He blinked a few times, and his vision cleared enough to see the stone Xander was holding in his hand. As he swung the stone downward, Miles got one arm up, just in time to keep the blow from connecting with his skull.
Pain filled his arm at the impact. He swung his uninjured arm up and grabbed Xander’s throat. He squeezed as hard as possible before realizing Xander had stopped fighting. The young man’s staring eyes turned toward the blade lodged in his chest.
Jace grabbed Xander from behind and pulled him away from Miles. He let the dying MP fall.
Miles sat up and tried to catch his breath and process everything.
“Think you’ll live?” Jace asked him.
“Uh, yeah.” Miles’s jaw and arm throbbed, but he was still alive.
Jace picked up Miles’s knife and stooped to pick up Xander’s as well.
“Stop!” Miles snapped. “Don’t touch his blade.”
Jace’s hand hung in the air a moment before he righted himself. “You and me, we’re deep in the shit now. MP kills a Brigand, Brigand kills the MP. Folks are coming after all that noise.”
Miles held his injured arm close to his body as he stood. People were indeed approaching. Three people came out of one of the buildings and joined two others heading toward the river. Xander’s eyes stared lifelessly at the sky. Miles placed his hand on the knife still lodged in Xander’s chest. He moved his palm and fingers over the grip, replacing Jace’s fingerprints with his own and transferring Xander’s blood to his hand.
“Do you have any of his blood on you?” Miles asked.
“No.”
“Good. Remove my sheath from my belt and put it on yours. Put your sheath on my belt. Hurry. Stop thinking so much, and do it!”
Once Jace’s sheath was attached to his belt, Miles used the lower part of his shirt to wipe it clean of any of Jace’s fingerprints. He then smudged the sheath with his own fingers. “Now wipe my knife and take it as yours.”
Jace nodded. “What about you?”
“The MPs would execute you for killing an MP, but I think I can get myself cleared as acting in self-defense.”
“So, you want me as your witness?”
“I want you to send someone to Hattie’s to contact the MPs and keep the Brigands from hanging me until the police arrive.”
“What? We don’t have much time left before the civilians get here.”
“You’re really taking the blame?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because you need to be around for Dani, not executed and in a grave.”
“Huh,” Jace said.
Miles wiped at the blood dripping from his jaw and winced at the tenderness around the laceration. “What?”
The footsteps neared, now only twenty or so paces away, and Miles raised his hands, palms out, to show he held no weapon. His arm throbbed worse with the movement, but he still held it up.
“Maybe you’re not as stupid as I thought,” Jace said.
Miles would have smiled at the sideways compliment, but his face hurt and the Brigands had arrived. Jace intervened while Miles remained silent, his hands raised. One of the men left for Hattie’s immediately; he increased his pace from a walk to a sprint when Jace yelled at him.
It seemed liked forever before the MPs arrived in their trucks. Miles was exhausted and sore from his fight with Xander. Two officers interviewed him and Jace while others examined the bodies and gathered evidence. They scanned the weapons, and the blood and fingerprints matched the story Miles had given them of Xander’s collaboration with the Brigands that attacked the MP families. They also bought the slightly concocted version of the fight he told them. Jace, deemed merely a witness to two MPs fighting, was allowed to leave, and Miles rode back to the barracks with the officers and corpses.
To keep Jace out of an MP jail and away from the executioner, Miles needed to take this secret to his grave. It would torture him to lie to Oliver and Dani, but Miles mostly wanted Dani to continue to believe her brother was just an overprotective curmudgeon—not a killer who would stab another man when he wasn’t looking. Jace had saved Miles’s life, but Miles didn’t think for one second that Jace had done it out of goodness. Jace had wanted Al dead; Xander had just beaten him to it. He’d been after blood, and he’d gotten it.