“Yeah it would.” Chayden laughed in an evil tone. “Think about it. Where’s the one place a prisoner on the run couldn’t dig it out and the one place you could put it without them knowing it? Fat of the ass, my friend. Fat. Of. The. Ass.”
Caillen groaned in pain as he realized Chayden was right. What better place to put one?
His ass. In fact, the fat there would actually help strengthen the signal.
Yeah, that made sense.
Cursing his luck, he returned the scanner to Desideria and turned around for her to scan his back. There was nothing as she hovered it over his shoulders and spine.
A second later as she neared his buttocks, he heard the sound of it locating the chip.
believable. It was right in the fleshy part of his left cheek. Of course. Where else would it be? And now that he thought about it, he remembered waking up with his ass sore the day after they’d arrested him. At the time he’d assumed they’d kicked him or dumped him hard on the ground.
He should have known better.
A krikkin tag.
“Will the degradations never end?”
Fain snorted. “Hey, just be glad you have your woman here. Otherwise we’d throw your carcass out the air lock before we went digging on your cheek for it.”
Sad thing was, he believed they would.
He handed Desideria a small laser scalpel from the medical pack and inwardly cringed at the thought of what she was about to do to him. “Can you do this?”
“So long as we don’t get hit by a blast.”
He cut a meaningful glare to their pilot. “Hold it steady, Chay.”
“I make no promises and bear no liability for your lunacy, her clumsiness or any injury my unfortunate luck, uncharacteristic ineptitude or continual stupidity may cause.”
Nice legal disclosure. Rotten bastard. He should have been a lawyer instead of a pirate. “I’m still going to take it out of your sorry hide if you screw me up for life. And if I die, I’m going to haunt you and shatter all power circuits whenever you need them most.”
Then he returned his gaze to Desideria whose brow was lined with worried concern. Damn, she was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. Never before had he trusted anyone the way he was trusting her right now. With his life. “For God’s sake, please don’t sneeze and if you’re holding a grudge against me for anything I did, real or imagined, I apologize profusely and swear I’ll never do it again.”
“Don’t worry, Caillen, I’ll be careful.”
He definitely hoped so. But the wicked gleam in her eye and slight smile on her lips made him wonder if he’d lie down as a rooster and get up as a hen.
Stop being paranoid. You can trust her.
After lying on the floor, he opened his fly and slid his pants down to his hips. Desideria held the scalpel so tight, her knuckles whitened. She was terrified and he hoped that meant she felt at least a little bit for him what he felt for her.
He winked at her to give her encouragement. “Just kiss it later and make it better, baby, and I’ll be all good with whatever you do.”
Desideria let out a low annoyed sound at his teasing. Would he never take anything seriously? But all things considered, she adored that about him. Her heart pounding over the task to come, she slid his pants down far enough that she could reach the area where the chip was embedded and yet still keep him dressed enough not to be embarrassed in front of the others. “So how big is this thing anyway?”
Chayden made a sound of irritation. “You know, that’s not really a question I want to hear my younger sister ask a man, especially not one I consider a friend, while he’s lying bare-assed on my floor.”
Hauk and Fain laughed.
Desideria was less than amused. “Remember, brother, I’m currently the only one holding a weapon.”
Caillen glared at him. “Really, Chay, why don’t you concentrate on the people trying to kill us right now? ’Preciate it, pun’kin.” He turned his attention to her. “About the size of your smallest fingernail.”
Fain laughed again. “Damn, I should have been taping that response and using it for playback at every party from here until I die.”
Desideria couldn’t believe how awful they were being given how dire this was.
Caillen glared at him before he finished his instructions. “It shouldn’t be more than a few centimeters in. Anything deeper and it wouldn’t transmit a strong enough signal to trace.”
She moved to make a small incision on his flesh. Just as she neared his skin with the scalpel, the ship spun sideways from a blast. She let out a small squeak as she narrowly missed slicing into Caillen. She’d barely pulled back in time. A second more and she could have really hurt him.
I could kill him by doing this…
That thought made her hands shake.
How could she do this? One slip and…
Caillen reached out and covered her hand with his. Those dark eyes seared her with the one thing she knew he didn’t give easily.
His trust.
“You can do it, baby. I have all faith in you.”