Agitation creased her brow. “We have no time to dawdle with inconsequentials. Every minute that ticks by is one my mother could be slaughtered.”
His father too. But that knowledge didn’t change their circumstances. “Let me lay this out for you, Princess. We are on a hostile planet with natives who will eat us if they catch us. Our pod is no longer transmitting a homing beacon which while it keeps the natives from identifying our origins and the assassin after us from finding our exact location, it also keeps our allies from rescuing us. And while your mother’s life really doesn’t matter much to me, my father’s does, so don’t think for one minute that you’re even an edge more motivated than I am. Because you’re not. However, if we die, it’s over for all of us and believe it or not, I’m doing my best to make sure we all survive. Body parts intact.”
She narrowed her gaze on him. There was no missing the shadow that hung heavy there in those dark eyes. “What aren’t you telling me?”
Her questions caught him off guard. “What do you mean?”
“You’re holding something back. I can tell by the look in your eyes. What is it?”
Caillen hesitated. Damn, she was perceptive—like his sister Shahara. She’d always had an uncanny ability to read him too.
He started to tell her nothing, but why lie? She needed to know and if she betrayed him here, she’d be cumake sher own throat. Andarions didn’t play and they didn’t tolerate offworlders—especially him. “I’m a wanted felon by the Andarions. While it’s technically been repealed by their prince and heir, I’m not about to trust a colony not to carry out my death sentence without notifying the capital government before I’m dead—they have a nasty tendency that way.”
All the color drained from her face. “What did you do?”
Caillen sighed. Again he started not to tell her. It was so stupid really. But if he didn’t answer her question, she’d probably assume him a rapist or something even more vile. “I’m housebroken, okay? But I don’t heel well. Prince Jullien grabbed my sister inappropriately and had trouble understanding the no word when she said it forcefully, so I busted loose a few of his teeth. Nykyrian repealed my death warrant when he was crowned, but, as I said, I don’t trust their government. And while I know Nyk would bail me out, he has to know about it first and since Jullien still has a hard-on for me over my assault, I’m not betting that these colonies have the most current wanted list—Jullien’s vindictive that way. My luck, the bounty for killing me’s even tripled.”
She gaped at him. “Surely Jullien would have something better to do than worry over a fight, especially if they’re anything like my people. That’s to be expected.”
Yeah, right. “Jullien isn’t a warrior and given the ass-whipping I gave him and his pompous arrogance, he definitely would leave it in place. That slimy bastard is the worst sort of scum.”
“Why do you hate him so?”
“Aside from him trying to rape my sister, he traded his own twin brother’s pregnant wife to his brother’s enemies so that they could kill her. And we, including me, almost lost our lives getting her out. That’s nothing compared to what he’s done to others. He’s a total scabbing bastard. The only reason he hasn’t been executed is that he’s royal and his grandmother has paid a fortune to the League to keep him breathing.”
He could see in her eyes that she was trying to understand Jullien’s crimes, but couldn’t quite mentally grasp them any more than he could. The man’s cruelty was only surpassed by his stupidity. “Their grandmother did nothing to him for betraying his own brother?” she asked.
“No. But believe me, Nyk did and I’m still amazed Nyk’s beating didn’t kill him. That being said Jullien will limp for eternity. Officially though, Jullien wasn’t punished except that he’s been removed from the line of succession. Which I guess to him is probably a fate worse than death. But in my opinion, he got off light.”
She shook her head. “And I thought my family was screwed up.”
“Yeah… Mine have their problems, but the worst thing I can say about my sisters is they’re self destructive… or in Kasen’s and Tess’s case, fatally stupid. The damage they’ve done to me was never intentional. The pry bar incident notwithstanding.”
Desideria paused at that last bit, curious about it. “Pry bar incident?”
He paused putting the things backullien was pack and let out a long suffering sigh. “When we were kids, I made Kasen mad enough, she threw a pry bar at me.” He pointed to the scar above his left brow. “Eight stitches.”
That had to hurt. “What did you do?”
An unexpected blush colored his cheeks. How strangely becoming even in his disguise. “In my defense I was six.”
Oh now this had to be good for him to be that embarrassed and to make excuses. “What did you do?”
He was actually bashful about it. “She refused to play court ball with me, so I burned down her dollhouse.”