She glared at him. “You’re not funny.”
“Not trying to be. Simply an opportunistic entrepreneur in the purest sense of the word.”
She scoffed at his light tone as she made sure to keep her voice to a whisper like him. “How many sisters did you say you have?”
“Three. Why?”
“Tell me how it is they let you live this long?”
He pointed to the scar on his head. “I assure you, there was no lack of trying to kill me. I’m just really resilient.”
She followed him over a fallen tree. “Apparently.”
He slid something into his ear as he led her through the thick overgrown weeds, deeper into the forest.
She gestured toward his ear. “What is that?”
“An amp for sound, so please don’t scream or shout. It’d take out my eardrum.”
Which would be bad. Last thing she needed was for him to go down since she couldn’t show her face on this planet without being imprisoned or eaten. That thought made her draw her cloak tighter as she rushed to keep up with his long strides. “Is that what you were trying to tell me with all the earlier hand gesturing?”
Holding back a low-hanging limb, he paused to let her pass in front of him. “You don’t know League sign language?”
“Never heard of it.”
He shook his head as he retook the lead. “It’s a hand language soldiers and assassins use to communicate with each other when they’re on missions.”
That explained why she’d never seen it before, but not how he knew it. “Were you in the League?”
He laughed out loud, then instantly lowered his voice. “No. I learned it so that I could tell what they were saying while trying to capture me.”
Now that was interesting. What kind of criminal was he? “What exactly did you do before your father found you?”
“I survived, Princess. Most days only by the skin of my eyeteeth.”
She opened her mouth to ask him to elaborate, but before she could, he pointed up. She followed the line to see the hovercraft coming in.
Why wouldn’t they give up?
But that wasn’t what concerned her. The fact that a blast of orange shot through the clouds and into the ship did. She watched in horror as the ship disintegrated and then rained down burning debris all around them.
Oh dear Lord. The assassin had found their crash site and was coming in for a rematch.
Caillen took her arm and led her toward a small cut-out growth in a large tree. He pressed himself against her as the area around them was salted liberally with fire. “Looks like our friend decided to join the party.”
Desideririmaced as a part of the bark cut into her back. “How offended do you think he or she would be if we rescinded the invitation?”
“Well since their home-warming gift for us was an exploding Andarion hovercraft, I’d say they’d be real upset. They’d probably want to hurt us.”
She rolled her eyes at his sarcasm. “Do you have any weapons in your pack?”
“Not a one.”
She was stunned by that. He’d been so prepared for everything else. What kind of lunatic wouldn’t have at least one weapon at hand?
He winked at her, then unzipped his jacket to show her an arsenal strapped to his body.
Now that amazed her, especially given the close proximity she’d had to his body over the last few hours. “How have I not felt those?”
“I’m used to wearing them. And it wouldn’t do much good if a frotteur or pickpocket could feel them on me.”
Yet another word she didn’t know. “Frotteur?”
“Someone who takes sexual pleasure from rubbing their body up against another.” He clicked his tongue at her. “Frottisse is the female version. Feel free to partake of it with me anytime you so choose. I promise you I won’t mind in the least.”
How could he even contemplate sex while they were being fired on? The man was completely insane. And still, she was impressed with him. “To have been raised on the streets, you have an amazing vocabulary.”
“I have my sister Tessa to thank. Unlike me and my other two sisters, she liked to insult people so that they didn’t realize she was being cruel. Hence Kasen’s favorite phrase, ‘I’m gonna break Tess on your ass and call you names you’ll have to look up in order to be offended.’ ”
She laughed in spite of the danger. “Your sisters sound… interesting.”
“That’s a polite way of saying they’re all effing nuts. But it’s okay. Sanity waved good-bye to me a long time ago too.”
The fighter flew back over them. The sound of the engine was so loud Caillen jerked the amp out of his ear. He sucked his breath in sharply.
So much for not being able to pick up ambient sounds.
Damn.