He inclined his head to her.
A furious light sparked in his eyes as he returned to where Fain watched them. “You are such an insensitive ass. You know you don’t just blurt out someone’s parents are dead and then describe it.”
Fain wasn’t the least bit contrite. “Why? You didn’t vomit. Besides, I’d kill to have someone give me news that good.” He glanced back to where Desideria was pushing herself to her feet. “By the way, is she going to do that for long? If she is, I say we leave her in the head and flush her out the air lock once we’re launched.”
Caillen tossed a knife at his head which he caught without hesitation.
“What?” Fain was truly baffled by Caillen’s indignation and her sympathy for her mother. “It’s not my fault I forget how sensitive you humans are. Our women don’t cry.”
“Oh trust me, Fain. Any living Andarion female who’s forced to bed down with you weeps hysterically at the mere thought of that horror.”
Fain threw the knife back at him.
Caillen caught it without blinking.
Desideria had barely pulled herself together when another Andarion male entered the shuttle and quickly closed the door behind him. This one she recognized from Caillen’s pictures.
It was Dancer.
Dancer scowled as he felt the tension between them. His gaze went from his brother to her and then to Caillen who still looked like he wanted to shoot Fain. “What’d I miss?”
“Your brother’s an idiot,” Caillen snarled.
“Yeah, I know.”
Fain scoffed at Dancer’s calm acceptance. “You don’t have to agree with him.”
“You don’t have to be an idiot either. But I notice that doesn’t stop you from it. And I’ve seen you actually use your brain, so I know you have one.” Dancer glanced back to Caillen. “So what’d he do?”
Fain gestured toward them. “I just told them their parents were dead and she threw up.
“Ah, krik, Fain…” He broke off into Andarion and for several seconds the two of them argued back and forth while gesturing wildly.
Caillen whistled to get their attention. “You two can play a round of Insult My Gene Pool later. Right now, we need to focus on getting us out of here.”
Fain snorted. “Not so easy, brother. Anyone leaving here will be scanned for hijackers. I don’t think you understand that there’s a ten-million-credit bounty on each of your heads. For that kind of money, you’re lucky I’m not handing you in.”
Caillen was stunned by an amount that was usually reserved for traitors, pedophiles and rogue assassins… and now two royal members of the council. “Ten million credits?”
“Each,” Fain reiterated.
“Shit. For that, I’m tempted to hand myself in.”
Dancer, who normally only went by his last name Hauk, because face it, Dancer sucked, was a smaller version of his older brother. But no less fierce. Aside from their difference in height and build, it would be hard to tell them apart. “Don’t be so hasty, Cai. Alive, you’re only worth three.”
Now that was just cold and wrong. But it also told him that they were being framed by someone who wanted to make damn sure the truth never came out. “Are you kidding?”
Hauk shook his head.
“Who issued the bounty?” Caillen asked.
“The League,” Hauk said snidely. “They’re forcing each of your planets to cough up the money.”
Great. So much for hoping the one leading the investigation would help him find the truth. He should have known it wouldn’t be that easy. All the League would want was closure and if they had to kill two innocent people for it, they really couldn’t care less. “Did anyone defend us?”
Hauk shook his head again. “Threw you to the wolves.” He flipped on a monitor and did a quick search to show Caillen the cold, harsh truth. News article after news article had them convicted. Everyone they’d interviewed said they weren’t surprised by either of their actions.
Even Desideria’s two sisters.
You have Darling and Maris. No one had interviewed them and they hadn’t betrayed him, but then given the severity of the crime they were charging them with that was probably for the best. Had they stepped forward at this point to defend them, they would probably be charged as accessories.