To his amazement, Desideria backed his position. “Caillen’s right. It’s too convenient and two well executed to be pulled off by two independent parties. Why would they both strike right at that same time? It smacks of collusion.”
Caillen pulled the clip where his uncle was being notified of his father’s death. The man actually stumbled from the weight of the news and had to be held up by his guards.
Could he be that good an actor?
It was possible and yet…
Why would his uncle want to kill Desideria’s mother? Aside from the fact she was a roaring bitch, he had nothing to gain by killing her too.
But who did?
Caillen stepped back. “I need to talk to my uncle.”
“Are you insane?” Hauk’s jaw went slack. “He’ll have you arrested if not executed on sight. The man either thinks you killed his brother, or, and more to the point, he knows for a fact you didn’t and doesn’t want you to talk and expose him.”
Hauk was right, but Caillen refused to listen to reason. Why should he start that bad habit now when he’d never listened to it before? “Work with me, Hau. Let’s say for a minute that my uncle’s not behind this… that means his life will be in danger too. The more I think about this, the more it’s looking like some kind of coup.”
Fain frowned. “But why would the Qills lie about—”
“Would you stop using that term?” Desideria snapped, cutting him off. “We don’t like it. We’re Qillaqs not Qills.”
Caillen admired her temerity, especially against Fain who was known to gut people for glancing at him askance.
Fain passed her an annoyed look, but true to form, refused to apologize. “Why would they lie?”
“I don’t know.” Caillen sighed. “But why hit both the Qillaqs”—he stressed the word to let Desideria know that he was trying not to insult her—“and the Exeterians? There has to be some connection.”
Hauk scratched his chin. “Maybe it has to do with the fact that the queen was about to start a war with your allies?”
Caillen sifted through more data. “There’s some vital something here that we’re missing.”
Fain sighed. “I think you’re giving it too much credit. No one says the two have to be connected. Weird shit happens. Trust me. I’m usually its favorite victim.”
Desideria narrowed her gaze as if she was still thinking it all through. “When I overheard them plotting to kill my mother, there was no mention of your father or you. Maybe it is coincidence.”
Caillen shook his head. “I don’t believe in coincidences.”
Hauk exchanged a wary look with Fain. “You said your uncle’s been a total bastard to you since you started living with your father. Maybe he’s the one who hired your kidnappers to kill you as a kid to get you out of the way so that he could inherit.”
That was just dumb, but he wasn’t about to say it to Hauk and start a fight. “Why wait to seize the throne then?” Had his uncle done that, he would have killed his father years ago and seized power.
No. Something else was going on here. He just needed to find out what.
“We’re onto something.” Caillen breathed. “I just don’t have enough pieces to put it together yet.”
Hauk let out a low growl as if he was as frustrated as Caillen. “First thing is to find the shooter, then, and question him.”
Caillen agreed. “Just don’t let Nykyrian interrogate him. We need the hitter capable of speech.”
Desideria frowned as she thought more about it too. “Wouldn’t it be better to talk to my mother’s Guard? They were trying to kill me and set us both up. You think they would know something about all this?”
“Princess Pain has a point,” Fain said.
She glared at him. “And could you please stop calling me that? My name’s Desideria.”
“But I like Princess Pain. It has a nice ring to it.”
Desideria barely resisted the urge to choke him. He was so much taller she’d be lucky if she could even get her hands around his throat. “It was bad enough when there was just Caillen. Now I have his friends to irritate me too. Gods save me.”
The words were barely out of her mouth before something struck the side of the ship.
Hard.
All of a sudden, a gruff voice rang out. “Open up! We’re detecting unauthorized heat signatures and weight in your ship.”
Fain let out a foul curse. “Ding-dong, children. The authorities are here.”
18
Hauk groaned audibly at the sound of the Enforcers firing on their door hatch, trying to break in. He met Caillen’s gaze. “For the record, it’s a death sentence to anyone caught helping you guys. Just so you know.”
“Appreciate the IFO update, pun’kin.” Caillen made that strange clicking noise with his tongue at him. “And that’s new for us how?”
Hauk sighed heavily. “I hate you, Dagan. I really do.”
“Know you do.” Caillen started flipping switches over his head. “Now pucker up, baby, you’re about to have to kiss my ass for saving yours.”