“Hey, hey, hey,” Caillen said in rapid succession as Chay went to the fight like he always did… with everything he had. “I don’t want him dead. I’d like to haul him in for questioning if you can refrain from execution for a few.”
“Lazy krikkin pacifists wanting to save the bunnies when they need to be skinned…” Chay grumbled under his breath before he called in for his fellow band of miscreants to help trap the assassin. “We’ll let him live, but you owe me, Dagan.”
“Bullshit. This is me claiming a debt you owe me.”
Aniwaya let out an annoyed breath. “Fine… asshole.”
Hauk arched a brow at Caillen as he closed the channel between their ships to keep Aniwaya from hearing their conversation. “Who’s our new friend?”
“One of the surliest pirate warlords in the business. Chayden Aniwaya.” He jerked his chin toward Fain. “Do you know him?”
“Why would I?”
“You’re both Tavali. I figured you might have run across him at some point in your travels.” The Tavali were an interstellar organization of pirates who flew under one single banner—their symbol was the same one Fain had on the mask he normally wore. A mask that also marked him as Tavali. It was a warning to others that if you messed with one of them, you messed with them all. They might be liars, thieves and riffraff, but they were loyal to each other to the end. No matter who you were or where you came from, if you bore their mark, you were family and they would all fight to protect you whether they knew you or not.
Fain snorted. “In case you’ve had massive damage to your temporal lobe, there happens to be a lot of us. There’s no way to know them all.”
“Yeah I know. You breed like rodents.”
Hauk cleared his throat to get Caillen’s attention back on his inquisition. “His girlfriend? How did you get hooked up with her?”
That was a long story so he shortened it. “She went to school with Kasen back in the day.”
“And you slept with her?”
Caillen let out a disgusted breath at his own rank stdity. If he could only change that… “Four years ago and in my defense she was seriously hot—even you’d have slept with her.” Hauk wasn’t fond of human women as a rule. “Lethal harita forgot to tell me she was engaged to Aniwaya who almost had both of my heads for it when he found out.” Not that Caillen blamed him. He’d have been pissed too. But really, it wasn’t his fault.
“How’d he find out?” Fain asked.
“She told him as soon as she crawled out of my bed. Apparently, I was a tool she wanted to use to strike at him and stupid me, I let her. She thought it’d be funny to betray him with a friend. Lucky me, huh?”
Hauk shook his head. “Yeah, some women will do it to you.”
And Hauk would know. It was amazing he’d even go near a woman again after what had happened to him.
Then again, sex was one hell of a motivator and they were dumb enough to let it rule them… “Tell me about it.” Caillen turned his attention back on the action outside.
Within seconds, Aniwaya and his band of pirates had the assassin routed and captured in a tractor beam. Damn, the renegade bastard made it look easy, but then when you had five people to move as a team it was a whole lot easier than when you only had yourself and one overemotional sister trying to do it. Aniwaya’s team moved like they shared a single mind. They knew each other so well that half the time they finished each other’s sentences.
It was the kind of team Caillen would kill for. Unfortunately, he’d never been able to find that many people who wouldn’t knife him in the back as soon as he let his guard down. Aniwaya had a rare team and they all knew it.
Chayden opened the link between ships. “Where you want him?”
Dead, but that wasn’t an option quite yet. “Sentella VII.”
Aniwaya let out a scoffing laugh. “Uh… yeah. Negatory, Captain. We’re not exactly welcomed there. So I think I’ll keep my head and my distance away from those psychos.”
Caillen was surprised by that. Usually the Sentella welcomed any pirate who preyed on the League and her allies which was what Chayden and his crew lived for. There was only one thing he could think of that would have them skittish of the Sentella. “Who’d you kill?”
“No one. We captured one of their extremely loaded and enticing supply ships a few months back and they’ve been a little cranky with us ever since.”
Yeah, that would do it. The Sentella didn’t like to be victimized in any way. “Chay…”
“Don’t give me no lip, Dagan. You’d have done it too if you’d seen what they carried and I can still shoot you down and no one would care.”
Well, he was right about that at present. In fact, his enemies would reward him mightily for it.
Hauk took over the conversation. “For the record, I would care if you shot us >
“Yeah, right. I’ve heard that before. How stupid do you think I am?”
Hauk passed an irritated look at Caillen.