He spat the blood out of his mouth. “Other than those pants make your ass look fat?”
Bastien had to bite back a laugh. Ah, man, the Andarion wanted to die painfully.
She kicked him hard in the ribs.
That was actually kinder than Bastien had expected given the severity of that insult. ’Cause he knew what his sister would have done had he ever made the mistake of saying that to her and he didn’t even want to contemplate what Ember would have done to him.
Suddenly, a blast of color shot within an inch of Telise’s face. “Touch him again and the next one goes right between your eyes.”
Sumi! Thank the gods. Someone with a brain Dancer would finally listen to.
Telise reached for her blaster.
Sumi let fly a shot straight into her shoulder. “Hands up or lose your head.”
Telise glared at her. “You don’t know who you’re dealing with.”
“Neither do you.” Sumi held her hand up to show the brand on her wrist that told them all she was a trained League assassin.
Bastien’s jaw dropped as he realized he’d been helping his enemies.
Again.
Fuck me.…
And with that revelation, he vaguely recalled her mentioning that she was League trained before she took off with Darice for their little adventure up the mountain, but with his thoughts on Ember, it’d blown right past his attention.
Now, too late, he remembered that vital detail. Shit! That kind of carelessness could cost him his head.
He was lucky Sumi hadn’t already gutted him.
“Unless you’ve got another League assassin in your camp, I suggest you free them, or I will bathe in the blood of every whore here.”
Bastien saw one of the others coming up behind Sumi. With the expert training that marked all her breed, she spun and shot the woman, then caught another one he hadn’t seen at all.
And her blaster wasn’t set to stun. She killed them both without flinching.
I’m so screwed. Bastien saw his future and knew he wouldn’t make it out of this alive.
Sumi now had both weapons drawn as she surveyed the women. “Anyone else want to die today?” she called out to them. “Please! I’m so in the mood for it.” She turned back to Telise. “What about you, harita?”
Glaring at her, Telise reached into her pocket. Instead of keys, she drew a dagger and moved for Dancer.
She was dead before she took more than a step.
When one of them started running for cover, an explosion rocked the camp and drove the woman to the ground.
Sumi tsked. “I have charges set all over this place. Enough to blow us all to the outer atmosphere. Don’t push me, people. Now who wants to be my friend and free my male for me?”
Pheara came forward with the keys. She kept her hands out so that Sumi wouldn’t mistake her intentions. “We weren’t going to hurt him.”
Sumi stalked forward. “Then why’s he bleeding?”
She swallowed hard. “Telise did that. We … we had nothing to do with it. Just take him and go.” She freed Dancer, then Bastien, and stepped back.
Dancer pushed himself to his feet and retrieved Telise’s blaster from her body.
Sumi’s gaze skimmed him from head to toe. “You okay, baby?”
He shot two of the women with a stun blast. “Better now.”
“Bastien?”
Not sure why she hadn’t taken him into custody, or killed him, he wiped at the blood on his wrists. “All good. At least until Hauk keeps his promise to beat my ass.”
Or Sumi decided to get a rank advancement by taking his scalp.
Sumi turned back to Pheara. “Where are our weapons?”
Pheara gestured toward Telise’s tent. “In there.”
“I’ll get them,” Bastien offered. The sooner he had a means to protect himself, the better he’d feel.
Moving so that her back was against Dancer’s, Sumi kept her gaze on the women until Bastien came back and belted his holster around his hips.
He tossed Dancer’s weapons to him, and made sure to keep his senses alert to what Sumi was doing and where she was positioned. He was not about to go down without a fight. Ever.
And given how Hauk felt about his woman, Bastien would most likely have to take them both out to save his own ass.
“Before we leave, I want to do something.” Dancer went to Pheara and jerked the keys from her hand. “Is this the biofeed bypass?”
“Yeah.”
He met Sumi’s curious gaze. “Round the women up and follow me.”
“You heard him. Haritas on parade. Let’s go.” Sumi and Bastien, making sure to keep Sumi in front of him, followed Dancer to the cage where the other two men were being held.
Dancer opened the door and released them before he made the six remaining women file inside it. He locked the door and tossed the keys to one of the men. “Happy birthday.”
And with that, Dancer draped his arm over Sumi’s shoulders so that she could lead him away while Bastien stayed to the rear. While Dancer might trust an assassin at his back, Bastien wasn’t about to, now that he knew who and what she was.