Page 28 of Smuggler's Beauty

Nannette nodded, her brow furrowed. “That’s the place.”

Evelyn caught Aiden’s eye. She’d yet to see this grim a look on his face. His entire demeanor had iced over in the past few moments, body tensed and ready for action.

“Well, that settles that. You’re absolutely going in armed,” Nannette said. She seemed to pull a knife from thin air and shoved it at Evelyn. “Boot. Now.”

Evelyn reached down and dragged the hem of her jeans up to shove the sheathed knife into her boot. She smoothed the fabric and sat up, reaching for her coffee again.

“Is there anything unique about the property that you can tell us?” Nannette went back to the board, uncapping the marker.

“No. It’s just a normal house with convenient access to a place to sneak a ship in. Couple of bedrooms. Bathrooms. Garage. But it’s been there for over a hundred years at this point. Who knows if the house is even still there. It could’ve been demoed. Or the inside could’ve been remodeled with a... panic room or something.”

She was proud that she’d caught herself before she used the phrase “torture chamber.” Tensions were already way too high in the lobby.

“Okay then. While this is shocking news, it doesn’t change my initial plan all that much. I was leaning toward talking you into carrying a weapon, anyway,” Nannette said.

Evelyn nodded and traced patterns in the condensation on her glass as Nannette gave the crew their marching orders. It touched something in Evelyn’s chest to see how seriously everyone took their assignments. The initial air of lighthearted necessity that had hung over the group had vanished with her coffee-sputtering revelation. Clarifying questions were asked, backup plans were made. Weapons were distributed. Nannette dismissed them all with an hour to go.

Not knowing what to do with the staggering quantity of goodwill that was emanating from the crew, Evelyn went back tothe observation deck and practiced drawing the knife from her boot while she let her mind wander.

She’d known these people for a handful of days. They owed her nothing, yet they were planning to risk their lives to keep her safe from whatever nefarious plan the mysterious Vinnie had in store for her. Could she ever repay them? Even just for the kindness of the past few days? If things went wrong, Evelyn didn’t know how she could ever possibly make restitution. Or live with the guilt.

There was no point in borrowing trouble.

There was plenty of it sitting around.

Earth grew closer. The gorgeous swirls of white clouds covering the deep blue oceans and rich green and brown swaths of land had always given Evelyn a deep sense of peace. On Earth she wasn’t a princess; she wasn’t a disappointment or a failure or a problem to be solved; she wasn’t an annoying little sister, a youngest child to shoehorn into place. She was just Evelyn.

Approaching the planet had always been a balm to her nerves, but now the sight of it was as foreboding as that meeting with Emil and her father all those years ago. If she focused hard enough, she could still smell the harsh aftershave the brute had worn, feel the wood of the negotiating table under her fingertips as they danced across the table.

She shoved the knife into its sheath and headed back down the stairs. She’d woolgathered long enough. Time to face the music.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Aiden had barely listenedto the rest of the briefing. Evelyn had finally relaxed a fraction. She’d been curling in on herself, an imploding ball of tension for days. She had looked much better after a few solid hours of sleep, and even more so after the news that they were not going to abandon her at the drop. But as soon as she’d heard the drop location, all that progress was destroyed.

He hadn’t liked watching Evelyn’s reaction to that piece of information one bit. If she wasn’t so determined to see the damn thing through, he’d have called it, payday be damned. Tariel wouldn’t die if he didn’t get out of his alimony payments.

Aiden had wanted to climb up after Evelyn when she went to the observation deck, but Lillian had caught his eye and given him a subtle head shake. He knew his mom was right. Evelyn needed her space to decompress.

What the fuck is Vinnie playing at?

He had been determined to deliver Evelyn to Vinnie safely before the briefing, but now nothing would prevent him from the task.

He headed back to his office to give his board one more thorough looking over. Each point had made its way into his mental filing system days ago, but it never hurt to look things over one more time. New context sometimes helped slide a connection into place.

He was still clueless.

At the very least, we’ll have some answers in a few hours.

Answers. For what good they’d do.

Since looking at the board was proving pointless, Aiden decided to wander into the kitchen. He found Nannette sharpening up the last knife against a leather strap. Razor sharp blades were safer blades, as such things went. He watched her hold the knife up at an angle to assess her progress. Satisfied, she flipped the strop and ran the blade across the smooth side to polish the edge further.

Veselko shoved past him into the kitchen and pulled out a chair across from Nannette. He plopped down, his bulky body doing a decent imitation of a boneless sack of muscles as he sat down. He used a foot to shove a chair out for Aiden to join them.

“I know I whine a lot about how boring it is to smuggle fuzzballs and baubles for rich idiots, but it’s a lot less stressful than this shit,” he said.

“At least you’re aware you’re a whiner,” Nannette said. She tucked the knife into the sheath at her hip and started to organize her cleaning supplies, neatly stacking everything in a storage tote while they watched. Aiden knew she wouldn’t let them help her clean up.