Page 38 of Smuggler's Beauty

And I made everything worse. Can’t forget that part.

“You put your physical safety and personal happiness aside to save a planet of people you’ve served your entire life. Don’t minimize.”

Evelyn gave a sad smile. “Perspective is a bit different from my side. I don’t feel like a hero.”

“Most heroes don’t.” Corvinia got up from her chair, shoving pins into her pocket. “I’m going to head back to my ship, give you some thinking time. I’ll be back tomorrow.”

She gave Evelyn a kiss on the forehead, and headed back through the slider. Another engine purred to life moments later. Evelyn took in the stars and settled back to think, snuggling more securely into her cardigan.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Aiden’s gutchurned the entire drive back to theDawn. He had managed to convince himself that the complicated part of the gig would be over as soon as they got some answers out of Vinnie. Now he knew how wrong he had been.

The one bright spot in the whole clusterfuck was that he was now officially no longer responsible for the transportation of an — albeit willing — abductee. He could now give himself permission to lust after Evelyn without that millstone around his neck.

The cars arrived back at the spaceport and the crew filed onto theRising Dawn. Cairn had landed the ship once it became evident that the Vinnie situation was more complicated than anything they’d anticipated. Cairn was there in the lobby, seated at a cafe table, bouncing his foot with impatience. When they walked in, he slammed the Western he was reading down on the table with the pages splayed.

“Oh, honestly,” Lillian said. “Use a bookmark.”

Cairn shrugged. “The spine’s already broken.” He got up and went to give his wife a kiss hello. Aiden thought that he kissedVeronique as if he hadn’t seen her in years, not hours. A faint pang of jealousy spread through his chest, but he pushed it back.

Not the time.

They gathered chairs into a loose circle. Tariel took his seat on the piano bench, but for once his fingers didn’t absently dance across the keys.

“So. We’ve been invited to a coup,” Veselko said. “Baby’s first hostile takeover.”

Elenor snorted.

“This is a lot more . . . well, intense than anything we’ve been handling lately,” Aiden said. “What do we think? Risk vs. reward?”

“We need so many more details before we make a real decision, Aiden,” Nannette said. “What is really going to be expected of us? We have very specialized skills. How does Vinnie want us to use them?”

Aiden looked for the whiteboard and cursed under his breath when he realized he’d wheeled it back to his office. He grabbed a stack of cocktail napkins and started making notes with a pen he found behind the bar.

“How exposed would we be?” Lillian added. “We need to be able to keep a modicum of cover in tact for some of our jobs.”

“Yeah, some of us need to keep a low profile,” Nannette said, biting her thumbnail. Aiden nodded as he scribbled. Nannette needed to keep a lower profile than the rest of them. Her father had never stopped looking for her after the crew of theDawnhad helped her escape, and he sincerely doubted that the man ever would. Was she starting to get as itchy on the ship as he was?

“Tariel and I can do a lot with a large budget for disguises, but there are limits,” Veronique said. “And we need prosthetics if we’re to slide by recognition software.”

“I think we should prepare papers for Evelyn. Just in case,” Tariel said from the piano bench. “I think she’s too loyal to not go through with Vinnie’s crazy plan, but the girl deserves an out, and I sincerely doubt Vinnie would get her identification she couldn’t track at a moment’s notice.”

“I agree,” said Elenor. “Poor thing. She keeps getting served shit sandwiches.”

“So eloquent,” Lillian said, giving Elenor a pat on the thigh.

“What? She does.” Elenor looked around the room. “Would any of you say she’s not being served a shit sandwich?”

“You put it very bluntly, Elenor. But you make a good point,” Veselko said. “Aren’t they a planet of pacifist artists? Are we going to need to deliver arms in addition to the princess?”

Aiden saw Nannette’s face noticeably brighten at that thought. She hadn’t gone arms shopping in entirely too long.

“Outfitting a revolution is going to cost. How much is Vinnie willing to spend?”

Aiden added what looked like “weapons budget” to his napkin stack if he squinted. He probably needed to slow down his writing if he was having a hard time distinguishing his own words. He could definitely make out “propaganda campaign?” and “transport Evelyn in secret” on the small squares. They’d translate to the board just fine.

He looked up from his notes and gave the others a grin. “The vibe I’m getting is that you lunatics would like to help if the price is right and the plan is more than a piece of paper that says “stage coup” on it,” he said, fiddling with his pen.