“You’re right, though,” she said. “If I don’t go back, I don’t have anywhere else to go.”
Should he ask her? How would he put it? What would he say?
“But if I don’t tell them what happened to Risciter, what will I say? What will I say I did? Where will I say I was? Will I tell them you captured me and then you just let me go?” She looked at him. “And what will happen to you? They’ll think you hurt me. They’ll be after you. And you haven’t done anything wrong. Of course you’d want to kill Risciter. Anyone would. He’s...” She grimaced.
“Don’t worry about me,” said Keirth. “I’ll be fine. I can take care of myself, sweetheart.”
“Don’t call me that,” she said.
Keirth had to admit he was glad to see a little of her fire come back. He smiled.
She stood up. “No, there are too many things rolling around in my head. What if Risciter is dead, and they find out I’m a murderer, and they put me in jail? What if Risciter isn’t dead, and he comes back into society like nothing happened? I can’t let him get away with that. And no one would believe...” She gripped the back of her chair. “I need to know. I need to be sure that he’s dead.”
Keirth rubbed a hand over his face. “That’s not going to work.”
“Why not? Turn the ship around. Let’s go back.”
“When we left, you wanted to leave.” Despite feeling sorry for her, she was starting to annoy him again.
“I know that,” she said. “But I was in shock then, and I hadn’t had a chance to think. We need to go back and make sure, like you said.”
“No,” said Keirth. “He took my blaster, and I’m in a stolen ship. This is the last trip I’m taking in it. I’ll put this boat down, and I’ll find another one.”
“Okay,” she said. “So, then we get another ship. And I want a blaster too.”
She really wasn’t getting this, was she? “No, you’re not coming with me.”
She folded her arms over her chest. “Why not?”
Keirth’s mouth worked for a second, but no sound came out. She couldn’t seriously be asking that question, could she? “Because you’re Miss Ariana Gilit, and I’m a criminal, and you’d... It just doesn’t make any sense.”
“But I have to know.”
“So give me your comm number. I’ll send you a message when I’m sure he’s dead.”
“No,” she said. “Let me help.”
“You can’t help,” he said. “You’d just get in the way. Now, I’m sorry for everything. I really am. But I’m taking you home, and that’s all there is to it.”
Ariana surveyed him for several minutes, tilting her chin and looking down her nose. Then she turned and stalked out of the kitchen.
Kerith slumped in his chair. She was angry, but she had to see that it didn’t make any sense for him to drag her across the galaxy. She was a member of the nobility. It wasn’t his problem if she didn’t want to go home. He shoveled more of his noodles into his mouth. She might not like it, but it would be better for her. She’d see.
Suddenly, the ship started to shudder. There was a screeching noise radiating from the walls.
Oh no. Keirth leapt out of his chair and bolted for the bridge.
She was standing over the console.
“What did you do?” he said, even though that sound meant only one thing. He knew exactly what she’d done.
“I disengaged the hyperdrive and put us back in real space,” she said, looking triumphant.
He pushed her out of the way, hitting buttons on the console. “Yeah, that’s what I thought. Did you hear that screeching noise when you did that?”
“I guess so.”
He glared at her. “You guess so? You know what that sound was? That was the hyperdrive dying. You burned it out. It’ll have to be replaced.”
“Okay,” she said. “Is that really bad or something?”
“Kind of,” he said sarcastically. “We can’t go faster than light now.” He typed furiously on the console. “Where the hell are we anyway? Are we even back in the sector?” The console blinked the location at him. Damn it. He sat back in his chair. He could strangle Miss Ariana Gilit. He really could.
Chapter Seven
Ariana had her arms wrapped around herself. She stood back from Keirth as he scrambled around the bridge, checking various consoles and muttering to himself. “I’m sorry.”
Keirth glowered at her. “Well, you should be. You wanna know where we are, sweetheart? We’re in the middle of nowhere.”