“The ship?”
“Let’s go look for a tracking device,” said Keirth. “If there’s no tracking device, I want you to calm down and go to sleep in your cottage. By yourself. That a deal?”
“I don’t know...”
“Is this about your safety or not, Ariana? Because if there’s some other reason you’re trying to get me to sleep in your bed—”
“No, I’m only frightened,” she protested.
“All right then. Is it a deal?”
She nodded.
* * *
Risciter eased into the darkened room upstairs in the main house. From the bed, he could hear gasps and grunts. He could see the shadowy forms locked together as he approached, his drugged handkerchief at the ready.
They saw him at the moment he struck, but it was too late.
The man was on top of the whore, and Risciter thrust his knife into the man’s neck at the same moment he covered the woman’s mouth with his handkerchief. She struggled, blood pouring out of the dying man onto body, but the drug worked quickly.
She was senseless in moments. Risciter drew his knife across her throat.
This whore was tainted by the attentions of the other man. He left the room in disgust.
In the next room, the woman was alone and asleep. Risciter crept close to her. There were so many of them here, it was like a buffet table of delights. He pulled the covers back from the whore’s body.
But he needed to keep his strength for Ariana, didn’t he? He couldn’t let himself be distracted by every pretty face in the brothel, could he?
Risciter put his knife to the woman’s throat. She stirred and murmured in her sleep.
If only he had time, the things he could do here. The way he could indulge... But he mustn’t. He had to remember why he was here. Ariana.
In a quick motion, he slit the whore’s throat.
She woke up at once, trying to scream, but it was too late.
Her hot blood spilled onto the pillows of her bed, onto Risciter’s hands. He gasped at the feel of it.
* * *
“See,” said Keirth, gesturing at the area above the doorway to the bridge, “there’s nothing there.” Keirth had ripped away the covering the minute they’d gotten on the ship.
Ariana chewed on her lip. There wasn’t a tracking device, then. She should feel relieved. But for some reason, she couldn’t explain it, she was sure she’d seen something in her room. And she had this feeling, this overwhelming feeling of dread.
“I don’t even think a ship this old can support one,” said Keirth. “There’s no place for it to connect to the ship’s infrastructure up here.” He fiddled with some wires.
Right. So they hadn’t been followed. So, then, who had been in her room? “I know we made a deal, but couldn’t you stay with me anyway?”
He turned to face her. “What’s going on, Ariana?”
“I’m scared,” she said. And she was. She didn’t know why, exactly, and probably in the light of morning, this would all seem stupid, but right now, she was absolutely positive that she didn’t want to be alone.
“So, this is about you being scared? It’s not about something else?”
“What else could it be about?”
Keirth began to put the casing back above the doorway and screw it in. “You’ve been through an absolutely horrible experience these past few days. I’ve been there. Sometimes, when people have dangerous experiences together, they begin to become closer. A bond forms.” He glanced at her. “I’m afraid you’re confusing that bond with something else.”
She just looked at him. She wasn’t really sure what he was talking about.
“You realize, don’t you,” Keirth continued, “that the most important thing for me is getting revenge on Risciter? I’m not exactly the kind of person who you can count on. Revenge comes first. Maybe you’re seeing me in the wrong light.”
“You’re a good man, Keirth,” she said. And she had to admit that she was enjoying the way his muscles were moving underneath his shirt as he replaced the casing. “I see you in completely the right light.”
“So, you aren’t angling for something else with trying to get me to sleep in the bed?”
That was what he thought? “No, of course not. I meant it to be exactly like it was on Trioth. We’d sleep there, but nothing more.”
He was finished putting up the casing. He looked at her. “And what makes you think that it was so easy for me to only sleep next to you, anyway?”
She wasn’t sure what he meant. But suddenly, he seemed very close. She could smell his scent. It was pleasant, a sort of musky, earthy smell. She had a funny urge to put her hand on his bicep and run her fingers over the muscle there. Gulping, she took a step back. “You said that you chose not to lie with women, so I thought...”