THE PARADISE SNARE(102)
“You heard him last night!” Pavik shouted. “He denied having swoop-raced, and he gave us a fake name! Han Solo—right! Who knows what his real name is?”
“Stop it!” Bria cried. “Han Solo is his real name!”
“Then why is ‘Tallus Btyne’ listed as the swoop racing champion of Corellia last year?” Pavik said. “He can’t be both, Bria. Face it, the guy’s using an alias, and the only reason to do that is that he’s got stuff to hide! And this is the guy you want us to accept with open arms, just because you say so?”
“Oh, dear!” Sera wrung her hands.
Bria bit her lip to keep from shrieking.
“And another thing,” Pavik said. “My memory is starting to come back on this, and ‘Tallus Bryne’ wasn’t Solo’s only alias. The time I remembered was about three years earlier. He was just a kid, eating barbecue after a swoop race. That time, ‘Solo’ was ‘Keil Garris,’ the son of Venadar Garris. Remember him? That guy who went around one summer selling shares in that duralloy asteroid, and the whole thing turned out to be bogus? A scam?”
Bria did remember. “But even if this Garris man was a con artist, that doesn’t mean that Han—” Pavik threw up his arms in exasperation.
“Sis, don’t you remember how a couple of our friends’ parents were nearly wiped out from buying worthless shares in that nonexistent asteroid?” He snorted. “That whole Garris family was nothing but a bunch of con artists—and that includes your new boyfriend, Bria!”
“This is terrible!” Sera Tharen said. “Perhaps we should do something!”
Both Bria and Pavik ignored their mother.
“But Han was just a kid then,” she pointed out, fighting not to give in to tears. “You admitted that. He can’t be held responsible for what you say his parents did.”
“But he doesn’t have any parents—or so he told us!”
Bria glared at him. “Well, maybe they were his parents, and he’s disowned them because they were crooked,” she said. “Pavik, Han is a good person!
He’s had a tough life and wound up having to do things he didn’t like to survive, I already know that. But he’s turned around now! He’s trying to make something of himself, and you won’t give him that chance!”
Pavik snorted derisively. “If they even were his parents,” he said.
“Sis ˇ . . don’t be blinded by good looks and the fact that he rescued you! Face it, this guy may have romanced you because he’d checked our family out and found that Dad has money!”
“Oh, dear!” Sera said. “Do you mean that the boy is a thief?”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying, Mother,” Pavik said.
“I should go and check to see whether anything is missing,” Sera Tharen gasped. “Oh, dear, oh, dear, where shall I have him sleep tonight?”
“Mother, he’s not going to be here, tonight,” Pavik said. “I’m calling security. I’m sure this guy is wanted for all kinds of things.”
“Don’t you dare!” Bria cried. “If you call security I’ll never speak to any of you again! You’re wrong about Han! He had absolutely no idea my family was wealthy when we met. I never told him until we got here!”
“A guy like that has sources to check,” Pavik pointed out. “He probably checked you out within days of knowing you, and found out everything he needed to know.”
“No, he didn’t!”
“Bria … I’m not trying to be an ogre!” Pavik said. “I’m just trying to make you see reason! I don’t want you to be hurt, and I don’t want you to get involved with someone who lives on the wrong side of the law!”
“Han isn’t like that!” Bria cried, then taking a deep breath, she amended, “Okay, I admit that in the past he probably was. But he’s different now.
He’s going to enter the Imperial Academy and become an officer. Can’t you give him a chance? He’s trying to change his life!”
“That’s what he’s told you, Bria, but guys like that lie for a living,” Pavik said. “I’m calling security.”
“Oh, dear!”
“No!” Bria stared wildly at her brother, for a moment wishing she were wearing a blaster. She couldn’t let him do this!
Pavik’s hand was actually on the connect button on the comlink, when a voice from the doorway stopped him in his tracks. “Don’t, Pavik. I forbid it.”
All of them turned to see Renn Tharen standing there.