“Tanin’s crew,” he clarified needlessly. “What do you know of them?”
She shrugged. “Seem like nice guys. A couple are a bit standoffish, but I’m not going to hold that against them.”
“Do you know who they are?”
“Delivery guys who saved our butts?” She smiled sweetly.
“They’re from Rik-Vane.”
“I suppose that means something to you.”
“It should mean something to you,” he said grimly. “Rik-Vane is a space station. It used to be a trading hub, but over time, and after some unfortunate circumstances, it was abandoned and taken over by criminals and scum. It’s a lawless place. Peacekeepers won’t go there without an army to back them up. It’s a place you go to disappear. To die. There is no one on Rik-Vane that is redeemable.”
And all the guys were from Rik-Vane. He was telling her that the universe wasn’t the only place that held danger for her if she chose this route. She was putting her life in the hands of a bunch of males that needed a no killing rule. Males that were ruthless in the way they dispatched pirates. That were from a place only the worst of the worst ever went to.
Males that hovered nervously around corners because they were scared of scaring her. That brought her soup and water when she was sick. That gave her the choice and means to defend herself.
“I find it interesting,” she said, reclining back at her ease, “that you are only telling me this now. And you’re going about it in such an indirect fashion.”
Ikvar didn’t say anything. Deep red eyes staring at her. Saying so much and nothing at all.
“You got nothing on them, do you?” She grinned. “If you thought you could get them for something, you’d already have done it. Then, you would use that as an excuse to keep us from staying with them for our own sake. But you have nothing but an origin.”
“Their identification is all faked.” He inclined his head. “Good ones, I’ll admit. They clearly paid a lot of credz for them. But we’re better. I might not have their real identities yet, but I know they’re not who they say they are. Except for Tanin, they’re all fake.”
She grinned. “Tanin is innocent?”
Ikvar said nothing for a second. Then-
“He’s never been caught. But that doesn’t mean innocent. It might be a lawless place, but it’s still observed. People are still watched. They still collect charges. In case they ever try to leave, we’ll be ready. Waiting. They won’t be allowed to rejoin society.”
Garnet frowned. “Well, that’s pretty shitty.”
“Excuse me?”
“So, you’re telling me anyone born there is raised a certain way, has to do what they need to in order to survive, and then they’re condemned for that if they ever try to escape?” She scoffed. “No wonder they got new IDs. I’d get one too if that was my only way out.”
“You’re empathizing with them.”
“Someone has to! You just told me they’re from a place that is lawless, then you tell me that they’re condemned for breaking the law if they try to leave it. You listen here,captain. Those guys have beennothingbut kind to me. They are sweet and nice and damn supportive. We got sick and they were bringing us food. They tried to give us a free ride and I had to make them let me pay them back. I’ve gotten worse treatment from my family. I would say that they’re not bad people at all. They’re good people who came from a bad place, and it made them band together to survive. And if that means shedding their past to become someone new with a respectable job, then I believe in their right to do that. And how dareyouget on your high horse and tell them that they were wrong!”
“My high what?”
“Unimportant. I said what I said, and I mean it. I don’t care where they’re from. The guys I met are good guys, and that’s enough for me to make my decision. And it ismydecision.”
Ikvar said nothing for a long moment, just stared at her. She glared back, eyes narrowing. His face was as impossible to read as Tanin’s, but she stood her ground.
She might not know much about their past or where they were from, but she knew when she talked to them that they weren’t bad guys.
After all, they could have given her and Goldie to that shinuk king. They could have turned them over and taken the money for doing so free and clear. If they were truly lawless monsters, it was exactly what they would have done. If they were so bad, they would have taken advantage of the two of them and they couldn’t have stopped them. They could have kept Garnet and Goldie a secret and not gone to the peacekeepers entirely, yet here they were.
Maybe they had done bad things, but that didn’t make them bad people. And if Garnet was to judge by how they treated her and her sister, they were nothing but good.
And this high handed, holier-than-thou soldier man could suck a fat one if he thought his prejudiced ideas about people he didn’t know would change her mind.
She stared him down, hands clenching the edge of the couch, daring him to say something else. Ready to defend Tanin and his crew with her whole heart.
That was probably why it was so disarming when Ikvar inclined his head before standing. “Very well. Let’s go then.”
