The Star Thief (Star Thief Chronicles 1)

“Everything regarding this mission is my business. Including you.”

Her lips quirked into a smirk. “Is that so? Then maybe instead of making assumptions about me, you could do me the courtesy of asking. I haven’t done a damn thing to make you distrust me, so what the hell is your problem?”

“You are my problem. Have been from day one. I don’t want you on my ship, on my team, or in my life.”

“Let me make one thing very clear.” Renna jabbed her finger into his hard chest. “You may not like me personally or the fact I’ve spent most of my life as a thief, but I am exceptional at my job and I take pride in doing it well. I’ve already saved MYTH’s ass twice, and it looks like I’ll be doing it again. So either get over yourself or get out of my way because I don’t f**king care what a washed-up coward thinks of me.”

“Coward?” he snarled, leaning over her threateningly. “You think I’m a coward for turning in Blur and his gang? You knew what he was selling! How could you go along with that?”

The heat from his body scorched Renna’s skin, and her pulse pounded in her ears. The headache she’d been fighting since Aldani had fixed her implant sliced through her brain, and she swayed on her feet.

Finn’s hand shot out again, but this time to steady her. “What’s wrong?” he demanded. “What did Aldani do to you?”

She shuddered as Finn touched his fingers to her neck, and when he pulled them away, blood coated his fingertips.

“Dammit.” Renna clapped her hand over the incision site and swallowed back the nausea from the pain. “Let me go. I need to take care of this.”

He scowled and shook his head. “Inside. Now.” Finn steered her into his room and forced her down into a chair before disappearing into the bathroom.

Finn’s room seemed much like hers, with the same plush rugs and soft fabrics. And the amazing bed. Just looking at it made her sleepy. There were no signs of its occupant, nothing personal to show who stayed there except the slight musky sandalwood smell of Finn himself.

She hated that she recognized his scent. Hated even more that it made something warm and safe curl through her.

Stop that, Renna.

Finn returned a moment later with a tube of Burmec and some gauze. “Hold your hair up. This’ll stop the bleeding.”

“It’s fine. I can take care of it myself.” She moved to get up, and he clamped a hand on her shoulder.

“I’ve got this.”

Renna shrugged and sat back in her chair, pulling her hair out of the way. “Do you patch up all of your crew like this?”

He paused, looked at her. “No. I don’t.”

She blinked, but he moved behind her before she could come up with a witty response. Finn’s warm fingers smeared the medication over her incision site. Her eyes drifted shut as he massaged the stiff muscles in her neck. Heaven.

Then she snapped them back open. She needed to stay focused. “What did you mean about Blur? What was he selling?”

“Are you telling me you honestly didn’t know? You ran those jobs for him.” His fingers stilled, and she fought the urge to ask him to continue.

“I didn’t know what the hell was going on with Blur and his top mercs. I just did what I was told. Most of my jobs were retrieving paperwork from a safe in the merchant district. I never read the stuff, just handed it over. That’s why Blur trusted me.”

There was a long moment of silence. “I assumed since he used you so often you knew the business.” He stopped and met her gaze with a tortured expression. “Blur didn’t just take retrieval contracts or other jobs no one else would touch. He was a slaver. The intel you brought him was on new victims—people who were in debt, people no one would miss. People like you, when you first came to us.”

The air in Renna’s lungs vacated, as if vaporized on impact. All she could do was stare at the dark screen of the holovid on the wall as waves of horror washed over her.

“It’s not true. Blur wasn’t like that.” He’d been kind. Always had time for her, even though he was busy running the business side of things.

“I didn’t believe it at first either, but I saw his books. I saw the documents you brought back to him. They were all the proof I needed to crack open the biggest slaving ring on the planet. I had to go to the police.” His voice was so low she only heard him because he was still crouched behind her, fingers grazing the back of her neck.

Renna swallowed. “Why did you think I would have gone along with that? Why didn’t you ask me?”

“You were a kid. And you were Blur’s prize pupil. I thought you were…involved.”

She would have laughed at his carefully chosen words if she hadn’t been so horrified. He still had no clue he was the one she’d crushed on back then. All the times she’d asked for a private training session in Bumani fighting, just so she could be close to him. “I thought you knew me better than that.”

“Blur said he had plans for you. You were sixteen, and he talked about how you and he…” He sucked in a deep breath. “Evidently he was lying about that, too.”

Finn’s fingers resumed rubbing the gel into her incision site. The silence stretched between them, but Renna had no idea what to say. No wonder he’d hated her. He’d thought she was part of the slaver ring. Thought she’d been sleeping with Blur. She would have felt the same.

“I’m sorry, Renna. I should have given you the benefit of the doubt. My only excuse is I didn’t trust anyone back then.”

“I get it.” She didn’t add that he’d been the only one she had trusted in the gang. “It’s over now. I need you to know I have never taken a job that involves the capture or selling of slaves, and I’ve turned in the few sent my way. It’s not part of the code.”

He chuckled, a warm raspy sound that made her stomach dance with butterflies. “The code. I can’t believe you still follow it. You were a quick study back then.”

“Some things haven’t changed.” She grinned, her shoulders relaxing like a weight had fallen from them.

His fingers rubbed at her sore muscles, and she finally let herself sink into the feeling. “And some things have. When did you get the implant?” he asked. “There wasn’t any mention of it in your file.”

“I’m sure there are a lot of things about me not in your file.” She could sit here all night if he kept doing that. He was actually rather pleasant when he wasn’t sniping at her.