Kill by Numbers: In the Wake of the Templars Book Two by Loren Rhoads Page B

sensitive enough to register shades of sympathy. In this instance, Coni spoke Imperial Standard. She’d learned it at university, while studying human sociology. She said the words clearly, in a deadpan way that Raena could only take as mocking.
    Raena smiled, choosing to let the offense slide. “All the woe is over and done,” she said. “With your help, I’m going to be my own free woman soon.”
    “Then what?”
    “Hopefully, Mykah will find us some work that suits our various talents, for which we will be as well paid as when we claimed the Thallian bounty. Then we can continue to wallow in the luxury to which we’re becoming accustomed.”
    Coni chuckled, which did interesting things to her muzzle. The amusement didn’t change the expression in her purple eyes, though.
    Raena thought the blue-furred girl might say something about the drunken flirting with Mykah last night, but she didn’t. Raena didn’t bring it up either.
    Instead she said, “Thanks for your help, Coni. I couldn’t do this without you.”
    “That’s true.”
    “What I don’t really understand is why you’re going to so much trouble for me.”
    “I like a puzzle,” she said simply. “I’ve never made a person before. It’s both easier and not as easy as I expected.”
    “So you’re helping me because it’s fun?”
    Coni snorted. “We’re all helping you because it’s fun.”
    Then I’m safe as long as I continue to provide entertainment, Raena understood. No pressure there.
    “What did you do before?” Coni asked.
    “Before what?”
    “When you were running from Thallian.”
    “I got out of the Empire into the fringes of human contact as quickly as I could. I tried to stick to worlds where a lone human wouldn’t attract attention. I wore Viridian gloves all the time, always paid cash, and kept my hood up. It didn’t really help. The bounty was high enough to intrigue all kinds of people. So I want to try going legitimate for a change.”
    “Who’s looking for you now?”
    “No one. That’s why we’re not troubling to change my name.”
    But Raena wondered about Gavin: Would he just assume she was hiding and not bother to search for her real name?
    What did it matter, really? If he sent her a message, she could ignore it. If he sent her a package, he’d have to track down the Veracity first and the crew was smart enough not to open anything that came their way unexpectedly. Even if Gavin showed up in person, it wasn’t as if she couldn’t kick his ass from one side of the galaxy to the other. He might think of himself as a big, bad man, but having served under a truly bad man, Raena certainly wasn’t afraid of Gavin . Ultimately, he had too much self-doubt to be very dangerous. He didn’t feel like the universe owed him anything, because secretly he felt he wasn’t worthy of anything. Sooner or later, he would decide he wasn’t worthy of Raena—or at least that she wasn’t worthy of him. Probably all he wanted was closure.
    “Someone you want to tell me about?” Coni asked, fangs revealed in what might have been a smirk.
    “Old boyfriend,” Raena said. “He might try to look me up, but he’s not going to be any trouble.”
    “Your previous boyfriend was a lunatic,” Coni pointed out.
    “This guy might be, too, but he’s a whole lot less savage.”
    “I’m sensing a theme here.”
    “Not so much a theme as a common denominator,” Raena said.
    She wondered if Coni had been trying to be friendly, offering a girlfriend’s banter. Raena shook her head. She could use a girlfriend. Any sort of friend, really. Once again she reflected that she’d never really made a friend on her own, without Ariel to serve as a bridge or a buffer. Now, beyond trying to figure out human behavior, Raena had to unravel the blue-furred girl’s meanings, too.
    Why was it so much easier being friends with Vezali, who was even less humanoid that bipedal Coni? They didn’t even speak the same language, but hanging out