Page 64 of Synnr's Ride

No. He refused to think it.

She groaned, and her head lolled to the other side before she blinked her eyes open. Their gazes locked. Then she scowled. "Zilly was in on it."

He nodded. "She has reinforcements."

He struggled against his restraints, but they were tight and competently tied. Maybe he could use his spark to loosen them, but he didn't want to risk it just yet. Hanna's own hands were tied in front of her, and she worked on the rope with her teeth. After a minute, she gave up and let her hands fall into her lap.

They were done. Major Ozar didn't know where they were, his comm was lying broken on the salt next to Kark's lifeless body, and it would be days or longer before anyone thought to check this place out.

He and Hanna would be long dead by then.

"I'm sorry." It was all he could think to say.

Hanna's face screwed up in confusion. "For what?"

He looked pointedly down at her bound hands and then back up. "For getting you into this situation."

"We got into this together, babe. And we're—" She snapped her mouth shut as voices rose on the other side of the door.

"This is a screw up of epic proportions!" It was Zilly's voice, but in a sharper tone than Jori had ever heard. She sounded hardened, not at all like the bubbly bartender who'd befriended Hanna.

"Do not take that tone with me." The second voice belonged to a man and was tinged with the tones of Kilrym. An Apsyn.

"Father—"

"No," he cut Zilly off. "You should have had this under control a long time ago."

There was a screech along the ground as something heavy moved. "I had that ogre on a tight leash, just as you instructed." Some of her sharpness softened. "He would have wasted everything we gave him on useless attacks and had us captured by the authorities in a matter of weeks."

"Get me a drink." Her father sounded tired. Jori had no sympathy for the man. "How did you let the agents get so close?"

There was a long pause before Zilly spoke. "Hanna sounded like one of us. I thought she was grifting that soldier, maybe trying to get some information. She never said anything that favored the bloody Synnrs."

Jori's gaze snaked over to Hanna at that. She was working on her bindings again and paused to give him a bit of a grin.

No, she certainly wasn't running a grift.

"At least we retrieved our payment, so this wasn't a total loss. I have my men stripping our hideaways. We'll be out of here in two hours. Have you killed the agents?"

There was another pause, and something too faint for Jori to hear.

"Braznon's bowels, girl! Do your job." He sounded more like a man chastising a misbehaving employee than a father talking to his daughter.

"We should bring them with us," Zilly said, sounding a bit frantic. "As hostages."

Even through the door, Jori could feel the tension in the air. "Explain."

"We're going to get out of this, some ordnance short and bodies on the ground, but we're clear. Next time that might not be so. If we keep them alive, we'll have something to trade for our freedom." The words tumbled out fast, as if she was making it up on the spot.

The woman might be the mastermind of Kark's operation, but maybe she didn't want to get her hands bloody.

"Keep the Synnr, we're not letting an Apsyn traitor live." Then there were footsteps as he left the room.

Jori stared at the door. His hands were behind his back, but he could still use his spark. He was running low on energy, but there was enough for this. Enough for Hanna.

Tension ran tight in every muscle as he strained. But Zilly didn't approach the door. And a moment later, her footsteps retreated out of the room.

Hanna gave the rope in her teeth one last tug and then jerked her hand through the opening she made with a wince. She scrambled over to him and started working on his own bindings, getting him free in a couple of minutes.

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