She didn’t want them to see the way she’d barricaded the bed.
Alone in her room, she trembled with the compulsion to dive under the luxuriously beautifulcovers. She locked her knees, and at the abrupt movement, the rattling in her marrow seemed to jolt loose a deeper feeling—
Fury.
The prick of her teeth on the inside of her lips as she’d bit down to stop the scream of rejection was like a mouthful of tacks. She would spit those pins and blood at Blackworm until he screamed back.
When she returned with the blaster, Nor and Lishelle were sideby side, looking at the dat-pad.
She studied their grim faces. “What now?”
Nor shook his head, scowling. “Blackworm shouldn’t have been able to escape the penitentiary. And even if he did get out, he shouldn’t have been able to evade recapture. He’d have been implanted with a tracker and partially impaired with management drugs.”
Partially… He’d kept her and the other the Earth women he’dtaken comatose in stasis. Trixie wondered which was worse: to be partially drugged or out of it entirely. But she had zero sympathy when he’d brought his punishment on himself while she’d done nothing to deserve his attack.
Lishelle swore under her breath as she kept reading. “They say he must’ve had help.”
Nor frowned. “He was a Thorkon nobleman, shunned by the peerage for their own questionablereasons. But he still had connections and credits when he was captured by the captain of theSinner’s Prayer. All of that should have been stripped from him.”
“Apparently it wasn’t,” Lishelle said.
When Trixie held up the blaster cradled in her hand, Nor glanced at her sharply. His pale gaze took in her stance and the way she held the weapon, the same way the duke had studied her. Only thendid his eyes drop to the blaster.
“I’ll say this for the Duke of Azthronos,” he murmured. “He always buys top-of-the-line.”
“So it’s recharged?” Trixie pressed. “It’s ready to go?”
He smirked. “If I say yes, will you shoot me again?”
“Again?” Lishelle asked curiously.
Trixie shook her head. “Just don’t try to kiss me again.”
“Again?” Lishelle repeated with more asperity.
Nor straightened.“With the duke away, it falls on me as the commanding officer of the ducal flagship to oversee security for the estate.” He fixed Trixie with a gimlet stare. “You hold it like you know what you’re doing. But I want to see you in action.”
What was it about his words that made her blood run hot? She was just mad that he was questioning her when the duke had already given her his titled blessing.“I don’t have to prove myself to you.”
“I doubt you could,” he drawled. “I’ve been shooting one of those things—and not that nice either—almost before I could walk. But you need to show me that you’re not a menace to yourself and others.”
“Except for Blackworm,” Lishelle muttered.
Trixie stiffened at the thought, and Nor inclined his head, but only said, “It won’t come to that. He’s far away,and you are here in the safety of the estate.”
Trixie blew out a harsh breath to defuse the acid sting of her anger. “Fine,” she said through only partially gritted teeth. “Where shall I shoot you?”
“Shootforme,” he corrected. “There’s a firing range a short way from the estate. I’ll take you there—”
“I know where it is,” she said. “That’s where Raz took me.”
“Oh, so it’s Raz now,” Nor muttered.
Trixie flushed in embarrassment. “The duke,” she snapped. “Your boss. He said I could call him Raz.”
Lishelle watched the byplay between them with one sculpted brow arched high. “Well, isn’t this just interesting,” she murmured. In a louder voice, she added, “I’d come to chaperone—or referee—but I have a meeting with Cook in a half hour. Can younotshoot each other?”
“I shotathim,” Trixiecomplained.
