CHAPTER TWO #2
“Shut up!” he snapped. She immediately pressed her lips together. Why couldn’t she just keep quiet? Why did she have to keep pushing all the time? Joey Nuts, a fellow thief, had once told her that her mouth was going to land her in hot water one day and he’d been right several times over so far.
Once she was silent he ran a darkly assessing gaze over her from head to toe.
“You’re too skinny. Too light. One good hit and you’ll be done for.”
She took offense. “I—”
“I said shut up!” he hissed in sharp warning.
She fought with herself, but she eventually shut her teeth together with a snap.
“Well, at least you can listen to commands … sometimes,” he said wearily. “And you’d have to, you know. Listen to commands. There’s only one person in charge of my group. It isn’t a democracy. What I say goes. End of story.”
She nodded vigorously. It was the first sign that he was actually going to accept her offer. She couldn’t believe it! She hadn’t thought she could convince him, but apparently she was better than she thought she was.
“Besides, my men could use some womanly entertainment,” he said, crushing her hopes entirely.
“Oh no!” she ground out. “No way. I am no one’s entertainment.”
“Then there’s no deal,” he said, turning back away from her.
Damn it all she was desperate but not that desperate.
But maybe she could agree with him just long enough to get Hero out of the inn stable and then take off before she found herself in a position to entertain anybody.
“Okay fine!” she snapped. “Fine. I’ll do whatever you want. Just let me come with you.”
Maxum turned back to her, working for all he was worth to hide his incredulousness.
He couldn’t believe what she had just agreed to.
It made him realize just how desperate she was and he felt a pang of guilt and regret.
Of course, he had no intention of letting her service all of his men, he’d simply been trying to find a way to get rid of her.
But now he found himself entertaining the idea of acquiring a thief—one who had just agreed to be the sexual slave of a group of rowdy men.
Hmm. He eyed her lithe body from head to toe.
Screw the rest of his men, but the idea of her being his sexual slave had definite merits.
He was still craving her, he discovered, even in spite of what she had done to him.
More the fool he. But he would make her sweat a bit before he let the little wench off the hook.
He might want her, but he’d be damned if he let himself have her in that way.
Oh, this is a bad idea, Maxum, he told himself with a groan. You have a goal and it’s something like this that can make you lose sight of it.
For all he knew one of the gods had put her in his path for expressly that purpose.
The thought made him frown. Now he was being paranoid.
But the fact of the matter was that one day the gods would figure out what he was up to and then there would be a hefty price to pay.
He simply had to make sure he was more than ready for it by the time they caught on.
Besides, what price could he pay that would be steeper than the one he was already paying? He had made the leap for immortality and had paid the price for it. Many times over. And the only other choice was to continue to pay that price for the rest of eternity.
He regarded her once again.
Come to think of it, she had a point. A thief could come in very handy. Provided she wasn’t overselling her skills, he might be able to use her in their next little adventure.
“Cooking, mending, thievery, and … sex,” he said, grinning on the last lasciviously—at least to her eye he was. “And five percent of the take.”
“Ten or you can forget it!” she snapped.
“Fine. Forget it then.”
She had no choice but to blink first. “Oh, all right. Five percent! But with the option to bump it up to ten after I have proved my worth.”
“You must be quite good in bed,” he mused, scratching his chin, “to merit ten percent.”
“I meant proving myself as a thief!”
“Oh,” he said, clearly being purposely obtuse. “Well, I guess that’d be fair. But I decide when you’ve proven yourself.”
“Of course,” she muttered.
“Now let’s go. I’ve already wasted enough time chasing after you.”
“Um …” They were moving again and she hurried to keep up with him. “There’s one other thing. I stabled my horse and I … um … don’t have the money to pay to get him back.”
He shot her a glare. “That was stupid,” he said.
“Well, I was planning on having cash and plenty of it,” she pointed out. “The gems on that thing would have fed me and my horse for a couple of months at least.”
He sighed, sounding very put upon. “Where is he?”
“The Ox and Lamb.”
“Lead the way,” he said, sweeping a hand in front of himself.
She hurried to get in front of him, which left him with a rather nice view of her bottom in the skin-tight breeches she wore.
They were practically obscene, he thought grouchily as he forced his gaze to the crowd, making sure to keep an eye out for trouble in case there was any.
Cities were known for being wild cards. There was always the potential for trouble.
Of course some were maintained better than others.
When his brothers ruled a city there was very little in the way of crime and discontented behaviors.
People didn’t starve in his brothers’ cities.
But none of that mattered. What mattered now was getting to the Ox and Lamb and then gathering up his men.
Upon reaching the city he had immediately sought out the five most likely places a thief might go to sell a pricey item.
Fro’s had come up first and foremost, so he had taken to watching for her there.
He had sent his men to the four other likely places on the off chance she would go there but he had suspected she would take the easiest and quickest route first and he had been right.
She was damn smart, but desperation had made her drop her guard.
He had no doubt that she would have preferred to skip the nearest city and ride to the next one just to avoid the possibility of getting caught, but clearly she’d had no other choice.
And now, looking at her more critically, she did look a little thin. Like she hadn’t been eating regularly. He wondered how she had let it get so bad.
“So if you’re such a good thief, why are you starving?”
Her step faltered a little and she stole a glance at him over her shoulder. “A string of bad luck,” she said. “Besides if I can avoid thieving I do. Getting caught is always a possibility no matter how good you are and some things just aren’t worth the risk.”
“And yet you risked thieving from someone like me,” he said, his tone low and dangerous, almost angry. Was he still peeved about her swiping the talisman? That was over and done with, he should learn to move on, she thought.
What she didn’t know was that he wasn’t angry because she had stolen from him but that she had risked her little neck stealing from someone like him.
Had he been a different man he might have sought a fierce retribution.
He could have easily been the type to kill a thief for something like that, woman or no.
“I didn’t have much of a choice. As you’ve noted, I am in a bad way.”
“Maybe you should give up thieving, find a good man, and settle down.”
She scoffed and shot him an acidic glare. “You’re just saying that because I’m a woman.”
“You’re damn right I am! Traveling the open country is no place for a woman alone. You could find yourself in all kinds of trouble.”
“You mean like now?” she muttered. Louder she said, “Are you going to lecture me the entire time we’re together? If so, I’m going to have to rethink this situation. I could easily go back to the market and pick a few pockets for the cost of my horse.”
It would be a risk … a great risk. Each pocket picked was one pocket closer to getting caught. But risk was a thief’s forte. She was just afraid desperation would make her sloppy. As it already had. Otherwise he’d have never caught her.
“Consider it a perk of being with my group,” he said with a smug grin.
She grumbled some more and continued to lead the way.
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