Chapter 17
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Aiden’s gut churned the entire drive back to the Dawn. He had managed to convince himself that the complicated part of the gig would be over as soon as they got some answers out of Vinnie. Now he knew how wrong he had been.
The one bright spot in the whole clusterfuck was that he was now officially no longer responsible for the transportation of an — albeit willing — abductee. He could now give himself permission to lust after Evelyn without that millstone around his neck.
The cars arrived back at the spaceport and the crew filed onto the Rising Dawn.
Cairn had landed the ship once it became evident that the Vinnie situation was more complicated than anything they’d anticipated.
Cairn was there in the lobby, seated at a cafe table, bouncing his foot with impatience.
When they walked in, he slammed the Western he was reading down on the table with the pages splayed.
“Oh, honestly,” Lillian said. “Use a bookmark.”
Cairn shrugged. “The spine’s already broken.” He got up and went to give his wife a kiss hello. Aiden thought that he kissed Veronique as if he hadn’t seen her in years, not hours. A faint pang of jealousy spread through his chest, but he pushed it back.
Not the time.
They gathered chairs into a loose circle. Tariel took his seat on the piano bench, but for once his fingers didn’t absently dance across the keys.
“So. We’ve been invited to a coup,” Veselko said. “Baby’s first hostile takeover.”
Elenor snorted.
“This is a lot more . . . well, intense than anything we’ve been handling lately,” Aiden said. “What do we think? Risk vs. reward?”
“We need so many more details before we make a real decision, Aiden,” Nannette said. “What is really going to be expected of us? We have very specialized skills. How does Vinnie want us to use them?”
Aiden looked for the whiteboard and cursed under his breath when he realized he’d wheeled it back to his office. He grabbed a stack of cocktail napkins and started making notes with a pen he found behind the bar.
“How exposed would we be?” Lillian added. “We need to be able to keep a modicum of cover in tact for some of our jobs.”
“Yeah, some of us need to keep a low profile,” Nannette said, biting her thumbnail.
Aiden nodded as he scribbled. Nannette needed to keep a lower profile than the rest of them.
Her father had never stopped looking for her after the crew of the Dawn had helped her escape, and he sincerely doubted that the man ever would.
Was she starting to get as itchy on the ship as he was?
“Tariel and I can do a lot with a large budget for disguises, but there are limits,” Veronique said. “And we need prosthetics if we’re to slide by recognition software.”
“I think we should prepare papers for Evelyn. Just in case,” Tariel said from the piano bench. “I think she’s too loyal to not go through with Vinnie’s crazy plan, but the girl deserves an out, and I sincerely doubt Vinnie would get her identification she couldn’t track at a moment’s notice.”
“I agree,” said Elenor. “Poor thing. She keeps getting served shit sandwiches.”
“So eloquent,” Lillian said, giving Elenor a pat on the thigh.
“What? She does.” Elenor looked around the room. “Would any of you say she’s not being served a shit sandwich?”
“You put it very bluntly, Elenor. But you make a good point,” Veselko said. “Aren’t they a planet of pacifist artists? Are we going to need to deliver arms in addition to the princess?”
Aiden saw Nannette’s face noticeably brighten at that thought. She hadn’t gone arms shopping in entirely too long.
“Outfitting a revolution is going to cost. How much is Vinnie willing to spend?”
Aiden added what looked like “weapons budget” to his napkin stack if he squinted.
He probably needed to slow down his writing if he was having a hard time distinguishing his own words.
He could definitely make out “propaganda campaign?” and “transport Evelyn in secret” on the small squares.
They’d translate to the board just fine.
He looked up from his notes and gave the others a grin. “The vibe I’m getting is that you lunatics would like to help if the price is right and the plan is more than a piece of paper that says “stage coup” on it,” he said, fiddling with his pen.
He had wanted to leave the Dawn after this gig. The constant stream of entitled asshole clients had worn down his joy in the craft. But the prospect of putting his skills to use for a cause he could get behind might fan the flame back to life.
Had the others not been interested in aiding Tanalian freedom, he’d have gone hurtling toward the cause alone.
Especially because he was willing to bet his condo in Orlando that Evelyn was going to be heading in the same direction.
Nothing like having your cake and eating it, too.
“If we have to transport one more litter of hypoallergenic poodles to Taurus Nine I’m going to rip my hair out,” Veselko said. “They get into everything. I don’t know why those rich asshats can’t just file paperwork to get the damn things legally. Even I pay taxes.”
Nannette laughed. “You file fictitious papers every year.”
“Yeah, but I still file!”
“You really took that Al Capone documentary to heart,” Lillian said. “We file, too. Don’t mess with tax authorities.”
“The point is, I’m bored, this sounds dangerous and sort of fun, and I like Evelyn. Plus, Vinnie’s going to pay us a shitload of money. So I’m in,” Veselko said, crossing his arms.
“I haven’t written a good script for ages. I’d love working on a propaganda campaign,” Veronique said. “I don’t mind working to get Evelyn camera ready. I’d like to direct.”
“If the plan isn’t a suicide mission, I would like to participate in the liberation of the planet,” Tariel said.
“I still think we should work on a backup identity for Evelyn. It’s always best to be prepared in case things fall apart.
” He cleared his throat before continuing.
“From a purely financial standpoint, this would give me a bit of cushion, now that the transportation job has cleared our account. It would be foolish to turn down the opportunity.” Aiden hadn’t even noticed the chime on his communicator when the credits had cleared into their account on the drive back to the Dawn.
Tariel must be doing internal cartwheels to be out from under that settlement.
“Aiden isn’t going to do anything without three backup plans, Tar. You know that,” Elenor said, looking at Aiden fondly.
“It feels like the right thing to do if we get answers to our questions. I don’t want to be a puppet for Vinnie ever again,” Lillian said.
“Agreed,” Elenor said. “If I wanted someone’s hand up my ass we’d be having a very different meeting. More tarps, less harsh, overhead lighting.”
Aiden gagged and shook his head. “I need mind bleach,” he said. “Why don’t we take the night, compile our lists of information demands, and reconvene in the morning?”
The crew agreed to the plan and dispersed. Aiden gathered his napkins to transfer the notes to his whiteboard. Nannette stayed in her seat, fiddling with her knife. He changed course and sat down next to her.
“We don’t have to do this if you don’t want to,” he said.
“That’s the problem. I do want to,” she said. “It’s the right thing to do, and it’s a great payday. Who gets paid to be morally superior?”
“Apparently, we do. But risking you is not something I’m willing to do.
If you don’t think we can do this without blowing your cover, then we don’t do it.
Or we work the plan until we find a way to do it safely.
” He grabbed her non-knife-wielding hand, demanding eye contact. “He’s not going to find you.”
Nannette smiled. “I hope not. Because it’s going to be a pain in the ass to keep myself free if he does.”
Aiden grinned. “We’re professionals. We have years of experience at keeping things from prying eyes.”
“True. I can always bunk with the poodles.”
“I hear they’re generous cuddlers.” He got up from the cafe chair and patted her shoulder. “I’m going to transfer these notes and head out for a bit. Do you want me to grab anything?”
“I might take the other car and do a grocery sweep. It never hurts to stock up on red sauce.”
“Sound planning,” he said. “Our kitchen inventory would be in shambles without you.”
“When you fail to plan, you plan to fail.”
“Heavens forbid we fail to plan pasta night.”
“Priorities. Everyone’s got ’em.”
Aiden headed back to his office to transfer his napkins to his whiteboard. Satisfied that he’d got all his thoughts onto his preferred sorting medium, he checked the local time.
Before they landed, he’d done the briefest bit of investigation into the local entertainment options and had found the perfect activity to take Evelyn to. They’d make it if he hurried.