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bad guys. And flying in along the usual routes, announcing ourselves as we go, will result in exactly that. The travel plans stay as is—we stop here for supplies, take the long way, and land somewhere discreet.”
    She nodded and turned her attention to the navs onscreen in front of her.
    He swallowed over a sigh as he escaped the bridge, leaving his nav-engineer to take them dirtside.
    Not for the first time, he questioned just how much new information he was likely to get out of exploring the Reidar lead on Barasa. His crew thought he was being all kinds of benevolent by promising Tannin they’d follow up on the disappearance of his childhood friend. Truthfully, he could give less than a freck about the guy. He was probably dead as a black star.
    Hell, maybe he was being too careful. But the damned aliens had a habit of popping up when he least expected it, and they were frecking hard to kill. Not to mention, they had the IPC authorities and UAFA on the Imojenna ’s ass for that whole inconvenient wanted-intergalactic-terrorists thing—thanks to one of the head scum-bastard aliens putting a warrant out on them for allegedly hacking into some data stream. Okay, yeah, they’d hacked the data stream. But since the Reidar weren’t exactly human, the laws of man didn’t apply.
    Maybe he’d be less pissed if they’d finally uncovered the Reidar’s base of operations. But the last location they’d discovered had been a waystation where the aliens stopped after coming through a black hole, presumably from their own alternate universe. He’d since come up with a new theory that wherever the chief scumbag was holed up, that was the bastard’s HQ. All he had to do was find it and destroy it…the same thing he’d be trying to do since before the Assimilation Wars ended.
    The sweet scent of moon jasmine reached him as he approached the galley and common room. Jezus. Ella and her frecking Jasmynah tea again. Ever since the priestess had gotten his sister to buy the stuff for her, half his damned ship smelled like some Arynian temple.
    The scent had a way of seeping into his pores, tendrils drifting deep within him, making him wake in the small hours of the morning with the taste of it in the back of his throat.
    Would she taste just as sweet?
    The question haunted him in his weakest moments. But he didn’t want to know, didn’t really want her . She had enchanted him from the first day he’d met her. But that didn’t mean he had to let it affect him. He didn’t have room in his life to feel anything. Having Zahli on the Imojenna already made him vulnerable, and he didn’t plan on exposing himself any more than that.
    His steps shortened as he crossed the hatchway into the galley, but he didn’t allow himself to slow in the slightest. At the large table in the middle of the room, Ella sat across from Nyah, a family friend who, until recently, had been looking after his family’s house. Both women had mugs of gently steaming tea in front of them.
    With Nyah onboard, the Imojenna was at full capacity for the first time ever—more than full, since to make room Tannin had moved into Zahli’s cabin, which Rian had been just thrilled about. Okay, he was glad his sister was happy, but he didn’t need to see the two lovers being all mushy and getting heavy with the PDA every day.
    “Don’t get too comfortable, we’re about to land.” He opened the coldstore but didn’t find anything to drink besides water. “I’m giving the crew twelve hours offship and then we’ll be on our way.”
    “I’d really like a week offship.” Nyah glanced at the viewport running the length of the galley. “But I’ll take what I can get.”
    Ella sipped at her tea with graceful, measured movements. “Thank you for the offer, but I will remain on the ship.”
    He crossed his arms and stepped closer to the table. “You stayed on the ship the last two times we stopped for supplies. You need to go out and get some fresh air, see