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"Do you have any hter shrank back further into the shadows, looking sheepish "I’ined she could smell the tomato flesh on the wall behind her
"I can pay," he quickly added
She shook her head "No, that’s all right We have plenty" She shuffled backward, keeping her eyes on hirabbed a toood raw too," she said, tossing the in his large fist and his other hand gripping the carrots by their lacy, leafy stele "What are they?"
A surprised laugh tuain, he see unusual His shoulders hunched in a vain attempt to make himself seem smaller "Thank you"
"Your azes clashed and the aardness was i Scarlet juhter
"Never ood, you’ll like the her ID across the ship’s scanner The door opened, forhts blinked on They accentuated the bruise around the fighter’s eye,it seem darker than before He flinched back like a cri if you could use a faret the why he’d waited for her, why he’d stalled so long She scanned his broad shoulders, bulky ar for work?"
He started to sood at the fights, but it doesn’t htthe evidence of your appetite in there, I think I’d lose my shirt with a deal like that" She flushed the second she’d said it--no doubt he was now i her with her shirt off Yet, to her shock, his face remained serenely neutral, and she hurried to fill the space before his reactions caught up "What’s your naain "They call hts"
"Wolf?" How … predatory"
He nodded, entirely serious
Scarlet sed a grin "You hter bit off your resue tattoo could barely be seen in the dark, and she thought maybe she’d embarrassed him Perhaps Wolf was a beloved nickname
"Well, they call me Scarlet Yes, like the hair, what a clever observation"
His expression softened "What hair?"
Scarlet settled her ar her chin "Good one"
For a moment he seemed al to this stranger, this anoled in the back of her head--she asting tihtened Dead in a ditch
Scarlet tightened her grip on the door frame "I’m really sorry, but we have a full staff already I don’t need any lint faded froain Flustered "I understand Thank you for the food" He kicked at the steht’s peace celebrations
"You should head to Toulouse, or even Paris There are more jobs in the cities, and people around here don’t take too kindly to strangers, as you may have noticed"
He tilted his head so that his ehter in the wash of the ship’s floodlights, looking al, Scarlet sank into the pilot’s seat
Wolf shifted toward the wall as she started the engine "If you change youra hand, I can be found at the abandoned Morel house reat with people, but I think I’d do well on a farm" Amusement touched the corners of his lips "Ani with fake encourage, "What farm animals don’t love a wolf?"
Four
The captivity of Carswell Thorne had gotten off to a rocky start, ith the catastrophic soap rebellion and all But since being transferred to solitary, he’d becoentleman, and after six months of such couard on rotation to lend him a portscreen
He was quite sure this would not have succeeded if the guard wasn’t convinced he was an idiot, incapable of doing anything other than counting the days and searching for naughty pictures of ladies he’d known and iht, of course Thorne wasuseful with the tablet even if he had had a step-by-step instructiona Portscreen" He’d been unsuccessful in accessing his co out any infor city
But he sure did appreciate the suggestively naughty, if heavily filtered, pictures
He was scrolling through his portfolio on the 228th day of his captivity, wondering if Señora Santiago was stilldisrupted the cell’s peacefulness
He peered upward, squinting at the s
The sound ceased and was followed by shuffling A couple thuds More grinding
Thorne folded his legs atop his cot and waited while the noise grew louder and closer, hiccupped and continued It took hie noise, but afterhe was convinced it was the sound of a motorized drill
Maybe one of the other prisoners was reered, vibrating off the walls Thorne glanced around His cell was a perfect cube with smooth, shiny white wall panels on all six sides It contained his all-white cot, a urinal that slid in and out of the ith the press of a button, and hi, he hoped his cell would be next