What happened? I was at the vault, and Xarren was there. But he shouldn’t have been. None of this should have happened.
Jinx? Rowan? Were they alive? Were they found out? Were they dead? The very thought made my chest ache.
I tried to move and found that my hands were chained together behind my back. My ankles were chained too. My boots and socks were gone. My feet were wet and cold. Great. With some effort, I opened my eyes again. I was in another cell, this one a lot more ancient. The walls were stone and wet and cold. There were cameras and a grav-tech door, and bright fluorescent lighting that made me dizzy.
I cursed as I tried to sit up, though everything hurt. This was it. The heist was over. I lost. I was captured for real now and there wouldn’t be any way out. Xarren was going to kill me. And my friends? Well, I just had to pray for the best. They were a rough and unruly bunch of degenerates, but they were hardy and if anyone could escape the Elexaes, it was them.
Me? No such luck it seemed.
The door slid open before long. In came a couple of Elexae guards and then the big man himself. Lord Xarren. He had a wide grin on his devilish face, like he’d just been given the keys to the planet.
“How are you feeling, Slim Hands?”
I spit at his feet. “Bite me.”
He snickered. “Oh, I promise we’ll do a lot more than that. But first, I like to talk to my victims, have a connection. You have any questions for me? Don’t worry, there are no dumb questions.”
Xarren’s taunts stung, and he wanted me to take the bait. I didn’t want to do that, but he was right. I had questions, questions that needed answers desperately. So, I took a breath to control my anger, licked my lips, and asked the preeminent question in my mind.
“How? How did you know?”
That was the exact question he wanted to hear. He smiled and folded his arms behind his back. Just then, the door slid open again and in walked a familiar face. Far too familiar.
It was Rowan.
But he wasn’t beaten, or sad, or bloodied, or in cuffs. No, he was perfectly fine, unbound, his chest puffed and with an air of confidence about him. And he was smiling.
“Hello, Yan,” he said.
I couldn’t speak. My tongue became too dry, too heavy in my throat. I just… Rowan? Rowan? No.
No.
No.
Still couldn’t speak.
“I see the yorbek got your tongue,” he chuckled. I used to love his laugh, but the sound now, it just made my blood boil. It sounded wrong.
I finally found my words. “You? You betrayed us? Why?”
“Truthfully? I wasn’t trying to get you all when we first met. I didn’t even know who you were. But after a few jobs, I realized who you were and that I could turn all of you in. It proved…more difficult than I thought. You crooks had a knack for escaping trouble no matter how much of it I threw at you.”
I blinked at him as it dawned on me. “All the bounty hunters, Valrude, all of it was because of you. You put a tracker on the ship.”
Rowan smiled. He pulled out a small red pill from his pocket. “This is an old Amok beetle tracker. Ancient tech, very rudimentary but can’t be traced on scanners like Pivek’s.”
“And what about the Aaugor? They almost killed you?”
He chuckled and shrugged. “They weren’t part of the plan. They were a happy accident. But I think it all worked out.”
I gritted my teeth and pulled against my restraints, as futile as that was. “Why wait this out? Why befriend us?” My voice broke as tears threatened to choke me. “We were best friends. What about Jinx? Amara? The others?”
“What can I say? I have a flare for dramatics, and I’m a good actor. Those things you know about me. And I wanted to find out more about your connections.”
“But you actually committed crimes!”
“And the Elexaes are murderers. I’m not working for the imperials.” He smiled and looked at his nails. “I’ll admit, things didn’t go according to plan. You lot were very difficult.”
Xarren snorted. “I should say. You cost me Valrude and all that data this scum stole. I still have issues with that.”
Rowan cleared his throat and looked away. “I will continue to apologize for that, sir. I didn’t know that was his objective when he broke into the Silk Lily. And also, I would have tried to keep Valrude from dying, but there was nothing I could say that would sway them. Amara and Pivek never trusted me fully, I don’t think.”
“We trusted you!” I roared and strained against my restraints. The Elarri guards had to grab me by my shoulders and hold me firm.
Rowan grinned and crouched before me so we were eye level. “And look what that got you. You know, for thieves and criminals who have been through so much, you trust much too easily.”
I growled and thrashed, but of course for naught. “They’ll come for me. Jinx won’t—”
“Oh, we won’t have to worry about them. Jinx has been taken care of, and soon, we’ll have the others too.”
I stopped. Stopped cold. My blood halted in my veins. “What?”
His smile was so evil that I wanted to rip him to pieces like a Norgoth. “Jinx is dead. I shot her myself.”
No.
No, no, no.
No, she can’t be. Jinx can’t be gone.
But as I looked into his eyes, I just knew. He was a liar and a traitor, and I just wanted to do unholy things to him, but there it was—a spark of truth in his gaze. Jinx was gone. My sweet, sweet Jinx. My best friend. My everything.
I snapped.
I lunged with all my strength and managed to head-butt him. The crown of my head smashed into his nose. He recoiled. My head exploded with pain, but I didn’t care. I wanted to wring his neck and use his corpse to beat Xarren to death. I wanted to tear him limb from limb and paint the walls red.
I screamed with rage, but I was too weak, the restraints too strong.
“Son of a—” Rowan held his nose. He lunged at me, but Xarren caught him around the waist with a laugh.
“Easy, easy. There will be plenty of time for that. Let’s leave him to stew with thoughts of his dead friends, eh? Come, we need to talk about your many failures.” He smiled. “But also your triumphs.”
Rowan gave me one last glance as he held his nose, trying to staunch the bleeding. “Yes, sir.”
They left, and the guards left, and the door slammed shut and locked with an audible click. The lights turned off completely, but it wasn’t from an EMP. I was bathed in the dark, in the black and homeless void.
I was left in darkness to rage and cry and break and die. I screamed and screamed until my throat was raw and dry, until I couldn’t make another sound. My Jinx was dead, and my other friends would soon follow, and my family was doomed. All was lost.
I would die, tortured and alone at the hands of a mob boss and a best friend. What a fitting fate for scum like me.
But even scum had their day, so I swore to the saints, every one of them, those named and unnamed, those known and unknown, that if they gave me the opportunity, I would kill Xarren and Rowan, and I would kill them good. Even if it killed me too. But I would kill them.
That was a promise.
And Yan Slim Hands never breaks a promise.
Thank You For Reading
Thanks for reading The Elari Hiest, the first book in the epic Plundering the Stars series.
Things really blew up there on Yan didn’t they? He’s not done yet, though. As long as he’s still alive, there’s a chance he will get his revenge.
The next story in the series is called The Xarren Escape and you can order it now on Amazon.
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amazon.com/dp/B088NF19ZK
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The Elarri Heist (Plundering the Stars Book 1) Page 19
