“For an outlaw, you’re pretty interested in justice,” I say to Orion as we move on.
“Natural justice is better than law,” he says. “He was trying to rob me, so I guess that makes us even.”
I’m laughing. I haven’t laughed in a very long time, and suddenly, I can’t stop.
“His face! Did you see his face?” I giggle. “Oh no! This medicine… is too… good. And then he…” I’m not even coherent, but I can’t stop myself.
Orion
I crack a smile.
She’s enjoying this a little too much, but hell, it might be the first thing she’s enjoyed since I met her.
“He’s going to be sick for days,” she snorts. “Because he tried to rob YOU! Who would be that stupid? Hasn’t he heard what you did in Noosefort?”
The smile fades from my face. There are many things I have done which are regrettable in my life. Noosefort was perhaps the worst of them. I lost control there. I allowed myself to do things no man should ever do. And I paid the price. The cost was a limb and a lifetime of memories I’ll never erase.
“Sorry,” she says, catching the change in mood. “I guess I shouldn’t bring things like that up.”
“I guess not,” I say, swinging the bag of money toward Paris. “Divvy that up among the men. You all did well tonight.”
“Nice, a bonus!” Paris says. “Come and get it, boys!”
There are cheers and general excitement. Today has been an interesting day for the boys, and I’m glad it was a profitable one, because I think we are going to have many interesting days in the near future, and I want them entirely on board. My outlaws are loyal to me, but they’re in it for the money too, and sometimes the glory.
“This is my tent,” I say to Josie, swinging the flap up for her. “Get in there and get some sleep. We will be up early tomorrow to ride north.”
I expect her to argue. She’s an arguer from way back, but she doesn’t. After the day she’s had, she crawls inside, lays down on my bed and in a matter of seconds has managed to fall asleep, sprawled across the bed, leaving literally no room for me whatsoever – and I don’t mind one bit.
“So. Boss. What’s going on?”
Paris is done doling out the spoils of our unexpected windfall and takes a seat next to me beside the fire.
“We’re keeping the girl for now. Her father owns a lot of land, and we’re fairly certain Atticus Bunch is going to kill him, at which time, the land goes to her. And then to us.”
“And what are you going to do with her? Marry her?”
“No. I’m going to help her to leave the planet.”
“Huh.”
“Huh what?”
“Huh nothing,” he says, giving me a sideways smirk. “It’s just, you like her.”
“And what does that mean, I like her?”
“I’ve seen you with women, Orion. You look at them when you’re horny and that’s it. You’ve kept this one around for more than half a day without even sleeping with her. You rescued her and now you don’t want to let her go. That’s what it looks like anyway. From the outside. To an interested observer.”
“Well the interested observer better keep his mouth shut,” I growl. “I don’t need anyone thinking I’ve got a girl. She’s in enough danger as it is.
“Because this is business,” he grins.
“Sure it is. This girl holds the key to killing Atticus Bunch and going straight. After this, we won’t be on the Imperium’s radar.”
“You want to own a farm? Are you going soft, Rion?”
I glower at him. “It’s not going soft. It’s being smart. We can’t run forever. We need a place to live. Or maybe we sell it, take the money, jump a freighter ourselves. I don’t know. Have you forgotten why we’ve been raiding Imperium shipments all this time?”
“Because it’s fun?”
“No,” I growl. “Because we need money. One more score. Always one more score. And then we lose the money, it gets spent on drink and women, there’s never any stability for any of us.”
“Yeah, we’ll die with guns in our hands. That’s the lifestyle we chose. We knew that the first time we held up that Imperium patrol. They’re never going to let us own land.”
“Like I said, we can sell that land, use the money to hop outside Imperium space, and set ourselves up in one of the other districts or colonies for the rest of our lives.”
Paris shakes his head. “Naw,” he says. “Not me. I wasn’t made to retire, and I’m not killing Imperium traitors because I want money. I’m killing them to kill them, because they’re bastards who deserve to die.”
“Sure. Sure they deserve to die, but what about us? Don’t we deserve to live?”
“Ain’t no living left for us. We’ve got killing and running, and I intend to do both as hard and as fast as I can until that Imperium laser bolt meant for me comes flashing across the sky and fries my brain clean out of my skull.”