Ship Breaker (Ship Breaker #1)(40)

Again the skitter eyes of fear. Lucky Girl pushed her black hair off her face and stared at Pima defiantly. “What if they aren’t coming?” she whispered fiercely. “What you gonna do then?”

Her voice had taken on some of the hard edge of Pima and Nailer’s own inflections. Nailer would have laughed if she hadn’t seemed so fearful. She was lying. He’d seen enough liars in his life to know. Everyone was always lying to him. Lying about how much they’d worked, about how much quota they’d filled, about whether they were afraid, about whether they were living fat or starving. Lucky Girl was lying.

“They aren’t coming.” He stated it as fact. “You’ve got no one looking for you. I don’t think you’re even a Patel.”

Lucky Girl glanced at him fearfully. Her gaze went again to Blue Eyes, obsessively sharpening her machete. Pima tugged her earrings thoughtfully, cocking her head. “That right, girl? You’re worth nothing?”

Nailer was surprised to see that Lucky Girl was on the verge of tears. Even Sloth hadn’t cried when she’d been kicked down the beach with knife slashes through her crew tattoos, but here this soft girl was on the verge of crying because she’d been caught in a lie. “Where are your people?” he asked.

She hesitated. “North. Above the Drowned Cities. And I am Patel. But they won’t know where to look for me.” She paused. “I’m not supposed to be here at all. We threw away our GPS beacons weeks ago, trying to get away.”

“From who?”

She hesitated, then finally said, “My own people.”

Nailer and Pima exchanged puzzled looks.

Nita explained quietly. “My father has enemies within our company. When we got caught in the storm, they were pursuing us. Everywhere we went, they anticipated us. If they catch me they will use me as leverage.”

“So no one’s coming looking for you?”

“No one you would want to meet.” She shook her head. “When our ship wrecked, two other ships were pursuing us, but they turned back from the storm.”

“So that’s why you were sailing into a city killer? You were running?”

“It was either that or surrender.” She shook her head. “It wasn’t a choice we could make.”

“So no one’s coming for you.” Nailer couldn’t help repeating it, trying to get his head around this new fact. “You jerked us around this whole time.”

“I didn’t want you to take my fingers.”

Pima let out her breath in a slow hiss. “You should have given yourself up to whoever was chasing you. Nailer’s dad is worse than anything they could do to you.”

Lucky Girl shook her head. “No. Your people… they have an excuse. The ones who hunted me…” She shook her head again. “They are worse.”

“So you wrecked a whole ship and tried to drown yourself just so they couldn’t catch you?” Nailer asked. “Killed your whole crew so you could stay free?”

She glanced over. “They were…” She shook her head. “Pyce’s people would have killed them all anyway. He wouldn’t have wanted witnesses.”

Pima grinned. “Damn, the swanks and the rust rats are all the same at the end of the day. Everyone’s looking to get a little blood on their hands.”

“Yes.” Nita nodded seriously. “Just the same.”

Nailer considered the situation. Without someone to buy Nita back, she was worth nothing. Without strong friends or allies on the beach, she was just meat. No one would even blink if she went under the knives of the Harvesters. Blue Eyes could hand her over to her cult, and no one would think twice about protecting her.

Pima looked Nita over. “Hard life here, for a swank like you. You won’t survive unless you get yourself a protector, and there’s not much percentage in sheltering something like you.”

“I can work. I can—”

“You can’t do anything unless we say so,” Pima said brutally. “No one cares about a swank like you one way or the other. You got no crew. No family. You don’t got your goons and money to make them respect you, either. You’re worse off than Sloth. At least she knew the rules. Knew how to play the game.”

“You really don’t have any people, then?” Nailer asked. “No one who might help you?”

“We have ships…” Nita hesitated. “Our clan has ships and some of the captains are still loyal to my father. They come to the Orleans for the Mississippi trade. If I could get there, I could reward you—”

“No more reward talk, Lucky Girl.” Pima shook her head. “You’ve run out of that.”

“Yeah.” Nailer glanced over at Blue Eyes, who was sharpening a new machete. “How ’bout we quit the lying?” He nodded at Nita’s scarred palm. “We shared blood and you’re still lying to us.”

Nita gave him a dirty look. “You would have cut my throat if you didn’t think I was valuable.”

Nailer grinned. “Guess we’ll never know. But we got you now and you’re not worth a copper yard.” He fell silent.

Pima watched him. “It’s a damn long way to the Orleans,” she said. “Gators and panthers and pythons. Lots of good ways to die.”