Read Online Forsaken Realms (Bounty Hunters United Book 1) by Katalina Leon - Free Book Online Page B

always catch this sort of stuff. I depend on my judgment for a living. How could I get it so wrong?”
    “It’s simple. You didn’t want to believe it, so you tuned it out.” He placed his hands on her shoulders and looked into her eyes. “Do you still think I’m a mass murderer?”
    Without hesitation, she returned his gaze. The rugged lines of his face were gentled by the full swell of his beautiful mouth. There was nothing about his demeanor that seemed cold, detached, or violent. “I don’t believe you’re a killer.”
    “I’m not. So stop tuning me out, and start trusting your judgment.” Syan rose to standing and offered his hand. “Let’s get out of here in case they return. They think at least one of us is dead, but they’ll need to make sure. I don’t want to wait around for them.” He grabbed both packs and then looped them over his shoulders with ease and strode into the jungle.
    Gemmina hurried to keep up. “Where are we going?”
    “Deeper into the jungle, where the patrol craft will have a harder time spotting or retrieving us.”
    “How long will hiding from them work?”
    “Not long. Hopefully they’ll think we died in the jump, and they won’t be looking for us. It might buy us a little time.”
    With squishy boot steps she rushed to keep up. “Time to do what?”
    “Time to finish what I intended to do on Sarna.”
    “I’m involved now so you’d better tell me exactly what you plan to do.”
    “Kill Jason Naveen.”
    “What?”
    “It’s the only way to stop him. I went to Sarna to investigate a missing colleague. The man was never found. I’m certain he was Jason Naveen’s victim. I plan to get a signed confession, confront and kill Jason Naveen. I owe it to the people of Kiron and Sarna.”
    “Would you consider scaling back that plan? Jason Naveen is a powerful man with a cloned army. The odds against us are rotten. What makes you think he killed all those people on Sarna, which by the way I never heard of until today and I have no idea if it even exists.”
    “Sarna is a real place.” His long strides sped ahead. “An Eden as you might call it. Naveen killed a large section of the planet—plants, animals, and people—in a misguided experiment in mass cloning and forced accelerated growth. Naveen wanted his paradise now and didn't want to wait for it to grow at its own pace. He used Sarna as his experimental template and destroyed it in the process.”
    “These are dangerous accusations that would have to be reported to an intergalactic court. Proof is essential.” She stole a glimpse into Syan’s thoughts and feelings, but they were too turbulent to read clearly. “Do you know all this for fact or are you guessing?”
    “Both,” he said sheepishly. “I long suspected something was very wrong on Sarna, but I couldn’t be sure so I made an unscheduled trip to investigate. Sarna is not a technology based culture and the Kironians honor their wishes by not bringing our technology, beyond our ships, to their planet. We’ve had millennia to work this out. There is an old Kironian saying, ‘one visits Sarna with only the clothes on his back and then one sheds the clothes.’ Sarna is what we call a grandparent culture, very advanced in artistic and spiritual ways and extremely basic in others. They did not want change, and we did not try to force our ways on them.”
    “Weren’t they curious about your spaceships?”
    “Yes and no. The Sarnans perfected the art of astral projection long ago. Therefore they had no interest in possessing or using our ships.”
    “You’re certain all of them were killed?”
    Syan turned away. “Not all of them, but many perished and vast sections of the planet were made a wasteland. It was senseless.”
    “Maybe we should concentrate on sneaking up on the compound and hijacking a ship before Naveen’s guards figure out we’re both still alive. Right now they’re looking for a second body. We should get out of here as soon