Read Online The Wraith's Story (BRIGAND Book 1) by Natalie French, Scot Bayless - Free Book Online

little hazy. I looked away and he/she/it laughed in a low contralto, while stretching into what was probably meant to be a seductive pose.
    Cutter was at the bar, a magenta beacon, far to the left, right next to the wait station. I took the stool next to her and counted five empty glasses she had inverted on the bar. She did not slur her words though. I could only see how drunk she was in her eyes. They were slightly pink from the alcohol. Too much uncontrolled blood flow.
    "You're late."
    "I wanted to make sure no one followed me. Besides we should still have another three hours."
    Cutter turned to face me, disgust etched in the corners of her eyes and mouth as she pursed her lips. "Job's off, you stupid girl. Ereena heard about our little dustup. You think she'd want us going in there after that? The place is crawling with Confed – looking for us and that Irezi scut."
    She had every right to be pissed. What I'd done was completely unprofessional. You don't blow a job for someone you don't even know. But I knew what it meant to be a target just because you exist. Truth be told, so did Cutter. I couldn't regret helping someone who didn't deserve their fate.
    I couldn't explain why I had to help the Irezi, so I didn't try. And I couldn't explain why I needed to find her. Why she whispered, "You'll be needed for what's next." And then disappeared.
    So I only mumbled, "Sorry."
    "Sorry for what, exactly?" She tilted her head to the side and studied me. "Sorry for almost getting us killed? Sorry for losing our first real job — and maybe our ticket out of here? Or sorry for making me wait here for hours thinking you were dead?" She looked away quickly, but not before I saw the moisture welling in her eyes.
    I was stunned. No matter how many times she used her training to enthrall my body, no matter how often I held her close in the dark while she battled the demons of her sleep, Cutter had never once lowered her guard.
    She was the master. I, the pupil. As much as I loved her, not once did she ever reveal what she felt for me. If anything.
    "All of it." I whispered.
    "Whatever." She tossed back the shot in her hand.
    "I'll get us some money." I offered. I didn't know how yet, but I'd think of something. Suddenly, I was desperate to please her, to prove my worth.
    She shrugged and laughed a callous exhalation, "Well, at least we could buy another round!"
    Then she raised her empty glass up high and slapped it upside down on the bar. She gestured to the bartender – a squat Jovian whose face was so smooshed it looked he'd like lost a fight with a puncher.
    "Let's get out of here." I pulled on Cutter's arm but she yanked away from me.
    "What? This place not up to your standards, Little Wraith?" She really was buzzed. She'd never used that name in public before.
    I knew I should go. Let her dose herself into oblivion and then sleep it off. But I couldn't leave her. For the first time since Cutter took me in, I was afraid — for her.
    While the bartender poured, I looked around the room. The purple whore was straddling the lap of a thick Jovian. He produced a wad of cads from his back pocket and stuffed it down the front of her shirt. He stood, his face pressed to her belly, and carried her toward the back. He had friends with him. Looked like they might have plenty of cash to spare, and enough booze in them to flood the Lower Wards.
    Perfect.
    I pushed away from the bar as Cutter knocked back another shot and did my best slut-walk over to the Jovians.
    "Hi." Was my lame excuse for a flirtatious introduction. Lucky for me, that was all the encouragement they needed.
    The shortest of them kicked out a chair for me with his foot. I turned the chair around with the back facing them, and straddled it the way I'd seen Cutter do sometimes.
    I could feel her eyes on my back. Her anger stung along my spine, as clearly as if the Mandate's trackers were still clinging to my vertebrae.
    This had to be quick.
    The shortest one was easily 150