Renegade Magic (Star Renegades Book 1) by Jennifer M. Eaton

Author:Jennifer M. Eaton [Eaton, Jennifer M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Galactic Razor
Published: 2021-01-07T16:00:00+00:00

22

Dania

Ty pulled Dania toward five men and one woman changing the color of three vehicles from white to black. The identification plates were worn clean, except for the first, which a second woman was etching new numbers onto. Dania’s skin prickled with the need to stop her.

Ty held out his hands. “Look at this authentic outer-rim colony craftsmanship.”

She nearly spat at him. “I’m not a fool. These people are trying to conceal stolen goods.”

He waved his finger at her. “Careful there. Less than an hour ago, I believe you were seen by several hundred people helping to distribute said stolen goods.”

She spoke through clenched teeth, doing her best to keep her promise not to slice this smuggler in two. “I had a good reason.”

Ty grabbed her by the shoulders. She flinched, stunned.

He looked deep into her eyes. “Maybe, just maybe, these people have just as good a reason as you did.”

“I find that highly unlikely.”

“But can you say it’s impossible?”

Impossible, no. But she wasn’t a criminal. Criminals worked for themselves. For profit. They preyed on others for their own gain. Dania was sure these people were no different. There was never a reason to break a law.

She flinched. Almost never.

“Ty! Doc!” Espinoza called them from across the yard. Dania followed to where the cylinders of stolen goods were lined up in the center of the courtyard.

Espinoza looked her up and down as she approached. “You can either help or stand back and keep out of the way.”

Dania swallowed the bile building in her throat as the last of the containers drifted to the surface, kicking up dust as they hit the ground. Espinoza was the worst kind of criminal, milking the poor who had nothing, all to line his pockets with cash, probably to spend on useless trinkets and whores.

Several citizens wearing the soiled rags she’d seen on so many of the townspeople when the Star Renegade had landed approached with small woven bags. Espinoza smiled, shook their hands, and placed several fruits and an assortment of other foodstuffs from multiple containers into each sack. More people approached, including several children…all with bags.

A line formed as more colonists arrived. Ty, Doc, Stanley, and Amelia joined Espinoza, working like a practiced unit, filling bags expediently as more people piled into the square. A crowd formed, but none pushed. It was all so…orderly, as if they’d done this hundreds of times.

Dania moved closer. Each bag got a bottle of pills—maybe medicine or supplements of some kind—and several pieces of fruit. Everyone got oranges. One container had bags of grain. One had contraband even worse than the oranges: spot-frozen beef and chicken, one of the most expensive food products available. Her hands trembled. That meat needed to be taken back to the food stores where it could be distributed where needed!

Ty gathered several handfuls of the meat and placed it into a child’s sack. “Say hi to your dad for me.”

The girl curtsied, holding out her tattered dress. “I will. Thank you, sir.”

Espinoza shook a man’s hand before giving him a bag.

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