The charges against Lake dwindled down to three citations for public disturbance and disruptive activities, and then he’d been tossed out of jail in the dead of night. Aguilar had met him and taken him home.
Spending that night—and so many nights after that—with Aguilar had been worth the bullet wounds and jail cell.
And that knowledge more than anything else lent him a sympathy for Jänis. He understood what had driven her. She’d felt she’d needed money to keep Dr. Gim’s idealistic dreams from collapsing in the face of financial ruin. Maybe she’d feared losing her worthless man altogether.
Lake didn’t know what he would have done in her place. How much of a risk would he have taken for Aguilar’s sake?
He shifted slightly and his scars pulled.
No, it wasn’t in him to regret his part in aiding Jänis and her husband to disappear into the web of Nam Yune’s connections. He didn’t imagine that life would be too easy for either of them. But the fact that they’d both chosen to stay together heartened him.
Lake tasted one of the squid and found it surprisingly pleasant.
All my thanks to Johanna Ollila and to Tracy Timmons-Gray.
-Ginn
About the Author
Ginn Hale resides in the Pacific Northwest with her lovely wife and two wayward cats. She is an award-winning author of science fiction and fantasy, as well as an avid coffee-drinker.
Her publications include:
Wicked Gentlemen
Champion of the Scarlet Wolf (Books 1 & 2)
The Rifter Trilogy, (The Shattered Gates, The Holy Road, His Sacred Bones)
Swift & the Black Dog
Feral Machines
Her novellas appear in the anthologies:
Magic & Mayhem
Irregulars
Hell Cop