Total pages in book: 48
Estimated words: 44088 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 220(@200wpm)___ 176(@250wpm)___ 147(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 44088 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 220(@200wpm)___ 176(@250wpm)___ 147(@300wpm)
Another silence, followed by a nod from Siryn. “Fair enough. Laundry every other Tuesday. And perhaps a consulting role, though I have trouble trusting anything she says.”
Kail is unexpectedly harsh in his response. “That’s your failing. Not hers. She changed long ago, and she has proved that at every turn. If you cannot see that, then you are not as perceptive as I imagined.”
“I can see it,” Siryn admits. “I’m just petty, I suppose.”
“We all have our failings,” Kail says. “I think we’ll take our leave for the night, Captain Siryn.”
Now they are the ones who look like guilty, petulant, bullying children. I try not to look too smug. That would ruin things. I want them just as they are now, scolded by Kail, from the lowest of the low all the way up to the port Captain herself.
Siryn nods. We barely got to eat a bite, so I grab a plate and load it up with everything I can under the skeptical gazes of the other pirates. With enough food stashed, I give a sarcastic curtsy and head into the night with Kail.
We find somewhere private and sit down, letting our legs dangle off the dock into what looks like empty space. We share the plate. When it is empty, I say what I probably should have said when it was full.
“Thank you for standing up for me.”
“I will always defend you. That is what I am doing out there, raiding Colony ships. I do not do it to destroy them. I do it because it keeps you and Nemo safe.”
“And I’d do laundry every day if it meant that you and Nemo were safe. I hate that you’re out there, at risk of being killed by a Colony fighter. It would make all of this such a waste of fucking time.”
He wraps an arm around my shoulders. “It wouldn’t be a waste. We are living a life, Tarni. We are raising Nemo. We are loving one another. That is all anybody can ask for in any life.”
“You two are so sweet it is sickening,” Siryn comments as she walks past us, her arms around two pretty female pirates, both of whom are beaming with carnal anticipation. Her guilt has clearly been short-lived, as one might expect a ruthless pirate captain’s guilt to be. “Go get your baby from Gabrielle. She needs to sleep. You are parents, remember?”
“We are parents, remember?” I repeat Siryn’s words in a smart ass tone to Kail.
“Yes,” he surprises me by saying. “We are. Let’s go get our son.”
I cry tears of joy, not just for Nemo who has a father, but for Kail, who has a son. A family. And finally, a happily ever after.
The End