Grayhawk as fast as I could, cocking it as I leveled it at him.
He left his gun up, too. “And now we’re at an impasse.”
The problem was, he didn’t sound like he meant it.
I tensed a split second before I felt the barrel of a gun press against my back, right between my shoulder blades.
“Easy does it, starshine.”
Shade. My whole body clenched.
“Impeccable timing, as usual.” My uncle’s eyes flicked over my shoulder. “Although I’ll have to decide if this technically counts as you bringing her in.”
“Lay down your gun and do as the man says,” Shade told me.
That sedative obviously hadn’t knocked him out for long. Not long enough, anyway. “Fuck you, Ganavan.”
“I think we already cov—”
“Shut up!” I snapped.
He did, thank the Powers.
I kept Bridgebane on the other end of my pointed gun. They would have to wrestle the Grayhawk from me.
“How did you even know I lived?” I asked.
“I had no idea what happened to you after you left Starway 8 for good. Not until you announced yourself in Sector 14 after your little heist.”
Little heist? “So, I guess you didn’t know about my fun stint on Hourglass Mile?” I sank a lot of bitterness into my voice, and to my satisfaction, I could tell my words had stung.
“No.” Bridgebane’s nostrils flared, but he didn’t ask. He didn’t ask about my partner, about the mines, about the whips, or about anything that might have happened to me there. “But I pieced that together from your false name.”
“Well, aren’t you clever. Good job.” I ignored Shade and his gun at my back. My raised hand was steady, my weapon level. I felt surprisingly numb. “But that’s not what I meant. I meant how did you know I’d survived the Black Widow?”
Behind me, Shade drew in a sharp breath.
“I had a rebel heading to death row on board DW 12. I gave him a choice: lethal injection, or the Black Widow in a small cruiser. If he somehow survived and reported back, he was free to go with the cruiser, and I gave my word to clear his name from the system. He chose the Widow. He survived.”
“Where did he come out?” I asked.
“Seventeen.”
So, the wormhole didn’t only lead to Sector 2. I wondered how the Widow chose.
“Did you clear his name?”
Bridgebane’s nod didn’t surprise me. My knowledge was limited, but the only time I knew of that Nathaniel Bridgebane hadn’t done exactly what he’d said he would was the day he brought me to Starway 8.
After all this, he probably wished he’d just offed me when I was a kid, like my father had ordered. “Too bad I didn’t die, huh? Hourglass Mile? The Black Widow? Your bounty hunters? Sucks for you… Now you have to decide all over again.”
“Quin, I’ve—”
“You’ve what?” I interrupted. “Turned into the biggest asshole in the universe?”
“You don’t know it, but I—”
I wasn’t listening to his crap. Not now. Not ever. “Or am I useful again now that I’ve destroyed your lab?” I asked.
“You destroyed it?” I think he paled.
Lying was surprisingly easy. I twisted the knife. “I blew that garbage up. Boom!”
He cursed. “That was the only thing keeping him from coming after you again,” Bridgebane ground out in apparent disgust.
“He thinks I’m dead!”
“No!” His shout nearly blew me back. I might have moved—if not for the gun behind me. “Everything that’s happened since Sector 14 is in his records. He knows.”
My breath choked off, strangled by the dread clamping around my throat. I’d used my real name over the com. I’d been talking to Bridgebane, thinking I was about to die, but of course other people had heard me. He wouldn’t have been alone on the bridge of that huge warship. But then with the Black Widow, the shock of not dying, the dangerous landing, the repairs, and Shade…I’d forgotten.
I squared my shoulders. I’d think about the Overseer later. Right now, I wanted answers from Uncle Nate.
“Did you know we could have saved her? Just a few drops. It’s not as though there wasn’t enough to spare.”
A shadow flickered over his expression. “Lower your gun, and I’ll lower mine.”
“Well, that’s a problem for me, since I have your goon at my back.” I kept my arm up, even though the gun was getting heavy. “Now answer me. Did you know?”
“I wasn’t there! I came back two days too late.” Bridgebane’s face twisted, suddenly reminding me of the man I used to know, the one with emotions and a heart. “Don’t you remember?