Gleam (The Plated Prisoner 3)

I hesitate before answering. “She’s not untrustworthy,” I say carefully. “But...”

“But if you didn’t follow through on your end of the deal, she’d sell you out,” Slade finishes for me.

“Yes, but she warned me she would.”

Osrik snorts. “Well, at least she’s honest.”

“I don’t begrudge her for it,” I tell him. “The life of a woman saddle isn’t easy. She has to do what’s best for her.”

Judd blinks at me. “Gildy. Come on. You can’t afford to be naive here. She might be silent for now, but what happens if she does make it out of here and then runs out of money? She’s going to squawk your secret to whoever will buy it. Or maybe she won’t even get that far. Perhaps she’ll get caught before she can leave Ranhold, and she’ll spill it then,” he points out. “She’s a liability.”

“She’s a person,” I reply, a sense of protectiveness rising up. “And she gave me her word.”

Slade looks at me, his spiked brow furrowed. “Auren, Judd has a point.”

My spine stiffens. “Don’t,” I say with a shake of my head. “Don’t even suggest—”

“We should kill her,” Osrik butts in gruffly, as if he’s not at all bothered by the suggestion to kill an innocent woman.

“Don’t touch her,” I snap, on my feet before I even realize I’ve stood up. “She’s done nothing wrong.”

“Yet,” Osrik drawls.

Both of my lips press together in a hard line. I look to Lu, hoping for another female advocate on my side, but even she looks dubious.

“Look, I get that this isn’t the best situation, but Rissa doesn’t know the whole truth,” I tell them. “I let her come to her own conclusions when she saw me turn the Red Raids captain solid gold. She thinks that Midas’s power fed into me when he gold-touched me.”

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; “Yes, but that’s dangerous enough,” Judd puts in.

I shake my head, growing more and more nervous that they’ll take this out of my hands and do something unforgivable. “If we kill her for knowing, we’re no better than Midas. It’s what he would do if he found out Rissa knew,” I argue, my conviction bleeding through my throat to coat my words. “She’s done nothing wrong. The only thing she’s guilty of is being in the same room when I gold-touched Captain Fane. She doesn’t deserve to be killed because of that.”

Osrik opens his mouth to argue again, but a shake of Slade’s head has him snapping it shut, a glower lowering his heavy brow.

I turn to look at Slade. “You won’t hurt her. Promise me.”

His hesitancy has my tension rising and my ribbons ruffling out behind me, but he tips his head. “I give you my word. In fact, I’ll even extend an offer to her and to the other saddle she wants to escape with.”

“What do you mean?”

“When we leave, both women can come with us. It’ll be grueling travel, but they’ll be safe. It’s not completely selfless, of course,” he explains. “It would also mean that I could keep an eye on her and ensure she didn’t speak your secret.”

My lips part in surprise at the offer, and I lower myself back down on my seat. “You’d let Rissa and Polly go with you?”

“Go with us,” he corrects, black eyes boring into mine. “If you think I’m leaving without you, you’re out of your damned mind.”

A soft smile tilts my lips, and I have to stop myself from reaching up to smooth away the frown puckering his brow. His shoulders have gone stiff, as if he’s anticipating me telling him I’m not leaving.

“I’m ready to leave as soon as we find Digby.”

Relief washes over his expression. Beneath the table, his hand comes down to rest against my thigh, warmth spreading from his comforting touch. “Good.”

“It has to be secret,” I warn him. “Midas can’t know.”

“Midas can go fuck himself,” he retorts hotly.

This male.