Once again, she slammed on the brakes and opened fire. “I wouldn’t say that, punk’n. Looks pretty intense from the fifteen seconds I’ve known you.”

“Well, aside from the occasional near-death visitation from one of your ilk . . . it’s pretty routine.”

“Mmm. You don’t say?” She reloaded and started down another side alley.

“I said it. Doesn’t make it true.” He winked at her. “Those are just the lies I keep telling myself in hopes they might one day come true. Sadly, running like this is my norm.”

Jayne wasn’t sure what to make of him and that blasé tone that defied the anger in his eyes. He hated all this as much as she did. “You’re not what I was expecting.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.” She drove more sedately as she scanned the street for some safe place. “Figured you were another spoiled aristo taking a vacation on mommy and daddy’s creds.”

“Retrieved a lot of those, have you?”

“No. My sister has.”

“Ah.”

She scowled at him. “You always this stoic?”

“No. Sometimes I sleep.”

For reasons she couldn’t fathom, she found him strangely charming.

And that disturbed her. Because of her career that she hated, and the baggage she carried from her less than stellar childhood, she went out of her way to avoid men.

There was no need to even try to get involved with anyone. Who could look past the blood she kept on her hands? She wasn’t some simple-minded fool who thought for one minute that a prince would come and save her.

No. Her past was too brutal for that.

Just look at Eve.

The last thing she wanted was to be in love with a man who could bring down the wrath of the League on her back.

And the men her career brought her into contact with . . .

She was better off alone.

Jayne saw Hadrian eyeing her blaster on the seat between them. “You have any weapons?”

“Just my charming wit, and devilish good looks.”

Some places, that was all he’d need. Sadly, this wasn’t one of them.

Except for . . .

“Well, from what I saw you do earlier with your wit . . . it’s pretty lethal.”

He clicked his tongue and winked. “True. Being Trisani doesn’t suck, and I still have the blaster I confiscated from our friend at the diner. And my two daggers.”

“Really?”

Hadrian nodded. “You always have two hidden weapons.”

He was right about that. “One for them to find.”

“And one to keep.”

Jayne gave him props for being well-trained. “I’ll remember that you know that.”

“Ditto.”

She swerved to miss some trash and a homeless woman who was sleeping next to it. “So why a hit on you this big? Who’d you piss off?”

He shrugged. “Don’t know. I try to keep to myself. All I can figure is that I’m Trisani.”

Which in and of itself made him one hell of a target. “But how many know that?”