Torran laughed without humor. “Many. I spoke at a public event. My attendance had been advertised for weeks.”

I sighed. Nothing about this job was easy.

“How was the ring secured?” I asked.

He glanced away, clearly uneasy. “It was locked in my office. I have security personnel as well as an electronic system.”

I raised an eyebrow at Lexi. She was the best thief I knew. “Could you do it?”

She shrugged. “Maybe. Depends on the system and the guards. For a human building, yes, with enough info and prep. But when the guards can sense you without seeing you? Much harder.”

“Dig into the guards,” I told Kee over the comm. She was likely already working on it, but an internal traitor was my best guess at this point.

Kee dipped her head in acknowledgment.

I turned back to Torran. “Is there anything else I should know before we get to Valovia?”

Torran stared at me for a long moment then slowly shook his head. I’d never had a more recalcitrant client.

I held out my arm. “Then let’s see if I can break a telekinetic hold.”

Lexi edged closer, stepping onto the mat. “Can I practice, too?”

“Me, too!” Kee called. She looked a little green around the edges at the thought, but she firmed her shoulders and soldiered on.

In the end, everyone on my crew tried breaking locks, with help from all of the Valoffs. None of us was successful individually, but I finally broke the lock when Kee and Eli managed to distract Torran for a fraction of a second.

Of course, a heartbeat later, he just locked me again.

My strategy for fighting a telekinetic Valoff remained the same: avoid at all costs. If that failed, then option two was run the fuck away, as fast as possible.

There was no option three.

Chapter Sixteen

I tapped my fingers on my terminal as Valovia grew ever larger on the bridge’s main screen. Yesterday’s final wormhole traversal had gone as smoothly as the rest of the trip, and the lack of problems made me nervous.

It made it seem like Valovia was a little too welcoming.

We were mere hours away from landing, and so far, not a single ship had challenged us, but my anxiety kept creeping higher, especially as the sensors picked up more and more military ships.

Starlight had an excellent navigation system, but huge swaths of Valovian space were uncharted, at least by humans. If we had to run, we had very few escape options, and now that we were close to the planet, Lotkez had broken away from our flight path, so we didn’t have an escort, either.

Not that I would trust Valoffs to help us while we were on the run, but I’d gotten used to seeing Torran’s ship trailing us on my sensors, and the lack felt wrong. My worry rose another notch.