“Leave her out of this.” Reyes voice whipped through the shed.

Zia was unimpressed, but Sara took a step backwards, automatically reaching for her gun. She knew Reyes was dangerous the way everybody knew fire was dangerous. Still you gathered around it for warmth and company. But this had been a glimpse at a conflagration.

By the time she caught a look at the smuggler, his face showed his calm amiability again. Only his eyes harboured a hard glint that shot daggers at Zia.

The woman was either tone deaf or did not care. “You must really like this one, Reyes,” she teased.

“Cut the shit.” Reyes was still mad, but whatever streak of violence Sara had seen a second ago was securely locked away. “What’s this all about?”

Sara exhaled, unaware she had held her breath. Tension was still emanating from Reyes like a low current. It abated only a little through the conversation. And then the fighting started.

It was a good was to drain the extra adrenaline. Sara concentrated on taking out Zia and her gang. Not that anybody got to lay hands on Zia much. Reyes was channelling something for sure. He was not talking about it after the battle, either. He deflected her worries and just sent them on their way. He’d deal with the aftermath and dead bodies.