Set several months after If You Wear That Velvet Dress

Talon Karrde had long ago gotten used to the fact that at any given moment there were a good many people who would like to see him dead and would attempt hasten that along. Especially since he had gone legitimate and was dismantling his smuggling operations. Karrde had been generous with those he no longer had any use for, but that didn't stop many from being disgruntled. One lesson all his associates, both current and former, should have learned was that Talon Karrde did not take betrayal lightly.

That was the reason why they were here in this grimy cantina awaiting the arrival of two of his former smuggling associates who claimed to have some information he would be interested in. What Karrde was really interested in was in knowing if they were conspiring against him alone or if someone had put them up to it.

Karrde sat as if completely relaxed with one arm thrown over the back of the booth and his other hand casually resting on his leg near his blaster. Aves was beside him looking equally relaxed drinking the red ale that this planet was dubiously famous for. They watched as a short stocky human approach the table.

"Karrde."

"Atwohl. Please have a seat," Karrde said politely.

He sat and eyed Aves for a moment, before turning back to Karrde. "Where's your girlfriend?"

"If you're referring to my associate, Shada, I'm afraid she's otherwise engaged at the moment."

"I'm disappointed, Karrde. I've heard some very interesting things about her."

"She is a very interesting lady," he agreed easily.

"So what's the deal with her? I heard she's some kind of warrior woman that was thrown out because she got involved with you."

Karrde allowed a faintly amused smile. "Atwohl, you should know information is never free."

"Ryos thinks you're kriffing her," the other man carried on undeterred. "But he's a romantic like that. I told him the Talon Karrde I know is too cold blooded to-"

"Atwohl," Aves interrupted, sounding more than a little irritated at the direction Atwohl was going. "Did you just call us here to gossip or do you actually have something for us?"

"Oh, you bet I do," Atwohl grinned.

They sat there for a few moments in silence.

"And what exactly would that be?" Karrde finally asked.

The grin fell from Atwohl's face. "What's going on?"

"Why don't you tell us," Karrde said calmly, pulling out his blaster. "Hands on the table please." Atwohl complied, his face turning an impressive shade of red. "Aves?"

Aves stood relieved Atwohl of his blaster.

"What have you done with Ryos?" Atwohl demanded.

Karrde spoke into his comlink. "Shada, would you mind joining us?"

"Certainly."

Shada came down the stairs prodding a man nearly three times her size with a blaster rifle.

Atwohl gaped. "How- Ryos, what the kiff? You let one woman take you out?"

"She's really good," Ryos sounded more than a little impressed. "She came out of nowhere."

"Sit." Shada pushed him into a chair beside Atwohl. Then standing back so she could cover both of them with the rifle.

"My dear, allow me to present Atwohl," Karrde said gesturing to the other man. "He was inquiring about you earlier. Atwohl, this is Shada D'ukal, former Mistryl Shadow Guard."

"See," Atwohl loudly whispered to Ryos. "Warrior woman."

"At, this really isn't the time," Ryos replied nervously glancing back at Shada.

"Precisely," Karrde said. "Now tell me who hired you to kill me."

"What's it worth to you?" Atwohl replied defiantly. "As you said information isn't free."

"Your life for starters. But don't try to play games with me. You won't win."

"We don't have a name," Ryos said quickly. "But we have a data card with contact info. Give it him, At."

"I'm going to get it out of my pouch. Okay?"

Shada poked him in the back with her blaster rifle. "Try anything and I'll burn you down."

Atwohl slowly reached into his pouch. At the same time, Ryos suddenly pulled out a tiny single shot holdout blaster. Shada reacted instantly twisting it away and the shot went wild shattering one of the mugs on the table rather that hitting Karrde or Aves, but dousing Aves in red ale. Before they even knew it, both Atwohl and Ryos were lying on the floor. Disabled or dead, Karrde really couldn't tell at that moment.

"Aves, you okay?" Shada asked.

"I'm good. Just ale." He licked the dripping ale from his hand.

She met Karrde's eyes after she had quickly assessed that he was uninjured as well. Then she knelt down to rifle through their pockets and tossed several data cards to Aves.

He plugged them into a data pad. "This is it, boss."

The Wild Karrde maintained orbit waiting for Ryos and Atwohl's ship to leave and carry Karrde's message back to their fellow conspirators.

"Blast!" Aves exclaimed breaking the silence on the bridge.

Shada turned to Aves to see what was wrong. He was pushing up his ale stained sleeve and blood was dripping down his arm. "Guess it just wasn't ale." He pulled a small piece of glass out of his arm.

"Go down to the med bay and have Annowoskri patch you up," Karrde told him looking up from where he was studying the sensors with H'sishi.

[They are there, Cheiftan] H'sishi said.

"Track their vector and let me know when you have the data scrubbed," he told her. "Take us back to base, Dankin."

After the jump to hyperspace Karrde and Shada left the bridge so they could study the data cards they'd taken from Atwohl and Ryos in the privacy Karrde's office.

Karrde followed Shada into the office and keyed the door lock. She went over the desk to pick up a couple of datapads. He moved close to her, crowding her against the desk, his hands settling on her hips. "You were so magnificent, my darling." His mouth pressed a trail of kisses to her neck. She stretched her head back allowing him better access. "I love to watch you work," he whispered before nipping at her earlobe.

When she could take no more of passively allowing him his way she turned face him, her hands sliding down his chest until they reached his gun belt. She unfastened his holster and tossed it into a chair. She pushed him back to sit on the sofa. His hands skimmed down her sides before gripping the fabric of her jumpsuit pulling her down toward him. She knelt on the sofa straddling him. She ran her hands through his long dark hair holding him in place as she lowered her head to give him a brief intense kiss. She pulled away just as he reached up to hold her there for more. Instead she leaned even further down and whispered hotly in his ear. "I know you get off on the fact that people think that you have one of the most deadly women in the galaxy under your control and in your bed. You like them to think I left the Mistryl for you. That I couldn't resist the great Talon Karrde. That you tamed me. Don't you?" She gave his hair a sharp tug, demanding an answer.

"No," he replied, his voice sounding slightly strangled.

"No?" She pulled back looking at him, an eyebrow raised in disbelief.

"No," he repeated more clearly. He met her gaze, his pale eyes dark with arousal. "I don't want anyone to think you're tame. I like you dangerous."

A slow smirk formed on her lips. "I don't know if I have ever met anyone more arrogant than you."

"That's what you like." He reached out slowly unzipping her jumpsuit. "Are you going to put me in my place, my warrior goddess?"

Aves was on his way back from the infirmary when he turned to see Dankin lift his hand to knock on Karrde's office door. "Don't go in there," he called out, rushing up to him.

"I was about to knock, you know."

"What have you got?" Aves asked.

Dankin gave him a perplexed look. "The data H'shi scrubbed."

"I'll take it." Aves held out his hand for the datapad.

"The chief wanted it," he handed it over reluctantly.

"It'll wait. Trust me," Aves said starting to move away down the hall. "C'mon."

Dankin stood there looking confused. "What's going on? Karrde and Shada are in there."

"Exactly. I don't think they want to be disturbed."

"But-"

"Dankin, don't be stupid."

"You don't mean- Really?" He gaped at Aves. "Well, no wonder H'sishi wouldn't bring it herself. How long has this been going on?"

"About a year. You didn't know?" Aves grabbed his arm and steered him back down the hall toward the bridge.

"No. I mean I heard the gossip, but there was gossip about him and Mara too and I know that wasn't true." Dankin studied him. "Are you just messing with me?"

"No, but don't spread it around. They're trying to be discrete."

"I'll say." Dankin finally started moving down the hall. "How's the arm?"

"Nothing a bacta patch won't fix."

Dankin's seat was facing the back of the bridge as he was chatting with Pormfil at the navigation station when Karrde and Shada entered together as they'd done a thousand times before looking as they did everyday. Shada's jumpsuit was demurely zipped, Karrde's shirt was neatly tucked in, and both with not a hair out of place. Dankin quickly spun his seat back around to face the helm.

Torve leaned over from the co-pilot's seat and said in a low voice, "It's sort of like learning that your parents had to have had sex for you to have been born, right?

"You knew too?"

Torve looked at him like he was an idiot. "Shada's been much more pleasant since she's been getting laid regularly."

Dankin couldn't stop himself from turning bright red. He was certainly no prude, but he'd nearly walked in on them. He'd never be able to go into Karrde's office again without thinking about them kriffing over every piece of furniture.

"Dankin, are you okay?" Shada asked coming up behind him. Blast her sharp eyes.

"I'm fine," he said quickly.

"Are you sure?" she asked in concern. "You look like you're having an allergic reaction or something."

"He's okay, Shada," Torve put in. "He just learned something he finds shocking. He's a little embarrassed."

"Ah," was all Shada said before she walked back to Karrde's side. Thank the Force Shada was discrete enough not to ask what had embarrassed him.

Dankin carried the tray with his dinner to one of the few empty tables in the common room. His eyes were inevitably drawn to Karrde and Shada sitting together eating dinner. He couldn't seem to stop watching them whenever he encountered them since he found out they were involved. He was sure one of the two would ask what was wrong with him at any moment.

Now that he was aware they had a 'thing' together, he could see little clues. They were very circumspect, but Karrde's eyes would linger on her a little too long from across the room. Shada's smile was particularly brilliant when she turned it on him. Karrde was much more courtly with her than he was with any of his other female employees. Shada teased him in a way few others dared. Karrde also rarely sent her out on missions alone the way he had with Mara.

Aves sat down across from him blocking his view. "You look unusually thoughtful. Try not to fry a circuit, okay?"

Dankin glared at him in irritation. "I see it now that I know."

"What, did you expect them to be kriffing all over the place in front of everyone?"

"No, but they don't act a whole lot different now than they did when we went after Car'das. Except Shada doesn't look like she'd just as soon as gut him as speak to him anymore."

"Well, if that isn't the definition of love I don't know what is," Aves said holding up his glass in a toast.

Dankin clinked his glass. "I'll drink to that."

"Dankin's staring at us again," Shada told Karrde.

"No doubt he's as mesmerized by your beauty as I am," Karrde said smoothly refilling her wine glass.

Shada rolled her eyes. "Did you steal that line from Calrissian?"

"Don't you believe me?"

"I believe I shouldn't trust you when you toss out lines like that."

Karrde laughed. "That's probably wise."

Shada sipped her wine and again looked over at the table where Dankin had been joined by Aves. "Dankin's been acting strange since the mission,"

Karrde followed her gaze and saw the two men talking. "Aves will sort it out." He leaned back in his chair and focused on Shada again. "Now, what shall we do with the remainder of our evening?"

"You promised me a game of slingball," she told him.

"Me?" he said feigning shock. "It seems unlikely that I would do anything that foolish."

"You promised me yesterday in the office," she reminded him.

"My dear Shada, I would have promised you anything yesterday in the office."

Shada knew that he spoke truly on that point. He had been rather desperate for her to continue and not leave him unsatisfied at the moment she had extracted that promise. "And is that the sort of man you are? The kind who goes back on his word?" she asked trying hard to maintain a serious expression. "I don't know if I want to be involved with that sort of man."

"Oh, now who's conning who?" Karrde inquired, not at all fooled by her. "Shada, Aves had to take a dip in bacta the last time he played slingball with you."

"But you're a much better player than he is."

"Flattery will get you nowhere. Mara should be here in another week. I'll clear her entire schedule and you two can bash each others brains out to your hearts' content.

"But you like to play slingball," she said trying a different tactic.

"I do," he agreed. "But I also like not spending a couple of hours in bacta at the end of a game."

Shada gave him her best disappointed expression.

"Oh, don't give me that look," Karrde said with a sigh. "Can I at least digest my dinner first?"

"Of course." A triumphant smile lit up her face. "Thank you."

"Just promise you won't break me too severely."

"What and ruin my favorite toy?" she scoffed, unable to stop smiling. "Don't be silly."

The End