Star Wars - Kenobi by John Jackson Miller Read Free Book Online Page A

“I’m telling you for the last time, Orrin. If you ever let Jabe go out on one of your posses again, you better wrap your head in bandages and stay with the Tuskens!”
    “Now, Annie—”
    “Don’t you ‘Now, Annie’ me!” she cut in, livid. “I mean it, Orrin. You can get your speeders out of my garages and park ’em under a tarp,” she said, pushing at the gaffi stick. “You want somebody to feed your crew, you go to Bestine. You want guns, you talk to Jabba!”
    “Hey, now,” Orrin said, defensively, aware again of the rapt crowd. Even the drinkers had come out of the Claim to watch. “This isn’t some eastern town,” he said. “This is the Pika Oasis. Nobody here messes with Jabba!”
    “You cross me again, and you’ll feel like a Hutt landed on you!” Green eyes blazed at him. “Understood?”
    “You get the wildest ideas. Now, calm down, or you’ll leave your boy an orphan—” With a heave, Orrin tugged at the weapon. He expected resistance, but she let go suddenly and his arm, overbalanced, swung the gaderffii in a wide arc …
    … right into the windshield of his landspeeder. Shards flew everywhere.
    Orrin eyed the mess. “Great,” he said. “Just great.” He looked back at Annileen. “See what you made me do?”
    “Me? You were holding it.” Annileen barely glanced at the shattered windshield. “I hope you took a lot better care of my son out there!”
    “Jabe takes care of himself just fine,” Orrin said, growing aggravated. “You’re treating him like a droid with a restraining bolt!”
    “Oh, really?”
    “Really!” He and Annileen were in each other’s faces, now. “And maybe you should look at yourself,” Orrin said. “Ask yourself just why he feels the need to get out from under—”
    A husky voice came from the crowd. “Ah, just kiss her already!”
    “Who said that?” Annileen’s eyes darted around the crowd. “Who said that?”
    “We all did,” Leelee said, crossing her arms and shaking her head.
    Annileen snorted at her friend. “I thought you left.”
    “What, and miss the entertainment?”
    The settlers to either side of the Zeltron laughed.
    While Annileen smoldered, Orrin quickly passed the Tusken weapon to his son. Half the oasis had been trying to set Annileen up with Orrin since his last wife left. The other half assumed they were already together. But Orrin knew better than to react in the slightest. There wasn’t a more dangerous subject in the galaxy.
    Annileen pivoted and returned to her son. Kallie was helping him stand: he seemed flustered and a little tipsy to Orrin, but undamaged.
    “Leelee’s right, Mom,” the farmer heard Kallie whisper. “You and Orrin have been doing this dance for years—”
    “ You can be replaced,” Annileen told her daughter, ire returning. “Go do something.”
    Kallie looked at her, offended. “Okay.” She turned on her heel and left—abandoning Jabe, who immediately fell back to the ground.
    As Annileen collected her son, Orrin directed Mullen to take his landspeeder back to the garage. “It’s no big deal. Just have Gloamer put the repair on the account,” he said. Remembering some of the debts he had coming due, Orrin lowered his voice and added to Mullen: “The store’s account.”
    The show over, the crowd filtered into the Claim. Annileen brushed herself off; she would have a lot of people to serve. Orrin chanced a conversation with her before he followed the others. “Did you get the Bezzards put up?”
    Annileen expelled a deep breath. “They’re in the guest quarters now. They came in just as I was heading out to meet Jabe.”
    “Blessed reason, I hope you at least put down the bantha prod,” Orrin said. “Those people have been scared enough!”
    Orrin watched as Annileen tried—and failed—to suppress a smile. “No,” she said, “they’re okay. The doc’s in with them.”
    “That’s good.”
    Before he could enter the store, Annileen pulled at his sleeve and looked at