“Any idea where we should start looking, sir?”

Mal had been waiting for Zoe to voice the question since they’d left the ship. He’d known it was coming, because he didn’t have an answer. “Not rightly, no,” he answered, hurriedly crossing the street away from the docking port and heading back into the center of town. “But if something untoward happened to the doc and his sister, two guesses who’d know about it.”

“Cortez.” It was a statement not a question.

“Exactly,” Mal grimaced, glancing behind to be sure his second was keeping up. Matching his stride, Mal told her, “I’m thinking we need to pay that rat another visit.”

***

As Cortez watched one his men fly across the bar’s back room, he sat back with bemusement and waited to see who his assailant was. When it turned out to be Reynolds his bemusement quickly turned into suspicion. Serenity’s Captain did not have a reputation for launching much larger men across rooms. It wasn’t in his nature which meant something was terribly wrong.

When Mal and his second-in-command, Zoe, rounded the corner to take up wide stances in front of him, Cortez crossed his arms over his chest and eyed them both. Reynolds was mad, seething actually. The warrior woman was as unflappable as ever.

“Problem,” Cortez asked, flicking his gaze to his man who was slowly getting up and back to Mal.

“Maybe,” Mal answered, stepping closer. Resting his fists on the table, he leaned forward and brought his face right into the other man’s. “Depends on what you know and how much of it you tell me.”

“Know about what?” Cortez wasn’t much for game playing.

“My doctor and his sister get pinched off my boat, while I was picking up cargo for you,” Mal told him, his voice losing none of its edge. “You know anything about that?”

Cortez was almost disappointed. Sighing heavily, he stood and crossed the room to pour himself a drink. “Kidnapping, Mal, really? You came here to accuse me of kidnapping?”

“Don’t act so offended,” Mal bit out, again