Trait of Honor Excerpt 6

“Now we have to figure out what to do with you,” the man said, returning the bottle to his cart and rummaging inside of it again.

“You could point me the way to this road you mentioned,” Juvinich said hopefully.

“You’re a smart one, aren’t you?” the young man laughed. “Your people always surprise me: not as stupid as the old men say. I’ll do that, sure, but there’s something I have to take care of first. You know, you’re lucky I’m running ahead of schedule or I wouldn’t have time to do this.”

“Do what?” Juvinich asked warily while wondering just who “the old men” were and which were his people.  The young man looked like any regular Militia citizen; very ordinary, dark and bland.

“We have to check your equipment,” the man said.  “Give it up. I know you have it”

Trait of Honor Excerpt 5

The girl’s eyes flashed and she crossed her arms.  “Fine,” she growled softly.  “But I’m not sleeping with you.”

“It’s only in the same damn tent, for crying out loud!”

“That’s what they all say.”

He could feel it, his patience, going.  With a last desperate grab to maintain control, he said, “Look.  I had to tell that man you were my wife-“

“Your wife?” the girl blurted.

Yes, his patience was definitely slipping.  Juvinich tried again. “He wanted to buy—“

“You were going to sell me?!!”

Slip, slipping…

“But I told him you were pregnant-“

“You said what?!”