Bethany again waggled her Taser as Alex watched. “Well, just in case he gives me any trouble, I’ll leave the barbs in him. If he doesn’t cooperate . . .” She shrugged as she flashed him a meaningful smile.
The man stood at ease behind her and folded his arms.
Bethany tilted her head, indicating the door. “Why don’t you go wait outside. This is rather private business. I don’t think having you as an audience will help him get it up.”
Alex wasn’t sure that he’d heard her correctly.
“All right,” the man grumbled. “Just don’t be long.”
Bethany turned a glare on him in a way that seemed to cause him to shrink an inch. “Who do you think you’re talking to?” she growled through gritted teeth. “How long have I planned, have I worked, have I waited? How dare you presume to tell me to rush through it? It takes as long as it takes.
“It only matters that I get what I came for. To that end I intend on staying here the whole night to be sure that when I leave I leave pregnant.”
She planted her fists on her hips and leaned toward the man. “Got it?”
“Got it,” the man answered in a contrite tone.
“Now, get out. I’ll let you know when I’m done, then you can have your fun with him. You just wait outside until then.”
The man nodded and then pulled a knife from a sheath behind his back. After he licked the blade he gave Alex a grim grin.
“When she’s finished with you, then I settle the score for what you did out there in the other room.”
As he left he turned once to glare back over his shoulder at Alex. Bethany watched through the doorway until the front door slammed behind the man.
She turned back, her tone becoming airy again. “Better, lover?”
“Why is it better? I still have to look forward to having my throat cut.”
“Well,” she said with a shrug, “at least you get me first. You should be thankful that it’s me who found you and not Jax.”
Alex’s breath caught with the shock of that name. His mind reeled. Regaining his senses, he hoped that the flickers of lightning had hidden his reaction. He thought he ought to help cover his surprise by sending her off topic.
“Who’s Jack?”
“Not Jack, Jax. Lucky for you I’m the one who found you first—I’ll at least make sure you die with a smile. Jax would simply have bled you out.”
“Why? Who is she?”
Bethany’s smile ghosted away. “Jax is a diplomatic assassin.”
Alex’s brow tightened. “Diplomats are the opposite of assassins.”
“No, no, dear boy, she’s an assassin.” Her gaze focused a million miles off. “A very special assassin, for very special targets.”
Alex didn’t want to believe her. But he remembered all too well the way Jax had pulled a knife on him, remembered how fast she had gotten it to his throat, though she’d had just cause at the time. He had, after all, just slammed her up against the wall and had his arm against her throat. He couldn’t really fault her reaction. Still, Bethany’s words gave him pause.
“Special targets. What do you mean?” he asked. “What kind of special targets?”
“Jax kills those who seek peace.”
He finally grasped her meaning. “Like diplomats.”
“Among others. She’s a specialist. She is sent after only the most exceptional individuals, individuals, like diplomats, who are seeking unity, order, and prefer peaceful resolution to conflict.”
In the softer flickers of lightning, Alex could see the distant look in Bethany’s eyes, as if she were looking into another world. Dark animus colored her expression. “She’d love nothing more than to get her blade into me.”
Alex said nothing.
Bethany’s gaze, along with her smile, returned, almost as if to reassure him. “But she never will. I’m too well protected, even for Jax.”
“Why would this very special assassin want to kill you?”
What he really wanted to know was what made her think she was so special, but considering his circumstances he thought better of phrasing it that way.
All the things Jax had told him about being from another world raced around in his mind, trying to find a proper fit with what Bethany was saying.
Bethany ran her fingers through his hair. It almost seemed a deliberate attempt to distract herself from what were obviously troubling thoughts of Jax. “Let’s not worry about such unpleasantness. Let’s just worry about you and me. This is a special night for both of us.”
She leaned even closer, trailing a finger along his cheek. Her seductive tone returned. “Time for what Bethany promised you.”
Alex couldn’t see that he had any choice in the matter. He tried to think of a way he could get a hand free, but there wasn’t anything within reach of his fingers. He knew that twisting his hands would accomplish nothing. Even if he tried she would use the Taser to take the fight out of him.
A thought he’d had before returned. If she was touching the steel darts when she pulled the trigger, the Taser would do the same to her as it did to him. He wondered if she knew that. He wondered how he could manage such a thing. He wondered what it would accomplish even if he could. Nothing, probably.
She had it all planned out. She was in control of the situation. When she was finished, the man with the knife would have his turn.
Bethany unbuckled his belt, then unzipped his pants and started tugging them down. When she had them down to his knees she smiled wickedly and slunk on all fours up the length of him.
Straddling him, she reached around with one hand and unzipped the back of her dress before pulling it off over her head. She wasn’t wearing anything underneath. Everything the dress had advertised about what lay beneath the silver sheath was true.
“You spoiled this on your birthday, Alex, and caused me a great deal of trouble. I had to wait another whole moon until the correct time in my cycle came around again.”
Things were starting to make sense to him. Crazy sense, but sense.
She leaned down to kiss him on the mouth. When he turned his face away she lightly kissed his cheek instead. “But now I’m told that I’m as ready as ready can be. I’ve had experts confirm that tonight’s the night, lucky boy.
“Time to make an heir.”
17.
BETHANY PRESSED HER NAKED THIGHS tight to either side of him as she leaned forward. She tenderly kissed his neck as he stared up into the darkness. He found her tender advances revolting.
He was enraged at being bound up and helpless. He was angry with himself for allowing it to get this far. He didn’t know what else he could have done, but he should have done something. Worse, he didn’t delude himself about what was in store for him when she had finished getting what she wanted. The mental image of the big man licking the blade before delivering his threat was not something Alex could easily put from his mind.
“Are you ready to take our relationship to the next level?” Her intimate whisper in his ear sounded as if she was ready. “Or are you going to need Bethany to help get you in the mood?”
The situation was so absurd that he couldn’t find words. The only thing he was in the mood for was breaking her neck.
His sense of panic had already melted away under the heat of anger.
She leaned forward, pressing herself against him. Her firm breast pushed the steel barb harpooned into the left side of his chest deeper into the muscle. It felt like it was bottoming on rib bone. He gritted his teeth against the sting of pain.
As she nibbled his ear, caught up in what she was doing, Alex tried to pull away, tried to stall. “Bethany, why in the world are you doing this?”
“Why in the world.” She laughed softly in his ear. “That’s funny, Alex. Which world do you mean?”
The magnitude of her words shook him to his core. He wished he had believed Jax. He had thought her story was crazy. Now he wished he had listened to her. He remembered the last thing she had told him: “Trouble
will find you.”
It was the last thing his grandfather had told him as well.
Alex struggled to focus. “What I mean is, I don’t know why you are doing this, since you can’t seriously think that you’re worthy of bearing my child.”
That shocked her into sitting up—not what he had wanted.
Her brow tightened. “What?”
“You’re hardly suitable. Let’s face it, considering all of your undesirable traits you’re not really fit to bear a Rahl.”
When the illumination of lightning flared in through the window he could see her indignant glower.
“Is that right?”
“If you weren’t so stupid you’d know it is. My offspring deserves better than the likes of you for a mother.”
“You arrogant bastard,” she hissed. “You’re wrong. You will give me a child—your heir—and I will be the one to guide him, not you. After you do this much of it there will be no further need of you. That child will be devoted to me. Your only part in his life is that you are going to father him.”
He looked up into her eyes. “I’ll see you dead, first. You have my promise on that.”
“How dare you!” When the lightning cracked again he could see that her face had gone scarlet. “How dare you talk to me that way, you little bastard.”
She lifted the Taser in her fist and pulled the trigger.
The shock of the high-voltage arc slammed into him. He couldn’t believe how much it hurt. He flailed helplessly. The zip ties holding his arms ripped into the flesh of his wrists.
With Bethany sitting up, her skin wasn’t touching the probes, so she felt none of it. She glared down at him as he screamed incoherent curses. She wasn’t bothered in the least by his agony. She seemed incapable of empathy.
When it finished and he sagged back on the bed, she gave him a moment to recover before leaning over again to whisper in his ear. “We have all night, Alex. Would you like me to pull the trigger a few more times just to get it through that thick head of yours that I’m going to have my way? I would rather you just give in without all the drama. It really is getting quite tedious, you know.”
In the darkness he could feel her belly pushing against the lower probe and her breast pressed firmly onto the other. When he didn’t argue she writhed a little, rubbing herself against him seductively, as if to show him the benefits of her better side. His sweat from the ordeal made her skin slick. She started nibbling on his ear as she got down to business.
“You’ve got to be pretty stupid, Bethany, if you think that that fat ass of yours is ever going to get a guy hot for you. You’re really making a fool of yourself trying to be sexy, if you want to know the truth of it.”
That had the desired effect. She growled in rage and without bothering to sit up pulled the trigger.
She didn’t realize that with her flesh touching the steel probes the Taser would give her the same paralyzing shock it gave him.
Through his helpless grunts of pain he could hear her cries of terrified torment. He’d known what to expect, at least. He’d known it was coming. The shock of it was far worse for her because she hadn’t been expecting it.
Bethany didn’t know what was happening to her. She screamed not just in pain, but in panic.
Alex didn’t think she was all that familiar with technology.
In the throes of agony, her arms flailed. Alex heard the Taser hit the floor and bounce a few times. When the five seconds passed and the pain ended, she sagged limp atop him.
He decided that whatever her long-range plan was, he wasn’t going to go along willingly. She would just have to pick up the Taser gun and pull the trigger all night long if that was what she wanted to do, but he wasn’t going to cooperate.
As she regained her wits, she pressed a hand against his chest to push herself upright. With her other hand she swept her hair back off her sweaty face.
She looked down into his eyes. “Where I come from, that’s nothing.”
“It’s nothing here, either,” he lied.
A smile stole its way back onto her face. She lay back down against him, her warm breath in his ear again.
“I know what you’re doing, Alex,” she whispered, “but it isn’t going to work. I’m not falling for your little ploy. I’m not going to let you get me angry enough to cut your throat. I came here to accomplish what needs accomplishing and I intend to see it through.
“Be as stubborn as you want, but it won’t do you any good. You’re going to get me pregnant tonight. There isn’t anything you can do about it—it’s just the way men are made.
“Afterwards, I’m going to use a knife on you myself and make sure that you regret every word you said.”
In the darkness of the room lit only occasionally by flashes of lightning filtered through the sheets of rain, Alex felt the gloom of his situation settle back in on him. He had been momentarily euphoric that he had been able to trick her into getting a jolt from the Taser, but what good did it really do him? He wasn’t going to be able to trick her into it again and he wasn’t going to be able to free himself from his bonds.
It might have been satisfying to see her take such a jolt for a change, but it didn’t stop her. He knew she was going to get even and then some.
He turned his gaze off into the darkness as he gave in to despair.
18.
ALEX THOUGHT OF BEN,and the lessons his grandfather had taught him. Ben had been in terrible, desperate situations. He had faced death. Those were the kinds of situations Alex’s grandfather had wanted to prepare him for. Ben had wanted him to be prepared to face death with resolve, should he ever find himself in such a situation, in order to survive.
Ben had framed it in the mantra “Trouble will find you.” It was a way of reminding him to always be ready, that trouble of any sort could come at any time. His grandfather had often said that trouble usually came when you were alone. Ben had been right.
Alex reminded himself not to give up. Ben had taught him better than that.
He decided that if all he could do was to make Bethany angry enough to kill him rather than follow through with her plan, if that was the only success he could have, then he was going to take that option. He didn’t have only the choices she had given him. He didn’t have to abide by her rules.
He knew that above all else he could not let her have what she wanted or in the end more people would die. He didn’t know how that would come about, but he was certain of the eventuality.
This was not an absurd battle with a headstrong woman. This wasn’t simply a matter of her wanting his child. This was something much bigger, something she and the people with her were willing to kill to get. This was something that he knew he couldn’t allow her to win—even if it meant that he had to die to prevent it.
Jax had come to this world because there was something terribly wrong. She had said that to get here she’d risked being lost in eternal darkness. No one would take such a risk without a powerful reason. This was in some way connected with the trouble that had so concerned Jax.
She had been telling him the truth. If only he had believed her at the time.
Bethany impatiently reached down between her legs to grab hold of him. He held his breath.
“You might as well relax, lover boy. I’m going to have my way and you know it.”
He didn’t answer. He focused on how angry it made him that she thought she could have her way by trying to get him to give in to lust.
To divert his mind from Bethany, from the soft warmth of her, from her insistent attempt to engender that lust, he thought about the night Ben had died.
His mind drifted to thoughts about his mother locked away for the rest of her life in that awful place. She knew something about this, he was sure of it now.
Dread of what was going to happen to him when Bethany used a knife on him to make him regret his words also lurked in the back of his mind. He could imagine lying there with his arms and legs securely restrained as she started cuttin
g him. He would be helpless. He knew that Bethany had no empathy for pain.
In light of such things, it wasn’t hard to ignore her insincere cooing.
“I think I’m actually going to enjoy this,” she whispered in his ear. “Make me enjoy it, Alex.”
It wasn’t at all hard to wish her dead.
In a distant flickering of lightning he saw her back abruptly arch. The movement caught his attention because there was something very odd, very unnatural, even alarming, about the swift, upward curving movement of her naked body and the sudden breath she sucked in.
He was about to hurl an insult at her in an effort to take her off track when another bolt of lightning crashed to ground not far away. As the harsh light coming in through the window fell across Bethany’s face, Alex saw her blue eyes go wide. Thunder shook the house.
Before the light died out he thought he caught the glint of a blade.
For an instant he wondered if she had finally had enough of his resistance, if she had become enraged enough that she had decided to slaughter him right then and there in his own bed and be done with it. Visions of her stabbing him as he lay restrained and helpless ran in a sudden panic through his mind. Even though there was nothing he could do to stop her, he reflexively tensed for the expected thrust of a knife slamming down into him.
Instead, Bethany’s chin lifted even farther as her neck curved back in line with her arched spine.
As the lightning flashed again Alex was stunned to catch just a glimpse of a fist holding Bethany’s hair, pulling her head back. The odd, unnatural arch of Bethany’s back and neck suddenly made sense. His immediate thought was that the man had come back in and had decided to take matters into his own hands.
A bloody blade swept around in front of Bethany’s throat. It sank in deep as it was pulled from ear to ear.
Gouts of blood from severed arteries pumped out through the horrific gash. The fist held Bethany’s head back. Her arms flailed weakly as her chest heaved, her breath bubbling out of the gaping wound with a scream unable to be delivered.
Lightning again flared and thunder rumbled. Founts of thick blood running from the yawning cut funneled down between Bethany’s breasts. Her hands flexed, clutching weakly at the air to her sides. Her mouth worked as she tried to gasp for a breath. Bloody froth from her severed windpipe sprayed everywhere.
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