“Why? Why did this leader want my father dead?”
“He was a traitor.”
Chapter Twenty-One
This was a front-row seat to a show I’d wanted to see for years. I couldn’t believe I was actually hearing about my father, if Frank was to be believed. It didn’t feel like he was lying. He had no reason to lie at this point.
“The irony is, your father paid me to bring him to Earth to escape execution by his own people. In turn, they paid me to kill him. In essence, he paid his own executioner.”
The upsurge of anger I felt was surprising. Thinning my lips to keep from mouthing off, I asked, “Why would they call him a traitor?”
With a narrow-eyed stare that seemed to take him back in time, Frank took a few seconds to consider the question before he replied. “He was protesting the heavy-handedness and corrupt policies Ral’e was beginning to implement, and some of his people were starting to listen. There were whispers of revolt, talk of the peaceful movement their previous king had tried to move forward with. I must give it to him for having the courage of his convictions. He knew this would bring heavy censure, but I don’t think he believed his own leader was so corrupt that Ral’e would fabricate evidence against him.”
“So his king made up evidence against him and got rid of him.”
“That is correct. He was accused of infiltrating the ranks to help the Sunan people and sentenced to execution. In any case, he came to know that the warrior king was going to have him killed. He approached me and asked me to help him escape.”
“If you knew he was being set up, how could you kill him?”
Frank’s empty, soulless eyes looked down at me, and he tut-tutted, as though I were a foolish child. “Taylor, darling, why would I care about the Brausiian people? They’re filthy animals.”
I felt the sting of the comment, though I still frowned at him, frightened by how he could be so ruthless. I’d never been around anyone who was so conscienceless before. “So you helped him get to Earth and then killed him?”
“Not immediately. He was clever. There were years where I lost track of him. Your mother helped him. I don’t know how or when they met. Together, they very nearly managed to disappear. In time, they married and had you. Likely, your father thought I’d given up. I imagine he’d convinced himself to start over, begin a new life and forget his home planet.”
“Why are you telling me this now?” I asked, finally understanding why my mother might have had a breakdown. She’d never been able to talk about any of this. Who would have believed her? They would have thought she was nuts, especially considering there was likely no record of my father on this planet. Perhaps over time, she had convinced herself she’d imagined it all. It might have been easier than facing the reality.
But I was part of the reality, a little hurt voice spoke up in my head.
“Hmm, why am I telling you this now, you ask? Maybe I like a good romance?” Frank replied with a winsome smile.
“But you killed him.”
“Of course I did. It was business, Taylor. Nothing personal. And when I finally kill you and your mother, I will have fulfilled my contract to Ral’e, who wanted all associated with your father, who knew the truth of the fabricated evidence, to be eliminated. You, however, are still useful to me alive at the moment.” Arching a thoughtful eyebrow, he added, “It has always bothered me that there were loose ends to that contract. The devil’s in the details, you know. It’s important to be professional. Your word has to mean something in this life, don’t you think?” His lips quirked up into a half smile, like he was just being playful.
He was nuts. Psycho. And he was going to kill me. I needed to get the hell out of here. Pronto! But how? I couldn’t manage the knots behind my back. I wondered if I could pull my arms under me, sort of work my body through the middle, and bring them to the front. Then I could use my teeth on the blasted knots, grab Paul and see if I could make this shit on my toe work properly. But I’d need to be alone. Somehow I doubted they were going to let me be alone.
I gazed out at the infinity pool, trying hard to think of a plan of action. That’s when I thought I saw movement. My eyes scanned the landscape frantically, desperately, but nothing seemed to be moving. It was just my wistful imagination.
“Alas, story time is over.” Frank stood, pocketed his gun and headed toward the dining room. “By the by, where is my mylunate, Taylor? I’ve been in sore need of it. Very inconvenient not to have it. Jory was not able to find it for me.”
“Ryder confiscated it,” I said quickly.
It was hard to tell if he believed me or not, but I was going to hold on to my mylunate, because even if I couldn’t make it work, at the very least, I had a onetime mental weapon I could unleash on whoever tried to hurt me. Of course, then I might pass out for five hours, but at least I wouldn’t be awake for the pain.
Coldly, he murmured, “Is that so. I could have simply plucked the information I need from Paul’s mind if you hadn’t taken it. You know, I’d only just hidden my ore in the kitchen drawer, so Reggie wouldn’t find it on my body and begin asking questions.”
Reggie! That’s right! Where was he? “Did you kill Reggie?”
“No, and I’m afraid that he has become another of my dreaded loose ends. He realized I was skimming funds from his accounts and shut them down before disappearing. I will have to kill him, though I will be sorry to do so. He was truly enjoyable. He enjoyed being mastered.”
This was not information I wanted to dwell on. Reggie was alive, and while I didn’t think he was a terrific example of a human being, I didn’t think he deserved to be murdered. Hopefully, I would get a chance to warn him...
“I’m going to wait for my clients to arrive. I leave you in good hands.” He motioned to Crew Cut. “Do what is necessary to keep them in line, would you? With any luck, I should be back soon with reinforcements.”
“No problem.”
Crew Cut gave me a sickening grin as Frank exited. He was leaning against the wall on the far side of the room. His eyes roved over me as he relived his crimes from Vietnam, which continued to be in vivid detail in his memory. Above his fleshy cheeks, his lids grew heavy with his arousal.
Oh, my God. I had to put up my mental shield against him to keep the images from feeding into my mind. They were tragic and sorrowful. I needed to think. I didn’t have the time be horrified.
“I got plans for you, buttercup. You and me are going to have some fun.” Crew Cut pushed himself off the wall and slowly walked toward me. My blouse stuck to my back and the middle of my chest as droplets of sweat gathered.
No, no, no! I needed to stop him. “You’re going to have to wait your turn,” I offered quickly. “Frank’s not going to appreciate you screwing with me before he’s ready.”
“I won’t hurt you. Yet.” He sniggered and crouched beside me. He smelled like a mixture of stale cigarettes and body odor. My stomach protested, wanting to heave. He had reached his hands up to the collar of my shirt, like he was going to rip the buttons away, when inspiration struck.
“You ever do time for killing that Vietnamese girl?” I asked smoothly.
His eyes showed surprise. He obviously figured he’d gotten away with it. “What the hell are you talkin’ about?”
“You know what I’m talking about.” I forced myself to grin tauntingly.
In a menacing tone, he growled, “I didn’t do nuthin’.”
“You took the girl from her family. She was barely fourteen. You like doing little girls? You a child molester? Can’t get a real woman to fuck you?”
“What the fuck are you talkin’ about?” He stood swiftly and swung a kick at my leg with his steel-toed boot.
Pain crashed through my system, numbing my leg. I couldn’t help the cry that escaped my lips, but I didn’t let up. Maybe if I just kept him a
ngry...
In a faint voice, I kept on. “I guess you’d need to be a real man, wouldn’t you? I bet you have one of those little penises. I bet some girl laughed at your little bitty piece of junk, didn’t she, and now all you can do is force little girls?”
“Shut up!” he raged, his face flushing as he kicked me again. “You don’t know what you’re talking about!”
I tried to ignore the pain, though tears shimmered in my eyes from the sickening throb.
“You probably covered up your crime, didn’t you? How many other little girls have you done over the years? Does Frank know? What about your partner, Hog? It’s okay. Leave it up to me. I won’t leave out a single detail when I share.”
“Shut the fuck up!” He came at me again, and I braced myself for the violence. I preferred being hit to being raped. His arm swung back. I squeezed my eyes closed... I waited... Nothing.
“Lin’de,” the achingly familiar voice rumbled near my ear.
“Ryder!” My eyes snapped open in disbelief. My heart throbbed in my throat at the sight of him, making it hard to talk. I spotted Crew Cut crumpled on the floor behind Ryder. “What...”
His strong arms encircled me, crushing me to his hard, muscular chest. His lips found my neck, seeming to inhale my scent quickly for reassurance before pulling back.
“Scared the shit out of me,” he grumbled fiercely. “I have things to say to you, but there’s no time now. We have to get you out of here.” He slid his hands down my arms to undo the knots in the ropes.
“Is he dead?” I asked.
“Very.”
“How did you get here?”
“Remember I put a tracking device on your phone?”
That’s right! Thankfulness smacked me straight on like a powerful wave. I’d stuck the phone down my shirt in the car, which was goddamn bloody brilliant of me, if I did say so myself.
“Did I ever thank you for that?” I asked with a watery smile.
“I don’t remember that being your first reaction.” He smirked. He managed to get the ropes untied, and the pins and needles shot up my arms. They’d gone numb being in that position for so long. With a hiss of pain, I let Ryder help me to my feet.
“Get rid of your shoes. I don’t want to make any more noise than is absolutely necessary.”
Without question, I slid them off, feeling the cold marble against my bare feet.
“Is he alive?” Ryder nodded toward Paul, taking a moment to rub my arms back into usefulness.
“He was twenty minutes ago. I hope he just passed out. He took such a beating!”
Ryder quickly checked the pulse at his neck. “He’s alive, but he’ll have to wait. We need to secure the perimeter.”
“Who’s with you?”
“Sy and my father’s personal team of six from Te’re.”
“His personal team?” My eyes widened.
“I’ll let him tell you.” Ryder stopped the line of questioning as he pulled me toward the sliding glass doors. “Let’s get you out of here.”
Then came the part that really felt like a horror movie.
A powerful arm snagged me from behind, yanking me firmly from Ryder. It was like a slow-motion dream. I could feel the pressure of being pulled away, the slow slide of our outstretched fingers sliding off each other. Ryder’s scowling confusion became savage ferocity, and an all-too-familiar voice spoke silkily.
“Too late, boys and girls.”
With a gun trained on my temple, I could do nothing but freeze. My blood turned cold. I felt my face drain of color. Frank was more than capable of killing me. Rosser was only a few feet away in a pool of his own blood. That could be me at any moment. I looked to Ryder, my heart pounding in my throat, and wanted to scream my frustration. Was he about to witness my execution?
“Ranik.” Ryder spat out the name, gnashing his teeth.
“Did you hurt Pen?” Frank shook his head sadly, looking down at Crew Cut. “And to think. All he ever wanted was to fix his teeth. He will be missed.”
“I thought you were waiting for your guests,” I snarled, tired of feeling thwarted. When the hell was this going to end? This episode was supposed to have wrapped up. Wasn’t the half hour over?
“A little birdy warned me that trouble was brewing on her way out. Seems she caught sight of some blue light. Now I need to leave the party early. It’s a shame, really. I was so close to concluding my business here.”
“The shame would be in you not leaving,” I taunted him, my frustration finding an out.
“What do you want?” Ryder growled, his eyes telling me to shut the hell up. “There’s nowhere for you to go. The house is surrounded.”
“Mylunate.”
“Done,” Ryder agreed. He reached into the neckline of his crewneck T-shirt and brought out the quarter-sized vial I’d seen there before. It made me angry to see Ryder have to give it up. Such beautiful craftsmanship had been made especially for him, to represent his energy, his spirit. It was wrong to think of Ranik’s filthy fingers touching something noble and pure.
“No! I have some.”
“Taylor!” Ryder glared at me.
I’m sure my expression read What? as I looked at him sharply.
“Oh, Taylor. You lied to me earlier. You are a bad girl. Now give it to me. Where is it?” His voice had lost its charming edge and was now just hard and uncompromising.
“On my toe.”
“Get it carefully. And, please, Senior Officer. No heroics. I’d hate to be jostled and accidentally pull the trigger. Would be a great big mess, don’t you think?” The barrel of the gun was still digging into my temple.
Ryder’s lip curled in reaction, his eyes boring holes into Frank’s.
I slowly knelt to pull the metal off my toe. It was like the thing had sunk roots into my brain or something, because I gasped in pulling it off. It was painful, like separating something that was a part of me, that had its tendrils wrapped around me, anchored into me. I had to grit my teeth to keep from crying out, but I did finally pull it loose. I hadn’t quite regained my equilibrium before Frank began a story.
“This piece of mylunate has history, Taylor. Your father found a small cache of the ore that was deep within one of the Brausiian Trenches and managed to get a piece of it for himself and a few close friends.”
“This piece was my father’s?” I asked, suddenly pained to hand it over, but Frank grabbed it and shoved it onto his own finger. After a moment of resistance, the metal liquefied and conformed to him.
A devilish smile slid across his face, and he demanded, “I’ll take the other bit as well, Senior Officer.”
Ryder clenched his teeth, his lips pressing into a firm line.
Shit. That was why Ryder had protested my stating I had any. We were going to be left with none, and then he’d be able to kill us both and get away quickly. Ryder hesitated in pulling his necklace off, obviously stalling for time, so Frank shoved the gun into my temple, hard. I winced with the discomfort.
“Don’t fucking hurt her,” Ryder growled. “I’m giving it to you.”
Reach for it, Taylor! The Gods’ plane is yours by right. Reach for it. The power is here.
I was surprised by the voice in my head. Dreya?
Reach for it! There’s no time!
But the mylunate is off my toe!
You can do it! The Gods’ plane exists everywhere!
Okay, okay!
Taking a deep breath, I opened my mind, encouraging its fingerlike tendrils to seek out the energy signature that would lead me where I needed to go. It took a moment to find without the battery boost of the mylunate, but after fumbling desperately, I found it. Holy cow! Without the mylunate! I felt the warmth, the connectedness, the power.
“Thank you.” Frank had his finger
s around the necklace. He took aim at Ryder. He was going to shoot him!
I unleashed mental shrapnel with ferocious intensity into Frank’s brain, and when the gun blasted, it went wide. His face was etched in pain as I unloaded on him with all the power of the love I had for Ryder. The necklace dropped to the ground.
Quick as lightning, Ryder smacked the gun away. It skittered across the room.
“Fucking murderer!” Ryder growled. He became a wild man, unleashed. He connected a set of combination power punches, his muscular body moving with grace and agility. With grim determination, Frank backpedaled, trying to block and dodge the attack, absorbing some of the hits with guttural grunts of pain. He was being propelled across the room toward the sliding doors, away from me. And away from the gun, I was glad to note.
I wanted to grab it. Secure it. Keep Ryder safe. But I couldn’t move. I was fighting off black smudges of unconsciousness that wanted to shut my mind down.
Frank was obviously trained, or he would have gone down in the first five seconds. With surprising speed and strength, he ducked a punch and came up with a knee to Ryder’s gut, taking him by surprise.
No! My inner cheerleader turned fearful.
Frank took advantage of Ryder’s lapse and twisted sharply. Swinging an elbow, he caught Ryder in the cheek, knocking him back a few feet and leaving him gasping for a quick breath. Ryder’s rage only intensified. He whipped a device from his pocket.
“Dear boy,” Frank gasped, quickly propelling himself to take up position behind Paul’s inert body. “I believe I’m going to take you up on the sparring match another time.”
“Fucking murdering traitor.” Ryder swiped a trickle of blood from his cheek where his skin had split, keeping his device steady on Frank. “You are the reason my sister is dead.”
“Those are harsh words, young man.” Frank was breathing heavily, grimacing as he held a hand to his side. He took a moment to wipe blood from his own lip. He snarled in a low, angry voice, “Especially considering what your mother has done. You think you’re all so lily-white in this? You’re all such wonderful martyrs, enjoying your pain so perfectly.”
Quicksilver Dreams (Dreamwalkers) Page 40
