“Like maybe a fixer by the name of Dankirk?” Pierce narrowed his eyes.
Dizzy exhaled with frustration. “You seem to know the answers to all these questions already. Why are you even wasting your time by asking me?”
Pierce sat back and looked utterly relaxed. “I’m just trying to make sure I have all the ends tied up before I make a recommendation about your future on this ship.”
Venom’s back went ramrod straight. “Are you threatening to take away my mate?”
“Whoa.” Pierce held up his hands at the snarled question. “Calm down, Venom. There’s no need for you to come across this table, okay?”
Dizzy found the courage to ask, “Are you going to arrest me?”
“Do we need to?” Pierce countered.
“No.” She pushed back against Venom’s chest, as if desperate to retreat from this uncomfortable situation. “I didn’t break any laws.”
“No, but your father did and you failed to report them. We’re not partial to lawbreakers up here. However,” Pierce drew out the word, “we’re willing to take into consideration that you were under an extreme amount of emotional duress. We don’t believe that you’re a terrorist sympathizer trying to gain access to the ship or her crew.”
“A terrorist? Are you insane?” Dizzy’s angry outburst made Pierce’s eyebrows rise. She grabbed the front of the white bride’s collar and dragged it down. “Do you see what those monsters did to me? They killed my mother. Do you really think I would ever work with slime like that?”
Pierce stared at the scars on Dizzy’s neck. “No, I don’t think you would knowingly work with them. Our intelligence tells us that Fat Pete has ties with the violent Sixer street gang. It’s very likely they’re using him to launder money for the Splinter terrorist cell on Calyx. Your father just paid him a very large sum of money…”
She put her hand to her mouth as if she might be sick. Recognizing that this might be a trick to get her to implicate herself, Venom covered her hand with his own. “Don’t say another word, Dizzy.”
“We’re not after her.” Torment finally deigned to speak. “You don’t need to worry.”
“You seem to forget that I was there in that warehouse when Menace’s woman took three bullets to the stomach. I watched her bleed out on that filthy floor and nearly lose her life. You’ll have to excuse me if I don’t believe a damn thing you say, Torment.”
“Believe this.” Pierce retrieved a small communications device from his pocket and showed it to Venom. “We briefed Terror when Dizzy’s background check flagged her as a possible risk. He secured a pardon from our Shadow superiors and the War Council. It’s been signed by Vicious and Orion so you can be assured it’s legit.”
Venom lowered his hand from Dizzy’s mouth but gave her a look to stay silent until he’d read the legal document offered to him. The sight of Vicious and Orion’s signatures calmed him. After the mess with Naya neither the general nor admiral would ever allow another woman to be harmed or railroaded on their watch.
“What are the terms of this deal?”
“The usual,” Torment replied. “She cooperates fully and convinces me that she’s told the whole truth. When we’re done here we release her into your custody and won’t bother her again unless we have follow-up questions.”
It was the follow-up questions that had Venom concerned. How often would they want to pull her in for questioning? Would they come for her when he was on duty?
Pierce would make sure he was notified but Torment? No, he shared Terror’s views on their covert work. There was no cost too high to safeguard the Harcos nation.
Dizzy shifted nervously. “What do you mean by releasing me into Venom’s custody? That makes it sound like I’m his prisoner.”
Torment made an amused noise. “For all intents and purposes, you brides are prisoners of the men who catch you. They just call you their mates to soften the shock a bit.”
Venom glared at Torment. “She is not my prisoner.”
Torment shrugged. “We’ll agree to disagree.” The master interrogator trained his gaze on Dizzy. “To answer your question—when we’re done here, Venom can choose to keep you or send you packing. It’s an indulgence he’s earned for his years of brave service. Don’t make him regret it.”
Her small hand gripped his. “I would never do that.”
“Then let’s get back to the interview,” Pierce said, pulling them back on track. “Let’s talk about your mother.”
Venom swore inwardly. He had a sneaking suspicion his choice to delay telling her about the blood test results was about to bite him in the ass big-time.
Chapter Nine
Dizzy blinked at the man called Pierce. “My mother is dead. There’s not much to say.”
“I disagree. I think there’s plenty to talk about when it comes to your mother.”
Dizzy couldn’t believe this guy. Wasn’t it bad enough that he had just humiliated her in front of Venom? What more did he want from her? He’d already insinuated she might be a terrorist sympathizer.
Torment, the scary-looking one, remained stock-still in his position behind Pierce. The man’s deadly vibe made her legs tremble. She wasn’t dumb enough to tangle with a guy named Torment. By the looks of him he had earned that name in ways she refused to even imagine.
Dragging her gaze back to Pierce, she asked, “What do you want to know about my mom?”
“Where was she born?”
The question seemed innocuous enough so she didn’t feel bothered by answering it. “She was a colony girl. She came from Jesco where her parents were professors at the university there.”
“What would make a colony girl leave behind the freedom of the colonies for your planet?”
“Love,” Dizzy answered simply. “My mother was a free spirit. She won a lot of pageants and beauty contests as a teenager. She wanted to be a muse. What you call a model,” she explained, remembering the term Venom had used. “Apparently my grandparents weren’t very supportive. They wanted her to get an education and make something of herself but she wanted to travel and enjoy life. She got a job working as a stewardess with Cross Colony Air and that’s how she met my father.”
“And how long did she work as a stewardess?”
“Um…six years? I think she was around my age when she left that job and started her muse agency in The City.”
Pierce tugged another photo from his stack of folders. “Let’s talk about this man.”
Her gaze settled on a surveillance photo of her father leaving one of the known gambling dens in Low Town. “My dad?”
“Sure.”
Her brow furrowed as she considered all the paths this part of the interview might take. “What do you want to know?”
“How did he meet your mother?”
“Oh. Well…he was on vacation in Safe Harbor and Mom had a layover there. They met on the beach there and had a whirlwind romance. A few weeks later she resigned her post with Cross Colony Air and married my father.”
“Because she was pregnant with you?”
“Yes.” She wondered at the odd way Pierce had asked that question. Was it because his culture took a negative view on pregnancy outside marriage?
Pierce thumbed through his paperwork. “Your father was a very wealthy man. You enjoyed a very nice lifestyle until the recession.”
Her fingers skimmed the scars on her neck. “After the bombing the recession hit. Dad’s bank suffered badly. They were overextended and heavily invested in real estate near the embassy and Up Town sector. Within a few months of the explosion Dad was bankrupt.”
As if sensing how hard it was for her to dredge up the darkest time in her life, Venom caressed her arm. If they had been alone he probably would have kissed her tenderly and spoken soft words to her. The intense scrutiny of the secret police duo kept Venom from showering her with the affection she’d grown accustomed to receiving from him. Instead he remained silently supportive of her. It was more than enough and gave her the
courage to keep going.
“After we lost the house I got my own small apartment. I couldn’t work as a muse anymore. Not after…” She gestured to her neck. “But I’d always been very good at designing clothes. Dad gave me some cash to get my business started. I’ve been supporting myself ever since.”
Pierce consulted another folder. “Your mother owned and operated a muse agency.”
“Yes.”
“And your parents were very high in society down in The City?”
“They were.”
Pierce showed her various photographs of her parents at political parties and cultural events. “Do you know any of the people in these photos?”
She studied them and pointed out faces she recognized like the former mayor and a chief of police. “I don’t run in those circles anymore so I haven’t seen any of these people in years.”
“After his bankruptcy what did your father do to make money?”
Dizzy frowned at Pierce’s odd pattern of questions. “Is this some kind of interrogation tactic? You know, get me talking about one thing and feeling comfortable and then blindside me with something else?”
Behind her Venom laughed quietly. “Sounds like you need to work on your game, Pierce.”
“My game is just fine, thank you,” Pierce grumbled. “Tell me about Jack’s current line of business.”
“You already know what he does.” She let loose a resigned sigh. “He’s a fence and a black market dealer.”
“Do you receive money from his illicit activities?”
She carefully answered his question. “I’m not sure whether the money to start my business or pay my first few months of rent for my apartment came from legal or illegal sources.”
“That’s fine.” Pierce sat forward. “So—tell me what you were doing at the embassy the day of the bombing.”
She swallowed hard. “I was following my mother.”
Pierce looked interested. “Because?”
Did he know or was he just fishing? Remembering that the deal required absolute truth, she couldn’t very well hold back the facts she’d already told Venom. “I followed my mother because she was having an affair with one of your men.”
“Did you know the Harcos man?” Torment asked the question this time and he was anything but gentle in his delivery.
“No.”
His eyes narrowed with skepticism. “No? You’d never seen or met this man?”
She shook her head. “I heard my parents arguing about him earlier that week. It was the first indication I’d ever had that things weren’t perfect in their marriage.”
“How long was your mother seeing this man?”
“I don’t know.”
His eyes narrowed even more. “Would you recognize him?”
Venom shifted beneath her. His fingers tightened around her arm. Was he worried they were pushing her too hard? “I doubt it. I only caught glimpses of him. It’s been years.”
“You don’t think it’s the slightest bit suspicious that your father, a man with underworld contacts, sold his only daughter into a Grab when his wife had been conducting an affair with a Harcos male?”
Dizzy didn’t like Torment’s tone. “What are you getting at?”
“What color was your mother’s lover’s hair?”
Venom cleared his throat but Torment didn’t seem the least bit interested in easing up on his rapid-fire questioning.
“His hair?” Dizzy’s shoulders bounced. “Why in the world does that matter?”
Torment seemed irritated. “Was it the same color as yours?”
“The same color as mine?” She started to touch her hair but stopped. A strange sensation invaded her chest. All her life people had remarked on the white-blonde color of her hair because it was so very rare among people in The City. Her mother had always claimed it was very common among the Earth settlers who had founded the colonies on the planets surrounding Calyx.
Chest constricting, she asked, “What exactly are you trying to insinuate?”
“I’m not insinuating anything.” With an exasperated exhale, Torment stared over her shoulder to Venom. “You didn’t tell her.”
“Tell me what?” Dizzy twisted on Venom’s lap for a better look at his face. Outwardly he looked calm—probably the effect of years of frontline battles—but he had a grim darkness about his expression. “Venom?”
His right eye twitched. She sensed he was waging an internal struggle. He tenderly touched her cheek and confessed, “Your blood tests before your surgery had some unexpected results. They showed that your father is one of us.”
“That’s not possible. They have to be wrong.” Her clipped, rushed reply came even before she’d processed what Venom had said. She simply refused to believe it.
“They weren’t wrong. Our medical tests are highly sensitized and accurate. Your father is not the man you think he is.”
His words bounced around in her head but she couldn’t make sense of them. Her brain seemed to be on the fritz as she tried to reconcile twenty-three years of her life with the earth-shattering bomb Venom had just dropped. “My father is Jack Lane.”
His expression softened to one of pure compassion. “Jack Lane is the man who raised you, yes, but your biological father is a Harcos male.”
Dizzy shoved at his chest and rose to her feet. “No. That’s not true.” She narrowly evaded Venom’s clutching hand and glared at the men who had been interrogating her. “This is some vile trick.”
“This isn’t a trick.” Torment gestured to the sea of photographs on the table. “Look at your mother. Look at Jack Lane. They’re both dark-haired.” He pointed to her head. “That hair? It’s a dominant trait in females bred by Harcos males.”
Her stomach threatened to erupt. She didn’t know what to believe anymore. She just knew that she had to get away from here. Spinning toward the door, she shouted, “Let me out of here.”
“We’re done. This interview is over.” Venom’s chair scraped loudly against the floor as he shot to his feet and hurried to her side.
“This interview is over when I say—”
“We can reschedule,” Pierce interrupted Torment’s outburst.
Reschedule? These guys were out of their damned minds if they thought she was ever going to talk to them again. They were such liars. Somehow they’d manipulated those test results. She refused to believe anyone else was her father. It wasn’t possible. It simply wasn’t.
Wordlessly Venom retrieved her suitcase and placed his hand against the small of her back. He led her out of the interrogation room to the elevator. The silent ride was excruciatingly uncomfortable. Anger surged through her but she couldn’t pinpoint the source. Her mother? Her father? Those two jerks back there who scared her with their intrusive questions?
She glanced at Venom. Stiff-jawed and stoic, he drew her ire. “So much for your promises to protect me!”
Venom eyed her carefully. His jaw tensed and relaxed a few times. “I failed this time. I won’t fail you again.”
The shame in his voice tore at her conscience. Venom wasn’t the one who deserved her fury. He had been nothing but nice to her. She wasn’t exactly happy that he’d kept the test results from her but she figured he had a reason for it. Considering the way she’d just reacted, he had probably wanted to avoid upsetting her.
Gripped by guilt, she reached for his big, scarred hand and interlaced their fingers. He seemed surprised by her quiet gesture of apology. His icy-blue eyes reflected a mixture of hope and trepidation. “That was wrong of me. I shouldn’t have lashed out at you.”
Venom bent down and kissed the top of her head. “You’re upset and you’re in pain. You’re feeling betrayed and confused. Making me the target of your jumbled emotions takes the heat off the people you’re really angry at—your parents.”
His wise, patient reply only made her feel worse. Other men probably would have snapped right back at her about being childish but not Venom.
As tears burned her e
yes, she asked, “Is it really true?”
His unwavering gaze convinced her even before he spoke. “Yes.”
Dazed by the realization she had been lied to for years, Dizzy barely noticed all the people and the shops as they crossed the bustling marketplace sector of the ship. They stepped into another elevator that took them to a quiet residential floor. She should have been excited to cross the threshold into her new home but all she could think about was locking herself away in the bathroom to have a good cry and try to sort out the lies from the truth.
But Venom seemed to have other ideas.
The moment the door was secured, he tossed aside her suitcase and snatched her by the waist. Her shocked gasp echoed in the dimly lit space of the entryway. Using his strength and size to his advantage, Venom lifted her up until she had no other choice but to wrap her legs around his waist. With the wall at her back, he supported her slight weight easily with his massive, muscular body.
Her heart thundered at the way he had so unexpectedly manhandled her. She was suddenly very aware of how gentle he had been with her since putting his collar around her neck. He could hurt her so easily—but he wouldn’t.
He ducked his head and tried to kiss her but she turned her face. She wasn’t in the mood for kisses right now. “No.”
“Yes.” His lips brushed her cheek before seeking out and finding just the corner of her mouth. “I thought I was protecting you by holding back the facts. I see now that I should have let Risk tell you as soon as you were awake.”
She moved her head a fraction and peered into his soulful eyes. “Why didn’t you let him tell me?”
He sighed heavily, the hot burst of air buffeting her neck. “You had been through so much. First you’d endured that terrible Grab with the freezing temperatures and all that snow. Then you were sick and needed surgery. I didn’t want to distress you by revealing that your biological father wasn’t the man you’d known and loved for so long.” He touched his forehead to hers. “I am so sorry that Torment was the one who broke the news to you. I cannot even imagine what you’re feeling right now.”
Saved by Venom: 3 (Grabbed) Page 13
