“My greed has made it possible for you to live comfortably, to wear designer clothes, and get a fancy degree from a stick-up-their-ass, fancy university. Don’t be ungrateful.”
“Ungrateful?” she snapped. “Am I supposed to thank you for leaving me to grow up alone in this huge house, without family or friends, and the only people I had for any sort of companionship or the slightest bit of affection your paid servants?”
“Is that why you spread your legs the first chance you got because you were lonely? Pathetic. And to think, I spent a fortune keeping you intact for Ivar. What a waste.”
Chilled to the bone, she didn’t move, or react, or so much as look at him.
From the corner of her eye, she saw him signal to one of his guards. “I can’t stand looking at her. Take her to her room and keep her there until I decide what I’m going to do now.”
Movement on her other side made her look up. Barron, one of her father’s longtime goons, stepped toward her. The knowing glint in his eyes made her feel like the slut her father made her out to be. Or rather, what Jaylin and Malik had turned her into.
She stood to go with the guard, wanting out of there, to be alone to think, and plan her next move. “Before I go, answer one question. Were you aware of Elzor’s little problem? That they’re in need of an heir, and if I didn’t conceive within a year, they would have killed me like the others?”
“Those are rumors.”
Surprised, she challenged him. “You’re saying it’s not true?”
Unblinking, he stared at her, neither admitting nor denying the appalling claims, which to Dani was an admission.
She found him repugnant, but her father seemed amused and snorted a short laugh.
“Why do you hate me?”
He considered her for a moment, before waving off the guard. “Leave us.” He waited until the door closed behind him, then walked to the window. Pulling back the curtain, he let sunshine into the dark room. Crossing his hands over his protruding belly, he said absently, “I’ve mentioned you look like your mother.”
“Held it against me every day of my life is more like it.”
“Ella was a faithless bitch. Every time I look at you, I see her and am reminded of her betrayal.” Afraid he would stop talking and she wouldn’t learn what she’d waited a lifetime to know, she didn’t make a sound. “She was beautiful, like you. Auburn hair, delicate features, and curves to make a man drool.”
Okay, she didn’t need to hear that.
“I had to have her the moment I saw her, and she appeared to feel the same way. I was older, forty-five at the time with her not yet thirty. Like a fool, I fell in love with her. I should have known she only wanted my money and the power it would bring her. I allowed her to lead me around by my dick for years before I saw her true colors.” He paused for a moment, as if lost in memories. “I found her with my partner, humping like rabbits on my own goddamn couch. I asked why, as you did just now.” He let the curtain drop and turned back to her, his face stiff with fury over two decades in the making. “She laughed, called me the fool that I was for thinking someone so young and beautiful could ever love an old man like me. I threw her out, and kicked his traitorous ass out along with her.”
“I never knew you had a partner,” she stated inanely, finding it easier to focus on a man she didn’t know than her mother’s calculated behavior.
“You wouldn’t, since I bought him out, changed the company name, and erased any reminder he ever existed.”
Shocked, Dani covered her mouth with a trembling hand, wondering the full definition of erased. “And my mother? Didn’t she want to take me with her?”
He snorted. “Do you think she ever cared about you? She wanted to get rid of you from the beginning, afraid pregnancy would ruin her figure forever, but I wanted a little girl who looked like my Ella.” His heartless gaze met hers. “I told her she’d never see you again, or a single credit from me. We had a prenup, thank God. Except she got the last jab of the knife in before I got rid of her. You aren’t my daughter. She said so right to my face. And she didn’t have a clue, of the hundreds of men she fucked behind my back, which one impregnated her with you.”
“Oh my God.” As though he’d punched her, she bent forward, her arms enfolding her middle.
“Yes, you’re the daughter of a whore and an unidentified sperm donor. Consider yourself lucky I didn’t throw you out, too. I figured, one day, my sacrifice would pay off and you’d be of value to me. Now, after what you’ve done, I have to come up with a new plan to make my years of sacrifice worthwhile.”
“You are horrible,” she uttered, in a suffocated whisper.
“I didn’t sleep with two men while engaged to another.”
“I never consented. There was no engagement.”
“You didn’t have to consent. The trip, spending a week getting to know your prince and his family, all of it was a show for the media. Until you’re twenty-five, I decide. You could have sought emancipation if you’d gotten a job, moved out of my home, proved you were responsible, but you didn’t. You continued to leach off dear old Dad, for money, food, shelter, everything, so you are subject to my parental guidance under the law. Which means you will do as you’re told for three more days.”
“I won’t say yes.”
“A formality. On Elzor, the ceremony doesn’t even have ‘I dos’. It’s a moot point, however, unless I can convince the king and the prince to accept soiled goods.”
“Let me go. I’ll sign over my inheritance and never darken your door again.”
“Your paltry million credits are nothing compared to what I have to gain from your marriage to Ivar. My contract is running out. If you marry, they renew it. If you produce an heir, it continues without expiration. It’s a win-win for me. Your womb in exchange for unhindered access to the resource-rich north region.” He actually rubbed his hands together, giddy like a child on Christmas morning. “And, when the research pays off, and it will, we’re very close, the income the new energy will generate will be in the hundreds of billions.”
He shouted for the guards.
“Take her away,” he ordered when Barron and another equally scary-looking man walked in. “She’s confined to her room. No one in or out without my express permission. I don’t care if the president himself summons her, or if the place is going up in flames, the bitch is not to leave her room.”
They didn’t flinch, only nodded. Daddy paid well. Then, with their hard fingers digging into her arms again, she was hauled away. This time she went without a struggle, moving as if she were numb, though eager to leave his presence, perhaps forever. After the revelations today, being a pawn for Ivar, someone who wanted something she could give him, rather than rued her very existence, didn’t seem all that bad.
***
The next twenty-four hours she spent as a prisoner in her room with a guard at her door. Despondent, she paced. Unable to eat, the latest tray of food sat undisturbed like the ones before it. Brought in by wide-eyed household staff, she hadn’t bothered to ask any of the unfamiliar workers for assistance. Paid well for their loyalty, it made sense to her now why there was constant turnover. She’d thought they left after short tenures because he was too critical and demanding. Now she knew why he rotated them through on a regular basis, none staying longer than a few months, a year at most. Because, heaven forbid, she developed a rapport or an attachment to any of them. Such an event would interfere with her father’s diabolical plan to keep her isolated, so no one would question when he finally used his pawn for his own gain.
No... Not her father.
Never would she think of Daniel Alltryp that way again. Cruel, heartless bastard suited him better. But as she thought it, tears threatened, since she was the real bastard in the equation. Born to a mother who didn’t want her, sired by God knows who, and raised by a man who despised her.
Heartsick, her stomach rolled every time she replayed their confrontation in his office, or thought of Ivar’s
calculated plan to breed an heir upon her, or thought of Jaylin and Malik’s betrayal.
Was no man trustworthy?
Nusapphra, a world without lying, manipulative, selfish men, looked better with each agitated step she took.
She felt like such an idiot. To have so easily believed Malik was a cyborg, she had to be.
Though she’d had no experience with the human-like machines, she should have known by the way he argued with Jaylin, and his eyes flashed with emotion—no matter how fleeting. But even if she’d missed those clues, why hadn’t she guessed when he smiled at her, and she felt his touch, his kisses, and when she had taken him in her mouth... Was her desperation for affection the reason she hadn’t questioned an obvious flesh-and-bone man?
And Jaylin, her humiliation intensified when she thought of how readily she’d succumbed to his stunning good looks, his teasing grin, his charm. And, despite his volatile temper, how she had eagerly spread her legs and offered up her innocence like the slut she’d been accused of being. She wanted to kill him at the same time she wanted to curl up in a corner and cry. Because, worst of all, she’d fallen in love with the deceitful jerk.
When the door opened suddenly, and Daniel entered without knocking, she wiped her cheeks, not wanting him to see her weakness.
“Pack,” he ordered.
“Why?”
“You leave for Elzor within the hour.”
“No!”
Her denial went unheeded.
“You are going through with this marriage. Ivar and his family are so desperate for an heir, he’d breed with the town whore if she were compatible. The tests have been run; you’re a match. That’s all they care about at this point. You’ll have to be tested to prove you haven’t picked up something nasty from your Trilorian lover. Consider yourself lucky even the nastiest venereal diseases are curable these days.”
“I’ll refuse. I’ll never say yes.”
“As I’ve explained, you don’t have to,” he sneered. “You do as I say for two more days. And thankfully, afterward, I’ll never have to look at you and see your mother’s lying face ever again.”
He hated her, she’d always known it. Still, his blatant animosity no longer held in check, hit her like a slap in the face.
“I’m not going with Ivar. You can’t make me.”
His humorless laugh bounced off the walls. “You think not? Shall I have Barron fetch a tranquilizer? It worked well enough the last time.”
Reflexively, her hand rose to her throat. Her abductor hadn’t used a diffuser, and the spot where he’d jabbed her with a needle remained tender days later.
“What’s it to be? Conscious or unconscious? You’ve got three seconds to decide. I don’t have time to play your games.”
“Conscious,” she hissed. If she were to have any chance to escape, it was the only option. “I hate you,” she added, her voice shaking with emotion.
“The feeling is mutual, daughter.” The last word contained such malice, she flinched. The slamming door punctuated the end of her relationship with the only father she’d ever known.
Chapter Thirteen
Staring at the small window of his cell, Jaylin couldn’t see through to the other side. The glass had yellowed and been scratched so badly it had become opaque. Not that it mattered. Lost in thought, he wasn’t seeing anyway.
Anger and frustration warred for prominence within him, however, both were beaten out by remorse. He regretted not being honest with Dani about who he and Malik really were. He should have corrected her misperception immediately, instead of using it to needle his stubborn twin and letting the lie grow out of control for days. Now, as Malik had warned, he had dug a hole so deep and wide, he worried he might not be able to climb out of it and get to Dani.
As monumental a problem as it seemed, earning her forgiveness was the least of his problems. The primary issue being, stuck in jail with Alltryp on the outside, free to play whatever twisted games he wanted with Dani before tomorrow, the day she’d become both legally and financially independent, and free from his clutches.
He wanted to put his fist through the dingy window pane, like so many fools before him had apparently tried. Jaylin knew better. Similar to the glass used on the Renegade, it was impenetrable. Attempting to punch through it would do nothing more than shatter bones. It wouldn’t get him closer to Dani, nor would it assuage the incessant worry gnawing in his gut.
A shadow at the door made him pause mid-pace. The door swung open to a guard behind him, Malik waited. Hair a mess with furrows from his fingers, and lines of stress around his mouth, his brother without a doubt as restless and agitated as he was.
“What’s going on?” he asked sharply.
“Someone posted your bond,” the guard informed him. Moving aside, he motioned him out.
“Who?” Jaylin stepped into the hall where his brother shook his head.
“Says it’s a friend,” the man answered, while he moved down the hall to another set of doors.
“Don’t argue,” Malik muttered. “Be thankful and let’s get out of here. We need to find Dani.”
“You’ve got to be processed first,” the man called over his shoulder. “And if you’re thinking of pursuit, your ship is impounded. To get her out will cost twenty thousand credits.”
“You’re joking!” Malik exclaimed. “Such an amount is usurious.”
“Of course, it is,” Jaylin griped. “This is Earth. There is always one barrier thrown up after another, and everything costs dearly.” It seemed fate conspired against them.
“It ain’t cheap to hold a ship in space dock, ya know,” the guard grumbled in reply. “Especially an alien craft we don’t know anything about—”
“Wait a moment,” Jaylin interrupted, the pieces coming together into a picture he did not like. “Why would we need our ship to go after her?”
“Daniella Alltryp took off for Elzor this morning. News of a royal wedding always makes headlines. And when there’s a sex scandal involved, it’s all they can talk about.”
“What sex scandal?” Malik asked, short of growling.
The doors now open, the guard turned and looked at them, curiosity arching his shaggy, graying brows. “You mean the three of you didn’t, you know... Have a ménage a trois?” Except he called it “manage ay twah” slaughtering the French pronunciation which Jaylin, a visitor to the planet, knew was wrong.
“Quit talking to this idiot,” Jaylin barked at his brother. To the guard, he said irritably, “You’re wasting time with gossip when we need to focus on other important things.”
Not fond of being called names, apparently, the man’s curiosity fled, replaced by anger, as evidenced by his flushed cheeks and his mouth which took on an unpleasant twist. He opened the door to another room and gestured them in. “Wait here while this idiot processes your release. I hope you’re not in a hurry to get anywhere. It might take me some time, since I’m such a moron.” The automatic doors whooshed shut behind him. And though they were soundproof, Jaylin swore he could hear his laughter echoing on the other side.
Malik whirled to face him. “What the hell is wrong with you? We are at the mercy of the man you just pissed off, and so is Dani.”
“Fuck,” he exploded, lashing out at the nearest thing to him, a chair, which he sent flying across the room, courtesy of his boot.
“Calm, brother. Getting charged for property destruction isn’t going to get us to Elzor to save her from marrying a cold, calculating blue prince.”
He nodded, then closed his eyes while breathing deep. It worked to calm him a fraction, although his voice remained raw when he spoke. “If she’s harmed in any way...”
“How do you think I feel? She was taken on my watch.”
Jaylin grabbed his brother behind the neck and pulled him near, looking him in the eye. “We’ve both fucked up with her, but this isn’t on you. Tranquilizing a target in the middle of a crowded spaceport is a ballsy move no one would have expected.”
“We have to get her back.”
“We will. And until we do, I promise to keep it together.” When he received Malik’s nod of acceptance, he moved his hand to his shoulder and squeezed in a show of support before releasing him. He couldn’t stand still and wait, he had to move. Pacing the confines of the holding room, he started thinking aloud. “If what our ticked-off friend said is correct, we have less than a day to get the Renegade ready, travel to Elzor, find a way through their security onto the surface, and get inside the royal residence. Then we find Dani and do it in reverse.”
“That sounds about right, which is not good.”
“We’ve been in worse predicaments.”
“With a payday on the line, brother. Never our woman.”
“Which gives us extra incentive—”
They fell silent at the sound of door locks releasing. Jaylin expected to see the guard, but the double doors he’d left through remained shut. Instead, a man he didn’t know entered through a single slider on the far side of the room. Older, close to fifty, wearing a blue suit with a lapel insignia, and a cap—not military—and he wasn’t alone. Behind him, an old woman walked in, reed thin, hunched shoulders, leaning on a cane. She had to be ninety, at least—her wrinkles had wrinkles.
“Gentleman,” she said in a surprisingly strong voice. She eyed Malik first, taking his measure, then green eyes, as bright and sharp as if she were no more than twenty, bored into him. Jaylin blinked, he knew those eyes. The color identical to Dani’s.
Malik moved to his side and stared at the elderly woman along with him, his twin clearly as stunned by the resemblance. Jaylin, do you see it?
How could I not?
“Who are you?” Malik asked, an edge to his voice.
“With respect,” the older man barked. “Are you sure they’re good enough for her?” he said in an aside to the woman. “They look too rough for Daniella.”
“Maybe a bit around the edges, Blake, dear.” She patted the man’s forearm. “But I’ve done my research. They’re not the usual scoundrels mercenaries tend to be.”
The Renegades' Reward Page 17