Catastrophic Attraction - Eve Langlais Page 0,3
special situations. He stopped in front of a plain metal door with no window. He didn’t need to look to feel the fear from the woman at his back.
The fear gave him grim satisfaction. She’d attacked his daughter. The rage inside him bubbled, but he held it in a tight ball. Liandra better hope he didn’t lose his grasp on that anger, or it wouldn’t bode well for her.
The room he marched her into didn’t have chains or whips. No manacles or drying blood stains on the floor, which tended to surprise prisoners when they first entered.
The only object? A chair. It was all he needed.
“Sit.” He didn’t make it a mental command. On the contrary, he’d released her mind for the moment.
When she didn’t listen, he reached and ripped the hood from her head. She glared at him, a woman past her prime and looking it, mostly because she’d not cared for herself. Debauchery tended to age a person. As did consistently making the wrong choices in life.
“You really don’t want to test me, Liandra.” He liked using her name because she winced each time.
“Go ahead. Hit me, swamp rat.” She spat it as an insult and yet where he came from remained a badge of honor with him. He wasn’t ashamed of his roots.
“Hit you?” He laughed. “Perhaps in the islands the big prey on the weak. But not here.”
“I am not weak.”
“You are pathetic.”
The insult hit Liandra hard, mostly because, deep down, she thought it to be the truth. “Play the big king all you want. You’re a walking dead man. Assassins are coming for you.”
“Apparently, and they’ll suffer the same fate as those who came before. But you didn’t come here to kill me. You were hired to go after my daughter. Tell me who sent you.” He pushed at her mind but came up against a shield around that information. Just more proof of the plotting against him.
“No one.”
“Maybe you’re a liar who has forgotten what I can do.” He teased his darkness over the edges of her mind.
She trembled, fear widening her eyes. “The rumors are true. You’re a demon.”
“Demon, is it?” He glanced down at himself. “Looks pretty human to me.”
“A real man wouldn’t torture a woman half his size.”
“Such exaggeration. Really, Liandra, and here I haven’t done a thing to you. Not because I don’t want to, I should add. You crossed a line.”
“I wasn’t going to hurt her,” Liandra exclaimed.
“The fact is you laid hands on my daughter. And I’m not the only one who won’t be happy about it. The princess is well loved. Especially by her personal guard, whom you also put to sleep. Anita is quite angry with you.” He crossed his arms. “You’ll be meeting her in just a moment.”
He’d sent Anita a mental poke on his way down to the tunnels. Felt the anger in her mind at having been duped. One of his most loyal soldiers, Anita arrived with her expression grim and wearing black. It showed fewer stains.
“Your Majesty.” Anita didn’t bow, but she spoke with deference as she entered the chamber and circled to the prisoner’s left.
Liandra didn’t know who to watch. As if she’d see his attack coming if he chose to go after her.
“I take it she’s the reason half the castle guard was sleeping on duty.”
“Yes.”
“Who is she?” Anita asked, completing her circuit.
“Port scum, looking to collect on a bounty.”
“Another assassination attempt?” Anita cocked her head, her springy hair not caught back in its usual tight bun.
“Not this time. Liandra went after the princess.”
That drew Anita’s hardened gaze. “You attacked a little girl?”
“I never hurt her,” Liandra hotly retorted.
“But you planned to. You were going to take her away from her home, her family,” Roark said softly. “The cruelty of it stuns even my jaded heart.”
“Attacking little girls is wrong.” Anita stepped closer, and he knew this was personal for her. That it brought back dark memories.
“Then punish me like you punish the others who disobey. Put me in your arena to fight for my justice.” Liandra was apparently passingly familiar with some of their customs.
“You think you’ll get a chance in the arena?” He chuckled. “Dear Liandra, that’s only used for regular crimes. You acted against me. Made it personal. I take that kind of assault very seriously.”
Now Liandra appeared worried. “I’ve told you everything I know.”
“You have.” He didn’t disagree. Whoever hired her had hidden their traces in the more obvious layers of her memories.
“Then what else do