Catastrophic Attraction - Eve Langlais Page 0,4
you want?”
“To see you suffer,” Anita replied. Knowing she didn’t need permission, she snapped a fist, slamming it into Liandra’s face.
Her head rocked. She glared defiantly despite the swelling of her lip. “So much for the justice you’re vaunted for.”
“If you wanted justice, you shouldn’t have come after my daughter.” Roark’s voice was deadly quiet.
“Sit your ass in the chair.” Anita pointed.
“Make me,” Liandra spat.
“With pleasure,” Anita growled, making it unnecessary for him to act. Anita might have been a bit rough in her handling of the prisoner. Anita wasn’t happy. Not because she’d been drugged but because she was soft on the little princess. Everyone who met her was.
Especially her father.
Once Liandra was seated and tied to the chair, he gazed coldly on her. “Tell me everything.”
The spittle showed defiance that barely hid the fear. “Fuck you.”
“Wrong answer.” By the time Roark left the room, Liandra wasn’t the same woman who’d walked in and he knew nothing more.
A deeper dive into her head showed she’d truly come here based on a rumor circulating in a tavern in the port. Kidnap his daughter or bring his head. The surprising part was Charlie appeared to be worth more.
Anita, who’d stood silent while he sifted the woman’s mind, snapped to attention when he stepped back from the bowed head of the captive.
“You know what to do with her.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
Roark left Anita to it, exiting the room to see his captain of the guard waiting for him.
“You didn’t need to come.”
Titan, a man with a metal arm and leg and a serious mien, pushed off the tunnel wall. “You should have sent someone to my house the moment you knew something was wrong.”
“I needed to act quickly.”
“Did you find anything out?” he asked.
Roark shook his head, trying to pretend his temples weren’t pulsing. He’d exerted a little too much effort. “Just more gossip and rumor. She knows even less than the last one who infiltrated the castle.”
“Surely someone knows who’s seeding the bounty rumors,” Titan grumbled. “After all, if they do the deed, someone will have to pay.”
“It could be proof of success is required before the next set of instructions is delivered.” Roark shrugged, doing his best to swallow a yawn. “In the meantime, we need to do something about Charlotte’s protection. Anita can’t be with her all the time. She needs help.”
Titan grimaced. “I can’t believe none of the guards noticed a thing. I’m going to send them out in the marshes to patrol. Maybe spending their nights with stuff that can eat them will make them sleep more lightly.”
“Not entirely their fault. They were drugged,” Roark said as they made their way up the floors to the main level of the castle, each step an agony to his throbbing head because it reminded him how many more he had to go.
“I don’t give a fuck if they were drugged. The fact it happened at all means we need better detection. We can’t be taken so easily unaware.”
“Not so easily.” Roark had stepped in and managed to avert disaster.
“What if you hadn’t woken?” Titan’s low words were a grim reminder.
Roark would prefer not to think on that. Just like he hoped to get a few hours’ sleep before the next disaster struck. “We need motion detection cameras tied to an alarm.”
“You know they only work half the time.” The fate of most electronics in the Marshlands.
“The ones Riella make never fail.” The advantages of having a metallurgist psion, and former Enclave princess, working for him.
“She’s busy working on connecting the hamlets to the city.”
“This takes precedence.” Roark slashed his hand though the air, hoping Titan didn’t see the tremor. “Charlotte is to be protected.” He’d never forgive himself if something happened.
As Roark stalked back in the direction of his room, Titan followed.
“Was there something else you needed?” the king snapped.
“Just making sure you’re not attacked.”
He paused and eyed Titan. His new captain of the guard had been tightening down on his freedom since the first pathetic attempt on his life. “I can protect myself.”
“Can you right now? Because I’m pretty sure I could take you one-handed. And I mean with my flesh hand. You’ve been pushing yourself too hard lately.”
“Because I have to.”
“Never said you didn’t, but that does mean you’re a tad more vulnerable right now.”
Roark glared. “I don’t need protection for myself. Just Charlotte.”
“You’re just as important.”
“Are you defying me, Tin Man?” The name Titan used to wear when he was fighting in the arena as the king’s