Savage Redemption - By Alexis Morgan Page 0,83
should’ve known it had been too easy for her to reach the well house without being spotted. She slowly did as ordered while trying to figure who was issuing the orders. More important, why did the voice sound familiar?
“Sergeant, disarm the prisoner and bring her to the house. Be careful. That chancellor she’s been bedding down with is still around somewhere.”
Rough hands grabbed her by the arm and dragged her along. She fought down the rising panic, drawing comfort from the knowledge that her actions had kept Conlan from falling captive to these bastards. Rose and Maggie were safe, too. Someday maybe they’d understand the choices she’d made. Her one regret was not getting to say goodbye to them one last time.
As scary as this was, what she was really feeling was relief. All the running, all the fear, all the hiding were about to end. And if the price was her life, she’d pay it as long as it meant her loved ones were safe.
The crowd of mercs parted as her escorts led her through the pack. She kept her eyes focused on the ground, trying not to trip on the rough terrain. When they finally broke through to the inner circle, she came face-to-face with an older man standing near a campfire. Although she’d never met him before, she had no doubt she was facing Councilman Eddington himself.
The man seemed more out of place in the midst of the men in camouflage and definitely looked ragged around the edges. At long last her enemy had a face. She might not survive the night, but she wasn’t going to die without having her say.
“Councilman Eddington, I’d like to say how nice it is to meet you, but that would be a lie. After all, you’ve made my life a living hell for the past three years and cost the lives of my sister and my friend Richard
Jacobs.”
She looked him straight in the eye. “You have to know that Ambrose O’Brien and his men are closing in on you here. He also knows what you’re planning to do.”
Eddington’s face flushed with anger. On second thought, maybe it was fear, because he actually looked over his shoulder as if expecting the Coalition chancellors to come leaping out of the darkness any second. When nothing happened, he turned his fury on her.
“You’ve cost me a small fortune, Miss Karr. Now I’ll take the research I paid for three years ago.”
“So you can murder innocent people? I don’t think so.”
He stalked toward her, his hand held out. “No innocent people will be harmed by your research, Miss Karr. Only those mutant freaks that carry the vampire gene.”
She had no doubt that she was staring into the eyes of insanity. He would believe whatever his madness had convinced him was the truth.
“If my research was implemented, thousands and thousands of people who have done you no harm would die horrible deaths. Men, women and children.”
Images of Rose and Maggie filled her head even as tears filled her eyes. “Children like my nieces. They’ve never hurt anyone.”
He sneered. “Not yet, but they will. Right now they probably seem almost human to you, but that’s a lie. On the inside, their mongrel blood is making them stronger than us. What are you going to do if they develop a taste for human blood? And if not them, then half of the brats they produce when they mate with one of their own kind or, worse yet, a pureblood vampire.” His voice dripped with venom. “The spread of that tainted gene has to be stopped, and soon, or there won’t be a safe place on this planet for those of us blessed to be born pure.”
Blessed? Pure? She couldn’t believe the drivel coming from Eddington’s mouth, but it was obvious that he meant every word. That left her no choice. She slipped her hand into her pocket, fingering the memory stick that she’d hoped to use to prove her innocence. But she’d spend every day of the rest of her life in prison or face the executioner with a clear conscience before she’d hand over her research to this depraved bunch.
Slowly, hoping not to draw attention to what she was doing, she withdrew her hand with the flash drive hidden in her fist. As soon as she lunged toward the fire, ready to toss her one hope into the flames, a pair of hands jerked her backward and up against a hard chest.
“How gutsy of you, Kat.