Hauk didn’t move until they were gone. Only then did he turn back to Sumi. The fear in her eyes choked him, but he was through being her pawn. Through buying into whatever game she was playing.
He wanted answers and he was going to get them. Even if he had to kill her to get to the truth.
Sumi couldn’t move as she saw the raw fury burning in those eerie Andarion eyes. He’s going to kill me. She knew it. She could feel it with every part of her being.
It was just like facing Avin all over again.
But she refused to cower. It just wasn’t in her. Ever defiant, she stood strong and waited for the coming storm his stance promised to bring.
Hauk paused in front of her. His massive size dwarfed her and made her feel small in comparison. “You are here to end me, aren’t you?”
Sumi swallowed hard against the lump in her throat. “I’m not here to kill you. I was never sent here for that.”
“Then why are you here? Really? Bastien told me he saw the transport you were in. The one that dropped you off so that you could reach my camp. You’re not on the run. If you weren’t sent here to kill me, then what do you want?”
Biting her lip, she blinked back tears as she saw the unadulterated hatred in his eyes. It shouldn’t matter to her that he felt that way toward her.
But it did. Much more than it should have. It was like being kicked straight in the gut. She couldn’t breathe as everything slammed into her. And she deeply regretted hurting him in any way.
Her thoughts whirling, she tried to decide what to say or do. What it would take to win back the trust that she’d shattered. Strange how her own life didn’t matter to her anymore. Honestly, she couldn’t remember the last time it had. Since the night she’d killed Avin while he was trying to murder her, there had been nothing left of it anyway. Just one unending nightmare in hell.
Maybe that was the way it should be. Maybe it was what she deserved for being so blind and stupid.
“Answer me!”
She jumped at the ferocity of his demand. “I know you hate me, Hauk. You have every right to. And I know you’re going to protect what you love. It’s what I’ve learned to expect from you.” She pulled the knife from her sleeve sheath.
He stiffened, but didn’t move as she approached him with it.
She flipped it in her hand and held it toward him, hilt first. “Take it.”
He didn’t budge. “Why?”
“So that you know I’m telling you the truth. Kyr sent me here with orders to gain intel on you. To find something that would tie you to The Sentella and, more importantly, to the prison break on Brinear.”
His eyes snapping fire, he took the knife from her hand.
“I found what he wanted,” Sumi continued. “My first day here.” She brushed at the tear that fled down her cheek. “It’s in your pocket. I put it there when I kissed you so that I wouldn’t be tempted to ever use it against you.”
Hauk scowled at what she was telling him. Was it true? Did he dare believe a single word from her lying lips? “I don’t understand.”
She drew a ragged breath and the bitter pain in those hazel eyes made him ache for her. Though why he should feel such for an assassin who’d come to ruin him, he had no idea.
“My Kalea is all that matters to me. She doesn’t deserve to grow up as a League soldier, in their brutal custody. Or worse, be trained as an assassin. You promised me you would save her. And I know Andarions stand by their oaths. Please don’t back out on that, no matter your feelings toward me. I can face whatever Kyr does to me as punishment over failing this mission, so long as I know she’ll be safe. I don’t trust Kyr to keep his word and release her. I can’t afford to be that stupid. But I do trust you, Dancer. I do.”
Hauk narrowed his gaze as he heard the heart in her words. She definitely wasn’t lying now.
And he would never see her innocent daughter harmed, but he had to know what she was talking about. “What evidence?”
She reached into his pocket and pulled out his small PD. Turning it on, she flipped to an old photo of him with his best friends. “Anyone who’s seen footage of the five of you fighting in Sentella battlesuits can tell by this who makes up their High Command. You really should delete it.”
He double-checked to make sure the file hadn’t been copied or forwarded.
It hadn’t.
“I don’t understand.”
Her hazel green eyes glistened with unshed tears. “As I said, I can’t afford to trust Kyr. I know better. I’ve seen the cruelty he’s capable of. What he relishes doing to others. He has no honor or decency. No love of anyone. And I’m not really sure I can trust you, but between the two of you, you seem the more honorable. I know how important family is to you. That you respect it and your oath, above all. Even when you shouldn’t. Even when it’s harmful to you.” She swallowed hard. “Kill me if you must, if it’ll make you feel better about your family’s safety, but please save my little girl. She shouldn’t have to pay for my mistakes.”
Hauk wanted to hate her. He did. But for the first time, he understood Keris’s insane addiction to drugs. That need to have the one thing you knew was lethal to your entire being. To put your life on the line to have one second of pleasure.
Sumi was his addiction. And he was willing to die to possess her.
Growling in his throat, he knew he should kill her where she stood. It would be the smartest thing to do. Yet he respected any mother who would offer up her own life to protect her child.
Anyone who could be that altruistic wasn’t a monster. Like she said, Kyr wouldn’t hesitate to cut his own family’s throats if he thought it would advance his career.
Or make him feel better.
She still had a soul, and those damn tears weakened him even more as they fell unimpeded down her cheeks. They made him feel like an ass for accusing her and making her sad. So what if she’d done it?
For some insane reason, none of that mattered.
And she was terrified of him now. There was no missing the fear in those hazel eyes as she stood bravely in front of him. Toe-to-toe. Waiting for her death at his hands.
Before he could stop himself, he offered the knife back to her.
She refused to take it. “There’s something else you need to know about me.”
His gut tightened even more at her dire tone. This he couldn’t wait to hear. “What?”
“I’m Omira’s younger sister.”
His jaw went slack. Though to be honest, he’d suspected as much. Still, suspecting and hearing it confirmed were two vastly different things.
“Is that why you withheld your name when I asked?”
She nodded. “I knew you would hate me for it. And it’s why Kyr assigned this to me. He knew I hated your brother, and thought my presence might unnerve you enough that you’d make a mistake he could use against you.”
Now that he hadn’t suspected from her. No one hated Fain. Not really. Even when he beat someone’s ass, they eventually ended up liking him. “Why the hell would you hate my brother?”
“For what he did to my sister.”
His scowled at her. What Fain had done to Omira? Really? Was Sumi insane?
She had to be…
“What? Let the bitch live when he should have ripped her throat out?”
She shoved at him, but it didn’t budge him. And that pissed her off. “Don’t you dare insult my sister!”
He held his hands up in surrender as he continued to stare at her with total stupefaction. “You and I obviously have two very different sides of this story. What do you think happened to their marriage?”
“Omira freaked out when she learned she was pregnant, and left him. She couldn’t handle the fear of having a hybrid baby and being responsible for the hatred that would follow it all of its life.”