“Not immediately. He was clever. There were years where I lost track of him. Your mother helped him. I don’t know how or when they met. Together, they very nearly managed to disappear. In time, they married and had you. Likely, your father thought I’d given up. I imagine he’d convinced himself to start over, begin a new life and forget his home planet.”
“Why are you telling me this now?” I asked, finally understanding why my mother might have had a breakdown. She’d never been able to talk about any of this. Who would have believed her? They would have thought she was nuts, especially considering there was likely no record of my father on this planet. Perhaps over time, she had convinced herself she’d imagined it all. It might have been easier than facing the reality.
But I was part of the reality, a little hurt voice spoke up in my head.
“Hmm, why am I telling you this now, you ask? Maybe I like a good romance?” Frank replied with a winsome smile.
“But you killed him.”
“Of course I did. It was business, Taylor. Nothing personal. And when I finally kill you and your mother, I will have fulfilled my contract to Ral’e, who wanted all associated with your father, who knew the truth of the fabricated evidence, to be eliminated. You, however, are still useful to me alive at the moment.” Arching a thoughtful eyebrow, he added, “It has always bothered me that there were loose ends to that contract. The devil’s in the details, you know. It’s important to be professional. Your word has to mean something in this life, don’t you think?” His lips quirked up into a half smile, like he was just being playful.
He was nuts. Psycho. And he was going to kill me. I needed to get the hell out of here. Pronto! But how? I couldn’t manage the knots behind my back. I wondered if I could pull my arms under me, sort of work my body through the middle, and bring them to the front. Then I could use my teeth on the blasted knots, grab Paul and see if I could make this shit on my toe work properly. But I’d need to be alone. Somehow I doubted they were going to let me be alone.
I gazed out at the infinity pool, trying hard to think of a plan of action. That’s when I thought I saw movement. My eyes scanned the landscape frantically, desperately, but nothing seemed to be moving. It was just my wistful imagination.
“Alas, story time is over.” Frank stood, pocketed his gun and headed toward the dining room. “By the by, where is my mylunate, Taylor? I’ve been in sore need of it. Very inconvenient not to have it. Jory was not able to find it for me.”
“Ryder confiscated it,” I said quickly.
It was hard to tell if he believed me or not, but I was going to hold on to my mylunate, because even if I couldn’t make it work, at the very least, I had a onetime mental weapon I could unleash on whoever tried to hurt me. Of course, then I might pass out for five hours, but at least I wouldn’t be awake for the pain.
Coldly, he murmured, “Is that so. I could have simply plucked the information I need from Paul’s mind if you hadn’t taken it. You know, I’d only just hidden my ore in the kitchen drawer, so Reggie wouldn’t find it on my body and begin asking questions.”
Reggie! That’s right! Where was he? “Did you kill Reggie?”
“No, and I’m afraid that he has become another of my dreaded loose ends. He realized I was skimming funds from his accounts and shut them down before disappearing. I will have to kill him, though I will be sorry to do so. He was truly enjoyable. He enjoyed being mastered.”
This was not information I wanted to dwell on. Reggie was alive, and while I didn’t think he was a terrific example of a human being, I didn’t think he deserved to be murdered. Hopefully, I would get a chance to warn him...
“I’m going to wait for my clients to arrive. I leave you in good hands.” He motioned to Crew Cut. “Do what is necessary to keep them in line, would you? With any luck, I should be back soon with reinforcements.”
“No problem.”
Crew Cut gave me a sickening grin as Frank exited. He was leaning against the wall on the far side of the room. His eyes roved over me as he relived his crimes from Vietnam, which continued to be in vivid detail in his memory. Above his fleshy cheeks, his lids grew heavy with his arousal.
Oh, my God. I had to put up my mental shield against him to keep the images from feeding into my mind. They were tragic and sorrowful. I needed to think. I didn’t have the time be horrified.
“I got plans for you, buttercup. You and me are going to have some fun.” Crew Cut pushed himself off the wall and slowly walked toward me. My blouse stuck to my back and the middle of my chest as droplets of sweat gathered.
No, no, no! I needed to stop him. “You’re going to have to wait your turn,” I offered quickly. “Frank’s not going to appreciate you screwing with me before he’s ready.”
“I won’t hurt you. Yet.” He sniggered and crouched beside me. He smelled like a mixture of stale cigarettes and body odor. My stomach protested, wanting to heave. He had reached his hands up to the collar of my shirt, like he was going to rip the buttons away, when inspiration struck.
“You ever do time for killing that Vietnamese girl?” I asked smoothly.
His eyes showed surprise. He obviously figured he’d gotten away with it. “What the hell are you talkin’ about?”
“You know what I’m talking about.” I forced myself to grin tauntingly.
In a menacing tone, he growled, “I didn’t do nuthin’.”
“You took the girl from her family. She was barely fourteen. You like doing little girls? You a child molester? Can’t get a real woman to fuck you?”
“What the fuck are you talkin’ about?” He stood swiftly and swung a kick at my leg with his steel-toed boot.
Pain crashed through my system, numbing my leg. I couldn’t help the cry that escaped my lips, but I didn’t let up. Maybe if I just kept him angry...
In a faint voice, I kept on. “I guess you’d need to be a real man, wouldn’t you? I bet you have one of those little penises. I bet some girl laughed at your little bitty piece of junk, didn’t she, and now all you can do is force little girls?”
“Shut up!” he raged, his face flushing as he kicked me again. “You don’t know what you’re talking about!”
I tried to ignore the pain, though tears shimmered in my eyes from the sickening throb.
“You probably covered up your crime, didn’t you? How many other little girls have you done over the years? Does Frank know? What about your partner, Hog? It’s okay. Leave it up to me. I won’t leave out a single detail when I share.”
“Shut the fuck up!” He came at me again, and I braced myself for the violence. I preferred being hit to being raped. His arm swung back. I squeezed my eyes closed... I waited... Nothing.
“Lin’de,” the achingly familiar voice rumbled near my ear.
“Ryder!” My eyes snapped open in disbelief. My heart throbbed in my throat at the sight of him, making it hard to talk. I spotted Crew Cut crumpled on the floor behind Ryder. “What...”
His strong arms encircled me, crushing me to his hard, muscular chest. His lips found my neck, seeming to inhale my scent quickly for reassurance before pulling back.
“Scared the shit out of me,” he grumbled fiercely. “I have things to say to you, but there’s no time now. We have to get you out of here.” He slid his hands down my arms to undo the knots in the ropes.
“Is he dead?” I asked.
“Very.”
“How did you get here?”