“No, please.” Shaking, Shivani swallowed and shifted his attention desperately to Valentin. “Please, you’re not like her. Don’t let her rape my mind.”
Valentin flexed the hand he had around the man’s throat. “Talk.” Eyes aglow, voice a bearish growl. “You know about what.”
Jai Shivani was no hardened criminal. He crumpled.
When he next opened his mouth, it was to unleash a river of words. “I was following instructions, that’s all. I was told to get into your apartment”—his eyes cutting to Silver—“on a particular day. I had to put something from a sealed packet into the weird food jars all Psy use.”
“Why were you confident you could get in?” Silver asked.
“I”—a rapid swallow—“I wasn’t. Just got lucky with a power cut.” Chest heaving, he held up his hands palms out. “That’s it, that’s all I know.”
Silver glanced at the organizer she’d brought in with her. “He’s lying. I’ll take the truth from his mind—the depth of the scan will, unfortunately, leave him a vegetable.”
Valentin shot her a scowling look. “But I wanted to play with him a little.”
“Wait! Wait!” The would-be poisoner turned to the only human in the room. “You’re like me. Help me.”
Folding his arms, Erik leaned against the nearest wall. “I’ve never poisoned anyone in my life, so nope, I’m no sniveling coward.”
Denied his final hope of mercy, Jai Shivani began to babble out every piece of information he had. He confirmed the power cut had been manipulated and, of his own volition, told them it was Akshay Patel who’d given him the order to doctor Silver’s food.
He also had proof of the latter.
“I recorded our conversation,” Shivani blubbered. “I trust Akshay like a brother normally, and we vacation together at least once every year, but he’s gotten secretive over the past few months—I wanted to cover myself in case he was into something shifty.”
“Really?” Valentin’s voice was rapidly becoming all bear. “You didn’t get a clue when you were asked to break into an apartment and put an unknown substance in the food? I should kill you for terminal stupidity.” A deadly pause. “Maybe you did something even worse that night. To the woman who got you into the building.”
“I didn’t take advantage of Monique, I swear!” Tears filled Shivani’s eyes, his lower lip quivering. “I just put drugs in her drink to knock her out. Akshay gave me two pills to use, but I wanted to be sure they wouldn’t hurt her if mixed with alcohol, so I got some over-the-counter stuff myself.”
Fat tears rolled down his face. “I really like her, but they said I couldn’t go back after that night. I had to pretend we were just work colleagues who’d had a fling”—his eyes shifted to Silver—“so I wouldn’t be connected to the powder I put in your food.”
Silver checked her organizer again without seeing anything. It was a prop to further cement her pitiless reputation. “That additive was a fast-acting poison. Which means you are an accessory to attempted murder.”
Shivani fainted.
Valentin managed to catch the heavyset man, throwing him on the bed as if he weighed nothing. “I win. He fainted when I pressed in my claws.”
“I think not. He fainted after I stated the depth of his culpability.”
They both looked at Erik.
Throwing up his hands, the tall human backed off. “Hey, I am not getting in the middle of a lovers’ quarrel.” His grin was huge. “Though I am going to tell everyone I know that you have a scariness contest going on.”
“You’re an insult to judges everywhere.” Valentin’s grumble just made Erik’s grin deepen. “Go make your report to Lily. Starlight, you already give him the code?”
“No, here it is.” After doing that, Silver stepped over to stand next to Valentin, both of them looking down at Jai Shivani’s passed-out form. “We are, however, now in a quandary—it’s not to my advantage to have the news of my near-poisoning get out.” Robots were meant to be invulnerable. “Also, we didn’t exactly question him in a legal way. Calling Enforcement will be problematic.”
Valentin rubbed his jaw, his skin unexpectedly smooth today. “I really want to tear off his head.”
Silver stared at him, realizing the rough statement was dead serious. “Valentin.”
“He nearly succeeded.” His voice was as deep as a bass drum, his eyes pure bear. “I saw you collapse after that poison hit your bloodstream. I felt your body convulse.”
Silver gripped his smooth jaw between her fingers, forced him to look at her and not Shivani. “But he didn’t succeed. We don’t punish attempted murder the same as murder. And we don’t punish the pawns worse than the kingpins.”
Valentin rumbled dangerously at her before finally giving a hard nod. “I’m not letting him get off scot-free,” he said, his voice difficult to understand. “He hurt you.”
“Agreed. But you know what I realized in this room today?”
“What?”
“That, because he has no psychic shields, I have the power to cause him terror with a simple bluff.” Silver had never before understood humanity so clearly. “Imagine what that does to a person, how the fear must eat away at you, especially when some Psy do violate human minds. The human race has a very good reason for hating the Psy.”
“No argument,” Valentin said in that painfully deep voice. “But he didn’t attack a Psy who’d raped his mind. He attacked you, a woman he’d never met, and who would never touch a single thought in his head.” Breath harsh, Valentin shook his head. “Human assholes don’t get a free pass just because there are worse Psy assholes.”
Blunt and angry he might be, but Silver knew he was also right. As humans weren’t a homogenous entity, neither were the Psy. “Each individual makes their own choices.”
“Damn right.”
Releasing her hold on him when he pulled in his claws, she considered their options. “My family has the financial power to take much of what he values—and we’ll also make it clear to him that any further such acts will mean being subject to changeling justice. I don’t think he has the willpower or aptitude to defy us.”
“I’m going to keep an eye on the piece of shit, too.” Valentin’s eyes were still deeply bear, but his voice was becoming less deep, more human. “In fact, I think he’ll be moving into a building controlled by changelings so he can be closer to the bear business where he’s about to start work.” He took out his phone. “I’ll arrange for someone to take charge of him for now.”
Silver stayed silent, her hands at her sides, one holding the organizer, the other free. When Jai Shivani woke midcall, she calmly, coldly laid out his punishment. “You may, of course, attempt to fight our judgment,” she said. “In which case, Alpha Nikolaev will take you into bear country and challenge you to fight for your life.” That seemed a reasonable guess. “Do you think you’d win?”
The human male shook his head so hard it almost spun off. “I swear, I won’t ever do anything else bad. I’ll work hard, be law-abiding. I’ll think good thoughts.”
“Your thoughts are your own—no one will be scanning you,” Silver said, because constant fear of violation was too cruel a sentence: human, Psy, or changeling, the mind should be inviolate.
Two StoneWater bears arrived minutes afterward. Both greeted Silver with smiles and said they hoped her work would let up enough that she could soon move back to Denhome.
Erik caught a ride with them when they left with Shivani.
Silver got into Valentin’s vehicle instead. His primal anger vibrated against her skin.
“Akshay Patel,” he said. “Where the fuck is that man based?”