His look was wild and angry when he didn’t find it. “Where is it?”
I shrank back, his stubby fingers repulsive against my skin. I was thankful for his lack of knowledge about Earth underwear. Clearly, he’d never encountered a woman in a bra before. “Get your hands off me.”
“Give me the medallion.” He was the one that wanted it? He was the one that sent the encrypted message to Earth? He was the one that had tried to have me killed? Have Noah and Roark killed, too?
“Turn the pod back on!” I shouted. Could Roark die inside? Was he trapped? Was he going to suffocate in there?
Commander Loris lifted his hand to my hair and yanked my head back with cruel fingers. Tears welled up in my eyes at the sharp pain and he shoved the weapon right up under my chin. Hard. It didn’t look like an Earth gun, but a gun was a gun when it was pressed against your head. “You can give it to me, or I can kill you and take it off your corpse.”
“You’re insane. You can’t use it anyway.”
“Oh, I know. But you solved that problem for me.” His hot breath fanned my face and I cringed.
“What?”
“Your son, Natalie. At this very moment, my friends are making sure we have him.” He lowered his head until his lips hovered over mine in a revolting corruption of a kiss. “Don’t worry. I’ll be a good daddy. He won’t even remember you.”
What? Him touch Noah? Never. It was one thing to try to kill me, but no one messed with a mother. Fuck him. I’d gotten the family I’d always wanted. A mate who found me light years across the universe. A son made from our love. Even in-laws who were loving and kind. This asshole wanted to ruin all that? Not a chance in hell.
I lifted my leg and reached into my sock, grabbing the small dagger with my right hand. I came up swinging, aiming for his throat.
I managed to cut under his chin, to slice his jaw to the bone as blood poured down his neck. I’d hurt him, but it wasn’t a killing blow.
With a shout, he shoved me forward, over the pod, his hand still in my hair. He slammed the hand holding the knife into the side of the pod over and over until I couldn’t maintain my grip. I screamed at the pain, the ruthlessness of his actions. My wrist was broken, and several bones in my hand. I felt—and heard—them snap like twigs and the gold dagger clattered to the floor by my foot.
“Let her go, Loris. It’s over.” I froze. Roark’s voice? What? The commander was holding me against the pod. Roark was still trapped inside. Then how?
“Roark.” Commander Loris pressed the end of his gun to my temple and pulled me up off the pod until my back was to his chest, a hostage. The blood seeped down his neck and into his shirt. I could feel it hot and sticky on my shirt from when he’d loomed over me and it dripped.
“Put down your weapon, Councilor, or your mate is dead.”
In my periphery, I saw Roark. He was holding a gun similar to the commander’s. Every line in Roark’s body was tense. Rigid. He lowered the weapon to the floor and stood, his hands in the air. “Let her go.”
“Give me the medallion and I’ll let her live.”
“Let her go, Loris. You can’t win. The moment I give you the medallion, the vault codes will be updated. We’d deactivate the current codes before you could use th
em.”
The commander laughed in my ear, the spittle from his mouth landing on the side of my cheek in a sick wet dollop that almost made me gag. “Not if you’re all dead. All but the baby.”
I watched the horror of Loris’s statement spread across Roark’s face, sink into his mind. All of his family, murdered tonight, except his son. My son. The boy kept alive so this insane freak could use his DNA as the medallion’s key. And for what? What purpose was all this hatred, all this evil?
I had no idea, but I no longer wanted the damn thing dangling between my breasts. It was more trouble than it was worth. If it was going to represent cruelty and ruthlessness, I didn’t want it mixed so intimately with the bond Roark and I shared.
Commander Loris kept one hand to my temple. The other, he plunged down the collar of my shirt, looking for the chain. I twisted in his grip, the touch of his hands repulsive. “No!”
“Let her go,” Roark repeated. “Take me.”
Loris groped me and laughed when Roark’s eyes darkened with fury. “I don’t want you. If I were going to keep one of you alive, it’d be her. Breasts like these, with the key to the planet between them?” He grinned viciously.
Asshole.
I lowered my head and bit his wrist like a wild animal, trying not to gag at the flavor of his skin, the dark metallic taste of his blood as it filled my mouth.
With a screech, he yelled and pulled his hand back.
I kicked the gold dagger so it slid across the floor to Roark and yelled his name. I dropped to my knees to give him a clear shot.