Rager had never truly been part of our family. He’d never been mine. All I could do now was wonder if he’d been thinking about her every time he’d been
touching me.
That thought made me shudder.
And Liam. Well, I’d help him clear his name. Perhaps something could be salvaged from this? Perhaps not.
Would he be able to let go of his past? If I refused him, I’d be taking everything from him at once, his most trusted friends and me. His entire world would shatter and I’d be at the epicenter of the explosion.
I groaned, my head aching. I’d been trying to keep track of the time, but I knew time twisted in moments like this. Minutes seemed like hours, an hour like an eternity. I’d spent time in prison. I knew.
Pacing, I had my back to the door when I heard the soft whisper of it opening. I turned, expecting to see Warden Vora, who’d returned to check on me, bring me food and drink and try to keep me company. But I hadn’t been much for small talk. After a few minutes of my monosyllabic responses followed by strained silence, he’d given up and left me alone.
“Yes, Warden. I’m fine. Thank you.” The words were out of my mouth before I turned to smile politely and shoo him away.
“I’m not the warden, Bella.” Thalia stood in the entryway. Behind her, I saw the limp form of Warden Vora. I gasped.
“Did you kill him, too?” I asked.
She raised a brow, and her space gun at the same time. “He’ll be fine. I set the ion blaster to stun. I don’t kill innocents.”
I scoffed at that. “What about the guard that ended up dead?”
Thalia walked into the room and helped herself to a swig of the lightly sweetened juice I hadn’t finished. She chewed slowly on several pieces of fruit and cheese as I watched. Waited. She wanted me to know we were on her time. Her schedule. She was in charge here. The whole while she barely blinked, and never took her eyes off me. “He was one of ours, turned informant. He was going to turn me in, so my friends took care of it.”
“You have shit friends.”
“No. I have true friends. Loyal friends. Friends who would die for me, kill for me.” Her gaze grew heated and I finally noticed the disheveled state of her uniform, as if she’d put it on in a hurry and never quite straightened herself out. Her hair wasn’t braided as I’d seen it every other time she’d been in uniform. It hung loose and tangled around her face, as if she’d been running her hands through it.
Or Rager had, as she’d given him a blow job and swallowed his seed power down like the lying bitch I knew she was.
“What do you want, Thalia?” I crossed my arms over my chest, cocked a hip. She might think she had the upper hand, but she’d fucked my mate and I was pissed. “You won already. You won. Why are you even here?” I had to ask. She had Rager. Evon was on her side, protecting her. The only thing standing between them and their goal—was me. Oh.
“You came here to kill me.”
It wasn’t a question, and she didn’t deny it.
“Not exactly. But I do need to get rid of you. I can’t have you around turning Rager’s head.” She moved toward me and swung her gun to the side. “Let’s go, Bella. Out the door, take a left in the hallway. If you do anything stupid, I’ll kill you, and then I’ll kill Liam just because you made me angry.”
I’d seen this scenario in a dozen movies, seen hostage situations on the news. In the past, I liked to think I would have been brave, stare down the barrel of the gun and tell the kidnapper or attacker to go fuck himself. Or herself.
But the moment she threatened Liam, I was hers and she knew it. Rager? She’d never hurt her lover. I wouldn’t have believed the threat. Same with Evon. He was her brother, family.
But Liam? They’d already proven they were willing to sacrifice him, and I couldn’t bear the thought.
I went where she told me to, my head held high. I was wearing the same style of cream-colored clothing and boots I’d worn before. They were fur lined and warm enough to keep the chill of the station away from me, but with Thalia at my back, I shivered anyway. What could I do? That wasn’t just a gun, it was a space gun. She said she’d stunned the warden. It had settings, not just a bullet. And I’d shown up on Viken and gotten in the way of her having Rager. Or I was diverting his attention, at a minimum. The thought of sharing Rager with her made me nauseated. I had to assume she felt the same way, especially since we were actually mated. What I shared with him legally trumped whatever passion they had. That meant she was deadly.
I had to think of something. Wait for my chance and wrestle the weapon away from her.
God, I didn’t want to kill her, but what if it was kill or be killed? Perhaps it was still set to stun?
I was running out of time and I knew it. But when we reached the final door at the end of the hall, my mind drew a blank. Nothing on the maps I’d seen came to mind.
“Open the door, Bella.” She jabbed me in the back this time for good measure and I tried to hold in the gasp of pain as I did what she asked.
The door slid wide and I realized why I had no idea what was on the other side.
Nothing. Nothing but outside. Bitter cold. White.