“Maybe you never knew him at all. Did you know he was the kind of guy to try and rape someone, just because he wanted to and felt like he was powerful enough to get away with it?”
I frowned, remembering the way I had first seen her—when she had been running away from Azz’lx and that fucking pimp, R’xs. No, I had never thought my second-in-command would do such a thing.
He had always presented a carefully crafted image to me—a devoted family male who liked to play once in a while, but nothing too serious. And knowing his wife, Dru’silla, I hadn’t blamed him—she was so fucking uptight any male would be miserable being Joined to her. Now I wondered if maybe I had been too quick to excuse Azz’lx all this time. After all, if he cheated on his wife, what was to keep him from cheating me? And if he was willing to kill Natalie just to cover up his lies, what other extremes might he go to?
“No, I never thought he was that kind of male,” I admitted. “But I never thought he’d try to get rid of the female I cared for either. I need to figure out what the hell is going on with him.”
“Just be careful,” Natalie told me, looking worried.
“You can watch the whole thing on the viewscreen,” I told her. “It has a 360 view. Look—I’ll show you how to use it.”
I finished showing her just as we were pulling into the parking area under the building. Up ahead in the dim space, I caught a glimpse of the bright yellow tunnel crawler that was Azz’lx’s. It was parked right beside one of the trash incineration units and sure enough, my second-in-command was standing right beside it.
I frowned as I watched Azz’lx dust his hands together, as though he was just finishing up some kind of job. Damn it—I should have gotten there sooner! Had he been burning the evidence of Natalie’s trip in his crawler? I would have bet my last credit he was. I knew she had lost her bundle of old clothes when the vehicle deposited her in the dark, dangerous tunnel where she’d nearly gotten killed—first by the vagrants and then by her pimp.
I wondered what he was going to say when I confronted him. Well, only one way to find out.
“Just keep watching,” I told Natalie, turning up the sound so she could hear as well. “And I’ll be back in a minute, little girl.”
Then I exited my ship and stepped out to confront the bastard who had tried to have her killed.
TWENTY-NINE
NATALIE
Iwatched anxiously on the vast viewscreen that filled the front of Vik’tor’s ship, almost like a windshield in a car. But that was where the resemblance to a car from Earth ended. The controls looked extremely complicated and there were two sets of them—one for flying and one for moving around on land. However, Vik’tor handled both sets with the ease of long practice.
I sat up straighter in the cushy co-pilot’s chair and stared hard at the viewscreen as Vik’tor came into view. Ass-licks glanced up and an expression of fear flickered briefly across his face, only to be replaced a moment later with a look of obviously fake concern.
“Baron!” he exclaimed. “What are you doing out so late? Still searching for that little Blood Whore? I’m sure she’s long gone by now.”
“Yes, she seems to be,” Vik’tor answered. I could tell he was doing his best to sound natural but his blue eyes looked extra glowy on the viewscreen—a sure sign he was having some pretty strong emotions.
“Well, you’re really better off without her,” Ass-licks said. “I mean, her kind is nothing but trouble, right? Anyway, don’t you think it’s time you settled down with a proper Naggian female? I’ve heard that Ta’ti’ana expressed an interest in you. Maybe I should contact her people tomorrow, hmm?” And he raised his eyebrows expressively.
I frowned. I knew who Ta’ti’ana was—she was one of the most famous actresses in the Naggian entertainment scene. Although Naggian entertainment isn’t much like what you’d find on Earth—unless you’re strictly into tragedy. Every single one of their “entertainments” seems to end with the heroine dying alone on the ice after being abandoned by the hero. Rom-com material, it’s definitelynot.Still, Ta’ti’ana was absolutely gorgeous by Naggian standards—tall and slender with long black hair and skin like “fresh fallen snow” to quote the gossip rags.
I guessed I shouldn’t be surprised that such a famous actress would be interested in Vik’tor—after all, he was the richest guy on O’nagga Nine. But it still caused me a little stab of jealousy to think of such a rich, glamorous, gorgeous woman wanting him. She was pretty much my exact opposite.
Well, Vik’tor didn’t go looking for her or save her from a pimp or kill anyone for her, now did he?I lectured myself.So just forget what Ass-licks says.
I turned my attention to the viewscreen again where Vik’tor was talking this time.
“So let me go through this again,” he said to Ass-licks. “You say that as soon as I left for my business meeting this afternoon, Natalie put on all her new clothes and just left—right?”
Ass-licks nodded earnestly.
“Absolutely! She wouldn’t stay, no matter what I said.”
“I see.” Vik’tor nodded thoughtfully. “And you haveno ideawhere she went?”
“None,” Ass-licks said. “Like I said, she put on the new furs and told me she just wanted to ‘get off this frozen hell-hole of a planet.’”
Well, he wasn’t wrong aboutthatI thought. I couldn’t wait to put O’nagga Nine in my rearview mirror. The only thing I would miss was Vik’tor.
“So, speaking of Natalie’s new clothes,” Vik’tor said. “The funny thing is, they still had their anti-theft tracking tags in them. Daw’snx left them on, just in case we wanted to return or exchange something.”
Ass-licks went suddenly pale—even paler than Naggians usually are—and swallowed hard. But he kept his voice level.