33. J’orn
33
J’ORN
J’orn took a deep breath as he stepped up to the door of Kara’s suite aboard the Mother Ship. It had been a full twenty-four hours since he’d put her on the Shuttle and he hoped she’d had a good night’s sleep and some time to recover from her ordeal. He gripped the handle of her carry-all cube in one hand tightly. It contained her belongings and was his excuse for coming to see her, one last time.
He was sure this would be the last time because of how roughly he had used her. He’d lost control and forgotten how fragile she was—humans were so delicate compared with the Kindred—especially the human females. The marks he’d made on her hips when he gripped her and the way he’d pounded into her, using her like a whore?—
J’orn tried to push the image away. He was ashamed of himself—and angry that he’d lost control. He’d taken some of his fury out on the bastards who had sold Kara to the brothel, but much of it still remained.
“Brother Nono” was rotting in the swamp behind the Fem Lovely resort. As for “Lady Winthrip” she was currently experiencing the exact same treatment she’d had planned for Kara.
J’orn refused to kill a woman, but he’d had no problem delivering her to one of the brothels in the Red Light district. Let her feel the terror that Kara must have felt—and learn the horror that she had inflicted on the woman he loved and so many others.
Before J’orn had broken his neck, Nono had admitted to selling dozens of hapless women to the brothels to be used, abused, and ultimately killed. He’d sworn that he and Gaela were the only ones in the kidnapping ring. Apparently they always worked together—posing as a couple in some way to lure an innocent, unsuspecting woman into their clutches and then deliver her for a price to The Exotic Beauty Lounge.
The kidnapping ring was now broken and so his job on Paradise Prime was finished. He had nothing more to do but return Kara’s belongings and ask her forgiveness…and then promise never to bother her again. His heart ached at the thought, but he was pretty sure that was going to be how things went.
He just hoped she would open the door to him. He wanted to see her one last time before he left her alone forever.