Chapter 7 #4
“As you’ll see, the bridge is of the same high quality as the rest of the ship. And the pilot is a male I have confidence in.”
The moment Rone stepped inside the room and saw the pilot turning to greet them, he knew he was in trouble.
He almost reached for a weapon. Almost. If he had any chance at all of salvaging what had suddenly turned to shit, he needed to be a very good bluffer or an even better cheater.
His life had just turned into a large quaz game.
The pilot’s nascent smile turned into a growl when he saw Rone.
He reached for the weapon strapped to his waist and pointed it at Rone.
Kuren’s guards had theirs up and pointing at the pilot in automatic defense of their boss.
Seeing that reaction, the pilot lowered his gun.
“My apologies, sire. I meant no threat to you. It’s him,” he added, with a jut of his chin at Rone.
Kuren slowly turned to look at Rone, who met his stare boldly. Bluffing first. Cheating later, if he got a chance. “What are you doing, Avith? This is Rone, the new captain.”
“I know who he is. Rone and I were cadets together.”
“Until you washed out,” Rone added with a sneer. “You were too unstable, even for military service. I had wondered, briefly, what your mother had done with such a problem son.”
Avith growled. “Self-righteous as ever.” He turned his attention to Kuren.
“Sire, I assure you that there is no way this male is a committed servant of yours. With his family and House pedigree, let alone his caste, he would never involve himself in smuggling or arms dealing. He is the pampered son of a wealthy female and the widower of an even wealthier female. He has no need to be here. It’s a trap of some sort. ”
Kuren signaled his guards, who then trained their weapons on Rone. “Is this true?”
Slowly holding his hands up so that Kuren understood he didn’t mean to reach for his own weapon, Rone gave an honest answer. “Yes, sire. What Avith says is true. I was raised in a proper household, wanting for nothing. I had a career set on the home world and had made an advantageous mating.”
He didn’t have to fake the emotion that tinged his next words.
“She was a female that would have made you sick with envy for what I had. Then her sister murdered her, but my mother and the other females insisted on pretending that it was an accident. Their weakness and lies disgusted me. My mother wanted me to take another mate and forget my precious Orianna ever existed. I refused.”
Bluffing over, he stopped a moment, looked away and took a deep breath before cheating.
“What Avith says about me is true, yet so is what I just told you, as is this. Avith is not to be trusted. I’ve never seen him follow a single order correctly.
He is not only unstable, he’s also wholly untrustworthy.
I have to wonder, as well, how he became a pilot when he washed out well before such lessons were offered.
Perhaps he never left the military and instead joined the more secretive parts of it. ”
Avith sputtered in outrage, a reaction that did not work in his favor. He had always been overly emotional. “Sire, you know that’s not true. I earned my place in your ranks by working hard.”
“He has been with me for quite some time.” Kuren appeared pensive right before he signaled his guards once more.
They were on Rone before he could even think of mounting a defense, not that it would have done him any good.
Outnumbered and outgunned, he would have only managed to get himself and his pets slaughtered.
He didn’t even fight the guards’ search or their hold, merely stood tensely between them, trying to control his temper.
“Sire, I am loyal to you,” Avith stated.
“Not to worry. You’ll be given a chance to convince me. As Avith is so certain you are a High Command infiltrator, I will give him a chance to get a confession out of you,” Kuren responded.
Avith looked way, too pleased with that pronouncement.
“However, if he fails to do so within a timeframe that I will choose in my own fashion, then he will be killed and you shall take your place as captain of this ship.” That wiped the pleased look off the fucker’s face.
“I will confess to nothing, as I have nothing to confess.” Back to bluffing.
Avith took a step forward. “I will make you talk.”
Rone kept up his bravado, even though he wasn’t sure what his next step would be. How would he be able to cheat Avith out of his win? He didn’t get a chance to think it through. Kuren’s next words wiped out all other thought.
“In the meantime, I will avail myself of your pretty little pet. I found its mouth quite delightful. I’m sure its ass will be no less so.”
“No!” The word was out of his mouth before Rone could censor himself.
“I suspected you have an unhealthy attachment to the thing. It doesn’t speak well of you, I’m afraid.”
Kuren reached for Frey’s leash, which of necessity Rone had dropped when he’d been seized.
With a vicious yank, he pulled Frey into a tight embrace.
He licked his tongue up Frey’s cheek and laughed when the boy struggled to get away.
Rone felt the growl rising up his throat.
He swallowed it down, the hardest thing he’d ever done.
The only hope now for the mission, and Mother of All, for Frey, was Rone keeping his shit together and surviving Avith’s interrogation.
If Rone failed, Frey would be in the hands of a male far more dangerous and cruel than Arpell had ever been.
He couldn’t let that happened to his boy.
His boy. His Frey. The pounding of his heart made him feel as if it was going to burst.
Preen’s screech cut through the bridge, taking Rone’s attention away from Kuren and Frey. The small creature squared off against a guard that was trying to grab its leash. Preen let out another ear-piercing sound before leaping out of the guard’s way and heading for the door.
“Shoot that thing!” Kuren roared.
“No!” Frey strained against Kuren’s hold.
The human needn’t have worried. Preen was fast. It was off the bridge and out of sight before any of the crew could catch it.
Rone relaxed a fraction. With Preen free, it gave him greater hope that, no matter what happened in the interrogation, Frey had a resourceful friend roaming the ship.
In fact, if Preen were a game of quaz, Rone would have bet any amount on the creature coming out of this whole mess intact.
Kuren fisted Frey’s hair to stop his struggling. “If anyone sees that thing, shoot it, and you can keep its tail. It might make a good mating offering. I expect a female would like it as an accessory to a gown.” He shot a look at Avith. “Get on with it. I’ll be in the captain’s quarters.”
Rone watched Kuren drag Frey out of the bridge. There was nothing he could do to stop what was about to happen to the boy. All he could do for any of them was to hang on. He glared over at Avith.
“Let’s get on with this, shall we?”