Chapter 27 #2
Merde, she swore silently, switching to French as if language itself could still build a wall.
Even high out of his skull, he was the most cunning thing in the room. Ryker’s attention settled intently on her.
Since coming here and being privy to all the memories featuring Ryker, Audrey has noticed that prisoners avoided his gaze when they were in the same room.
But Audrey met them like a challenge.
He seemed surprised, but the emotion disappeared quickly under his mask of careless control.
“Look at you, fully clothed,” he said in smooth, taunting English, blowing smoke at her face. “Hardly recognized you outside of that club.”
“And look at you wearing a leash.” She angled her head toward Kat. “Finally recognized you. It’s longer than you deserve.”
A faint smile curved his mouth. “Do you always stare like that when fucking someone else?” he asked lazily. “Or am I special?”
“I’ve known you for five seconds, and I can already tell you’re a huge prick. I should shred your mind right now.”
For the briefest second, Ryker became still. His answer pressed into her mind. I would love to see you try.
Cut the shit, she snapped mentally.
His smile turned meaner. She gritted her teeth. French, she reminded herself. Think in French.
She looked around at his disaster of a living space. “Do you live here? You should burn all this shit instead of me.”
“These are all very useful and important things,” he said lightly—too lightly. Underneath it, she caught the quick sting of defensiveness and had the sinking realization that, of course, he had felt her notice it.
I’m sure, she thought dryly.
His response glided into her brain like silk and venom. Most telepaths couldn’t breach her shield.
Ryker could, though.
You’re scared of me, he bit back.
And yes, she was. He could sense it.
She lied out loud through her teeth anyway. “You can barely stand. What’s there to be scared of?”
Liar.
The word came with a confidence she wanted to slap off his face.
I’ve been dragged around this godforsaken moon like an animal. Adapt and overcome—it’s what I do.
He hit back almost instantly. Act like an animal, get treated like one. A pause. Basir was particularly taken with you.
“I wish I’d killed that sick fuck,” she said aloud. “Now tell me why I’m here and what you want with my family.”
He gave her a disbelieving look. “I personally don’t want anything from you. It’s your mother, and maybe your sister, I want. Sophia and I made a deal a long time ago.”
She glared daggers at him. “I haven’t made many friends here—”
“And I’m sure I’ll see why soon,” he cut in, winking. The bastard actually winked.
She wrinkled her nose. “Don’t ever look at me like that again. Let’s keep this professional. Start hostage negotiations. I’d like better accommodations than this dump.”
He stopped smiling. “This isn’t a game,” he said. “And there’s no negotiation.”
But Audrey had survived worse men in worse places. “Everything is a game. Prison taught me that. You play, or you die. Now answer my questions, or I’ll get them myself.”
Ryker moved without stumbling this time. He crossed the room with icy precision, and Audrey rose to meet him, refusing to retreat.
An emotion played across Ryker’s face then—brief, but distinctive.
Recognition.
Not of who she was.
Of what she was.
The same kind of creature that wouldn’t break.
Seconds later, her face was level with his chest. Heat radiated off him. Her chin raised before she could stop it.
They were two predators realizing they’d stepped into the same territory.
“Playtime is over,” he murmured. “Your mouth was amusing. Now it’s annoying. I want nothing to do with you.”
Behind them, Nikos muttered, “This is going to be better than I thought.”
Ryker ignored him, entirely focused on Audrey. “That night your father died, I was there for Cary and Sophia, not you. They were supposed to come with me. You were supposed to stay with your dad.”
“Did you set the fire when my mother refused to go with you?” Audrey demanded.
Ryker didn’t answer right away. “No,” he said at last. “Sophia did.”
A beat.
“Or tried to.”
“It’s still your fault,” she snarled. “Whatever deal you made with her destroyed my family. I should kill you. Right here.”
Another lie. She would, but not here—not trapped, not yet.
“How do we get into the Field where Mihail is being held?” His eyes narrowed. “Because if you don’t know that, you’re worthless to me.”
“I have no idea,” Audrey scoffed.
Ryker studied her, like he suspected she knew more than she should. Smoke rose from the cigarette between his fingers. He took a drag, and the look in his eyes shifted.
He wasn’t watching her like prey anymore. He watched her like something that might bite back—and he wanted to see it happen.
She stared daggers at him.
He crushed the burning tip against the metal table beside him. The steel hissed. “You’re a liability,” Ryker said.
The room braced, and the air around him warmed in an instant. Audrey didn’t realize why until his hand wrapped around her throat.
Kat appeared at his side, fingers on his forearm like a cool balm on a burn. “She doesn’t know. You can feel that. We need her.”
He ripped his arm away. “God damn it!” Lighting yet another cigarette, the flame trembled. They all watched the Separatist leader warily. “Mihail let Sophia die and saved you for a reason,” Ryker said at last.
Nikos stopped moving. Even Kat watched him carefully now.
Audrey’s chest heaved. She supposed Mihail was probably powerful enough to have stopped her final slice through Sophia. Yet he hadn’t.
Ryker’s voice was dark, heavy. “What can you do that made him choose you?”
Time collapsed in on itself.
Not because he was guessing. Because he wasn’t.
He was getting close. And if he understood what she could really do, the look in his eyes told her that he wouldn’t kill her, despite all his threats.
He would keep her.
Taryn’s warning about not letting them see everything rang in her head.
Audrey felt everyone’s attention snap to her, waiting, wanting to see what she would say.
She understood, with sudden brute clarity, that her answer to this question might decide if she walked out of here at all.
The fact that no one knew the full extent of her powers was the only card she had left to play, and right now, that was disintegrating.
If they realized what she could actually do, it wouldn't just shift how Ryker saw her—it could make her valuable or expendable in the blink of an eye.
Was survival better than death if it meant becoming Ryker’s weapon?