56. CHAPTER 56 #2
A private looked up from his laptop. “Three cities occupied and four more in progress. The United’s putting up a good fight, but the damage is done. They never saw it coming.”
“They’ll fight back with a vengeance. Still, the first strike sets the tone. At this rate, Caspador will look like the shithole cities in Antor.”
Miya pulled her knees to her chest, seeing the whites of the Krowes’ eyes. How many more people had the soldiers slain across Caspador? Why did she think she could stop the Phaedra? Look at what she'd done.
Captain Garrison pushed the front door open, glare locked on Miya. Her heart lodged in her throat. The sergeant and lieutenant jerked her to her feet, and Lance fought against his restraints, hardly able to wiggle.
“Why did you tip off the United, Miya?” the captain approached slowly.
She took a step back. Bumped into the sergeant.
“You made me look like a fool. We had to resort to an invasion. All because of one whore.” His eyes were wide with rage. “Why did you talk?”
Looking into his eyes now, she could see herself again, warped and small, unable to breathe or scream for help.
He slid a finger along her throat. “Facial recognition traced you back to your teenage years. The United wouldn’t have gotten to you before then. When did it start?”
The reality of being trapped with this man hadn't set in before. Was too terrifying to consider. Still was. “I don’t work for the United, Captain.”
“If that’s true, which I can’t imagine it is, then why start a relationship now?”
She looked at Lance. He strained against the stud even though he didn’t have the leverage to break free. His eyes were desperate.
“I’ll tell you if you let him go,” she said.
The captain chortled and hung his head, hands on his sides. “The Phaedra as my witness, you’re tempting me, woman.”
“You don't have all the information. The United will find me. You don’t have long if you want to make it to Ciondo.”
“I wear the Phaedra’s seal. I fear no one, especially not the United. No one cares to save you. Your own people gave you to me.”
“If you don’t listen to me, you’re going to regret it, Christopher. Let Lance go.”
“You miserable cunt.” He ripped her to him, dragging her onto the tips of her toes. “Throwing that little bitch in my face!” He shook Miya hard. “Tell me what I want to know now, or I will break his legs.”
She swallowed down a sob that had lodged in her throat. “I won’t talk until he’s safe.”
The captain shoved her. She fell back, catching herself on his lieutenant’s arm.
“You’re the one who made this personal. You. Remember that.” He ripped his revolver from his side. Expressionless, he lifted his gun level with Lance’s head.
Shot.
A gasp raked its way down her throat, terror stripping her mind of all thoughts.
Drywall splintered to the side of Lance’s temple.
His unblinking eyes stared into Miya’s. Wide. Red.
Her knees buckled. and she collapsed, ears ringing. Tears splattered onto her knuckles. She bowed her head as she sobbed.
All the feelings hiding away inside of her rushed through her now, and she wept bitterly.
She’d thought for sure she was watching him die.
The captain knelt before her and lifted her chin with the tip of his gun. He spoke with measured words. “You claw your way inside people. You don’t stop until you find something to rip to shreds.”
She struggled to breathe, trembling.
“I don’t need you,” he said. “Especially not now that you’ve caused problems for me. Do you understand the humiliation you caused me? What you cost the Phaedra?”
Miya squeezed her eyes shut, too afraid of what came next.
“What did I say I’d do if you crossed me?” the captain asked.
“You’d kill me.” Miya bent.
“And what did I say I’d do if you put another man above me?”
She shook her head. This pig thought any of this had to do with sex?
“I didn’t say.” Spittle flew from the captain's mouth. “I didn’t think I’d have to. You were supposed to be smart enough to know better than to ever make that mistake.”
“I didn’t do this for him.”
“We’re past you crossing me. For that, I’ll kill you. It’s already been promised. But for humiliating me? I don’t share.”
“We didn’t—”
He squeezed her cheeks. She cried out in pain.
“No more lies!” he said. “I don’t care what he is to you, only that you’re more loyal to him than you are to me.”
With her silenced, the captain brushed her hair back from her shoulders and withdrew a jewelry box from his pocket, opening it with one hand. The lights overhead glistened against the diamond necklace.
He lifted her limp hand and placed the jewelry in her palm. Miya stared at it.
“Put it on.”
Her hands felt like they belonged to someone else as she fastened it around her neck.
“As beautiful as I'd imagined.” His touch followed the chain down her throat and over the diamond resting against her collarbone. Lips followed, melting against the nape of her neck above the jewel.
Lance shouted against his gag, wood creaking. He had to control himself and stay calm.
“Are you ready to talk?” More kisses, trailing the silver chain. The captain's mouth burned like acid. When he captured her lips with his, she resisted every urge to bite his tongue off. “Or will you give me the pleasure of breaking every bone in your boyfriend's body?”
Her voice quivered. “When he's safe.”
“He'll never be safe thanks to you.”
“I'm the one who betrayed you. Leave him alone. Hurt me, not him.”
“You?” He studied the cut on her head. “Your boss had the nerve to hit your face and damage my goods. If I hurt you too much, I'll ruin your only value.”
Several soldiers snickered, whispering. Heat burned at the base of her skull.
Miya wanted to scream in his face but stopped herself for Lance's sake. “If you touch him, I won't tell you anything.”
He turned to Lance with the unearned swagger of a thief, like claiming Miya was nothing more than a message to the man who had something of hers the captain never could. Respect. Care. Admiration. It didn't matter what. Only that he wanted it and could never force it from her.
“Please don't.” Miya leaned toward him, trembling hands reaching for him. “Let him go, and I'll tell you everything. I'll be yours. I promise.”
“A whore's promise means nothing. And you already are mine.”
Tears mixed with the blood on Lance’s face, turning his cheeks pink.
His eyes didn’t stray from Miya’s. With the captain out of the way, she stared at him, seeing his heart as clearly as the soft brown of his stare.
The pain, the fear, the rage, the longing to comfort her, the shock at not being able to do anything.
The love. Painful, awful love she’d rather he not feel for her.
Stop.
She would have said it if she had the heart to. Stop speaking to her with that look. Stop caring about her. Stop being in her life. It was easier to think they were all like the captain. Born this way. Not that so many had chosen to do this to her.
Miya couldn't crumble now. No matter how she felt. They were in danger. A little longer… If they could survive a few days, maybe even hours, Zayne and Ashantae might find them. Or the United. But she didn't think they had that kind of time. At least not Lance.
Think.
Miya squeezed her eyes shut. Even if this was the end, she couldn't make it easy on him.
“Do you have anything worth telling me?” The captain sized Lance up. “Well? Any information that might keep me happy for a few minutes?”
Lance had been in the dark, loyal to her even though she gave him nothing to go on. The tears escaped and tickled her cheeks. Her resentment for his love faded into burning pain.
“He doesn't know anything,” Miya said. “If he did, he'd have spilled the moment you touched me.”
Pain filled Lance's eyes.
The captain snorted. “Pathetic.”
Miya scooted closer. “You don’t need Lance anymore.” She hated letting anyone hear the hurt in her voice. “Let him go. I’ll tell you everything. If I don’t, you can go back and find him.”
Warning flashed in Lance's wide and desperate eyes, but she had to try to save him.
“Captain Garrison, please. All you have to do is let him go.” She raised her voice. “I’m serious. I won’t talk unless he’s safe. I’ll take it to the grave.” Hands grabbed her. Held her back. She tried to twist free.
“You’ll tell me what I need to know, woman.” The captain tossed his uniform jacket on the ground. “This part, this is just for fun. Business can wait.”
Miya would resort to her only remaining move if he wouldn't listen. “The restricted data—” A hand clamped over her mouth. She screamed against the calloused palm.
The captain cracked his knuckles.
“Lance!” The hand muffled her screams. Not him. Please.
Lance’s stare didn’t waver from hers. Steady.
Even when the captain knelt down and spoke to him in a hum that had Lance’s nostrils flaring.
His attention didn’t drift from her. Not to unleash his rage on the captain and say everything she imagined he was dying to say.
Lance didn’t leave her. And she wouldn’t leave him either.
She gazed into eyes that were bursting with love and strength and compassion.
The captain ripped Lance's head back and punched him in the face. Blood sprayed against his hand. Stole Lance’s stare from her.
Miya screamed so loud it felt as if her throat burst.