Chapter 39
Trove
His mate had been traded to him like chattel!
The rage was burning up in his belly, licking like fire in his chest, making him simultaneously sick and furious. He wanted to rage. He wanted to destroy something. But the only things around him were hers and he wouldn’t break her things even if he was angry.
Maybe the emotions were heightened because, for the first time, he understood the meaning of sex and how special it could be. How intimate and precious.
And Hyde had treated her like a commodity.
He hated it. He felt like he had used her. Like he had treated her like the prostitutes – who at least had chosen to live that kind of life. There was no way that his mate, who treated sex as something personal and wonderful, would give it away.
Not unless what she was getting meant more to her than what she was giving away.
Trove had seen the way the Imperium worked. He understood them now. They knew how to make people do things for them. And if it were something as simple as credz, then they had all of them they needed to make a person move.
But they weren’t that simple with it. They held the thing you really wanted over your head.
To make them accept the job to get that stupid cup, they didn’t just offer credz, but the cord they needed for Alred. Something they would normally not be able to obtain. Something that no amount of credz would have gotten them.
And now, to keep them here, to make them work for them again, they were offering more. They hadn’t specified what yet, but Trove already knew it wasn’t just credz.
So, what was he holding over Chee?
His mate was looking down at the floor. Her shoulders hunched, her fingers curling together. Like she was ashamed of herself. Like she might have done something wrong.
“What did they offer you?” Trove snarled.
Chee looked up at him through her lashes. “They who?”
“The Imperium.”
“Hm? Oh, you mean Hyde?” She began gnawing on her lip. “Hyde offered me… he offered me something truly precious.”
“What? What are they giving you?”
She shifted her weight between her feet, not answering immediately. She had to take a breath and try to start a couple of times before she successfully managed to speak.
“You remember how I told you about my dad?”
Trove came up short, turning to face her. “Your father? How he protected you?”
Chee smiled slightly, but she nodded. “Yeah, he did. He’s fantastic. I love him so much. He saved me. Maybe even my life itself. There’s no telling what my uncle would have done to me. What he might have done to cover up his crime.
“My dad killed my uncle. Stabbed him. And both of us had burns from the boiling water my uncle threw at us.
His was on his arm. He said he barely even felt it.
But mine was on my face, and he considered that to be the most important thing.
So, he took me to the hospital. He left my uncle there, dead in our kitchen.
“On the way, he called my mom. She was at work. He didn’t tell her much, just that I’d been burned and he was taking me to the hospital. He asked her to meet him there. He was so calm about it. Like nothing was wrong. He didn’t give her the full story until she was there in person.
“I don’t know what that conversation was. They had it away from me. But mom looked like she had been crying when she came back. Dad returned, he kissed my head, told me I was strong and I had done nothing wrong and that I should only tell the truth. Then, he left.
“He went back home and called the police. Told them that he had found my uncle molesting me and so he attacked and killed him with a knife. He told them that my uncle was definitely dead, there was no need for the ambulance to rush, and that he would be waiting on the porch.”
It was more information on a story that Trove had already heard. He didn’t know what this had to do with anything, but he listened, waiting patiently as she gathered herself. Her eyes were swimming again with unshed tears.
“The cops arrested my dad,” she finally said. “He had admitted to murdering my uncle and it was just part of the process. They told him they understood; that they had to go through the investigation. They even sympathized with him.
“But then my grandmother got involved.” Chee’s voice tightened.
She began to shake. Not with sorrow but with badly concealed rage.
“She freaked out. Called my uncle her ‘sweet baby boy’. Said he would never do something like that. Said my father was jealous of him, that he’d killed him for no reason. She lost her mind about it.
“The lawyer that prosecuted my dad was vicious. And heartless. And he twisted the story. Said there was no proof my uncle had touched me. And there wasn’t.
It was mine and my dad’s words, and my words were discredited because he said I would lie for my dad to keep him out of trouble.
Since there was no proof of my uncle touching me, there was reasonable doubt about why my father would kill him.
And since there was no proof of what he did but my word, which wasn’t allowed to be submitted as evidence in court because I was unreliable, they said it was murder. ”
She was crying again, and he was beginning to understand what was happening. He didn’t understand the Earth legal system, but he had already put together the pieces of what she was saying.
“They put my father in prison for murdering his brother!” She yelled, her voice breaking in pain, in injustice, in frustration.
“He’s been locked away for most of my life, and he isn’t even eligible for parole!
Every time we try, my stupid grandmother keeps coming up with these wild stories about how my dad was jealous of him and how he made up this whole story, and no one believes me!
No one will listen to what I have to say!
“Do you understand?! My dad has been locked up for over two decades now. He’s treated as a murderer. All because no one will listen. Because I wouldn’t talk before he did it to tell anyone what had happened. That makes it my fault.”
“Chee, no-”
“And I don’t know how Hyde found out. I don’t know how he knows everything, but he does know everything.
He said if I did this for him, if I brought you this job and let you mate bond to me, he would get my father out of prison.
He would bring him and my mom here and the three of us can start over where my grandmother can’t find us.
Where no one can ever accuse him of anything ever again.
We can have our lives and our family back! ”
Chee was panting when she finished. Breathing hard like she had just finished a long sprint. Her eyes were wide and wild, tears pouring down her cheeks.
And Trove was only made angrier.
“I’m going to kill that ecter where he stands!” He announced, stomping towards the door.
He was brought up short when Chee grabbed his hand as he tried to pass her by and pulled him back. She looked confused.
“What are you talking about?”
“The Imperium. Hyde,” he sneered the fake name like an insult. “I will kill him for doing this to you.”
She pulled him back again. Only more confused. “Doing what?”
“Blackmailing you like this!” He gestured around them at her fabulously furnished room. “For holding your father’s freedom over your head and forcing you to fuck a male you don’t even want. It is disgusting and I will kill him in your honor.”
“Trove!”
He didn’t let her pull him back this time but instead dragged her with him to the door. But right as they reached it, she ran around and spread out her arms, blocking his path. Still confused.
“You’re not mad?” She asked.
“I am furious!” He declared, fingers curled like he still had claws. He snarled and tightened them into proper fists. “And I will see him dead for doing this to you!”
“Doing what?” She repeated, this time with an incredulous laugh.
She reached for him, putting her hands to his chest, stopping him from moving forward.
“For giving me a chance to get something I never would have otherwise? For giving me my father back? For repairing my family? For giving me the chance to meet you?”
He focused back on her face, his face still tight with anger. Even when she chuckled and pushed his hair out of his face. She looked so happy. So relieved. And he realized only then that she thought he had been mad at her.
“I owe Hyde everything,” she insisted. “You heard what he said. You and I never would have met under normal circumstances. I would never have signed up for True Match. I would never have left that town, because it was the closest one to dad’s prison and I could visit him more often.
And I likely never would have been able to see my dad again if I matched with someone away from him. I’m lucky, Trove. So lucky.”
She was breaking down again.
But this time, there was nothing to stop him from gathering her up in his arms. He squeezed her to his chest as she cried. In anger. In grief. In relief.
She had been carrying the weight of her father’s imprisonment for too long. Her uncle’s disgusting deeds weren’t the only things she had to come to terms with after his death. And what he did to her, and tried to do to her, hadn’t hurt as much as knowing her father paid the price for helping her.
“I do not know your father,” Trove said, speaking softly against her head as she buried her face into his neck, “but I know his thoughts. Believe me, my mate, he is proud of what he has done. He serves his sentence with honor and no regret or shame. He does not care what his mother says of him. He does not care what the world says of him. You and your mother are the only two that matter. Your safety remains his only concern. I know his thoughts, and he does not want you to carry this weight.”
“I know,” she mumbled, but her voice was broken. “I know that. But I don’t feel that. And I won’t feel okay until I can hug him again. For as long as I want. With no stupid officer telling me there’s a time limit. Or that I can’t hold his hands. Or give him good food. Or talk to him for hours.”
She was only crying harder, and he could only imagine how much this must hurt her. He had no reference for what she was feeling. But if she was away from him, if he was limited in how often he could see or hold or please her…
“I owe Hyde everything,” she said weakly. “I’m so grateful, and I can never repay him. For giving me my father. For giving me you.”
He shook at the power of her words. That he would mean that much to her.
And he was still angry at Hyde for using her, but he suddenly understood her gratitude, because he was in the same position.
If it weren’t for Hyde, he would never be able to hold her like this either.