Page 14 of Benet

His Badari companion gave him a smile with fangs revealed. “Ah, but remember I’m not a person to them. I’m an asset of the crown. I go where the woman who is Empress sends me, I observe, I listen, I do other things as commanded but I’m not now nor have I ever been a member of their society. I’ve done things which bent my honor but I prayed to the Great Mother for forgiveness.” Dmitri yawned. “I’m for bed.”

“I think I’ll grab a sandwich and a feelgood and go sit outside,” Benet said. He was too keyed up to sleep right now. What had happened to Marushka infuriated him and brought up all kinds of bad memories from his own childhood. He had no regrets about knocking the prince out but he knew the situation wasn’t over and he suspected he was going to be powerless to care for the woman at the heart of it.

His adrenaline rush was crashing now and as he sat in the garden he stared at the stars and prayed to Lords of Space to help Marushka. Usually after action or after the arena he’d seek out female companionship, to take the edge off and there were willing women on the estate, since several had made their interest in him quite clear as he did his morning run and his workouts later.

But his thoughts were only for Marushka. He kept seeing her pale face, disfigured by the ugly purple bruise, and he wished he could take her pain away. He shouldn’t indulge his growing attraction to her—she was an aristocrat and engaged and he was a kidnapped gladiator, bent on escaping as soon as he could and between the two of them nothing was possible. His heart and his cock weren’t listening to cold logic tonight though.

He decided to go see her first thing in the morning if she didn’t come for breakfast as per her usual routine.

* * *

But his intentions were thwarted as soon as he descended the stairs in Dmitri’s house and entered the kitchen.

“No Marushka today?” he said.

Dmitri handed him a cup of coffee and motioned him to the table. “Sit down. I need to update you on a few overnight developments.”

“All right.” Benet seated himself and blew on the coffee but apprehension made his gut tighten. “She’s doing okay though?”

“I haven’t seen her yet but there’s been no word otherwise. The housekeeper is an old ally of mine and she would let me know.” The Badari sat, the chair creaking a bit under his weight. “You’ve been sequestered on the estate until the games. No more bodyguarding and you’re forbidden to set foot outside the property line.” He drew a deep breath. “The Grand Duke is flying in later this morning and he and Marushka will be attending a sort of summit meeting at the prince’s estate, chaired by his mother, who is a formidable dowager and a lady in waiting to the empress. I’ll attend with them.” Dmitri raised one hand. “I’ll find a moment to relay your concern to Marushka and I’ll tell you what transpires at the meeting when I return.”

“I’m grateful. But she can’t be in the same room with the bastard.”

“You have no power to convert your bold statement into reality,” Dmitri said. “Her father will be with her and the Dowager is fully invested in quashing this scandal and preserving the engagement. All the parties involved want to keep it from the Empress but of course there was a great deal of talk about Marushka leaving the gala before dinner with her migraine and her two bodyguards but not her chauffeur and then the prince falling downstairs and breaking two ribs as well as his nose at roughly the same time.”

Benet chuckled. “Is that the story he’s going with? Lame. I should have killed him.”

“Be glad you didn’t and be grateful the prince’s family is trying to minimize the embarrassment of admitting the truth of the evening’s events or you’d be in shackles and on your way to the Empress’s torture chambers already. I wouldn’t be able to save you.”

“If she was my daughter, I’d be breaking the engagement, not getting together for a sit down, whether the old lady is going to mediate or not,” Benet said.

“I feel the same,” Dmitri admitted. “She’s like a daughter to me, since I was assigned to her when she was so little. Devochka means daughter in Outlier. But the Duke is in debt—he could lose everything if he’s not careful. He already spent her bride price to hire a crack team of mercenaries to go to the Five Sectors and kidnap you, among other things. He needs this alliance of families desperately and Marushka is his pawn. It’ll only stave off the inevitable for a while, in my opinion. Gambling is a sickness with him and unfortunately luck isn’t on his side. He must have done something to piss Lady Luck off in fact because his outcomes are usually so disastrous.” Dmitri’s laugh was ironic. “Take you for example. He spent all those credits and ended up with a human not a Badari, although he doesn’t suspect the truth. Do I think you can win the obstacle course event at the Games? Yes, if luck shines her smile on you. But the odds won’t be in his favor because people won’t bet against you, believing you to be a Badari like me and I won five times.”

“We’re getting off the subject a bit,” Benet said. “So there’s no way Marushka can get out of this marriage?” The idea bothered him immensely. Having seen how his mother had fared with her abusive boyfriend all those years ago, he couldn’t bear the idea of the duchess being forced into the arms of the prince.

“None. I’m hoping her father can negotiate an agreement where Vasili doesn’t put his hands on her in anger again.”

Benet thought that was next to useless as protection for Marushka. He made a vow to himself to find a way to talk to her in private as soon as possible. If only he could escape to the Five Systems, he could take her with him. The instant the idea occurred to him he admitted it was off the charts wild and unlikely but not totally impossible. He could pilot a ship and he was determined not to spend the rest of his life here as a glorified prisoner. Kyden and Elara would take Marushka in and help her find her way. He knew better than to say any of this to Dmitri, who would throw more cold water on the idea.

I have to get to the capital and then figure out a way to get to the spaceport and steal a ship. He had access to various information sources here in Dmitri’s house and he figured he could do careful research under the guise of trying to learn more about Throne and Outlier. He could pretend he was accepting his fate and wanting to assimilate into the culture. Gathering intel had been part of his mission when he was in his system’s Special Forces. Maybe his skills were rusty but he was highly motivated.

Chapter Five

Benet had a hard time staying motivated for the rest of the day especially once Dmitri donned a uniform and went off to the mansion to accompany Marushka and her father to the meeting at Vasili’s estate. Aware he wouldn’t hear anything until late in the evening he forced himself to train hard and run the obstacle course over and over. He even tackled the metal maze twice and was pleased with his progress.

There was no word by dinnertime so he heated up a meal from the stasis keeper and sat outside to eat, gazing at the stars and wondering what Kyden and the others were doing at home, and if they knew where he was yet. Kyden wouldn’t tamely accept the idea of leaving him in Outlier as a conscripted athlete so he needed to keep his situational awareness high for any hint of an attempt to contact him or initiate an extraction. He admitted to himself he wouldn’t want to leave Marushka. She was on his mind more than she should be, given her position in the Outlier aristocracy and her fate. He speculated whether Dmitri could be mistaken and the engagement might be called off. What father could stand by and let his daughter go unwillingly to an abusive husband? Surely the Grand Duke would see her bruises and listen to her account of the evening and do the right thing.

Wouldn’t he?

But then what? Benet didn’t have anything to offer a high-born girl like Marushka. At least Kyden had become the Master of a gladiatorial House and associate of a member of the Five Systems royalty when he claimed his mate Elara. Fate wasn’t likely to drop anything similar in Benet’s lap and certainly nothing to equal what Marushka had now. Benet did all right with his gladiatorial pay and his salary and profit sharing in the success of the House of Badari—Kyden was a generous boss—but besides his flashy groundcar, he hadn’t accumulated much in the way of worldly goods. He lived in his apartment at the House and had quite a respectable savings account on New Switzerland. He’d be a good catch for any ordinary woman, he told himself without false modesty. But a Grand Duchess?

After his third bottle of cold feelgood, he decided he was only making himself miserable with dreams of trying to have a relationship with Marushka. Wrong woman at the wrong time. He didn’t even know how she felt about him. Sure they joked around and teased each other and he desired her, but maybe he was reading too much into her small touches here and there and her interest in watching him train.

With a curse he tossed his bottle in the recycler and rose to go to bed.

The front door opened and Benet heard Dmitri’s heavy tread. He went into the house and found the Badari in the kitchen, pouring himself a stiff drink of Outlier vodka.

“Well? Is the engagement still on?” he demanded to know.

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