Page 35 of Taking Jenny
“I’m going to go take a bathroom break and get some water,” she said, giving me a brave smile. “Then, I’m going to train some more, while I still can.”
I nodded. “Let me know if I can help.”
“I will.” She touched my arm and stretched up on her toes to place a soft kiss on my cheek. “Thank you for checking on me, Tiger.”
Inside the mansion, I made my way back to my room but Mal was standing by my door, his expression like a leering black cloud. I didn’t have the patience to deal with him.
“What do you want?” I snapped.
“Do you truly find me so abhorrent?”
His sly expression enraged me, mostly because I was equally as attracted to him as Jenny was. “I was assigned to you as a person for you to torture,” I said, my voice a low growl. “How should I think of you?”
He lifted his perfectly shaped brows and tipped his head. “Fair, I suppose.”
“Are we to beginmytorture, while she trains? Is that why you’re here?”
He sighed. “I’m not going to torture you or Jenny. I thought that was obvious by now.”
“I don’t…” Words failed me. I didn’t want to piss him off, but I was boggled by him in many different ways. “Justice Bateen is your boss. Why are you not following his order?”
“It’s that simple for you, isn’t it?” He sounded fascinated. “When you’re unclassed, you just do what your boss wants without question…it sounds like a relief.”
“You’re jealous of me?”Or is he mocking me?
Mal gave a small shrug. “In some ways, yes. A simple life is very appealing. Letting someone make all your decisions for you, no need to strain through whatever intrigue comes your way…I am jealous of you, but only by a little. I do enjoy this life,” he gestured around his mansion, “and the perks that come with it.”
I balled my hands into fists at my sides, trying to resist the urge to take a swing at the overbearing man in front of me. “Then why are we here, Mal?”
“I want to know how you can aid in Jenny’s training,” he said, leaning against the wall and crossing his arms over his solid chest. “I don’t know you, but your state file is frighteningly thin. What are your skills?”
“Mostly ship maintenance and talking my way out of problems.” I grit my teeth in frustration, because those mundane skills would not provide useful to Jenny’s situation. “I don’t know what I can do to help her.”
“Ah,” he said knowingly. “Hence why you’re so angry.”
I narrowed my gaze at him. “I don’t need you to remind me of how helpless I am in all of this, Mal.”
“I am not your enemy, Tiger. Regardless of what you think of me. There is no need for the attitude, when I am trying to help you both.” His eyes flicked down the length of me, then back up to my face, and I hated how my body responded to that interest. “In fact, some gratitude would be nice.”
“Gratitude?” I laughed bitterly. “If you actually wanted to help us, then you would get us off-world. Instead, you’re using Jenny to piss off your guardian because he hurt your feelings when he wouldn’t share his plans. You and all your friends are using her like a pawn in some stupid game with Justice, and it’s a game Jenny will lose, but that doesn’t matter to you, does it? Because all of us unclassed, we’re just toys for you to play with. Nothing matters to someone like you. Nothing but whatever petty cina waste that occupies your days,” I sneered, then added, “You disgust me.”
“Do you know what would happen, were I to get you off-world?” he asked mildly, while casually picking a piece ofinvisible lint from his sleeve. “You would be hunted. A simple word for a complex process. You would be pursued, from one end of the cosmos to the other. You would never know a moment’s peace. Your friends and what little family you have left would be tortured and executed in their search for you. Their friends and family would be, as well. And so on, until no one on any planet knew your names. Justice would never stop hunting either of you down, Tiger. Not ever. He wouldn’t care if he had to slaughter millions, if only to prove his power. An insult like that would end in the deaths of countless people. I don’t think you or Jenny want that, and I know thatIdon’t, regardless of what you think of me.”
He wasn’t lying, I could tell that much. But I also sensed there was more he wasn’t saying. “What else is it, Mal? What aren’t you telling us?”
His dark blue eyes shone purple, like they couldn’t make up their mind what color to be. “If you think of a skill you have that would help Jenny, please speak up. I’ll be…around.”
He started to pass me, but I grabbed his arm and stopped him. “Tell me what you know.”
“I thought you said talking yourselfoutof trouble was a skill of yours and yet, I find you grabbing me which is quite the opposite,” he said with an edge.
I did not release him. “Tell me.”
“What I know is this—Longshot said you forbade him from having sex with Jenny, which is endlessly amusing, but also means you and Jenny are involved, which islessthan amusing for me. If all of this goes wrong and she fails her trial, then you’ll want to know she went to her grave having had the best sex of her life.” He jerked his arm from me. “So don’t pick a fight with me, Orne, when you should be reserving your energy for her. Since you have no viable survival skills for her, the least you cando is fuck her until she forgets her problems. It might even make you feel less helpless.”
Then he turned and left the hall.
As much as I hate him, he has a point.
