Page 52 of Between Earth and Eternity
Once we are out of the dining hall, Vallen drags me around a corner into an empty hallway before he forces me against the cold metal wall. “What the hell are you doing?” His eyes burn with rage. “I knew you’d be trouble the day we met, but honey, this is too far.” It steals my breath, having his face so close to mine. It’s difficult to form words. “Are you trying to get yourself killed?” he asks through clenched teeth, jaw stiff.
The seriousness in his tone and the overall strength of not only his name but the threat . . . it leaves me terrified. I can’t let him know that.
“You’ve probably never had anyone tell you this, but I’m not impressed.”
His eyes blaze into me, daring me to go on. “Do you have any idea who you’re talking to?” he hisses.
“Of course I do. Didn’t we cover this already?”
“Yet you still think you can run your mouth in front of a company such as this? In front of me?”
I sneer, “As if harassment would change how I feel about you and your family. I’m not afraid.”
He doesn’t balk, and this time, he puts even more venom behind his words. “You should be.”
It’s more than a threat, it’s a promise. What’s worse is I know I should be, but he’s wrong when it comes to me. If he thinks scaring me into being compliant will work, then he will have to try harder.
“All I see when I look at you is a pathetic, lonely, rich boy, dying for his father’s approval.”
This time, Vallen laughs, then rubs his jaw in disbelf. His eyes soften a bit before he says, “I think you’d be surprised.”
“What is that supposed to mean?”
He scoffs running a hand through his hair. “Nothing.”
I shake my head, disgusted. “I thought so. You’re just like him. You don’t care that millions of people are on Earth, waiting, praying that they won’t starve to death, while you sit here at your fancy dinner.” I can’t even begin to fathom the cost. I don’t think I want to know. “And you’re the reason for the Lottery,” I say.
“So?” He shrugs.
“So, I wouldn’t be millions of miles away from my family if my name wasn’t drawn. Some of us actually care about other people.” I feel sick saying that aloud. If only he knew the amount of times I think about the distance spreading with each second.
Vallen tilts his head. “I think what you mean to say is thank you. You’re miles away from a dying planet. You get to live because of the Lottery, because of me.”
I gape at him for a moment, at a loss for words. He is completely right, but it’s also not that simple. Two things can be true at the same time, as much as it annoys me to my bones. But the exclusion of lives, so many thrown to the wayside simply because they couldn’t pay . . . I cannot accept that things have to be that way. Anger rolls though me, thinking about Ori, about all that she has lost—and in a twisted way, gained—because of the Mannoxes.
“You have squandered so many resources on creating this obnoxious ship when you could have used your hoards of money to get more people off Earth, to help more people.” I flap my arms around. “It’s such a waste. You’re such a waste. Just another Mannox to someday take your father’s place as a shallow, self-absorbed tyrant”
I inhale a shaky breath through my bared teeth. For a millisecond, I swear a flash of hurt crossed his face as I raged on. But I must have imagined it because he takes a step closer until his hips pin me against the wall. For some reason, I don’t try to get him off me.
He looks down at me, several inches taller, his chest moving in and out in deep breaths. I peek at his collarbone and chest muscles, flexing through the opening of his shirt. My body betrays me again, heat spreading to places I wish it wouldn’t.
“You’re right. There are so many things I could have done, things I could’ve convinced my father to do differently. But here we are. The power will be bestowed upon me. My birthright.” He pauses. “Do you have any idea what I could demand likethat?” He snaps his fingers, causing me to flinch.
I can’t escape the fear that skates down my skin, sinking into my heart, but I won’t let him use it against me. My body might be reacting of its own accord, but my mind is still mine.
“Then do it,” I dare as boldly as I can, fear and desire mixing with curiosity.
What demands and wants lurk under his skin?
Could he have me killed?
Would he?
His intensity is like a sun, too dangerous to be this close, but once you look, you can’t pull away, even if it kills you to stay in its orbit.
And I hate him for it because now I am even more afraid, being near that kind of power.
“You’re not worth my time, honey.” His voice is husky and cuts deep.
