Page 91 of Shattered Silence

From across the table, Enki watched her with smoldering eyes, a satisfied little half-smile curving his lips.

Almost as if he were acting smug. That was about as smiley as Enki got.

“You did something, didn’t you?”

Still no answer.

“Enki.” Her voice rose a fraction in exasperation as her thoughts ran. “What did you do?” She activated the holonavigator on her link-band. “Search Layla Rose,” she commanded. If anything major had happened, it would already be on the Networks.

A flurry of titles appeared before her, floating up into the air above her wrist.

Oh, shit.

“Search Damien Andross.”

Double shit.

“Oh no, you didn’t.”

More headlines appeared, with links to a certain holoclip.

SCANDAL: Layla Rose’s former manager admits to fraud, created the notorious Black Tapes using a sophisticated composite model

DIRTY DAMIEN: Andross goes into hiding after shocking confession holo leaked, spotted leaving NY penthouse with mysterious hand injuries

WHERE IS LAYLA ROSE? Star rumored to have left Earth for new Colony Planet, whereabouts still a mystery

BLACK POISON: Warning not to view Black Tapes, reports of systems becoming infected with malicious virus

Okay, so the last one, the virus, was partly her doing, because she’d gotten in touch with a genius hacker called Riana at Abbey’s suggestion, and the woman had gone into her quarters, checked something on the Networks, and come out again ten minutes later, saying “yep. I can help you with that. Give me a week.”

And then she’d constructed that crazy virus.

These Kordolians had made some interesting allies on Earth. Correction, mates. Layla had soon discovered she and Abbey weren’t the only human women mated to Kordolians.

Layla selected the holoclip and watched about one-and-a-half seconds of her former manager naked in the fucking snow, his bits blurred out, blabbing on about how he was sorry, how it was all a terrible mistake, begging for her forgiveness…

She switched it off.

Looked up at Enki.

“He’s not dead,” he said. “I didn’t cut him or anything like that.”

“The thing with the fingers?”

“Humans are susceptible to cold. Perhaps it was frost-damage.”

“When?”

“You were asleep. Our stealth cruisers cover ground fast.” He stood. Walked around the table. Put his hands on her shoulders. “Are you… displeased?”

“Well, no. Just a little bit surprised. Thank you for not… killing him.” Layla hated Damien, but not enough to wish death upon him. She didn’t want that sort of shit on her conscience, not after everything she’d been through. The public humiliation and injuries he’d suffered—she suspected they might be frostbite—were enough. A fitting punishment for trying to put his hands on her, then literally screwing her over—in front of the whole world.

“I told you I would do something about it. I keep my word.” Enki was so earnest now, stroking her neck, lifting her chin so she was staring into his deep amber eyes. So earnest. Like he really wanted the best for her. Like he would do it again and again—defend her, protect her, using every skill in his formidable arsenal to bring down her worst enemies.

How could Layla even be angry with this sweet, impossible man?

Oh, he was dangerous.

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