Page 226 of Filthy Royal

As the memory of the gleaming tranq blaster slammed through her, she jerkedupright.

Her wrists stayed pinned down. Metal clanked.

Her heart crashed against her ribs.

She was manacled to a narrow cot. In some kind of sterile med bay. And she was definitely no longer on Damien’s shuttle.

Head still woozy, she sank back against the mattress and tried to think.

The rumbling voices outside her cell grew louder.

An argument.

Worse, she recognized both shouters.

“You said you’d wait. Let Kadon contact me. Track his comms.” Andor sounded furious.

“It would not have done any good.” Darvish’s tone was equally harsh, though he sounded far less distressed and more exasperated. “You heard what the doc said. We would have been walking into a trap.”

“Whose fault is that? You were the one who insisted on leaving the recording on Crex on the off chance it would somehow bring Scarlett to heel.”

“Your part would have come out eventually no matter what. It just happened sooner than later. Accept it. Damien found out the truth about you. Kadon knows too. We had to improvise, and a new situation presented itself.” Her ex-employer chuckled. “I had no idea Nikolai and Maxheim would come to the dome or that they’d bring the doc with them. It was too good an opportunity to pass up.”

“You mean you wanted to rub it in their faces and show them how easily you could strike at them. But in the meantime, you blew up one of our best advantages by exposing the doc as a sleeper agent.”

“So what if I did?” Darvish snarled, his mood shifting lightning fast, as always. “That Enforcer bastard took my pet.”

“Not this again.”

“The Skolovs think they can have whatever they want. Whoever they want. Well, he can’t have her. And soon, they’ll have nothing at all.”

“Fine.” Andor appeared to have heard it all before. “You don’t want them to have her? Then dispose of her now. We can’t take her with us. It’s too dangerous. If that gift of hers acts up in flight, we’ll all be dead. What will happen to your precious plans for revenge, then?”

Scarlett’s panic grew.

“Do not mock me, Andor.” Darvish’s voice dropped to a lethal rumble. “You and I work well together, but I am not a youngling anymore. You might have thrown some guilt money my way when I was small, but I’ve paid you back a hundredfold in wealth and influence. I’m the one who took your angry, bitter ramblings about the past and turned them into a concrete plan for vengeance. I’m the one in charge of this operation. Don’t ever forget that.”

“We have history.”

“Which is why you’re still alive.” Darvish paused. “Now, I will explain this only once. The doc will keep my pet tranq’d throughout the trip. I have a reinforced cell specially prepared for her upon our arrival. All will be well.”

“Why risk it?” Andor, a dominant Alpha himself, was not so easily cowed.

“The doc will work with her once we reach our secure location. I’ve promised him the chance to find out what makes her tick. That incentive, more than the money, is the reason he agreed to betray his employers. They paid him generously and treated him well, but the Skolovs would never allow him to be ashands-onwith his study of their omegas as he wanted. I will.”

A shiver ran through Scarlett.

“The doc says she’s dying.”

“Yes, sadly. Perhaps he can save her. If not, she’ll prove useful in another respect. When the moment is right, and she’s primed, her gift unstable and ready to implode, I’ll use her to draw Damien out. We will give him a location and he’ll come running to save her, straight to his death. She’ll do our work for us, killing the Enforcer and striking the kind of irreparable blow that will make the rest of the Skolovs easier to take out too.”

Scarlett’s gift stirred, punching against her chest, the rage inside her surging once again.

She sucked in a sharp breath.

Out of habit, she tapped it down—and it struck at her ribs. A sharp jab that hurt.

Then she remembered.

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