Bound by Angel Payne

Author:Angel Payne [PAYNE, ANGEL]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Waterhouse Press

Chapter Ten

“I am grateful for the gift of your time, Mr. Brickham. Especially in light of these…odd…circumstances.”

Evrest Cimarron’s stance, as diplomatic as his statement, was silhouetted by the gold sunbeams reflecting off the sea beyond Jayd’s balcony. Brick had no actual idea of what time it was, but it’d been at least a couple of hours since Twylah took away his lunch tray and urged him to fill the afternoon by getting some rest.

Factoring in the half hour he’d waited for the hives to abate from hearing “rest” for the hundredth time in three days—or less sarcastically speaking, to make sure Twylah had truly left him alone for a while—plus everything that had happened since he got here, it had to be nearing late afternoon.

Which didn’t give anyone a lot of time before nightfall.

When Carris and his shiny wonder force would probably get here.

Goddammit, he hoped the monarch made this quick. But also that the guy opted for the I-am-king-hear-me-roar mode for this instead of the what-exactly-are-you-doing-with-my-sister approach. Brick had much more experience with the former. As in having zilch knowledge of the latter. Subbies rarely showed up at the club with their siblings along for interview duty.

“Not a problem, though I think I still have you beat in the gratitude arena,” he responded. “Without the care of your medical team, I’d likely be a prime snack for the rainforest beasts by now.”

He deliberately didn’t mention the scalding hot waters of the foreign relations bath in which Arcadia was currently swimming. Good chance that recognition was occupying every other thought in the man’s head.

Brick only wished he wasn’t stressing about what occupied the other thoughts.

“I am glad they put you on the mend so quickly,” the man answered. “You are feeling better, I trust? To have found your way this far across the palais?”

A chuckle rumbled out of him. It felt as fake as it sounded. Goddammit, he was actually that nervous—and a dozen kicks into berating himself for the stupidity. Which was also wasted energy.

Brakes. Reverse gear. Now, motherfucker.

Spinning up some panic wasn’t an option right now. Good chance the Arcadians knew nothing about his not-so-elegant secret, since there was a good chance their medical systems couldn’t talk to any databases back home.

That was just dandy by him.

He’d be gone soon enough, and nobody here had to be the wiser. But that also meant keeping his shit together for the moment. Taking advantage of the benefit it presented: to show Evrest he’d been worth the risk. To prove to the man that he hadn’t gambled the integrity of his country on a senseless murderer.

Trouble was, he’d imagined this encounter differently. To exponential sums of the word.

In his mental planning sessions, he and Evrest were somewhere like a palais office or his room in the infirmary, not a few steps from where he’d dominated the man’s sister to mind-bending degrees. The blue dye streaks along his skull and neck were never part of the equation. Nor were the fingernail scratches now mingled with them.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.