Steel Rose by Kathryn Ann Kingsley

Author:Kathryn Ann Kingsley [Kingsley, Kathryn Ann]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kathryn Ann Kingsley
Published: 2020-03-18T16:00:00+00:00

15

Rose couldn’t focus. She leaned her forehead head against Big Bub’s mechanical shoulder and shut her eyes. She hadn’t been able to think straight since last night. It hadn’t been Otto who came to get her this morning. It had been some guard, claiming Otto said to tell her he was sick and unable to escort her.

Either the Lord Commander was telling the truth—unlikely, as she realized he never told the truth—or he had been beaten within an inch of his life for sending her into Viktor’s penthouse.

Viktor.

By the gods on high and below, that kiss.

He had been drunk. He hadn’t meant to do it. But the memory of it did strange things to her. She clasped her hands at the back of her neck and let the weight stretch her head down, offering some relief to the tension there. Just the memory of the kiss sent a thrill through her body she couldn’t deny.

“Bub, I don’t understand. I don’t know what to do. I should hate him. I should want him dead. But…I…” She let out a long, beleaguered sigh. “He was drunk. That’s all. People do strange things when they’re drunk.”

Honestly, it wasn’t the fact that he kissed her that was the problem. Okay, that was one huge, massive, terrifying problem. But the worse one…was her reaction to it. She hadn’t wanted it to stop. She had wanted to follow him down that hallway, propriety be damned. He’d threatened to do more and said she should leave before she regretted what he would do to her. She knew what he was promising—at least she thought she did.

Why do I feel bad that I walked away?

He hadn’t been thinking clearly. Now, he was probably mortified about what he’d done. With a long groan, she shut her eyes and whacked her head a few times on the metal of Bub’s shoulder. “Stupid, stupid, stupid!”

She looked up after a moment and leaned her elbow on the robot. “I’m not cut out for this crap. I fly planes. Fix things. Life for me should be simple. Us versus them, good versus bad, beer or other beer. Not…not all this.” She grunted and picked up her screwdriver. “Speaking of fixing things, I should boot you up, huh? See what kind of damage I’ve done to you? At least then you won’t have to stand here all day and listen to me whine.”

Reaching into his chest cavity, she flicked a switch.

POW!

The bright blue spark and smell of ozone sent her reeling backward. She fell onto her back on the scaffolding, wide-eyed. Smoke curled out of the chest of the robot. “Damn it! I knew it! I knew I wired it wrong! Stupid damn motherfucking—”

The eyes flickered. Clicked on. The head lifted. Slowly, with a mechanical whirr, it turned to look at her.

“HILSERMLIH HERH ISERILM.”

Rose squeaked and then laughed. “Hold on, hold on! I’ve got something wrong!”

“MIHSZERP WERIHP?”

She reached into its chest cavity and began to tweak a few of the dials. They were on the part of the circuitry she didn’t understand.

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