“Just send in the royal guard. Or notify the queen. She’ll have the guards here in minutes,” Kayson insisted.
Smith shook her head. “Don’t forget there is a traitor inside the palace. If we make that call to the queen, if she sends out the guards, Master Gee will know they are coming before they get out the palace gates. That would give him time to destroy the evidence, escape, or both. And then we are right back where we started.”
I hated every word out of her mouth. “She’s correct. We have to take him by surprise.
“Exactly. We go in quiet. We take him alive. Then we call the queen.” Smith turned away from all of us and walked toward her bedroom.
“I’m going to bed. We can argue about this more tomorrow.” Her cloak dragged on the floor behind her, her hair was a wild mess around her shoulders. She looked like a queen herself.
And then she was out of reach, behind a door I couldn’t break down, locked tight by duty. Circumstance. Royal orders. Maybe even fate.
8
Kayson
Mal satin the far corner of the room, staring at Smith’s closed door like he could knock it down with a glare. Geros had excused himself, strangely quiet about the events of the day. He’d showered and gone to bed.
What the fuck had happened today between these three? What had they done to her?
I sat close to Smith’s room and listened as the shower unit went on, then off. I listened to the quiet noises she made getting ready to go to bed. I heard the quiet padding of her footsteps as she walked across the room and climbed into bed.
And I heard her tears. She was not sobbing, more like riding a set of waves that ebbed and flowed. Cry. Sniffle. Silence. Repeat.
I couldn’t fucking take it.
I walked over to Mal and sat opposite him so I could whisper. “What the fuck happened today? She’s in there crying.”
“I know.”
That was it? That was the only explanation I was going to get? “Why is she crying, Mal?”
“I don’t know.”
“That’s a lie.” Frustration made my knees bounce up and down over feet that were hopping like little engines. “What happened? Did you hurt her? Was she threatened? Why is she so upset?”
“I promise you, Kayson. I do not know. I was very careful with her. Extremely careful not to touch her or cross her personal boundaries. I stuck to the script until she changed things.”
“How did she change things, exactly?” I asked.
“She begged Geros to fuck her in the ass. And he did.”
I stood, ready to beat both of them until they needed a ReGen pod. “You did not allow that.”
“I did. She begged. She enjoyed herself. She had more than one orgasm and she seemed to be completely fine when we were done with the scene. After that, she took off on her own. I don’t know what happened to her during that time. The explanation she just gave us is the only explanation that has been offered. You know as much as I do.”
Well, fuck. Mal wouldn’t lie. If he said she begged, she did. If he said Smith had enjoyed herself and had more than one orgasm, she had. “Then why is she crying?”
Mal looked up at me and I saw a bit of despair in his eyes. Confusion. “I don’t know. I wish I did. I do not.”
Smith chose that moment to pitter-patter to the bathing room and turn on the water.
She was up. Awake. “I’m going in there.”
“Good luck. Viken females are difficult to deal with. From what I have seen, human females even more so.”
I ignored him and his doomsday attitude. Females were…. I didn’t know, exactly, but I had a mother and three sisters. Between the three of us, I had the best chance of figuring out what had obviously gone wrong today.
Lifting my hand, I rapped gently on the door with two knuckles.
