CHAPTEREIGHT
The ambassador’s voice sounded metallic as it grated out of a speaker on the wall.He’d be safe behind a two-way mirror in the next room.“Did you think I would interrogate you about Conor Murphy over a cup of tea?”he derided while Karolina struggled to free herself and protested furiously through the gag.
His instruction came over the speaker system.“Remove the hood and gag.”
The thug standing guard over her did as the ambassador asked.
‘What was the gag and hood for?’Karolina exploded the moment she could speak.“You just have to terrify everyone, don’t you?”Brave words, but her skin was prickling with fear.She braced herself for violence.None came.
“Tell me the truth about Conor Murphy, or—”
“You’ll what?”Lifting her chin, she asked her father, “Will you take me for a ride in your helicopter as you did my mother?Surely you want to keep me alive to breed?More polo ponies each time I produce a child,” she reminded him, feeling sick to her stomach at the thought.
The sinister room where she’d been taken was one of many in the basement where the ambassador transacted all hismost important business, as he described the torture of his victims.Four bare stone walls, no windows, and a heavy metal door made sure that screams and pleas for mercy remained unheard.Karolina tried to avoid looking at the implements of persuasion lined up on a wheeled steel trolley.A guard she’d never seen before had been put in charge of her.Carl was nowhere to be seen.She grimaced, realizing that everyone who might be considered her ally had been kept away.Or worse.“What are you going to do to me?Beat me to a pulp?I doubt Conor will want to make children on me then.”
Silence greeted her outburst.The stillness was unnerving.That was one of her father’s favorite ploys, she remembered, because it ramped up the dread for a prisoner as their imagination provided countless scenarios, each one more horrific than the last.
She used the silence for testing the bands binding her.Turned out, if she made her hand very small and flattened it against the arm of the chair—
“The husband I arranged for you is on his way here now.”Her father’s triumphant voice coming out of the speaker shot Karolina bolt upright again.“Apologies for the short break, but I wanted to let him know where you were, as any concerned father and father-in-law would.Let’s see how defiant you are when you’re sitting opposite Conor Murphy while he’s being interrogated one strip of skin at a time.”
Paralyzed with fear for Conor, she glanced at the thug guarding her.Had he noticed Karolina testing her bonds?That would be the only excuse her father needed to order him to beat her, and what chance would she have to save Conor then?
“You’re willing to say goodbye to more ponies—to the best ponies in the world?”she called out.
“There are other breeders,” the ambassador sneered from behind his plate-glass window.“Nero Caracas for one, and the Acosta brothers.”
“But their ponies don’t suit you like Conor’s.You’ve said so yourself.Why didn’t you buy them like anyone else would have done, instead of bartering your only child?”
“Because I’m not anyone else.And what fun would that be?Did I really think you and Conor would suit each other?Of course not.You’re too vulnerable and he’s too ruthless.I knew you would make each miserable and create exactly the type of distraction I can profit from.”
Desperate now, she knew it was vital to keep the ambassador talking so she could find a way to escape and warn Conor he was walking into a trap.“Conor doesn’t know I’m here.Why don’t you let me go back so I can find out what he intends to do?I only came here for my doll.”
The ambassador barked with derision.“You’re so painfully naïve, I can hardly believe I played any part in your creation.”
That makes two of us, she thought.
“Though, I have to say, your concern for your husband is touching.”
“Maybe I take after my mother more than you,” she suggested.
If she’d hoped to make the ambassador feel guilty, she could count that as a fail.
“Only one thing is certain,” he continued.“You and Conor Murphy will provide my entertainment tonight.”
“Do your worst,” she muttered beneath her breath.Flexing her fingers, she had to stare at the floor to hide her triumph when she felt life flooding back into her veins.
“I’m sorry Conor,” Anna confessed when he questioned his worried-looking housekeeper.“I don’t know where Karolina went.”
“Did she say anything, anything at all?”he pressed.
“No clues as to her whereabouts, as far as I can remember.”
Karolina would only go back to the embassy.But why put herself in danger when she’d only just escaped?
For me.She’s done this for me.
A primal roar rose inside him.If that monster harmed her—
