To this, the captain snorted. “That’s not your job, Alicia.”
The pleasure slave offered a coy smirk. “Yes, but with Beau overseeing things in the bathhouse, and my only real chores being to make the priestess presentable, which isn’t hard”—she winked at me—“and to deal with Marco, which is quick and painless—”
A strangled yelp came from the other side of the bedroom door. “Oy!”
“—and even a little boring, if I’m honest. I find myself with hours, and hours, andhoursof free time,” she drawled, inspecting her nails as the sounds of a man strangling on outrage continued to pepper her airy words.
Head thrown back, the captain uttered a bark of startled laughter. “My apologies, Alicia! I hadn’t realized I’d given you such a dull and tedious chore as that!”
“It’s been a trying few days,” she replied with a playful sniff.
“Well, if you find yourself withhoursof free time,” Asher said, one hand on my nape as he steered me toward the exit, “unencumbered by the tediousness of house breaking an untried pup—”
“Fuck me dead!” Marco hollered. “The injustice! The slander!” He swung the door open, leaned around us to pin Alicia with a heated stare, and paused long enough to make her cheeks flush beneath her smirk, then said, “I’ll seeyoulater,” in a low murmur. Lingering with eyes narrowed, his body language was a promise that might have sent a chill through my blood, if I’d never met a better predator.
Unruffled, Alicia blew the soldier a kiss, peels of dainty laughter chasing us from the room.
We left Alicia standing by the captain’s desk. Smirking, she wiggled her fingers at Marco before she stooped to gather some laundry. Sparkling green eyes fixed to me, I watched when she tucked a featureless black case deeper under the desk.
Sasha’s gift.
From one desperate whore to another, Alicia’s meaning was clear.
Time was running out.
I nodded. Throat tight at the thought of what I would have to do to earn enough trust to be left to my own devices long enough to open that damned box.
The cost would be whatever dregs of dignity I still possessed.
Grumbling under his breath, Marco escorted us from the captain’s rooms. Down the stairs, through the kitchen, and out into the crisp, morning sunlight. Without a word, he opened the coach’s door and stepped back as I claimed my seat.
Avoiding eye contact, avoiding touch without openly glaring.
“You’re in a better mood,” the captain drawled as he took the spot beside me.
“Was,” Marco returned, and shut us inside before he slid into the pilot’s chair.
The captain sighed. Silent when we began to move, he shook his head and turned to stare out the window at the passing houses. Second in a line growing long enough to lose count, it seemed all of the Northern front would attend this event.
All of them gathered in one place.
A veritable buffet of energy unguarded. Ripe…
That bubble of panic fluttered and trembled once more.
My breath stuttered once before it stilled, frozen in my chest. Threatening to burst at the slightest whisper of opposition.
Dark eyes flicked to my face. Chips of obsidian obscured by shadows that gleamed from hooded lids. And then, “It’s only a few hours.”
I shot him a look, because we both knew what might happen in a fewminutesif I were off my leash.
He grimaced through a smirk. “It’s not ideal,” he admitted. “The Lieutenant General won’t be the only one watching, and we cannot afford another… spectacle.”
An indelicate snort puffed through my nose at the understatement of a lifetime. And I shuddered, swallowing back the bile at mere thought of piercing, stormy eyes and dreams of compliant, living corpses.
Lieutenant General Hastings.
Forehead dewy with anxious sweat, I turned to scowl at the passing houses. At the translucent reflection of a girl I no longer recognized, if I’d ever known her at all. A girl courted by death, who wouldn’t act, even if she could.
