Total pages in book: 107
Estimated words: 101280 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 506(@200wpm)___ 405(@250wpm)___ 338(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 101280 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 506(@200wpm)___ 405(@250wpm)___ 338(@300wpm)
“You’re welcome,” I said. “Now if that’s all—” I was anxious to get back to Natalie. I kept thinking of the hole I’d made in the crotch of her fur jumpsuit and how I wanted to get my tongue inside her this time—not just my fingers.
“Er…there is one more thing,” the security chief said apologetically. “You told me you wanted me to track the single glove that had gotten separated from the other clothing—remember?” he asked.
“Oh, right…” I frowned. “Yes, I did say that. Can you tell me where it is?”
“It’s on route to return to the city—to your building in fact, Baron,” he told me. “I think it must be on some kind of fast-moving vehicle, considering the speed it’s going.”
A fast moving vehicle—like the super-sonic tunnel crawler Azz’lx had bought with the last bonus I had given him, I thought, my teeth clenching.
“Thank you,” I told the security chief again. “You’ve done well. And you’re sure it’s heading for my building?”
“That’s what the trajectory indicates.” He nodded. “It should be there in about twenty solar minutes.”
“Excellent,” I growled through gritted teeth. That was just enough time to get home in my ship and I was certain that Azz’lx was probably going to be in the parking area, waiting for the crawler so he could get rid of any evidence of Natalie.
I clicked off the viewscreen and set a course for home.
It was time to settle the score.
TWENTY-EIGHT
VIK’TOR
“Just stay in the ship for right now,” I told Natalie as I switched to land mode and set the cruiser down carefully on the frozen highway just outside my building. Most large vehicles parked across the street from the building in the open landing area, but I had a special spot for myself in the VIP parking area on the second floor—which just happened to be where Azz’lx’s crawler was headed.
She frowned.
“You don’t want him to see me?”
“I want to see if I can get a single fucking word of truth out of him,” I said, frowning. “Or if he’s going to keep lying.”
“Mmm-hmm.” Natalie made a skeptical face. “Well, I know which one I’m betting on.”
“Azz’lx has been working with me for a long time,” I pointed out. “I fucking trusted him. I just don’t understand what the fuck is going on with him.”
She shook her head.
“Maybe you never knew him at all. Did you know he was the kind of guy to try and rape someone, just because he wanted to and felt like he was powerful enough to get away with it?”
I frowned, remembering the way I had first seen her—when she had been running away from Azz’lx and that fucking pimp, R’xs. No, I had never thought my second-in-command would do such a thing.
He had always presented a carefully crafted image to me—a devoted family male who liked to play once in a while, but nothing too serious. And knowing his wife, Dru’silla, I hadn’t blamed him—she was so fucking uptight any male would be miserable being Joined to her. Now I wondered if maybe I had been too quick to excuse Azz’lx all this time. After all, if he cheated on his wife, what was to keep him from cheating me? And if he was willing to kill Natalie just to cover up his lies, what other extremes might he go to?
“No, I never thought he was that kind of male,” I admitted. “But I never thought he’d try to get rid of the female I cared for either. I need to figure out what the hell is going on with him.”
“Just be careful,” Natalie told me, looking worried.
“You can watch the whole thing on the viewscreen,” I told her. “It has a 360 view. Look—I’ll show you how to use it.”
I finished showing her just as we were pulling into the parking area under the building. Up ahead in the dim space, I caught a glimpse of the bright yellow tunnel crawler that was Azz’lx’s. It was parked right beside one of the trash incineration units and sure enough, my second-in-command was standing right beside it.
I frowned as I watched Azz’lx dust his hands together, as though he was just finishing up some kind of job. Damn it—I should have gotten there sooner! Had he been burning the evidence of Natalie’s trip in his crawler? I would have bet my last credit he was. I knew she had lost her bundle of old clothes when the vehicle deposited her in the dark, dangerous tunnel where she’d nearly gotten killed—first by the vagrants and then by her pimp.
I wondered what he was going to say when I confronted him. Well, only one way to find out.
“Just keep watching,” I told Natalie, turning up the sound so she could hear as well. “And I’ll be back in a minute, little girl.”