Born of Ice

Don’t panic. You don’t know that for sure. It’s your nervous paranoia. There’s no way he could know anything.

Yeah, right. Sweat beaded up on her skin as she felt the air between them thicken with his growing fury and her fear. She was way too aware of how massive he was.

How dangerous.

“Tell me about your mother, Alix. How did she die?”

She licked her lips as a bead of sweat trickled down her back. “I don’t like to talk about my mother.”

Devyn wanted to strangle her. So much for playing it cool. He’d had all good intentions, until he saw her talking so comfortably with Vik. Charming the mecha. As soon as he’d neared them, his temper had ignited.

Damn, I’m just like my mother. Suicidal the moment my temper kicks in.

His father would have kept his cool and played her right into a confession. Unfortunately, he’d rather beat the truth out of her.

A veil came down over her face as she confronted him. “You know, don’t you?”

Lie. Give her a dose of what she gave you. But it wasn’t in him to play those games. He was a soldier, not a politician. “Yeah, I know everything about your mother and your sister.”

Alix wanted to cry as she heard the anger in his voice. Fear seized her. She threatened his crew.

His son.

It would only stand to reason that he’d want her blood. “So what are you going to do with me?”

“That depends.”

“On?”

“Whether or not you help me.”

His words caught her off guard. What could he possibly want with her? “I don’t understand. Help you do what?”

“Merjack sent you after me, didn’t he?”

She nodded. There was no point in protecting him or even lying. Not now.

“Then I want you to help me take him down. Hard.”

She scoffed at his offer. As if . . . “I can’t do that. He’ll kill . . .” She bit her lip to keep from saying anything more.

“Your mother?”

She winced and nodded. “And my sister. I can’t let them die or be raped—which is his other threat should I not cooperate.”

His nostrils flared as those dark eyes singed her. “You should have told me.”

“I don’t even know you, Devyn. Not really. Why should I trust you with anything?”

“Because I took an oath to help people. To protect them from The League and any corrupt government.”

“Yeah, and I know people better than to believe that for even an instant. Altruism is dead. People use and they take until you’re nothing but a bleeding corpse on the ground at their feet.”

Devyn ground his teeth at what she described. She was right—the world was harsh. But not everyone was an animal. “Lucky for you, it isn’t. If it were, you’d have been launched into space right about now.”

He saw the doubt in her eyes. “You’re really not going to kill me?”

Part of him felt like a heel for scaring her, but she needed that fear. Because in the end, if it came down to her or Omari or Sway or Vik, she would lose. No questions asked. “That depends on you.”

“I definitely vote you don’t kill me.”

He would find that funnier if he weren’t so pissed off. “So what did you do to my ship?”

Alix held her hands up. Tell him nothing . . . But at this point, he knew everything. All lying would do was get her into more trouble. “Look, you took an oath and so did I. Since the day Tempest was born, I’ve been the only one who’s protected her from what my father and the other men in our crew would do to her. Right now, she’s alone and she’s in danger. Her and my mother. Swear to me on Omari’s life that you’ll help them and I’ll tell you everything.”

“You just said that you don’t trust people. What difference would my oath make?”

“You love your son. I know you do.” She blinked back the tears that swelled in her eyes. “I have no one in this world, Devyn. No one. I’m the only one I and my family can depend on. If anything happens to them because of me . . .” Her words broke off in a sob as all the weeks of abuse, humiliation and terror combined inside her.

“Alix! Don’t let them take me, please!” The sight of Tempest’s face as she reached for her was branded in her heart. Merjack’s men had torn them apart. Still, her sister’s screams had echoed and they were seared inside her now.

That memory finally succeeded in breaking her as her tears flowed.

Devyn tensed as she started crying. His first reaction was anger over being manipulated. It was something Clotilde had always defaulted to. But her grief wasn’t feigned. Her sobs came from deep inside and they wrenched at his gut.