Lie to Me (32 page)

––––––––

“M
om. Dad,” Stone said when his parents came into view on the hologram in the center of the table. He’d gotten little sleep last night after discovering the truth, but he’d enjoyed cuddling with his bride as she slept. All warm and relaxed in his embrace, her breathing even, trusting him to protect her while defenseless. She smelled like woman, and coconut.
My sunshine, the center of my universe
. He would protect her even from his family.

His mom, Lucy, smiled, but his dad, Peter took over the conversation like always. “Son, I gave Katarina your location, I don’t understand why she returned so quickly.”

“You overstepped your boundaries again, father.” He glanced at his wife hidden in the shadows near the window. His parent had a nasty habit of overstepping his position. Stone took responsibility for not putting a halt to it sooner. He just hadn’t realized how long it’d been going on. “If I’d wanted her here I’d have sent for her.”

“Stone—”

“Silence.” His dad went mute, face souring, while his mother shot Peter a cautious glance. “Her abrupt arrival caused a predicament. This wasn’t a vacation, Dad, but a retrieval mission. Katarina nearly ruined it. This is the
last time
you will interfere with
my
business.”

“You make it sound as if I’m always interfering.”

He did. It’d been a damn nuisance for the last three years, but Stone had tolerated it because Peter was his parent, and he respected his father. But no longer, he’d discovered the truth and the extent his parent would go to impose
his
will over Stone. “Should I remind you of Geneva? Or Birmingham? What about with Miss Dewyer? How you went behind my back to keep the X-gene clinics open when I closed them? Our newly implemented fair-worker practices. Your meddling with the public schools?” Those were just the ones off the top of his head and the ones he knew about. What else had his dad sabotaged that Stone had yet to discover?

“What is this about, Stone? A father cannot help his son when he’s making a mistake?” Awesome. Now his parent would take the pious road and get affronted by having his ‘good intentions’ pointed out. Peter was not the injured party here. Kella was.

“All of them are successful. Hardly mistakes.” How he managed to sound calm while he seethed inside was a mystery to him. Stone could’ve forgiven most anything, but injury to Kella...never. “They would’ve been successful sooner had you not
interfered
.”

Peter’s cheeks reddened. “I hate to tell you this, son, but your shady decisions as Regent have lost you respect among your peers. They laugh at you behind your back.”

“I don’t give a rat’s ass what other Regents think of me. I care about the people,
my
people, and you should’ve too. You’re a poor leader. Wicked and corrupt like so many of the others in charge. All you care about is lining your pockets and belittling those beneath you.” The things Kella had divulged, along with what Regent Jones had said of his parent, opened Stone’s eyes to the man behind the charming mask. He’d believed Kella’s allegations, but had only believed Jones once he discovered his father’s misdeeds against her. His gut churned, knowing they’d both been right.

Didn’t sociopaths and serial killers hide their dark side beneath a mask of charisma, only illuminating the horror beneath the veneer to their victims?

“I see very clearly the man you are.” Stone held up his hand when his dad would’ve spoken. “What’s your reasoning for interfering with Kella?”

A reaction from his mother this time. Her eyes widened, and a flash of alarm touched her blue gaze. “I’m sorry, Stone.” She brushed tears from her eyes. “I’ve lived with my guilt since we discovered her body.”

Good to know she suffered no guilt before she thought Kella died. That indicated she stood behind her conviction to see his wife free.

“Ease your mind, Mother, I’m not talking about your guilt.” Maybe he should be mad at her, but his anger gave way to accepting his mother’s intentions had been well intentioned. His dad couldn’t say the same.

“What’d you do?” Peter glared at Lucy.

“Her sin isn’t on trial, Dad, yours is.”

“Stone, get to the point. These games—”

“Don’t interrupt me again,” Stone put fire in his voice, and it succeeded in cutting off his parent. “Remember telling Kella she was a slut?”

His dad clamped his lips together and folded his arms over his chest.

“Remember marking her with our family sigil on her neck of all places? Good God, you know how much that hurt! I warned you long ago to
never
touch her again, and you defied me.” He glanced at Kella, her eyes were wide, a touch of surprise on her lovely features. A mental grin curled in his mind. She obviously hadn’t expected him to confront his parent. If defending her didn’t earn him brownie points, nothing would. “You told her I’d put my seed in her, have a few babies, and find a real wife more suited to my station. That I was glad she was an X-gene so I wouldn’t lose respect among our peers when I fucked her. You’re a fucking asshole, Dad, and a goddamn liar too.”

“Why would you say that, Peter?” His mom turned her own glare on his father, but his dad’s gaze remained mutinous. “You knew his intentions. The deal he’d drafted, the one he proposed to offer to her. He protected her from pedophiles like you and your friends because he loved her.”

He looked Kella straight in the eyes. “I still love her, Mom.”

Kella glanced away and twisted her fingers in her lap.

“Please. You two act like I’m a monster. Because of Stone, I spared her from being fucked by other Regents. Many of them pass the X-genes around before they sell them. He was a boy, a teenage boy with hormones running wild. That was not love, but lust. I saw the signs, you chasing after her. You wanted ass and nothing more. Once you got your dick in her a few times, you’d have lost interest. I’ve been there.” Peter scoffed. “Teen boys will be teen boys. This is ridiculous. Men aren’t weak-willed and don’t fall victim to love like women. You did this, Lucy. You created a fanciful
girl
out of my son.”

Stone ignored the slur because a man didn’t have to be cruel to prove his strength. Sometimes strength was better shown in the mercy one offered. And a man should love. Love gave him strength, opened his eyes to the realities around him, and allowed him to create a better world because of those he loved.

He cut off his parent before his dad could get started laying the blame at everyone’s feet but his own. “You’ve nothing to say to the allegations, Dad?”

“They’re lies. Horrendous falsehoods that defame my good name. I demand the punishment of the individual who has wronged me.” What of his dad’s wrongs? Should they be punished? “I demand to know who made these dishonest claims?”

“Come, sunshine.” Stone crooked his finger at Kella, and she rose from her seat. She smoothed her hands along her thighs in a nervous gesture. To him she looked beautiful. The red color of her shirt accentuated her dark features, giving her an exotic look, and the black, leather pants clung to the swell of her hips. Like most men, he loved lingerie and naked women, but he couldn’t imagine her more erotic than she was in this moment.

When she stepped into view of the monitor, his mother gave a loud gasp, and burst into tears, her sobs causing Stone’s man behind her to hand over a box of tissue. His father paled.

“Are neither of you going to welcome your daughter-in-law back from the dead?” Stone watched their reactions with a critical eye. Lucy’s shoulders shook, her crying loud. He thought her tears were out of relief. His dad’s expression became grimmer, and maybe just a tad desperate.

“She’s a fraud. I buried Kella’s body myself. The DNA proved it was her.”

“Interesting since I also verified her DNA, and Kella is very much alive. Right here at my side.” He curled his arm around her waist and drew her down to sit on his knee. “And since only you, Kella, and the tattooist knew of the tattoo you forced on her, it’s further proof she is my wife.” He fiddled with Kella’s hair, her presence diminishing his temper. “I have to wonder who you buried, and must assume you
knew
it wasn’t Kella.”

“Kella, dear,” his mother touched the screen with her fingers. She sniffled, but went on, “I cannot tell you how glad I am that you’re alive. I’m sorry, Stone. I knew you loved her, but I knew Peter wouldn’t allow you to dedicate your life solely to her. He would’ve come between you.”

“Shut up, Lucy, or I’ll shut you up.”

“Lay a hand on her, Father, and my soldier behind you will shut
you
up.” They stared at one another, until his dad huffed and lowered his eyes. “Mother, I know your intentions were for the best. Next time, you come to me first.”

“I promise. If I had known she was alive, Stone, I would’ve told you. You were so distraught, and I was to blame. What type of mother hurts her child like that?” Lucy choked off, sobbing into the tissue.

“Keep your slut”—Kella stiffened at Peter’s cruel words—“enjoy her, do things to her you wouldn’t do to Katarina. That’s what X-genes are for.”

“Call Kella a slut or disrespect her again in any way, and I’ll show you the wrathful
girl
I am.”

“It’s okay, Stone. I’ve been called worse.” Kella stroked his neck, her touch calming him like nothing else ever had.

It wasn’t okay, but he picked the conversation back up. “My engagement to Katarina is over.”

“You have a valid contract with her,” Peter argued. “You cannot renege on it, to do so would smear our good name.”

There was that ‘good name’ reference again. It proved his dad had no idea he’d already tainted their ‘good name’ with his atrocities. “The contract was voided the moment Kella was resurrected.”

“Must I spell out the way the world works, Stone? I wish your mother had done her job and gifted me with a second son, one a little more competent.” By ‘competent’ Stone assumed his father meant more manageable. His father’s disgust was evident in the curl of his upper lip. “Her womb couldn’t even get that right. Useless whore.”

“While we’re revealing our skeletons, Peter, you should know I had the local herbalist sterilize me so you wouldn’t touch me with your vile hands.” His mother’s gumption impressed Stone. “You made me nauseous, and I hated the way I felt every time you forced me to your will. The only good thing that ever came from our union was Stone.”

“You bitch. I should execute you for treason.”

That wouldn’t happen, and Peter knew Stone would never allow the punishment. “I’m delighted to discover we both disappointed you.”

“Don’t get cute, son.”

“Don’t forget your place, Dad.”

Peter flinched as if Stone struck him. His parent leaned forward as if he would disclose the biggest secret ever revealed. “This may come as a shock to you, but you can have your cake and eat it too. All Regents that have Xenos, almost all of them have separate wives befitting of their status. My sweet bride, Tegan, unfortunately passed while you were too young to remember how much she loved you, treated you like her own.”

Stone recalled her. She’d pinched him every chance presented to her.

“Keep Kella as your sole wife, and you’ll find yourself on the wrong end of the hierarchy. The other Regents won’t tolerate it, they demand a certain level of commitment to the position, and none of them will condone a dreg socializing with their pious wives. I’ve seen Regents disappear over time, their deaths covered up by the Regent who evicted them. Don’t be a pussy and lose my legacy—our legacy—over a goddamn dreg.”

Stone smiled.

Whatever his dad interpreted in his smile caused him to sit back in an abrupt move. “What are your plans, boy?”

“You’re shortsighted, like many of the other Regents. I won’t explain to you the error of your ways or why it’s time Regents like you are culled from the population. Your narcissism won’t allow you to understand.” His mother hid a grin behind her fingers. “Soon, Dad, you and all your like-minded Regents will have a taste of how big a pussy I am. We’ll talk further then.” He nodded at his man in the room. “George, see that my dad is situated comfortably in the tower. No one but you is to attend him.”

As George rapped on the door to alert more men to aid him, his dad squawked about the disrespect shown his rank. “Stone, you’re going too far. Tell them to stand down now and all is forgiven.”

“That’s where you’re wrong.” He raked his fingers through Kella’s hair. The shock on her face eliciting a grin from him because he’d managed to surprise her once again by defending her. When would she learn he always had her back? “I don’t forgive you. I can’t. Maybe I’m more like you than I prefer to admit, because my memory is long and my grudges even longer.”

“Son, she’s a dreg. You’d pick a dreg over your father?”

“Aren’t I proving that I
am
? Mother, I have a teleport waiting for you if you choose to join Judy, Kella, and I. Dad, because I can’t trust you not to warn your fellow Regents, and because I just simply no longer trust a man that would harm a defenseless girl who was under your protection”—not just the night of Kella’s flight lingered in his mind, but the beating she’d received from his parent a year before that for the rape of her mother—“I sentence you to imprisonment, to await a trial of your peers. Just so we’re clear, those peers will also consist of dregs, who you so evidently scorn for reasons unknown to me.”

A scuffle between his men and his dad ensued, but George popped Peter with a tranq-dart, and he went down.

The mighty
will
fall
. A thought he had every intention of making become prophetic.

Stone disconnected the call. Kella sat there staring at the blank screen. One of her palms rested flat on her thigh, the other remained curled around the back of his neck.

“I’m sorry my father is an asshole and I didn’t see it before.”

Her emerald eyes were clouded when they turned to him. “I don’t know what to say. I didn’t expect
that
. He’s your dad, don’t do something you’ll regret.”