Successors (12 page)

His hands were softer than she had expected, but they were warm. He kneaded his fingers into the pads on her foot skillfully. She rested her head back, and enjoyed the massage. She jumped when his started to use his knuckles, but it wasn't painful, just intense.

“Do you want to talk about it?” he asked without looking back at her.

“Not really.” She took in a deep breath. “I’ve never killed anyone before.”

“You still haven’t. You just dispatched a nuisance rodent.”

“That doesn't help, I don't even like using mouse traps. Besides, I don’t think Danato will see it that way.” She felt his hands move up to her ankle, but she could hardly object since it felt so good.

“Don't worry about Danato. I can handle him.” She chuckled. “What?”

“You really aren't afraid of him are you?” He didn't answer. “Are you happy here?” He shrugged and touched his cheek. He turned to look at her.

“I suppose that would make me weak in your eyes.”

She blinked at him. “No, of course not. Happy is whatever you need and want all rolled up into a ball. This is definitely not something that either one of us could have planned for, but maybe for you it's okay?”

“But not for you?” His hands moved up her leg, grazing her calf gently, unmistakably sensually. “Maybe someday you'll change your mind about this place.”

Cori stared into his begging eyes. His veiled question was more about him than the prison. A question she thought she had already answered. He was a sweet young man, and someday his cute face would be handsome, but until then she could only see a boy. “This place is interesting and I'd be lying if I said that it wasn't a little alluring, but I don't think I could ever call it home. Maybe if there weren't so many bad memories connected to it.”

“It seems like such a waste. Throwing away what might a happy life, just because the parts leading up to it sucked.”

“Yeah, I suppose your right. Maybe I just need a little more time to get used to everything and everyone.” She gave him a small smile. She knew she shouldn't encourage something she couldn't deliver on, but his logic was sound. She might not have hated the prison and Danato so much if she hadn't been through the ringer with Yvette prior to her arrival. Perhaps her camaraderie with Ethan could bloom into more if she didn't have the memory of lascivious men in her rear view mirror. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case. “Ethan, I'm not sure if—” Cori started to dismantle the hope that she had just created, but Ethan interrupted her.      

“Are you getting hungry? I should start supper.” Before she could continue, he stood and moved into the kitchen.

“Hey, what about the other foot?”

He looked over at her from behind the island. A small mischievous smile crept onto his face. “Rain check. It's not like we're going anywhere.”

She nodded. “Not yet anyway,” she mumbled.

Ethan started to prepare dinner and a half hour later, they sat down to an early meal. In an effort to change up his limited menu of grilled cheese, he made Monte Cristos. Cori hadn’t really been hungry, but after sitting by the fire and smelling the food being prepared, she was more than ready when he finally called her over.

She scarfed down half her sandwich before he was finished pouring the milk. He smiled at her from across the table. “Good, I take it?”

“Sorry,” she said over a stuffed mouth.

“Don’t apologize. I’m shit in the kitchen, if you don’t get food poisoning it’s a good day.”

She swallowed down her mouthful with a sip of her milk. “I’m sorry I screwed up your day.”

“You didn’t.” He looked to his still untouched sandwich. “I kind of missed you.” He chuckled. “That sounds stupid, but everyone here is supposed to be here, ya know?” He looked up at her. “Not like us, right?”

“Right.” She held his gaze for a moment, not sure what else to say. He was so genuinely sweet. She couldn’t understand how someone who claimed to have such a hard life could be so gentle. “How's the studying going?”

“I'm about ready to pitch those damn files into the hearth, but it is definitely interesting stuff.”

“Interesting or scary as hell.”

He shrugged and took a bite of his sandwich. “You have to admit.” He spoke over his food. “This place is pretty damn awesome.”

Cori shook her head. “Not for me. I'm getting my introduction to this place from the ass end. And I do mean ass. I've never seen so much poop in my life.”

Ethan laughed heartily and she couldn't help joining in. It was the first time she had laughed in a long time. As their chuckles died down, they were left smiling across the table at each other. Ethan reached across the polished wood and touched her hand. “Missy, I know that you—”

Danato’s abrupt entrance shattered the moment. Ethan pulled back his hand and straightened in his chair. Cori conversely shrank into hers.

Danato hung his coat and stomped past the table. “In my office, now,” he barked without looking back at her. Down the hall, the office door slammed and she felt every muscle in her body contract, begging her to ball into a fetal position.

“I hate him so much,” she whispered, putting down her sandwich. Food in general was off the menu for the evening.

Ethan pushed out his chair. “I’ll go talk to him.”

“He’s just going to yell at you too.”

“Good.” He stood and wiped his mouth with a napkin despite the fact that he hadn’t even taken a bite. “Maybe his voice will go hoarse and he won’t have anything left for you.” He winked and walked away.

Watching him head to the office, she wondered how many times he had faced men like Danato. How many had blustered and blew their authority in his face? Yet, he was still willing to endure the wrath that was meant for her.

After she heard the office door open and shut, she moved to the stairs so she could hear their conversation. The walls were well insulated, but she assumed Danato’s volume wouldn’t be muffled by it.

“What the hell are you doing? You know I wanted to talk to her.” Just as she suspected, Danato’s voice was clear.

“I’m not letting you talk to her until you calm down.” Ethan’s voice was harder to hear, but since he was just inside the door, she got the gist of everything.

“This has nothing to do with you.”

“I am the only rational person in this. You are angry—”

“You’re damn right I’m angry!”

“—and
she
is terrified.” Ethan paused. He must have gotten some reaction to that statement. “She feels guilty about what she’s done. She knows she screwed up. She just doesn’t want to get fed to the lions on top of all that.”

“I’m not going to pretend it didn’t happen. She had no business near that tank.”

“Her ring was in the tank. The merman was chameleoned on the bottom. He baited her. She unfortunately fell for it.”

“She should have come to me!”

“Yes, because you are such an understanding man. I’m sure you wouldn’t have yelled at her for misplacing her ring in the first place.”

She heard a dull thump. “This isn’t a damn zoo! I have obligations to this prison. My men are at risk every time she screws up. I have to make her understand.”

“I get that, but you also have obligations to this household.”

There was another pause. “What are you talking about?”

“We aren’t your pets, Danato.” Cori heard the first hint of anger seep into Ethan’s words. “You didn’t stick us in cells in that prison. You put us in your home. We sleep under the same roof. We eat at the same table. You ended to make us a part of this place. If you want this to work, you have to decide between being our master or our mentor. You can’t crush someone with your boot heel and still expect them to look up to you afterward.”

There was a long silence.

“Send her in.”

“I promised her I wouldn’t let you yell at her.”

“I…” his voice bellowed, but he lowered it. “…will try.”

Ethan slipped out of the office and came down the hall. He saw her on the stairs and stopped at the base. He put one foot on the second step and leaned on the railing. “Time to take a bullet.”

She nodded and scooted off the landing to a standing position. She clunked down the stairs like a stalling child. She stopped across from him. She wanted to say something, something to note his gallantry. “I missed you too.”

A smile crept onto his face along with a little blush in his cheeks.

Cori rounded the stairs and entered the lion’s den. Danato sat at his desk looking through logbooks and papers with thick-rimmed glasses on the tip of his nose. She sat down in one of the chairs. “Close the door,” he grunted. She stood and closed the door she had intentionally left open. “Sit down,” he said before she had a chance to do so again.

He fumbled with his paperwork. He wouldn’t meet her gaze. She got the distinct impression this was the only way he could keep his temper in check. “I had to make a decision today; a hard decision and technically one against the rules of the prison. Ask me what decision I made.”

“What decision—”

“I made the decision to kill the mate of the merman you killed. Ask me why I did that.”

“Why—”

“Because that mermaid would have stopped at nothing to avenge her mate’s death. You wouldn’t be able to step foot on that floor and possibly the prison without risking your life. I executed one of our prisoners to protect you.”

His eyes flashed to her, and for a moment his hands stopped moving. “I had to protect you because you killed her mate.” He looked away and continued to rearrange his papers. “You killed her mate because he attacked you. He attacked you because you allowed yourself to get too close to the tank.” His voice started to rise and he clamped his hands together to keep them still. His knuckles turned white from the pressure. “You got too close to the tank because you wanted to get your piece of crap metal ring back!”

She cried, hearing the story from his perspective. There was nothing to say to defend herself. She was impulsive, reckless, and selfish.

“Let me see it,” he said.

She looked up at him, not sure what he wanted.

“The ring. Let me see it.”

She removed it from her thumb and handed it to him. He examined it for only a second before bending it flat between his large fingers and tossing it in the trash.

“There, now you have nothing to lose, nothing to go after, and nothing to risk your life for.”

Her tears instantly stopped. Her body no longer felt the tight knot of guilt, and she was no longer concerned with his opinion of her. She met his gaze across the desk and his controlled anger shifted for a moment into confusion. He must have seen the change in her face. “Get out of here,” he ordered.

She stood and opened the door.

“Why was it so important to get back?” Danato asked before she could close the door.

“It was my only belonging left from my life before sex slavery and captivity.” She glanced at the trashcan. “Now, thanks to you, I have
nothing
.” She slammed the door shut and went straight to bed.

22

Cori trudged into the main prison, no less optimistic about her life in servitude as the day before. She wanted to find the silver lining in this place that Ethan did, but she just couldn’t imagine spending the rest of her life in this unwelcoming place. The repetitive work was annoying, to say the least, but that wasn’t what made her hate it so much.

She hated being alone.

Ethan was the only one she had anything in common with—and even that was limited to mutual forced captivity. He was a good guy; sweet and brave. She was glad that she had him as a sounding board to keep her sane. Unfortunately, she wasn’t sure she wanted to get too attached to him, and she especially didn’t want him to get attached to her.

Danato, on the other hand, was just a blustering, overbearing thug who pretended to be sincere in his concern for her, all the while taking every opportunity to intimidate her into doing his bidding. She wasn’t sure how someone as kind-natured as Ethan could find camaraderie with such a man. She was apparently too weak-willed to tolerate him, or not weak-willed enough. The jury was still out on that evaluation.

Belus was the only other person she had interacted with in the facility, and he had thus far given her no impression whatsoever. If she had to gauge his personality from her brief encounters with him, she would assume that he disliked her. He all but avoided speaking to her, and even pointedly refused to look at her when she ventured to speak to him.

There were a number of reasons to be unhappy with her current situation, but the one that stuck out strongly in her mind was that she didn’t like anyone. She was being forced to work in a job that she hated, under the scrutiny of an employer she hated and coworkers that hated her. And to top the cake, she could never go home, and she didn’t have anyone to complain about it to.

After collecting her supply cart, Cori rolled it into the foyer and jammed her finger into the elevator call button. She heard Danato and Belus coming down the hall from his office. As their conversation drifted closer to her, she quietly begged the slow contraption to arrive promptly. To her surprise, it did.