When I gave her a little shove between her shoulder blades to get her moving, Dorn waited calmly, acting as if he would allow her to waltz right past him.
When she was just out of reach, he pulled an ion pistol from inside his coat and pointed it at me. “Sophia, is it?”
Sophia froze in place, her eyes wide with terror as she looked from the blaster to me and back again. “Yes.”
“Come here. Now. Or Gunnar is a dead man.”
I saw the battle take place behind her eyes. “No, Sophia. Just run. Go.”
She bit her lip, that nervous habit I found so endearing, and stepped to place her chest directly in front of the ion pistol. “Leave Gunnar out of this, Dorn. It’s between you and me.”
Dorn grabbed her by the arm, spun her around and pressed the blaster to the side of her head. “Women are always so stupid, Sophia. This was never about you. This is about saving Viken.”
As Dorn pressed the tip of the ion pistol to Sophia’s forehead, I saw her flinch in pain, but she made no sound. Her gaze caught mine and the resignation I saw there scared me more than the pistol. She was going to do something stupid to try to save me. I could see it in her eyes, in the stiff set of her shoulders and the stubborn line of her beautiful chin.
She’d been used by men just like Dorn on Earth, and I saw the resolve in her, the rage.
And it terrified me.
I held out my hands, more to plead with my mate than with the man holding her. “Don’t do anything stupid. We can talk about this.”
Dorn laughed, the sound hollow and without mirth. “Talk, Gunnar? The VSS is through talking. The Kings need to die. They’ve disrupted centuries of honor and tradition.”
“It’s not about honor for you, Dorn. It’s about power. I’ve known your family my entire life. The old line of kings.”
Dorn interrupted, “The rightful rulers of Viken. The child Queen has no right to usurp our claim. She’s an alien child born of an alien mother.” Leaning down, he buried his nose in Sophia’s hair, breathing in her sweet scent. “Like this alien bitch here.”
Dorn shook her and pulled on her hair until she winced, crying out in pain. Rage rose like a monster within me at the strain etched on her face, at the sick enjoyment I saw on his.
Sophia was the only thing that mattered to me. In that moment I realized just how completely she had won my heart.
Without her, life was meaningless.
Sophia must live. Dorn? He would die, right here, right now, even if he took me with him.
Chapter Ten
Sophia
I was a pawn. Dorn, the fucker, wanted me dead because I’d accidentally seen too much. I was the loose thread that was ruining his carefully hidden life as a member of the VSS. This entire fucked-up situation was just like what happened back home with the Corellis. They’d given me no choice but to smuggle for them. I knew their faces, knew their crimes—my crimes—and could put them all away.
To keep me from identifying them, I’d been the one turned in to the FBI, the one who’d been caught red-handed, found guilty and sentenced to prison. Not them. It didn’t matter that I’d been innocent of everything but wanting to save my mother’s life. Once I’d taken the money for my mother’s medical treatment, they’d owned me. Used me. And when my mother was gone, they’d held my own life, my freedom, the lives of my cousins over my head. I’d taken the money to save my mother, not realizing that I’d sold my soul in the process.
And so I had done whatever they wanted me to do. Smuggle. Lie. Again and again. Until I was caught. Then I was tossed away, convicted.
I realized, with Dorn’s space gun at my head, that if I’d stayed on Earth, I’d most likely be dead. Even in jail, my knowledge would have been a liability to the Corellis. Surely they had someone on the inside who would have been able to kill me. To eliminate the threat.
Just as Dorn was doing now. Once I was dead, and Gunnar with me, Dorn was a free man.
I could feel the tension vibrating from Dorn’s body. The energy coming from him made me think of a wild animal, hurt and cornered. Desperate. Willing to gnaw off its own foot to escape the trap.
“Say goodbye,” he hissed.
I took one last look at Gunnar, his face handsome, even etched with anger and fear. He was perfect, everything I wanted in a mate. In one of my mates. I held his gaze as I felt the pistol pressed into my forehead, resolved to what I must do. I had to save him at any cost. If I could buy Gunnar a few seconds, that would be all he needed to reach Dorn, to stop him.
“Gunnar,” I said, my voice shaky. “I…I love you.”
Dorn laughed. “So perfect.”