The elevator opened onto an empty hallway that wasn’t even on the navigational screen. Torment led the way and Pierce stepped aside with a gesture for them to follow the interrogator. On edge, Venom clasped Dizzy’s hand and scanned the hallway for any threats. With Pierce trailing them, they followed Torment to one of the doors lining the opposite side of the corridor.
Torment pushed open the door and entered the brightly lit interrogation room. At the sight of the table and two chairs, Dizzy stopped walking. Venom hated to force her into the stark space but it had to be done. The sooner they got this over with the better. He pulled her across the threshold and walked her to the nearest chair.
“You can wait outside, Venom.” Torment slapped a stack of folders onto the table.
“Like hell,” Venom snapped. He grabbed the chair, pulled it out and sat. Winding his arm around Dizzy’s waist, he dragged her down onto his lap. “Ask your damn questions so I can get my wife out of here.”
Pierce looked awfully amused as he placed Dizzy’s suitcase next to the table and took the seat across from them. “Direct and to the point as always, Ven.”
“Let’s just get this over with, Pierce.” Venom let the irritation he was feeling at being blindsided by these two fill his voice.
“Fair enough.” Pierce picked up one of the folders and opened it up in front of him. He lifted his gaze and smiled at Dizzy. “Let’s talk about the Grab.”
“Okay,” she said uncertainly. “What about it?”
“This is the original list of lottery numbers pulled for the Grab.” Pierce whipped out a sheet of paper from the files he’d likely obtained from a spy within The City’s government. “Your number isn’t on it.” He retrieved a second sheet. “Yet curiously it’s on this revised list that was posted as the official lottery results.”
Shock tore through him. He shifted her on his lap so he could see her face better. “Dizzy, is that true? You weren’t selected for the Grab?”
She swallowed hard. “Not exactly.”
“She bought her way onto the list. Didn’t you?” Pierce already knew that answer.
Didn’t she realize that she’d broken one of the treaty laws? Didn’t she understand how suspicious it looked for a woman to buy her way onto a list that would allow her to gain access to the Valiant and possibly a high-ranking member of the military?
Pierce slid another sheet of paper across the table. “We know that you sold your number to this council member. I need to know how you did it and why.” He peered intently at Dizzy. “From all accounts, you had a rather nice life down there. You were living independently and enjoying a growing profile as a designer. Why does a young woman with so much success and prosperity ahead of her throw her name into the ring to be Grabbed?”
Venom wanted to hear her answer. What had she said back in the forest? I don’t have anywhere else to go. Why would she tell him something so obviously untrue?
She fidgeted as a blush of embarrassment stained her neck and face. “I didn’t sell my number. My dad did. He owes a lot of money to a loan shark. He needed the money or else Fat Pete was going to collect me as collateral.”
Venom’s gut soured. He felt the shame radiating from her and tried reconcile all the details she’d let slip about her parents last night, especially the ones about her father, with the picture that Pierce was painting. Dizzy had described her dad as loving and kind but the man had risked losing her to a loan shark.
“This man?” Pierce opened another file and retrieved a photo of a morbidly obese man in his late fifties.
She nodded. “They call him Fat Pete. He controls all of the sharking action in Low Town.”
“Was your father being threatened by this man?”
“Well, yeah, I mean he is a criminal.”
“Your father or the loan shark?” Pierce turned the question around so quickly.
She glared at him. “My dad is a black market dealer. Most of the cargo he moves is medically related. I’d hardly call providing antibiotics criminal.”
“I suppose that depends on which side of the law you’re standing,” Pierce replied.
To keep Dizzy from lashing out at Pierce and causing herself trouble, Venom gently stroked her arm. He understood how difficult this was for her but she couldn’t understand how much worse it could get if she refused to cooperate.
“Why does your father owe Fat Pete money?”
Picking at nonexistent lint on her dress, Dizzy shrugged. “He didn’t tell me and I didn’t ask. My dad has separated that side of his life from mine for years. I think it was over lost cargo or maybe shipping arrangements that fell through.”
Pierce stared at her for a few unnervingly long seconds. Was he trying to read her? Venom wondered what they thought she knew.
“Tell me how your father exchanged your lottery number.”
“I don’t know how he did it. I know how other people have done it.”
“And how is that?”
“It’s not that hard. There’s always some rich girl with a pulled number who wants out of the Grab and a family with a daughter who has a clean number that needs the money. If you know someone who knows someone—”
“Like maybe a fixer by the name of Dankirk?” Pierce narrowed his eyes.
Dizzy exhaled with frustration. “You seem to know the answers to all these questions already. Why are you even wasting your time by asking me?”
Pierce sat back and looked utterly relaxed. “I’m just trying to make sure I have all the ends tied up before I make a recommendation about your future on this ship.”
Venom’s back went ramrod straight. “Are you threatening to take away my mate?”
“Whoa.” Pierce held up his hands at the snarled question. “Calm down, Venom. There’s no need for you to come across this table, okay?”
Dizzy found the courage to ask, “Are you going to arrest me?”
“Do we need to?” Pierce countered.
“No.” She pushed back against Venom’s chest, as if desperate to retreat from this uncomfortable situation. “I didn’t break any laws.”
“No, but your father did and you failed to report them. We’re not partial to lawbreakers up here. However,” Pierce drew out the word, “we’re willing to take into consideration that you were under an extreme amount of emotional duress. We don’t believe that you’re a terrorist sympathizer trying to gain access to the ship or her crew.”
“A terrorist? Are you insane?” Dizzy’s angry outburst made Pierce’s eyebrows rise. She grabbed the front of the white bride’s collar and dragged it down. “Do you see what those monsters did to me? They killed my mother. Do you really think I would ever work with slime like that?”
Pierce stared at the scars on Dizzy’s neck. “No, I don’t think you would knowingly work with them. Our intelligence tells us that Fat Pete has ties with the violent Sixer street gang. It’s very likely they’re using him to launder money for the Splinter terrorist cell on Calyx. Your father just paid him a very large sum of money…”
She put her hand to her mouth as if she might be sick. Recognizing that this might be a trick to get her to implicate herself, Venom covered her hand with his own. “Don’t say another word, Dizzy.”
“We’re not after her.” Torment finally deigned to speak. “You don’t need to worry.”
“You seem to forget that I was there in that warehouse when Menace’s woman took three bullets to the stomach. I watched her bleed out on that filthy floor and nearly lose her life. You’ll have to excuse me if I don’t believe a damn thing you say, Torment.”
“Believe this.” Pierce retrieved a small communications device from his pocket and showed it to Venom. “We briefed Terror when Dizzy’s background check flagged her as a possible risk. He secured a pardon from our Shadow superiors and the War Council. It’s been signed by Vicious and Orion so you can be assured it’s legit.”
Venom lowered his hand from Dizzy’s mouth but gave her a look to stay silent until he’d read the legal document offered to him. The sight of Vicious and Orion’s signatures calmed him. After the mess with Naya neither the general nor admiral would ever allow another woman to be harmed or railroaded on their watch.
“What are the terms of this deal?”
“The usual,” Torment replied. “She cooperates fully and convinces me that she’s told the whole truth. When we’re done here we release her into your custody and won’t bother her again unless we have follow-up questions.”
It was the follow-up questions that had Venom concerned. How often would they want to pull her in for questioning? Would they come for her when he was on duty?
Pierce would make sure he was notified but Torment? No, he shared Terror’s views on their covert work. There was no cost too high to safeguard the Harcos nation.
Dizzy shifted nervously. “What do you mean by releasing me into Venom’s custody? That makes it sound like I’m his prisoner.”
Torment made an amused noise. “For all intents and purposes, you brides are prisoners of the men who catch you. They just call you their mates to soften the shock a bit.”