I scowled, stepping closer to the monitors as I heard Engel’s voice first. He held my great-grandmother’s necklace in his hands. Tiffani must have taken it off and handed it to him.
“No, it is not the same. The clasp is different. My grandmother’s necklace had her initials carved into the clasp.”
“Oh, no!” Tiffani put her hand on her chest and leaned back. “What magical chemical cocktail is in your gloves? Whatever will you do if you can’t destroy the evidence? Now everyone will know that you drugged your own cousin with Rush, that you are manufacturing the most hated drug on Atlan and selling it like candy.”
She set down her wine and my heart began to pound. What the fuck was she doing, taunting a cold-blooded killer like that? The room in which they sat was too far away. It would take me at least ten seconds at full speed to reach her. He could kill her by then.
Her voice poked and prodded him some more, and as much as I wanted to run to her side, I had to admire her courage. She was the bravest, most beautiful mate. And she was doing it all for me. Getting Engel to admit his crimes was the only way for me to be completely and irrevocably exonerated, and for us to live out the rest of our lives in peace.
“Poor big, bad councilor man, outwitted by a stupid, fat Earth girl. How humiliating.”
Tiffani pulled a blaster and I turned to Dax, who nodded and whispered, “Don’t worry, Deek. She knows how to use it.”
“What the fuck were you thinking, giving her a blaster?” I demanded. I didn’t want a weapon anywhere near her, even if it was in her own hands.
“You’d rather have her in there with him unarmed?” Dax shrugged. “She wasn’t supposed to pull it on him. It was supposed to be a last resort.”
“Fuck.”
Engel spoke and I returned my attention to the screen. “What do you think you’re going to do with that, Tiffani?”
“I’m just the stupid Earth girl, right? What am I going to do? Shoot you.”
I watched tears slide down Tiffani’s beautiful face. She was in pain. For me.
And then she threatened to kill him.
My heart froze, stone-cold ice flooding my veins. I didn’t fucking care if she killed him, he deserved to die. But she’d just threatened a warlord, a battle-hardened warrior who’d survived more than a decade in the Hive wars.
If she was going to kill him, she better fucking do it and stop talking.
I rushed for the door but Dax and one of the guards held me back. “Not yet, Deek. He’s about to confess. Don’t take this away from her.”
“He’ll fucking kill her.” My beast growled and I grew taller, my teeth aching as they burst forward, my gums retracting to reveal the razor-sharp edges.
Engel’s smug voice caused me to turn back to the monitors. I realized I had nearly rushed from the room with the earpiece still in my ears. “Not quite what I had in mind.”
“What…?” Tiffani sounded confused. Weak. I watched her go slack, her body slipping from her control and a low rumbling growl filled the room.
“Stupid Earth girl. Did you really think you could outwit me?” He peeled the gloves off his hands and stuffed them in his pocket. “The gloves weren’t coated with an antidote for Rush, sweet cousin.”
Poison. He’d fucking poisoned my mate. Right before my eyes. And Dax’s. And the guards.
”Fuck,” I growled.
Dax hissed and the guard on my left tightened his grip. “Don’t move, Commander. We need to know what he gave her.”
Engel put her necklace back around her neck and I had to turn away, unable to bear the sight of him touching her. “The necklace really was for you, dear. And now, you will tell me where the real one is.”
“Go fuck yourself.”
Chapter Fifteen
Deek
There was my beautiful, stubborn mate. Pride filled me at her open defiance, her courage, even as I fought to let her finish this, to make sure Engel had no options, no way out. I had to honor her courage, her desire to help, but I didn’t have to like it. Then rage took over. It took all of Dax’s strength and two guards to hold me back as Engel’s voice grew more demanding.
“Where is the necklace?”
“You poisoned Deek.”
There was nothing sane in his laughter. I raised my gaze to the monitor to find my mate dangling from his huge hands, hands that were wrapped around her soft throat.
And the beast broke free.
I barreled down the hallway and into the room where Engel stood over my mate. The growl from my beast shook the walls. It had been crazed when the Rush had hit my system. I’d been enraged when the Hive had hurt my warriors. I’d even been infuriated when I’d learned from Seranda that Tiffani had left me. But this, seeing Tiffani on the floor, under the influence of another fucking drug, indefensible and weak, was when my beast erupted. As an Atlan, I had no control over it, nor did I want any. I wanted it to rip Engel limb from limb. I wanted to destroy him.