His father lifted his chin, his Adam’s apple standing out like a fist in the front of his throat. “And one has to do something. One has to … do something when bad choices are made.”
Like being gay, Saxton finished for the male. And then it dawned on him …
It was almost as if his father was joining the effort … only because he couldn’t do anything about his own failure of a progeny.
“Wrath will be removed from the throne,” Tyhm said with a resurgence of strength. “And another who has not strayed from the race’s core values will be put in his place. It is the appropriate consequence for one who does not do things in the proper manner.”
“I had heard…” Saxton paused. “I had heard that it was a love match. Between Wrath and his queen. That he fell in love with her when he helped with her transition.”
“The deviant often couch their actions in the vocabulary of the righteous. It is a deliberate act to attempt to ingratiate themselves to us. That doesn’t mean they have behaved well or that their poor choices should be supported by the masses. Quite the contrary—he has shamed the race, and deserves all that is coming to him.”
“Do you hate me?” Saxton blurted.
His father’s eyes lifted from the books that were going to be used to pave the way to the abdication. As their stares met across the blueprint for Wrath’s destruction, Saxton was reduced to a child who simply wanted to be loved and valued by the only parent he had left.
“Yes,” his father said. “I do.”
Sola pulled the fresh jeans up to her knees and paused. Bracing herself, she eased the waistband over her thigh wound carefully.
“Not bad,” she muttered as she continued to tug them all the way onto her ass, and then button and zip them.
Little loose, but when she put on the fresh white long-sleeved shirt and the cozy black sweater she’d also been given, you’d never know. Oh, and the Nikes were the perfect size—and she even liked the black-and-red color scheme.
Going into her hospital room’s bath, she checked her hair in the mirror. Shiny and smooth, thanks to the blow-dry she’d given herself.
“You look…”
Wheeling around at the voice, she found Assail standing by the bed. His eyes burned across the distance between them, his body looming large.
“You startled me,” she said.
“My apologies.” He offered her a short bow. “I knocked several times, and when you didn’t answer, I was concerned that you had fallen.”
“That’s really … ah, kind of you.” Yeah, sweet couldn’t be associated in any way with him.
“Are you ready to go home?”
She closed her eyes. She wanted to say yes—and of course, she needed to see her grandmother. But she was afraid to, as well.
“Can you … tell?” she asked.
Assail came over to her, walking slowly, as if he knew she was a hairbreadth away from spooking. Lifting his hands, he brushed her hair back over her shoulders. Then he touched the sides of her face.
“No. She will see none of it.”
“Thank God.” Sola exhaled. “She can’t know. Do you understand?”
“Perfectly.”
Turning to face the door out into the corridor, he offered her his elbow … as if he were escorting her to a party.
And Sola took it just because she wanted to feel him against her. Know his warmth. Be close to his size and strength.
It was a different kind of hell to be facing the prospect of meeting her grandmother’s eyes.
“Do not think of it,” he said as he led her down the long hall. “You must remember that. She will see it in your face if you do. None of it happened, Marisol. None of it.”
Sola was dimly aware that the guards that had met them when they’d come to this place had slipped in behind them. But she had so many other things to worry about—and that bunch of men hadn’t pulled any of those triggers as she’d come into the facility. Hard to imagine why they’d bother on the way out.
One of them jumped in front and opened the steel door for them, and the Range Rover was right where it had been parked. Next to it, Assail’s two cousins were standing grimly—watched over by more of those incredibly dangerous-looking guys.
Assail opened the back car door for her and offered her his hand. She needed it. Humping herself up into the SUV caused her thigh to sting until her eyes watered. But as she was shut in, she managed to work the belt herself, pulling it out from her body and clipping it in place.
Sola frowned. Through the tinted glass, she watched as Assail went to each of the men, one after another, and offered them his hand. There were no words spoken, at least not that she saw, but there didn’t need to be.