TWENTY-SEVEN
Tiana sat on the concrete floor in a locked room in some prick’s compound. The men around her were the good guys of the bad guys. She was getting a headache.
“Who am I?” she repeated the guy’s question. She was ready to say “nobody,” when the door unlocked and opened. Her favorite dickhead walked in. He wore the same clothes as in her dream, and in his hand, was the cattle prod.
Breath choked in her throat. Her dream wasn’t just a dream. This man tortured the guy she loved. The anger in her jumped to an all-time high.
Sayeh leaned against the wall by the door. He wasn’t getting too far from it. Chicken shit. “Did I hear someone ask who you are, beautiful?”
That compliment felt like a dirty word coming from the D-bag. He gave her the creeps and he wasn’t even close to her.
Nobody said a word to his rhetorical question. He looked at her and smiled. “Tiana, I am your father.”
Her world crashed around her feet. No, that couldn’t be right. Her mom wasn’t dumb enough to fall for the likes of him. He was handsome, but that was completely eclipsed by her personality.
“You’re lying. Do you think this is some sick Star Wars movie and you’re Darth Vader?” she said, weakness sounding in her voice. She hated that. She straightened her back and cleared her throat. “If you’re my father, then tell me why you left?”
His happy countenance disappeared and his head dipped down. Just as quickly, he snapped his head up. “What the hell did I need a human child for? Humans are weak and worthless. Your mother was a great fuck until she got mouthy and told me she was pregnant.”
The words were reaching her ears, but her brain had gone numb, not understanding.
He continued. “But even with pathetic human genes, I was curious to see what kind of child I would have. Would you excel at sports or aspire toward politics? Would you be ugly or have the attention of any male nearby?”
“Why would you even care?” Tiana retorted.
He shrugged. “Like I said. I was curious.” His eyes roamed the men in the room. “I decided that you would be given a chance to see if you did anything that would benefit me in any way. And I kept a constant eye on you.”
“A what?” she mumbled.
“I made sure no harm came to you. My men watched while you were in school, at the park, at home.”
Again, Tiana’s world fell apart. Her nightmares made sense now. Someone had been watching her all this time. Subconsciously, she knew they were there.
“And when you went out with that damn pussy Oliver—goddam, girl what were you thinking—I thought I’d disown you. Then the prick wouldn’t go away. Even after my warnings. So, I took care him.”
Oliver was dead. She’d never forget the image of his face, torn and beaten. “You killed him?” she asked.
A smile reached his lips. “Of course. And that piss ant who broke into your house and tossed it. I don’t know what he was looking for, but I guarantee, he didn’t find it.” A chuckle escaped him. “Nobody would touch my girl.”
Oh. My. Fucking. God.
That explained everything that had happened since the break-in. Oliver’s man was the one who bled out on her kitchen floor. A black dragon taking the body away. Det. Randall would probably never find it.
And Oliver himself, another black attacked him and his man that night at the cabin. The blood on the rooftop mystery was solved.
“Now, my girl,” Sayeh said, “I’m not sure what to do with you. I sense your dragon genes, but since you’ve never shifted, you’re no good to me. I would like to make you my heir, but that’s not going to happen.”
“Then why did you take me from the cabin? You could’ve left me there and I’d never been the wiser,” she hollered.
“I don’t like you being associated with the Drachen clan. When the youngest one came to the cabin, I had to get you away before anything happened. I’d rather kill you than have you mated to one of them.”
Tiana wondered what he was talking about. Then, her chest started burning and with a quick glance she realized she had a dragon mark. A smoky dragon. The same Ker had shown her. Oh shit. She could only hope he couldn’t tell the mark had shown up on her. This was it. They were mated. Thank god.
“Since you’re here,” he said, “I’ll just put you with the other women who service the men.”
A slave used for sex? Hell—fucking—no. She crossed her arms over her chest. “What if I refuse to go?” Her defiance bolstered her courage, her mate mark reminding her she belonged to Ker and nobody else would ever be good enough for her.
He shrugged again. “Like I said, I have no use for a human child. But I won’t let my only offspring associate with the Drachen. Not in this fucking lifetime.”
“You can go to hell and rot, as far as I care!” Her dad was dead to her.
“That’s how it’s going to be, then?” he asked as if it was no big deal. “So be it.”
A blast of noise hurt her ears. An alarm that could wake the dead blared in the hallway outside the door. A smile broke out on his face. “Time to have some fun.” He slid out the door, locking it behind him.
Tiana ran to the door and kicked it. “You son of a bitch. Just try to put me in a whorehouse and see what happens to your men. I swear to you I will kill every single on that tries to touch me! Every. Single. One.”
She kicked the door again. “How do we get out of here?” she barked. “There has to be a way.” Suppressed anger overtook the shock of her father’s words. In her heart, she felt the hate for the man grow. She’d never hated someone before—Oliver was a big dislike. Nothing like what was coursing through her veins right now.
Before she had her next chance to beat on the door, someone on the other side opened it and stuck his head in. “Freck, what are you doing here?” one of the men in the cell said.
He waved them out. “Come on. We can get away with his attention on the fight.”
Tiana didn’t need to ask who “his” referred to. She filed out with the rest of men, hurrying along the hall. A few doors down, a red smear on the white paint caught her attention. Ker immediately came to mind. Was he really here? Could Sayeh actually have captured him? She didn’t want to believe it. Hand on the knob, she twisted her wrist and pushed the door open.
What she saw brought her to her knees.