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She gave me a slow smile once the door closed. “Is he dead?”
“Who?”
“Your mate. The one I fooled.”
“No, he’s not dead. He’s not my mate, either.”
“He loves you. You love him.” It was true, but not in the way I assumed she meant.
“What makes you say that?”
She laughed. “It was obvious.”
“Why did you kiss me?”
Her eyelids lowered. “You are attractive.”
“And you’re so crappy an assassin that you stopped to grab some nookie before killing the target?”
“You are not my target.”
“James was?”
“No. He was . . . a
“Why?”
“He was pawing you. And you enjoyed it.” Her eyes flashed. “You are a woman of power, yet you let them touch you. You show off your body for them.” And the trash guys, but who was keeping score?
“We’d call you Amazons here. What do you call yourselves?”
“You ca
“Yeah, we hear that a lot. Apparently double suns make you strong, speedy, and fast talkers. Pity none of you ever want to become an auctioneer or something equally benign. You’re all really a
“Radio waves carry. Even through the net.” Her eyes flashed again.
“No one on this planet put that net up. We have one around us, too.”
“The ones who put it up are coming here. To crown a new king. And he will die before the crown reaches his head.”
Great, they were after my mate, my real one. “No one here wants that crown.”
“Liar. All men crave power.”
“Sure, but there are different ways to get it. Besides, you’re power-mad, too. So, what do you call yourselves that we can understand?”
“The Free.”
“Hilarious. Since you’re the least free people out there.”
“Yes, we do understand the irony. We will be freed from the tyra
“You realize that most of the people you’re going to exact your revenge against are i
“No man is i
“Oh, for God’s sake. How do you all reproduce without men?” She gave me another slow smile. “Come here and I will show you.”
“Wow, you’re so smooth. I don’t want to have sex with you. You’re not my type.”
“Because I’m a woman?”
“Because you kiss like crap. I mean, I realize it was the start of a girl fight, but jeez, you sucked, and not in a good way.”
“I can do things no man can or will.”
“Wow, you all buying that on your planet? Sure, there are plenty of men who don’t have a full range of moves. Mine doesn’t happen to be one of them. Plus, if that kiss was your opening salvo, you just cured any bi-curiosity I might have had. Gag me, okay? I’m go
“To destroy the royal family’s hopes of succession.” She looked out the door. “I see them. Know they will die.”
“Everybody dies. But I’m not going to let you kill them.”
“Why not?”
“Because I don’t like your style.”
She shifted, and Reader was staring at me. “You would prefer his style?”
“Oh, yeah, totally. Of course, he’s in love with someone else. Another man, to be exact. He’s one of my best friends, not my lover.”
“Men and women ca
“Well, sure, not all the time. Like, two of the guys outside the door are friends of mine, but between you, me, and the straps, they’d both do me in a New York Minute if they could. Of course, they won’t because they know I’m not in love with them, and, unlike you, they don’t force themselves on women who aren’t willing.” Of course, Christopher sort of had, but I hadn’t been all that unwilling.
Train of thought change time—I knew Martini was focusing his full empathic skills on me right now. “But James is my friend, only. And unless he stops being gay, which seems unlikely, he’ll only be my friend. Which is too bad, really, especially since I’m damned sure he kisses better than you.”
She glared at me. “And the other three?”
“Well, the totally hot black guy is my friend’s boyfriend. Be glad I’m the one in here, not him. It’s a toss-up between which one of us hates you more.”
“So, your lover is still alive?”
“If you mean the guy you’re pretending to be right now, yeah. He’s still alive, no thanks to you.”
She laughed. “He will be nothing. I smashed his brain. On purpose.”
I decided Chuckie hadn’t tortured her enough. “Pity for you. Because he’s going to be fine.”
“Impossible.” She shifted back to herself.
“Nope, quite possible. He’s going to be fine. Without hair for a little while, but he’s so damn good looking that it won’t matter. Oh, and yeah, I can see why you like shifting into him; he’s beyond hotter looking than you.”
“And the others?”
“One of them’s a new recruit and the guy who saved my friend’s life. And the other one actually is my mate. See if you can guess who’s who. I gave you the easy one.” The one she already knew.
I knew she was fully aware that Reader wasn’t my man—she wouldn’t have used Gower’s image to lure him if she hadn’t been. She hadn’t made a mistake attacking Reader so much as a choice to up the body count. Attacking him had given her away and ended in her capture, but she didn’t seem worried, more like she was playing a game. And that meant I had to figure out what game it was and what she thought she was achieving before she got a chance to hurt anybody else. Specifically Martini, because I wasn’t buying that she didn’t know which one he was any more than I was buying her pickup lines.
“We will kill them all. That way, there is no confusion.”
“Who’s ‘we’? I’m supposed to believe there’s more of you whacked out bitches on my planet?” I knew there was at least one other, but I was hoping we’d catch a break.
“My mate is here. She will ensure my freedom and the death of your beloved men,” she spat the word, “and your enslavement.”
“Oh, it’s always the enslavement with you people. Never the playing nicely with others. And I’m supposed to believe there are only two of you here? What a lame-ass invasion. Two insane Amazons against an entire planet? No wonder you all were locked onto your home world—who’d want to let the lot of you out?”
“We are all that will be needed.”
There was something in the way she said it. Or rather, in the way her eyes didn’t meet mine. Wow, no one from their entire solar system could lie. Amazing. “You’re not actually emissaries from your government, are you?”
She looked at me and her eyes were wide. “What do you mean?”
“What’s your name?”
“Why?”
“I figure I’d rather call you by your name than Whacked Out Psycho Space Bitch, which is what I’m leaning toward. Oh, and, yeah, yeah, yeah, I’m sure I can’t pronounce your freaking name in my language. You’re a chick, fake it.”
I half expected her to say Diana. “You may call me Moira.” Oh, well, she was too militant and anti-Earth to be the real Wonder Woman, after all. On the other hand, I figured she’d picked the name for a reason—Moirae was what the Greeks called the Fates. And the A-C solar system had been around and active when all the Earth races were still babies.
“Great. So, Moira, what’s your mate’s name?”
“She is not captured, I will not betray her.”
“Fine. So, when did you two decide on this plan of conquest, before or after you got exiled?”
Her jaw dropped. “Wha . . . what do you mean?”
I leaned against the wall. “I’m just spitballing here, but I’m guessing that your world leaders wouldn’t be wasting their time coming to Earth. I don’t care who you think’s here, it’s too damned far away. Especially since the planets that made the decision to lock you guys down are all a lot closer to home.”