23. Chapter 23

That I was laying in the arms of the strongest man I had ever met, with a bona fide boner poking at my crotch without being totally aroused, was an indisputable indication of how weak my body had become and how close to death I must have been. I probably owed my life to the very man holding me so tightly, as if he wanted to protect me from the entire planet. It felt good, too. Usually, I would have gotten claustrophobic and pushed whoever was cuddling me like this away, but with him, I felt secure, safe, and incredibly content.

Exhausted after my bath , I fell asleep and didn't wake until the next morning. Dzur-Khan wasn't to be seen, and I marveled at how he had managed to extract himself from our spooning without waking me.

I did feel much better. My arm was still numb, but I felt strong enough to climb out of bed and search for my clothes, which Dzur-Khan must have taken off. My skin pebbled at the thought of him caring for me like a mother hen while I was out of it. Nobody had ever done anything like this for me. Not even Uncle Cody, who had loved me the most.

He had been a man's man. His way of pulling me out of any kind of heartache had been to call his buddies over to let me beat them at poker or to take me to the shooting range. One time, he bought me a punching bag, which, in all honesty, had worked miracles in making me feel better. When I was physically sick, his favorite concoction was to make me drink hot water infused with whiskey, lemon, and honey. The whiskey put me to sleep while the lemon and honey built my immune system. It must have worked because I hardly ever got sick now.

My clothes were neatly folded and washed by the dead fire. By the time I was dressed, my heart was hammering like a metronome on speed. But it felt good to be up and clothed. I leaned against a tent pole and waited for my erratic heart to slow and my breathing to calm.

Dzur-Khan had thoughtfully left a cup of water by the nest of furs, and I slowly made my way back to it to drink it down. Encouraged by not having fainted on the bed, I decided to peek outside.

I had gotten used to the way the sun rose and fell on Vandruk and judged it to be about midday when I stuck my head out to find Dhor-Van slumbering while leaning against a tree. Dzur-Khan was cooking meat over the hot rock while Lexi was filling wooden bowls with meat. A stinging pain hit my heart when I saw the two standing next to each other, all chummy like old pals, but I reminded myself of the hard-on I had felt all night pressed against me and took a cleansing breath.

Dzur-Khan looked up as if he had felt my eyes on him. A radiant smile came my way, mixed with a small frown of concern. With a few long strides, he reached my side; my eyes never wavered from his formidable form.

"You're better?"

"Better." I nodded, staring into his gorgeous blue eyes like a star-struck teenager.

"Well, look who's still alive," a weak yet disdainful voice called from a nearby tree. Willis. The commotion roused Dhor-Van, who sat up to assess the situation, giving Dzur-Khan a questioning glance, waiting for orders.

"I could say the same about you." I forced myself to be steady and to portray more strength than I possessed.

Dzur-Khan was close enough for me to pull one of his bone knives from its sheath by his thigh. He let it happen and watched me warily as I approached the tied-up man.

"Coming to finish me off?" Willis taunted.

"Who killed my sister?" I asked coolly.

"Haven't figured it out, have you?"

"Oh, I know you were involved," my voice gained intensity from the adrenaline shot caused by the mention of Dawn. "I'm just wondering about Pierre's involvement in all this and if I need to kill him too."

"I had nothing to do with this," Pierre Delon called from where he was sitting with Bob West .

"Why would I tell you anything, sweetheart? You gonna let me go if I do?" Willis taunted.

I managed to kneel down next to him without giving away how much the motion and the exchange exerted me, but this needed to be finished now.

"You're gonna die either way. The question is just how," I pressed out. Holding the knife against his throat, I said, "I can slit your throat." I trailed it down over his taut stomach. "Or I could gut you like the pig you are." I kept trailing the knife point lower to his groin area, feeling his dick shrink. "I can also start taking slices of your pathetic dick and feed them to you. Or would you prefer me to start slicing your toes?"

He chuckled. "Sweetheart, you don't have the stomach for it."

"Hmm, I wonder if Dawn ever mentioned that I was Navy Intelligence or that my last boyfriend was the head of the Russian Mafia on the East Coast." I pretended to think about that, tapping the tip of the knife against my teeth and enjoying the way his face paled a shade or two.

"She said you were in the Navy."

"I guess she left out some of the juicier details then." I sighed. "She never did like what I did for a living."

"If you kill me, you won't find out anything."

"I'm not gonna kill you right away. Weren't you listening at all?" I tsked. "Navy Intelligence taught me a few things, but that was nothing compared to what Stanislav taught me in how he interrogated people. Sometimes, it took them days to die, and they all sang at the end." Stan had never allowed me to bear witness to any of that, but Willis didn't need to know that. He just needed to believe me. "One time, he peeled a guy's skin off. Strip by strip. He wasn't even finished with the arm before the guy ratted out his entire family."

"You don't have the guts for—"

I held the knife against his lips, pressing hard enough to make him bleed, to cut him off. Holding his eyes, I didn't say a word. I didn't need to. He swallowed, believing me.

"Your sister stuck her nose into things she had no business knowing," Willis spat out. "Her stupid boyfriend couldn't keep his mouth shut after a good fuck."

"About you guys not being guards but a foraging party tasked to establish a FOB on Vandruk," I threw out one of my suspicions to see if it would stick.

"You really were Intelligence," Willis acknowledged with a trace of respect, but there was a glint in his eyes I didn't like. I might have been partially right, but there was more to the story. A lot more. "Sorry about your sister, but as an Intelligence Officer, you should understand that we couldn't allow her to live, or you for that matter."

I did, actually. But Dawn had still been my sister. "She didn't want any part of this and threatened to report you, didn't she?"

He nodded, but it was too easy. My spidey senses were in full gear. I tilted my head and stared at him hard. "Now, why do I get the feeling you're only telling me half of the story?"

"That's all I've got, I swear," he cried out as I leaned against his bandaged knee .

"I don't believe you," I said, pressing harder. To give him something, I added, "I watched you guys. If you had been sent to establish a FOB, you would have done more scouting. You would have looked for the best spot."

"Maybe we hadn't reached it yet," Willis wailed.

Now that I could believe. "Where Willis?" I moved the knife to his crotch while increasing the pressure on his knee, demonstrating my willingness to hurt him and follow through with my threat.

Sweat ran down his forehead as his face contorted in pain. His breathing was deep and hard. "Fine, fine! I'll tell you… just STOP!"

I eased up, but kept the knife hovering over his cock. "I'm all ears." I gave him half a minute to recover .

"We were sent to collect Doctor Bauer," Willis panted.

"Doctor Bauer?" It took me a moment to digest his words and to realize that he was talking about Tzar-Than's Matt. Of course! That made sense now. Matt had lived with the Vandruks for years. His information would be an immeasurable pot of gold. If anybody had any information on their weaknesses, it would be him.

"Shut up," Pierre cried, rising from where he had been sitting, coming toward us like an avenging angel. "You killed Dawn for this information, and now you're giving it away to her?"

I rose to get out of the way. Pierre stumbled over a root but caught himself. My eyebrow shot up when he kicked Willis in his injured knee, making the man howl out in pain.

"Damn, I didn't think you had that in you, Pierre," I mocked, keeping my distance from him. On a normal day, I could have fought him blindfolded, but I was feeling exerted, only held up by the adrenaline flooding through me from finally hearing why Dawn had to die.

"It was your fault for not keeping your mouth shut," Willis panted. With his arms bound against the tree, there was nowhere for him to go, and there was no way of protecting himself from the raging French man.

"You didn't have to kill her," Pierre reiterated.

"You didn't seem to mind when it meant a promotion for you," Willis spat.

I felt sick to my stomach hearing my sister's killing discussed like this. Like it had been a bargaining tool. My hand, holding the knife, itched to embed itself deep into both men's chests. But if I had learned one thing during my diverse careers, it was to be patient. I was sure I hadn't heard all of it yet.

Pierre looked at me. "I swear I didn't know until I found her body!"

"You found her body?" I asked tonelessly as numbness spread through me. "And you didn't call for help?"

"I went to him," Pierre nearly screamed. "I went to him as the head of security… I thought… I thought." He ran a hand through his hair. "He was supposed to help, but he… he was washing off blood—Dawn's blood. He said this was my fault for not keeping my mouth shut."

"Your mouth shut?" I didn't feel like the hardcore interrogator I used to be. I felt like a woman who had lost her sister and only now found out why she had to die. I felt like me, like I was supposed to .

Pierre sobbed. "Weidenhof approached me. He said Bob was too weak." His eyes darted to the other scientist. "He told me that they had big plans for Vandruk and that I could be an integral part of it. He said they were going to try to get Doctor Bauer back and then figure out how to get a foothold on Vandruk."

"And you told Dawn?" I concluded, ignoring Willis's panting, agonized cries. The bandage around his knee was turning deep, dark red from Pierre's kick or the pressure I had applied earlier.

"She and I… we were going to get married after we returned. We were going to have a family…." He sobbed unintelligibly.

Which was when Dawn's lists popped back into my head.

Call Dr. Helms

Pack bag

Order more glass slides

Eat a pizza

Get book, Plants and Beyond

Call Amber

Activate file

Tell Pierre to go to hell

Meet with R.J.

Nonono! "Dawn was pregnant? "

Shamefaced, Pierre lowered his head.

Doctor Helms, gynecologist, I remembered googling.

Fuck!

"She was pregnant? She was going to have a baby here? On a fucking alien planet?" I couldn't believe it, but it sounded like her.

Pierre's face contorted in grief. "We would have had the first human baby on Vandruk."

Then his features turned whimsical. "Do you know what this could have meant?"

Besides both of you being lunatics ? I wondered, putting your need for fame before the health of a mother-to-be and a baby ? Yes, I could imagine all too well.

"So you took the promotion Weidenhof offered and left Dawn's body where it was and went along with it? Covering for Willis and everyone else?" I concluded.

"I was afraid Willis would kill me too if I didn't."

Nodding at him and portraying sympathy was the hardest thing I had ever done, but years of training paid off. I managed because I needed to know one more thing from him. "Who is R.J.?"

"Don't you dare!" Willis yelled but screamed in pain when I gave him another slight kick against his knee, all the while keeping my eyes trained on Pierre, who, for all it was worth, seemed genuinely happy to cleanse his soul.

"Rachel James. She's a top reporter. She was one of the first to see the Vandruk. She met, what's his name, Tarzan?"

"Tzar-Than," I filled in helpfully .

He snapped his finger, "Right. Tzar-Than. Dawn was going to give her a file with the information she had gathered. She was going to give it to her the morning of the departure."

An image of a styled woman with auburn hair approaching me that morning came back into my mind.

Doctor Wayland?

At the time I thought she was just another nuisance reporter wanting a story. Well, I had been right about the last part.

"Dawn was going to give her a file," I repeated numbly. Shit, Dawn . I shook my head. She had been so deep into this… with no experience whatsoever, armed only with a sense of righteousness. Why hadn't she called me sooner? Confided more?

Because she wanted to blow the whistle, she wanted to be on Vandruk. She had wanted to have her cake and eat it too , a voice inside me whispered. She had wanted to do the right thing but hadn't been willing to sacrifice her career for it or the opportunity of a lifetime by going to Vandruk. So instead, she lost her life.

I stepped toward Pierre; he must have thought I was going to embrace him because there was a slight smile on his face. He couldn't have been more wrong. I slashed his throat like Willis had done to Dawn.

"What the fuck!" Willis exclaimed from the ground.

With effort, I lowered myself next to him again, wiping Pierre's blood off the blade on Willis's pants, while Pierre sank to his knees, an expression of disbelief on his face, clutching his throat .

"I would say, say hi to Dawn for me, but she won't be where you're going. But I will see you in hell," I promised Pierre before I turned back to Willis.

"Now, tell me exactly what Weidenhof is planning."

Willis's eyes widened when he realized that I truly meant business.