“Wait. Stop! Okay.” She held her hands out, taking careful steps as she entered the room to sink onto the floor. Her voice was hoarse. “Don’t hurt her.” Slowly, she sank down, inhaling tiny breaths to ease the piercing pain.
“The boy worked you over good, eh?”
“What’s next?”
Paul cocked his head to the side. “Now you choose.”
She swayed a little, waiting, her side—hell, her whole body—throbbing.
“Over fifteen years ago, I made all the choices for you. I sent you to live a new life.”
“You sold me as a slave.”
Georgia struggled against Paul’s hold. She tried to twist out of his grip, but he squeezed her shoulder and faced her forward.
“I gave you a new life,” he corrected. “I helped you realize your potential. Look at you, wudini. Assassin. Killer. Lethal. Rich, now. Smart. Even beautiful. You should be thanking me.”
She said nothing.
“Also, contrary to what you think, I did care for him, despite his failings.” He regarded her. “Perhaps I chose wrong, eh. You are the survivor. The one. The queen among knights.” He chuckled.
“I would have died first.”
He shrugged, trailing the muzzle down the side of Georgia’s face, her neck, her shoulders. She squirmed, trying to distance herself.
He swung the gun back to Nena.
“You get to choose now. I’ve got my seat on the Council. I’m untouchable now and can do what I want with their blessing because I can give them the territories they need. I can make things happen for them like they never could.”
He didn’t know he was ousted, that his dispatch was decreed. Whoever his benefactor was, whoever had helped him evade the Tribe fifteen years ago and worm his way in now, hadn’t been able to outmaneuver Delphine Knight.
“You’ve got your seat at the table,” she said. “Let the girl go.”
His eyes sparkled. “I want the table.”
“Let her go, and you can have it. My dad will give up High Council.”
Paul pursed his lips. “You must think I’m stupid. Even if Noble abdicated his seat, it’s not enough. This”—he poked the trembling girl with the muzzle of the gun—“is my safety net. You can have her back once you kill your dad.”
Paul had presented that similar offer to her papa—kill his brother to save the rest.
“We don’t have to kill him. He’ll give it up, and then the Council will follow you.”
“With Noble alive, there will always be questions, second guesses.”
“I won’t kill my dad.”
“Then she dies.” He chambered a bullet.
Georgia’s body was so still Nena feared she was going to pass out.
“Paul.”
“Make your choice. Or the girl joins her father.”
79
AFTER
Georgia’s eyes welled with tears.
“He’s not dead, Georgia,” Nena said quickly, not wanting the girl to believe for even a second that her father was dead.
She held Georgia’s gaze, shaking her head ever so slightly at the determined look in Georgia’s eyes, the firm plant of her feet like she’d learned when they’d had their lessons. Her expression indicated she already understood what Nena wanted her to do next.
They were out of time.
“I don’t have all day, Aninyeh,” Paul snapped.
Georgia stepped back gently until the muzzle of the gun was flush against her back, just as Nena had shown her. She twisted suddenly, taking Paul by surprise and pushing his gun arm out and away from her. She jammed her fist into his solar plexus.
He staggered, grunting. Georgia’s other arm snaked around his gun hand, keeping clear. She held on to his arm as she pulled the gun backward and snapped it out of his hand. It fell with a thud to the floor. Then she kicked him in the leg for good measure.
Nena didn’t spare a moment to commend her prodigy for executing her disarming move so efficiently. She kicked the gun out of the way, then jumped to her feet, hurling herself at the disoriented Paul. They tumbled to the ground.
Nena struggled against the pain in her ribs to restrain Paul’s writhing beneath her. His anger fueled him. He might have been older by thirty years, but he was a stone-cold killer in fantastic shape.
It was hard for Nena to breathe. Paul took advantage of it, landing a body punch to the very area that could tolerate it the least. Nena sucked in air long and hard, tears springing to her eyes. He grabbed her neck, rolling her until she was on her back on top of him. He tightened his forearm against her throat.