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  Her fingers explored Keirth’s back, moving more frantically now, and Keirth’s hands were moving too. He sighed into her mouth, as his hands skimmed up her body, brushing the outside walls of her breasts, sending shivers rippling through her. She gasped, throwing her hands back against the wall of the ship as if she needed to steady herself, to find some kind of place to ground herself, as if she might tumble off into space if she didn’t.

  But her hand hit something, and a piece of the ship’s wall sprung open on hinges.

  The sound startled them both.

  Keirth tore himself away from her, paling.

  Ariana was finding it hard to catch her breath. She wished Keirth was still kissing her. She wanted to reach for him, but he was looking everywhere but at her.

  Suddenly, he strode toward her again. Her heart leapt.

  But he was examining the piece of the wall that had come undone. It opened on clusters of wires, all blinking and confusing. Keirth reached in, sorted through them, and then yanked something out. “Damn it,” he muttered.

  “What?” she said.

  He thrust a round metal ball in her face. Disconnected wires were trailing from the bottom of it. “Tracking device. On ships this old, they plug in differently. Why didn’t I think of that?”

  Ariana felt cold all over. The heat and excitement of kissing was draining from her as she looked at the tracking device. “So, we were followed?”

  Keirth shoved the device in his pocket. “Maybe. Maybe not. We could have been followed.”

  She chewed on her lip, unsure of what to do.

  Keirth took her by the elbow and led her out of the ship. “I’m going to scout the area around this place, see if a ship’s landed anywhere out of sight.”

  “Let me come with you.” They were outside the ship, and Keirth was already dragging her down the path back to the brothel.

  “You’ll slow me down,” said Keirth.

  “But—”

  “No.” His voice was cold and firm.

  Ariana didn’t say anything. She shook off his grip on her arm. “I’m not going to run away if you let go of me.”

  Keirth sighed. He took long strides as he walked.

  Ariana struggled to keep up, glancing around in the darkness, wondering if a ship that had followed them was close by. “Do you think whoever followed us was in my bedroom?”

  “Doesn’t make sense. We’d most likely be followed by bounty hunters. If someone was in your room, he would have taken you immediately. You got spooked is all.”

  Ariana wasn’t convinced, but she didn’t argue with him. She could see the logic in what he’d said.

  “To be safe, though, you shouldn’t stay in the cottage. It’s too remote. No one would hear you if something happened.”

  At least that relieved her a little bit. She half-jogged to keep up with Keirth, who was walking really fast.

  “I’m sorry I kissed you.”

  “I’m not,” she found herself saying. She wasn’t either. It had been amazing. She’d never felt anything like it. And she liked touching Keirth too.

  Keirth stopped abruptly. He turned round, and she nearly collided with him as she tried to stop walking too. “That’s exactly the problem. You think it meant something. It didn’t.”

  She surveyed him for a second. His face was stone, and he’d clenched his hands into fists. What had he really thought about the kiss? Before he’d done it, he said all he felt for her was lust.

  “I don’t want to take advantage of you, Ariana, but you’re not making it easy,” he said.

  Take advantage? Oh. She shrugged. “I thought you said that men weren’t animals. I thought you said you could control yourself.” She stepped around him and started back down the path.

  He caught up to her easily, matching her stride. “Usually, I can. But you’re...” There was no sound for several seconds except the crunch of their feet on the path. “I need to see if there are any ships that followed us. I can’t think about this right now.”

  They were quiet for the rest of the walk back to the brothel.

  Ariana wasn’t sure if she felt flattered or frightened that she seemed to be the thing that broke Keirth’s resolve not to touch women. Either way, it was something she couldn’t deny that she wanted to pursue further. She liked the way Keirth had touched her. She loved the way his lips had felt on hers. She wasn’t sure if it mattered if Keirth was taking advantage of her or not. She craved the feel of him.

  Once back inside the main house, Keirth led her through the kitchen and into the pantry. “You can sleep back here,” he told her.

  “In the pantry?”

  He pushed aside a part of the wall, which turned out to be a sliding door. “No, there’s a room back here.” And they emerged into a small room, lined with bunks. “This is where I stayed when I was a kid. It’s hidden so that we’d stay both out of the way and safe. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

  * * *

  Risciter looked up from the girl in the main room whose throat he’d just slashed. Voices. His gaze darted around the rest of the room. Had he gotten all of them? He’d drugged them all quietly first, and then made his rounds, cutting all of their pretty white necks in turn. He could see scarlet blood glinting in the scant light on each of their throats. He moved soundlessly through the room, in the direction of the voices.

  “...there’s a room back here,” said a male voice. Ah, the meddling boy. He was here. Good. Risciter had big plans for him. One might, in fact, say that this was all being done for his benefit. The brothel of dead whores was Risciter’s finest work of art, and his lips curled into a smile as he thought of how the boy would react when he saw all of it. It would weaken him. He’d be too horrified to fight. This would destroy him.

  The voices were still talking. “Once I see if there’s a ship here, see if someone followed the tracking devices, I’ll come back. If we’re safe, you can move back to the cottage.”

  “I don’t like being alone,” said a female voice. Miss Gilit. So, she wasn’t in her little cottage anymore, was she? That was okay with Risciter. He knew where she was now. But the boy was going to look for a ship. Apparently, Risciter hadn’t quite been as stealthy as he thought, and they’d realized they’d been followed. Risciter considered. Should he stop the boy?

  “You’ll be fine. You’re hidden back here.”

  “Keirth, what if someone’s here?”

  “They’d have shown themselves by now.” Keirth? Where had he heard that name before?

  Ah, yes. He remembered now. The Duke of Tramet was looking for this boy. Strange. But it didn’t matter. Risciter would as soon never have known his name or wondered what Tramet could want with him. All that mattered was that Keirth had put a serious wrench in Risciter’s plans. He would pay for the inconvenience he’d caused. And he would definitely pay for taking Ariana away from Risciter before Risciter’d had a chance to make her special.

  Risciter listened as Keirth tromped through the kitchen out of the house. He thought about following, springing on the boy from behind and drugging him again. But then he thought about Keirth stumbling on his ship, realizing Risciter was here, and the panic that would shoot through him. He imagined Keirth rushing back to the brothel in terror and agony. He’d feel guilt, too, wouldn’t he, realizing he’d left them unprotected? Oh, yes, Keirth would definitely suffer more if Risciter let him go.

  Ariana, on the other hand...

  But she thought she was hidden in that room. Risciter stepped into the kitchen quietly. He crept forward, just in time to see a door sliding closed in the pantry. Aha! So that’s where she was. He didn’t think she’d move from there, since she thought it was a safe hiding place. And Risciter had other things to finish before he got to her.

  Risciter backed out of the kitchen and tiptoed through the main room, double checking to make sure he’d killed every whore in the room and the one man who’d been with them as well. He softly opened the front door and went outside. He’d been to
each of the cottages as well, silencing the women inside, leaving them with gaping red smiles beneath their chins. There was only one cottage he had left.

  He’d listened to Keirth talking to the madam. He believed she was called Lilla. Judging from their conversation, Risciter could tell Keirth saw this woman in a motherly light. He thought it would be fitting then, to destroy her as well, and to leave her as a message to Keirth. Finding the body of this woman would cause Keirth so much pain. And it would show Keirth that Risciter could take everything away from him. Risciter had the upper hand. It was a message the boy had failed to learn before. Risciter would make sure he learned it now.

  Lilla’s cottage sat on the edge of the group of buildings that made up the brothel. It was a bit bigger than the others, but not nearly as big as the main house. Risciter let himself in without making noise. The cottage was set up like the others, except that it had a few more rooms. A tiny kitchen was tucked in the back, and instead of entering a bedroom, he entered a small living room with couches and a modest vid screen. The door to the bedroom was open.

  The floor creaked a little as Risciter crossed to the bedroom. He paused, trying to step more carefully. Would this noise wake up Lilla? When there was no reaction from the bedroom, no sound at all, Risciter moved again.

  Another creak.

  He stepped more softly. Silence.

  The bedroom was quite dark, since it didn’t have windows the way the living room did, letting in the light of the stars and moon. Risciter stood in the doorway for a few moments, allowing his eyes to adjust to the darkness.

  Eventually, he could see Lilla’s sleeping form on her bed. She lay on her back. Risciter watched the slight movement of her breathing as her chest rose and fell.

  Lilla was not a small lady. Risciter didn’t fancy the idea of dragging her to the main house, and that was where he wanted her. But he also didn’t want her to make a lot of noise, struggle, or alert Ariana to his presence before he was ready for Ariana to know he was there. If he drugged her here in her bed while she was asleep, she wouldn’t make any noise. But he’d have to move her. No, he’d have to get her to move herself. That was the best option.

  Decided, he put the cold blade of his knife against Lilla’s throat and pressed until the pain woke her.

  Her eyes popped open, and she scrabbled with one hand for a rifle that was lying next to her.

  Damn it. Risciter hadn’t been expecting that. “Drop the gun.”

  Her hand had just closed over it. “You’re the Duke of Risciter, aren’t you?”

  “Shut up,” he said. “Make one more noise, and I’ll jab this knife into your throat.”

  She gave him a look of vicious hatred.

  “Let go of the rifle.” He pushed with the knife to make himself clear.

  Slowly, she let go of it, shooting daggers at him with her gaze.

  “Good,” said Risciter. “Now you’re going to get out of bed nice and easy.”

  For a second, he thought she’d refuse. But then she sat up. Risciter kept the knife at her throat and used his other arm to steady her as she got off the bed.

  “We’re going to walk to the main house,” he told her. “You’re going to be quiet or you’ll be dead.”

  They started walking. Lilla kept her head high, her teeth clenched. They walked out of her cottage and into the night air.

  They took three more steps towards the main house and then Lilla stopped. “It occurs to me,” she said, “that you’re going to kill me no matter what I do. Why should I cooperate with you?”

  Risciter seethed. “I told you to keep your mouth shut.”

  “Why should I?”

  Risciter whispered in her ear. “Because if you don’t, before I kill you, I’m going to fuck you with this knife.” He was improvising. Truthfully, Lilla didn’t excite him in the least. She was too old and too fat for much fun. She had a world-weary jadedness about her that turned him off. But if he could frighten her enough, maybe she’d cooperate.

  Lilla stiffened next to him. Then she turned her head and spat in his face.

  Risciter wiped her saliva off his cheek, anger boiling inside him. “You bitch.”

  “You waste of air,” she retorted. “If you’re going to kill me, I’m going to warn my girls first.” She sucked in a breath and started to yell, “He—”

  But that was as far as she got, because Risciter punched his knife into her neck, cutting much deeper than he had with any of the other girls. This wasn’t slitting or slashing, this was sawing. He ripped his knife through her flesh, her blood gushing over the front of her nightgown, her eyes going blank. She toppled to the ground.

  Risciter kicked her body. Fuck. Now he was going to have to drag her after all.

  Swearing under his breath, he stalked back into her cottage and stripped a sheet off the bed. He returned to her body and rolled it onto the sheet. Grabbing the four ends of the sheet, he began to tug. By the time he’d passed three of the cottages, he was out of breath. Three more and he was sweating. This stupid cunt had made everything worse. He’d kill her again if she weren’t already dead.

  When he finally got her back to the main house and pulled her body into the center of the main room, he couldn’t help but take out his frustrations further. As he yanked her clothes off her body, he stabbed her again. And again. And again. It was a good thing she was so damned big, or she’d be nothing but stab wounds. Idiot whore.

  After he’d managed to calm down, he set about arranging her body the way he wanted it. When Keirth saw this, it should shake him. Around Lilla, all the other girls lay dead on their couches. In the center, he propped Lilla up against a bench. She was naked, decorated only with her own blood. He spread her legs, displaying her vagina to whoever might see her. He hadn’t fucked her, but he wanted Keirth to think he had.

  Risciter hadn’t fucked anyone tonight. When he’d been a younger man, perhaps he could have managed a few warm-ups before the main event. But he was older now. He didn’t quite have the stamina. He wanted to save it all for Ariana. Speaking of Ariana, it was almost time to go and get her, to put his last piece of this perfect achievement in place.

  First, he stepped back to survey the room, to make sure everything was exactly the way he wanted it. He smiled. Yes. Perfect. Absolutely perfect. Humming softly to himself, Risciter made his way to the kitchen and into the pantry. After feeling around in the darkness for a little bit, he found the sliding door he’d seen earlier. He opened it.

  “Hello?” said a voice.

  But it wasn’t Ariana’s. No. It was a bit too high pitched. Too small.

  As he stepped into the room, he saw a little girl, no more than five or six years old, sitting up on her bed. Damn it. Risciter didn’t like this one bit. He’d never thought there would be children here. He supposed these whores sometimes birthed brats, though, didn’t they? He shot a glance around the room, making sure there were no more. There was only Ariana, and she was stirring a little on her bunk.

  “Who are you?” asked the little girl. “Where’s my mommy?”

  Ariana made a noise in her sleep, rolling over.

  Risciter really didn’t relish the idea of killing children. There was something about how small they were that made it feel vaguely disgusting. But this child was a loose end. She’d seen him. He had a story to spin about the events that had taken place here tonight. She could ruin everything. And right then, she was going to keep talking and wake Ariana up. He grimaced, but stepped over to the little girl and seized her pillow.

  “Who are you?” she said again.

  Risciter shoved the pillow in her face. Her tiny body struggled for a very, very long time, during which Risciter found himself retching a few times. He really didn’t like killing children.

  But eventually, it was done.

  Risciter felt the little girl’s pulse to make sure she was dead. Her small lips had a bluish-purplish cast to them that made Risciter feel sick again. He quickly turned away from her to Ariana. Ari
ana was small enough to be moved easily. He crossed to her bunk, shoved his drugged handkerchief over her mouth and nose. She wouldn’t wake until he was ready for her to wake.

  Chapter Twelve

  Keirth had been wandering around in the area around the brothel for quite some time when he finally found it. Risciter’s ship. His heart sank immediately. Risciter was here? Okay, so he’d known he was alive, but he hadn’t expected Risciter to follow him. He guessed he shouldn’t have been such an idiot. He and Ariana had obviously angered Risciter by getting away. Now Risciter knew who he was and knew that Keirth was seeking revenge. Of course Risciter would want to find them and finish what he’d started.

  The worst of it was that he’d left Ariana alone.

  Keirth ran all the way back to the brothel, scolding himself the entire time. How could he have been so stupid? She’d said there was someone in the cabin with her. It must have been Risciter. Ariana had barely escaped death tonight, and he’d had the gall to give her attitude about wanting him to stay in the same room with her. If he’d known her life was in danger, he never would have let it become an issue. But his conversation with Lilla had gotten under his skin. He’d been so focused on whether or not he had feelings for Ariana that he hadn’t he hadn’t bothered to worry about her safety.

  Now, as he rushed back to the brothel, he knew he’d never forgive himself if something happened to her. She could be annoying as hell, but he didn’t want her hurt. He... Damn it, he liked having her around. And he could still remember the way her small body had felt pressed up against him, the way her breath caught in her throat when he touched her.