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He hadn’t seen her in decades, and now here she was somehow intimately connected to Starlin and even to Scorpion, the alliteration sinking deep suddenly, like a snake hissing. He wanted to say something to her, to rail at her for all the pain she’d caused him, but nothing would come.
He’d dreamed of this moment, of finally confronting his abuser, yet he stood immobile as though, even after all this time, she could still control him.
But it was Angelica who spoke first. “You’re the bitch who hurt me.”
She pivoted toward Angelica. Though Sweet Dove continued to stare at her, she addressed Reyes. “Your slave needs a lesson in manners. Would you like to teach her, or shall I?”
She extended her hand toward Angelica, but the threat against her moved Reyes out of his stupor. He caught his captor’s wrist and turned her toward him. “What the f**k is this all about, Sweet Dove? I was told I’d be meeting Scorpion.”
Sweet Dove smiled. “And you will. As for Scorpion, he and I are old friends, much older than even Engles and I, or did you not know that?”
Reyes made a decision not to tip his hand. There was no reason why Sweet Dove needed to know that Angelica had a revisiting vision capability. “I didn’t know.”
“I’m a little surprised. Somehow I thought you did. But before we get any further, I really must know how you got free of me all those years ago.”
Reyes recalled the process and how it had taken two decades of slow, determined effort. He gave her the short version. “It was simple. Though it required time and patience, I seduced two of the men you brought in on a regular basis to join in our fun, that’s how.”
She held his gaze. “Actually, I’d already figured it out. But what distresses me to this day is that I never suspected. I thought you liked being with me. I made sure you had pleasure.”
Reyes stared at her for a long, hard moment. Something that had never quite made sense to him now came into sharp focus. He’d always known Sweet Dove to be a pure narcissist, but until now he hadn’t truly understood that she was actually surprised that he’d ever wanted to leave her. She believed what she said, that she’d thought he’d been fulfilled and content serving as her slave.
The woman bought her own propaganda.
But he refused to get distracted by her sense of ill-usage. “I looked for each of those men later, but they seemed to have disappeared.”
She checked her manicure. She had long, sharp nails. “I had to know the truth, so I tortured them. I was never so disappointed in all my life, because as much as they enjoyed inflicting pain on you in my presence, neither lasted very long when put under the cat’s claw.”
Reyes let these words slide off him. He didn’t really care very much about the past, not anymore, especially with Angelica in the room and extremely vulnerable as a human. No matter what Sweet Dove’s game was, he had to protect Angelica and because of Sweet Dove’s Ancestral status she had complete power in the situation.
“And how are you connected to Scorpion and Starlin?”
She moved in his direction, reaching out with her right hand to touch his bare arm. But suddenly Angelica was right there, standing between them. In her stilettos she was taller than Sweet Dove. “Keep your hands off him. He’s my master.”
Sweet Dove’s lips curled, her fangs showing. Then she laughed, a long trill of laughter. “What a stupid human you are, or do you not understand that I could rip you away from Reyes right now? I could have your blood-chains removed and throw you to the dogs or give you to Engles, though I suspect you would prefer the former.”
Reyes felt Angelica ready to respond, but he took her quickly by the arm and pulled her behind him. Aloud he said, “Stand down, slave. You’re out of line.” Privately he added, She can kill you with a single blow. Let me handle this.
“How endearing that your slave has become protective of you, but we will get rid of her once you return to me.”
He wanted Sweet Dove’s focus off Angelica. “I belong to no one, Sweet Dove, or are you called something else now?”
“I am, as it happens. But I can see that you haven’t guessed, which surprises me. You never lacked for intelligence and you were always studying, which I thought endearing in its way.”
He refused to get sidetracked. He had to get a clear picture of what he was dealing with. “What’s your new name?”
She laughed once more. “I swear you’ve grown positively obtuse since you left me. How can you not know who I am?”
Reyes stared at her and then the pieces of the puzzle fell suddenly into place. It couldn’t be, yet in his gut he knew it was true. He felt dizzy as he stated, “You’re Scorpion.”
She nodded. “I am. Do you like the empire I’ve built all around my favorite pastime? I think it sublime. I’m very proud of what I’ve created. The betting pools have been good fun and a real moneymaker, more than the auctions themselves. I won a small fortune on the little Russian. Of course, it helped to know the owner and to encourage him to increase or decrease his beatings. Power is a wonderful thing.”
Reyes stared at his former captor, the woman who had beaten, raped, and tortured him for a century and whom he’d been unable to locate all this time. But there was one thing he had to know, whether or not she suspected his current ruse.
“After Starlin, you’re my second most favorite achievement, you know.” She drew close. “I’ve watched you especially over the past year, when Engles told me you’d applied for membership. I’m good at disguises, you see, and I watched that little Asian beauty suck you off. You bit her ear. Very nice. But what the hell happened at the theater performance?”
Again, Sweet Dove had taught him so much. Without missing a beat he responded, “I was thinking of you, of course, so I got lost in the memories.” Would she buy it? Or would she suspect he’d almost lost his mind in that moment and blown his cover?
She smiled. “Of course you would have. I take it you telepathically commanded your slave to service you?”
He held Sweet Dove’s gaze firmly. “Yes, that’s exactly what I did. I had complete control of her and she performed for me just as I wanted her to.”
Sweet Dove smoothed a hand over his breastplate. “So you were lost in thoughts of me.”
“I was.” How he hated her. He wanted nothing more than to snap her perverse neck. But she still had physical and preternatural power over him and she wouldn’t hesitate to kill Angelica if it served her purpose.
