Page 140 of Dancing for the Minotaur

“No. She would have come because she loves her children. You were counting on her courage and devotion, not her desire for you.”

Orlov’s face darkened.

“Fuck you! She’s mine.”

“No,” Taurex said, and this time his voice filled the room like thunder. “She belongs to herself.”

Orlov shoved back from the desk, anger making him reckless.

“She’s nothing but a used-up stripper with two goddamned brats and a fat ass, and she ought to be grateful anybody still wants her!”

Taurex looked at him for a long moment. When he spoke again, his voice was almost gentle.

“Now you have sealed your fate.”

Orlov froze.

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

Taurex came around the desk and Orlov backed away.

Taurex watched the human’s arrogance finally begin to crack as he realized there was nowhere left to go. The windows stretched behind him, the desk blocked one side and Taurex blocked the other.

“Though in truth,” Taurex continued, “your fate was sealed the moment you laid hands on her younglings.”

The blaster rose and Orlov’s eyes widened. For the first time, fear completely erased the smug confidence from his face.

“Wait!” he said quickly.

Taurex put the muzzle against the center of his forehead.

“No, wait!” Orlov exclaimed, holding up both hands in a pleading gesture. “We can work something out—I know we can!”

“There is nothing to work out,” Taurex told him.

“Money.” Orlov’s words came faster now. “You want money? I can give you money. Millions. Ten million. Twenty. Whatever you want.”

“I am already rich. If you really have been watching me, you know that,” Taurex told him.

“Then tell me what you want!” The human’s voice cracked. “Anything. I have contacts. Property. Businesses. Women. Whatever the hell you want, I can get it.”

For one painful instant, Terra’s face flashed through Taurex’s mind. She was all he wanted and yet she was beyond him. She was, as he had told Orlov, her own person and she didn’t want him any more than she wanted Orlov.

He thought of her longingly. Terra laughing in his office…Terra holding his hand in the Market…Terra curled up in his arms.

Terra backing away from him in terror.

The thought broke the spell, and he looked into Viktor Orlov’s frightened gray eyes.

“No one can give me what I truly want.”

Orlov opened his mouth, but Taurex had no intention of listening to any more of the human male’s stupid, cruel, boastful words or his insults about Terra.

He squeezed the trigger.

Zzzzp.

The sound was quiet, but the effect was profound. A steaming hole appeared between Viktor Orlov’s eyebrows, and he dropped to the floor with a surprised look on his face.