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And paused mid-step on the stairs.
Because theirs was not the only vessel parked in and amongst the flower beds of the rolling garden.
With a shimmer, Mirage appeared, uncloaking itself from stealth mode. They watched as the corvette’s air bridge extended itself.
Kainan’s familiar hulk descended the gunship, and Selene felt the same breath-stealing kick to her chest as when she’d first met him.
‘Told you you’d see him again,’ Rina said from behind Selene, almost too smugly.
It had been two weeks since their last encounter, but he was still taller than any man in Dunia. Still more muscled than most. Still with the big energy. Still sporting those large, powerful ropey thick thighs that she’d trailed her hands along. Still devastatingly attractive in his matte black power suit. Still enticing with light, lustrous caramel skin covered by stunning nebula gold and sapphire glyphs. Still with those rippling dark locks shot with silver at the temple. Still those full lips, high cheekbones and most devastating, still those pools of molten gold, flecked with flashes of electric sapphire.
Which now searched her face. Before he flicked his glance away and towards Rina.
‘Excellency, Colonel,’ he said, greeting both women woodenly, coolly.
His chimera call name was perfect for him, Selene thought crabbily. She’d never met a man so adept at the hot and cold gambit.
‘What are you doing here?’ she asked quietly, masking her annoyance.
‘I tracked down Massimo and placed him under house arrest,’ Kainan informed her quietly. ‘I’ve been here ever since.’
Her eyes narrowed. ‘You didn’t need to stay,’ she said frostily. ‘I’m sure you’ve got more important things to do on Eden II.’
His eyes flicked to her as if sensing her freeze-out.
‘I made a promise to you, Excellency,’ Kainan replied quietly. ‘I told you I’d be here every step of the way. So here I am.’
Selene nodded at him, barely able to speak. So she looked away and worked on keeping calm and collected around him.
The tension in the air ratcheted up a notch.
Rina saved the day. ‘Khosi, we’re here to take Massimo off your hands formally. The Security Council and the newly formed government await his arrival at Parliament House.’
Kainan nodded. ‘He’s inside, stashed in his study, along with his wife, also complicit in the coup. I also found his two side kicks, the Minister of Strategic Planning and the undersecretary of Defence, with him. They’re all here. I’ll show you through,’ he offered.
‘Thank you,’ Selene said. Then, she took off towards the house while Rina and Kainan trailed behind her.
‘Where are you planning to hold him?’ Kainan asked quietly as the trio headed towards the grand entrance.
‘We’re flying him straight to the prison planetoid of Gineliv III. The maximum prison allied to Rhesia, Galicia and Dunia,’ Rina said. ‘In the isolation cells, deep underground, where no one can get to him. We’ll conduct the court case from there as well via holo feeds. The people of Dunia don’t want him here, not even for another day.’
Kainan nodded his approval. ‘It’s what he deserves.’
At the patio, an Edenite sentry neatly saluted the trio and opened the door to the mansion. They entered a lurid entrance littered with gold furniture, glittering lights and a flashy ceiling. The four high ceiling walls dripped with gold leaf, carved stone and rare marble.
Selene sighed at the gaudy fixtures, striding past a marble-topped living and dining room with a tiled fireplace containing niches fitted with prominent sculpted figures. Sculpted roses climbed the fireplace and windows, Paladian rugs covered the floors, oil paintings hung on the walls, and ceiling murals and chandeliers lit up the rooms.
It was all SO over the top. Ludicrous. Wildly expensive.
THIS was where Massimo had sunk the vast chunks of his stolen money, Selene thought, rolling her eyes.
They were ushered into the study by yet another guard.
It was decked out in mahogany wood walls and floors, with baroque-style dining chairs and a large desk dripping in gold. Behind which, a large, defiant man sat, glaring malevolently at her entry.
Selene shook her head, returning the glower with a cool death stare of her own. After weeks of waiting, she was face to face with the man who’d terrorised their planet and killed her dear father.
She felt bitter loss and pain twist in her guts as she stared at the towering figure before her. She raked her eyes over the thick chains of diamond and gold that adorned his plump neck and wrists at the silken, gold-threaded robes that enveloped his rotundness.
