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Once they’d laughed until tears streamed down their face, Myrria swiped at her cheeks and sighed. “I was sure he was dead.”
“I can see why you’d hope that.”
Myrria attempted to summon a severe look. “Zala, he is your father.”
The girl shook her head. “No, he isn’t. He didn’t raise me or support me. He didn’t even remember I existed.” She shot a look of pure scorn at the heap in the chair. “He wasn’t dead. He’s been alive all this time, but he didn’t care about us enough to come back.”
Myrria opened her mouth to respond, but what was there to say? Zala was right, and Myrria marveled that the girl sounded so much older than she should have because she’d had to grow up fast. Life hadn’t been easy for the two of them in the Den of Thieves, which meant that her little girl was shrewd instead of innocent.
“What are we going to do?” Zala asked, the laughter gone from her voice. Now she did sound like a little girl. “Are we supposed to let him live with us like he never left?”
The idea of that made Myrria’s stomach churn. She could not let him back. Not after everything.
Not after Rixx, a small voice whispered in the back of her mind.
Rixx.
If all had gone according to plan, he was hiding with Serena. As much as she trusted the madam, Myrria didn’t like the thought of the Dothvek living in a pleasure house. She knew what the beautiful women wore because she made it for them, and it left little to the imagination.
Myrria looked at Tobert again and headed for the door. “He won’t wake for a while.”
Zala didn’t ask where she was going. She didn’t need to ask.
Chapter
Thirty
Rixx stared into the fire, already drowsy after eating a hearty meat pie and sipping some of the sweet ale that had been delivered to his room. He glanced at the tray he’d set aside on the side table, but he knew better than to attempt to return it to the kitchen. Serena had given him strict instructions not to leave the cozy room, promising him that it was for his safety.
“If Myrria sent you to me, I must protect you,” she’d said, glancing at the closed doors that ringed the winding balcony. “I suspect she would like you safe from your pursuers and the ones I employ.”
Then she’d laughed and winked before opening the door to the single room with a lit fire and a bed covered in a floral blanket and a pile of cushions.
Even though he had not opened the door, Rixx knew that it was getting late. The noise outside his room had been escalating, along with playful shrieks and the occasional moan. He suspected that the pleasures had emerged from their rooms as patrons had started to arrive, although there was no windowin his room so he had no way of knowing how much time had past since he’d arrived that morning seeking asylum.
A past version of Rixx would have been intrigued by the idea of a building filled with beautiful females whose only job was to pleasure their clients. He would have ached for a glimpse of them in their alluring outfits that might not have covered much. He would have been eager to charm them himself. But not anymore.
Now, Rixx could only think of Myrria. His mind would not stop replaying the last night in his head, no matter how many times he reminded himself that it was over.. She had given herself to him when she believed her husband was gone, lost in space, dead.
But he was not gone. He had returned, and no amount of wishing could change that. It did not matter that Myrria did not want him back. It did not even matter if he was a bad husband. The fact remained that she was married to the man. She was not Rixx’s wife, as they had pretended. She washis.
The thought soured his tongue. He had only heard smatterings of conversation when her husband had arrived, but even from his position in the loft as he’d prepared to escape, Rixx had despised the sound of the man’s voice. He had hated the lazy way he’d greeted Myrria, the arrogance in his voice as he had presumed that she was still his to command.
Rixx curled his hands in fists on the arms of the chair, fighting every Dothvek urge to storm back to the house and challenge the man to a fight. That is how it would be settled on his planet. Then he choked out a laugh. As if any Dothvek would dare leave their mate behind.
“The coward does not deserve her,” he said darkly beneath his breath.
The sounds of female chatter rose for a moment, the din seeming to enter his room as the door opened behind him. He turned, expecting to see Serena or maybe the terrifying female who guarded the door and had brought him his food. But it was neither.
The female standing inside his room was striking, but he was sure she was not one of the females who worked in the house. For one, she had short white hair that was spiked up like many of the human men he’d seen. For another, she was dressed in a snug black pants and top, making her look more like she should be burgling houses.
Rixx stood to face her, although he did not get the sense that she was a threat. “Who are you?”
Her green eyes assessed him as she rested her hands on her hips. “You can call me Rose. I didn’t think I would ever encounter you personally, especially after we helped your friend find you.”
Rixx’s heart stuttered. “Zaandr? You helped Zaandr?”
“And his lovely friend.” Rose smiled. “We hid them in a place very similar to this one, although several streets away.”
