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Zala shook her head, her eyes shining with tears, but Rixx held her gaze and hoped she would understand that he needed her to be safe and out of the way if he was going to take on Tobert. She blinked a few times before wiping furious tears from her eyes and nodding.
“Let’s obey your father.” Myrria took Zala by the hand as she passed by Rixx, brushing her fingertips across his as she walked by.
If he hadn’t felt the feathering of her skin against his, he might have believed the cool control of her words. He might have thought that she was truly going to find something to tie himup. But the electric charge between her fingertips and his hand jolted him back to the reality he knew.
Myrria cared for him. She cared for him enough to risk herself. She cared for him enough to sacrifice herself. But he knew that she did not need to stay with the husband who was not really a husband.
When Myrria and Zala had dipped behind the heavy curtain separating the bedroom from the rest of the small house, Tobert gave him an oily smile.
“It’s just us now. How ‘bout you tell me why you’re here talking to my wife?”
Rixx ignored the blaster aimed at his heart. “She isn’t your wife.”
The man barked out a laugh, but fear danced behind his eyes. “Did she tell you that? Did she pretend she was a free woman when she invited you into her bed?” His hands trembled. “Into my bed?”
“Myrria never invited me into her bed.” This was true. She’d put him in her bed when he’d been unconscious. “But she never told me you were not her husband. I learned that from your crew mates.”
The man’s face twisted with fury and confusion. “What?”
“Your fellow mercenaries lived up to their name by talking loudly about you and the fact that you have more than one wife on more than one planet.” Rixx drew in a breath to keep himself from striking the pathetic excuse for a male. “Myrria is the second woman you married, which means that she is not legally your wife.”
Tobert took a step closer and jammed the blaster as if it was a pointed finger. “That doesn’t mean I’m not the girl’s father. It doesn’t matter how many wives I’ve got. The girl is still mine.”
“The girl has a name, Rixx growled, “and you did not raise her. You know nothing about her. You know nothing about being a father.”
The human’s hand shook so hard that Rixx was sure if he fired the blaster, the shot would go wide. “None of that matters. Myrria knows her place, and so will the girl. She’ll learn.”
The idea of Zala being taught to serve this weak man, to make herself small for him, sent fresh waves of anger pulsing through Rixx. He did not care if Myrria did not want him, if she did not choose him, but he would not let Zala be taught that this man was what she should accept or that this was what a father’s love looked like.
“You think Myrria will stay with you when she knows that she is only one of many wives? You think you have any claim over her loyalty?”
The man raised his trembling hand to Rixx’s head. “I know that you won’t be around to poison her mind.”
“You don’t want to collect the Zevrian bounty?” Rixx asked, his gaze locked on the man as Tobert’s finger touched the trigger.
The human hesitated. The bounty was a big thing to sacrifice, and Rixx felt confident that the man was as greedy as he was cowardly. He shifted his aim to one side. “They won’t mind if you’re wounded.”
Tobert was so preoccupied that he hadn’t noticed Myrria slipping through the gap in the curtain behind him gripping anearthenware pitcher. As he leveled the blaster and took a breath, Myrria lifted the pitcher and brought it down hard on his head. The container shattered and the man collapsed to the floor, dropping the blaster, which skittered across the floor.
Rixx met her gaze as she stood over Tobert breathing heavily. “You didn’t get anything to bind me.”
Her eyes flashed. “I don’t take orders fromhim.”
Rixx did not know if she’d heard everything but it pained him if she had. “I am sorry that—“
“Don’t apologize,” she said as Zala rushed out and joined them. “I couldn’t let him turn you in. Not after keeping you safe all this time.”
“We wouldn’t let the bad guys take you,” Zala said, barely glancing at the man crumpled on the floor. Then she held up some strips of fabric. “This is to tie him up.” She grinned at Rixx. “I knew you would win.”
Myrria took one strip of fabric from her daughter. “Then we’d better tie him and gag him before he comes to.”
Before I could help, there was a rap on the door.
Chapter
Thirty-Five
Myrria held a finger to her lips as she proceeded to gag Tobert, lifting his head and then letting it thump back onto the floor.
