Page 118 of Smuggler's Beauty

Evelyn had raced back down the path to stand as close to the forcefield as it would allow her to. He watched her reach out gently, knew she was assessing its energy field. She closed her eyes, and Aiden watched her press against the barrier. Hewinced when it threw her back in to the Senate chamber with greater force than it had projected him back.

“Knew this didn’t feel right,” Veselko muttered. He propped the camera so that it angled at Evelyn in the Senate chamber and sat down with his head against the wall. Elenor sat next to him, leaning her head on his shoulder and patting his leg, murmuring through her cravat. The smoke steamed through the room, fluffy streamers of sleep-inducing air twining through all the negative space.

Nannette ran for the doors and delivered an impressive kick to the center of one. They rattled as she slammed into them, but they stood firm, confirming Aiden’s suspicion. She kept hammering at them with her fists until she passed out, long after her legs gave way.

Aiden stood as close to the barrier as it would allow him and raised his hand to press against it. The look of horror on Evelyn’s face was going to kill him if this gas didn’t. Veronique was speaking in his earpiece, and he removed it to put into his pocket. He couldn’t handle her panic at the moment, and her attempts to reassure the team were less than effective through her sobs.

“Dollface, look at me,” he said. Her big hazel eyes found his, and the guilt that shone from them was the final stab in his heart. He’d realized what they’d overlooked.

“This isn’t your fault, Evelyn,” he said. “Vinnie lies.”

The realization that she’d been betrayed was the last thing Aiden saw pass over her face before he succumbed to the gas.

Vinnie lies.

The phrase had been echoing through Evelyn’s head since Aiden had said it.

He’d collapsed to the floor in front of the barrier, one hand still stretched out toward her. The sound his head had made against the marble had made her frantic, but he wasn’t bleeding onto the floor. She shoved her fear aside and searched the chamber for a control panel she could force some energy into, try to short circuit the forcefield, but there was no discernible break in the smooth marble walls on her side of the barrier. Evelyn had sunk to the ground on her side of the clear barricade, needing to be as close to his prone body as possible.

Vinnie lies.

Wasn’t that the first thing she’d learned when she’d walked into her house in Vegas? All her life Corvinia had been lying to her. Why had she been stupid enough to take her at face value about this? She’d been too wrapped up in her own guilt and shame to think clearly, toseeclearly.

Aiden was wrong. This was all her fault. Again.

Before she could really get going flagellating herself, Evelyn heard fans kick on in the antechamber. The smoke started to clear, and within minutes, the haze that had obstructed her view of the others cleared. Soldiers wearing Bauder livery streamed into the room, followed by two tall, imposing figures. Evelyn recognized one of them from the view screen of theDawn.

Pearl.

CHAPTER FIFTY-EIGHT

Things were going exactly accordingto plan. Corvinia was sequestered on her ship, orbiting a moon a short jump from Tanalia. The worm had been injected into the system when theDawn’sjump ship had appeared in the Tanalian square. She adjusted pins on her map, removing red ones from strongholds that had already succumbed to the rebellion’s efforts. Emil really had established a stupid number of military bases on Tanalia. With any luck, he would be too distracted trying to capture the queen to notice that his soldiers on the ground had been systematically subdued by her sleeper cells.

Men. Dangle something shiny in front of them, and they could be lured into just about any trap.

Her communications panel beeped.Right on time.She pressed the button to accept the transmission, continuing to collate the data on her map as she received real time updates.

Lillian’s face filled the screen. She was calmer than Corvinia had expected her to be. Most people would be at least a little disheveled-looking if their spouse had been kidnapped in the middle of a coup attempt. Lillian had been monitoring thecomms back on theDawnand likely had to listen as her wife and child fell unconscious. Had surely heard the arrival of the soldiers that no doubt had scooped them off the floor and placed them in custody before they’d released Evelyn from the main chamber. Yet Lillian was poised, seated behind her communications center without a curl out of place. Corvinia respected that. The woman’s dark eyes gleamed in the glow from her viewing screen, a hard, determined sheen.

“Vinnie,” she said. “You’re aware of the situation.”

Corvinia nodded. She pushed the now irrelevant pins into the middle of the Eastern Sea and turned all of her attention to the woman on the other end of the transmission. “Tactically, this was the right move.”

“Fuck your tactics. My wife and kid are now hostages, to say nothing about the woman you consider your own niece.”

“It’s temporary. A foreseen circumstance that has been navigated around. Mathias is on his way right now to spring them from the cells.”

“So, you’ve just subjected all of us to a mind fuck? A little trauma to spice up a Tuesday?”

“Precognition is a tricky specialty. If you mess with the variables too much, things blow up worse than they would have initially. You know this.”

“I know youclaimthis to be true.”

Corvinia raised an eyebrow. “Point made. You have nothing but my reassurances to go on.”

Lillian leaned into the camera until she filled the screen, and Corvinia suppressed a shiver at the cold fury in her eyes. She forced herself to look straight at Lillian. Never shirk your responsibilities.

“Well, then, if you have absolute certainty that your brilliant plan is going off without a hitch, you have nothing to worry about. On the other hand, if Elenor or Aiden is hurt in any way,my new life’s purpose will be making yours miserable. You think Tanalia under Emil was a bad scene? Wait until I’m done with your planet. People seem to think that because I’m less likely to stab someone in the face, that I’m the nice one. I’m not.” She examined her cuticles. “Suffering can last much longer than a knife wound if you’re willing to be creative enough.”