Huxley Cayne of Vulcan Corp. It’s been years since I’ve heard that name, and even still, it struck absolute terror in my soul.
My breath caught as someone moved in my periphery. Someone tall, powerful, and utterly in control.
I turned to the mysterious shifter. The one who had commanded my attention without ever having said a word.
It clicked into place.
Now I knew why he’d looked familiar. I may never have met him, but I’d seen him on the news hundreds of times, though it’d been years.
With his name in my head, I recognized the aloof arrogance behind his expression. The emotionless way he met my stare. It was the look he’d given to every journalist with a camera.
I also remember the dark sunglasses he’d worn outside the embassy building the day of his trial. How unaffected he’d been as surviving relatives screamed at him and wept while the media shouted questions and snapped pictures.
Facing him in real life, I wasn’t surprised that he didn’t back down from the absolute disgust that poured from me.
This man was a lot of things. One of the last dragon shifters in existence. A powerful, thriving businessman.
And a mass murderer. A man hated by the entire world.
I’d been young at the time of the massacre. Eight, maybe nine. Memories flooded me, taking me back to the time when footage of Huxley Cayne’s destruction had circulated like a recurring nightmare on the news channels. I can’t say how many times I’d watched the buildings of the coastal Italian city go up in flames as the hulking, monstrous form of a dragon flew in the distance. A sheet of orange, white and red pouring from his mouth and descending on the screaming people like it was the day of damnation.
For them, it had been.
He shouldn’t be alive after what he’d done, much less walking free.
The irony was so thick, I had to fight a maniacal giggle from bubbling out. This man was a free citizen after committing a global atrocity, but I was being given a life sentence.
Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t proud of what happened to Mr. Creed’s hoard. But I’d only been doing what I thought I was supposed to, and then reacted as best I could to save my life. How else was I supposed to handle a wyvern blocking the damn exit?
We were still taking one another in. A useless Cut girl and a handsome billionaire with blood-soaked hands. We hung in reality together, our eyes locked and our fates churning. Time was suspended as I ran through my options over and over and over.
6.4 million. Seven lifetimes of work wouldn’t earn me enough to pay Mr. Creed back.
37 years. Union prisons were reserved solely for the worst of the worst. The people that made nighttime dangerous for everyone. Not people who accidentally destroyed property while trying to do their jobs and protecting themselves.
If the Indentured Employment is what he wants, what he’s been expecting me to choose, I should defy the fuck out of him. For those lost lives. The suffering, I told myself. Choose prison. You can probably make friends there. Someone is bound to show you how to make a shank.
But what’s the point of sacrificing years of my life to refuse a monster? A killer who’ll probably forget about my existence by next week? Those lives are lost, and it’s not like their ash can benefit from my stubbornness. Is that a fair price to pay? What about Mom and Dad? I know they’ll hate it if I choose prison.
To my surprise, the court remained completely silent as I deliberated. Not even Councilman Hayes barked at me to hurry up.
Indentured Employment.
That was another issue that made me hesitate. I was pretty sure Cayne had some type of corporate real estate business. However, Indentured Employees were very pricy and very rare, and for good reason.
Unofficially, I.E.’s usually existed to serve one purpose: illegal business.
I.E.’s couldn’t legally testify against their employers and were forbidden to share any confidential information even after the contract was up. Punishment was severe. Authorities didn’t even have the power to speak to an I.E. unless the employer was present. That was the allure of having and I.E. Pay a steep price for one person’s life, and guarantee their permanent obedience and loyalty.
But I would be able to move around the city, right? I’d still be able to visit my parents and breathe fresh air? It wouldn’t be freedom, but it wouldn’t be a tiny cage, either.
Huxley Cayne hadn’t budged from his casual tilt against the wall. I wasn’t even sure if he’d blinked in the last minute.
Somehow, he’d found out about my trial and what I’d done. He’d come here on the chance that I’d be given a severe sentence and now, he was ready to take advantage of my desperation.
And given me the perfect ultimatum without uttering a word.
Just as reality began to sink into my bones like frost, the dragon shifter seemed to sense it. Like a shark smelling blood in the water.
The right side of his mouth lifted a fraction.
Hatred burned in my stomach. The bastard was smiling at me.
But it’s not like a soulless killer would care about my feelings. He’d roasted over 100,000 people without showing an ounce of regret. And gotten away with it.
Without breaking eye contact with Cayne, I said through gritted teeth, “I’ll take the Indentured Employment.”
“No, Aster!” Mom shouted just as a gavel struck wood.
“It’s settled,” Councilman Hayes said, smugness oozing from him. “The papers have already been prepared. Your Indentured Employment status is effective immediately.”
10
Roger clapped me on the shoulder. “Excellent choice. Great, great work. Have to be off, now.”
“Choke on a dick,” I replied coolly.
My lawyer gave me one wary look, wiped his brow and then scuttled out of the courtroom.
The Council retreated out of sight, likely using some back door to disappear. Leaving me to my fate.
I was shaking. So, so damn nervous. For some reason, I couldn’t find the willpower to face Huxley Cayne again. It was different now.
I was… his.
This day had to — needed — to be a bad dream. I wanted to wake up in my apartment among my candles and layers of soft blankets and go to my crappy Union job like normal.
Instead, someone tapped on my shoulder.
Reluctantly, I tilted my chin up, expecting to see Cayne above me. Gloating.
Instead, a woman smiled down at me. She had upturned eyes that held sadness, or maybe pity. A silver “V.C.” was embroidered in her jacket. Vulcan Corp.
Her small hand held out, she said, “I’ll be escorting you to the facilities.”
I jerked my head around. Cayne was gone. For some reason, that made me even angrier. He’d just bought me in the eyes of the law, and he wasn’t even going to stick around?
Not that I wanted to talk to him. At all.
The woman flinched as I shot to my feet. “Fine! Take me away!” I started off toward the doors.
“Oh no! Not that way.”
I swiveled. She was pointing to a door that had appeared in the wall beside my table. Had that been there before?
“For safety reasons,” she explained. “These doors are here to keep those in the courtroom safe from the public.”
Like the public cared about me.
“Cool trick. I need to see my parents.” They weren’t in the audience anymore. They must be in the lobby.