Page 67 of Wild Bond

“That is none of your concern,” I replied.

Safan grinned. “Oh, come now, finish the story. You left out the part where only a few years later, the boogeyman himself set you free, and now you’re a dragon rider, bonded to the Jade Dragon of all things. If anything, I’d say you should be thanking me.”

“Thanking you?” I sneered, incredulous at the sheer arrogance of this man. That well of hatred and anger was reaching a boiling point inside me the longer I looked at him and had to listen to each pathetic word that left his lying mouth.

“For setting all these events into motion,” Safan explained.

Suddenly I was more than done with the pointless ramblings of the man before me.

“Where is Lessa?” I demanded, interrupting whatever he had been saying.

A streak of anger flashed in his eyes, there and gone so quickly only someone who knew him would see it. He had always hated being interrupted. I had received several beatings for committing just such an offense. He had always been careful not to leave any permanent marks however, in case he ever did decide to turn me into a whore. Clients didn’t appreciate scars.

But now I was a dragon rider, and he could do nothing to me, and he knew it. And I relished it.

“I don’t know,” he finally said.

“Liar!” I yelled moving right in front of his desk. “You know where each and every one of yourassets,” I sneered the word, “are at all times. Where is she?”

“I don’t know,” he repeated with an infuriating smirk. “Perhaps she ran away. Troubled children like her go missing all the time. It’s an unfortunate reality of our world.”

I leaned down placing my hands on his desk as I stared right into his eyes. “We had your man followed. We know he took her.”

His expression gave nothing away, and I tried not to feel unnerved by how calm he was. How flagrantly he was taunting me even though I was one of two dragon riders standing in his office.

“What happened, Safan?” I asked. “Did Lessa finally escape you, refuse to work for you anymore? I’m sure your large ego couldn’t have that. So, you had to capture her to drag her back?”

Safan touched his steepled forefingers to his mouth before shrugging. “While that is a fascinating theory, it is unfortunately untrue. I have no idea where Lessa is, and for that matter, I have no say in what my men do in their free time. If you want to know where he took the girl, as you claim, you should ask him.”

I glared at him, fuming.

“Though, I will say,” he stood, placing both of his hands on the desk beside mine, “you know as well as I that anyone can go missing in this city . . . for the right price.”

My blood went cold at that statement. At the smug satisfaction in his eyes.

And the well of anger boiled over.

I reacted without thinking, pulled my daggers from my belt and stabbed him through both of his hands. Those perfectly manicured hands that had caused me so much pain and grief and helplessness over the years.

Satisfaction rushed through me as he cried out, and his eyes widened in shock and pain.

“Where is she?” I demanded, pressing the daggers in deeper. “And where are the others?”

“Rin!” Rake shouted, but I wasn’t listening. I could feel Skye’s worry for me and her fury at the man before me as well. But I ignored that too. I pushed it all to the back of my mind.

“Where is she?” I yelled again.

“You crazy bitch!” Safan cried.

I pulled my daggers out, intent on stabbing him somewhere else next, but then a strong arm grasped me around the waist and yanked me back.

“Rin!” Rake hissed in my ear. “You can’t kill him. We need him to talk.”

In a small, back corner of my mind I knew he was right. I knew I had just acted rashly out of anger and fear for my friend, but a larger, much louder, front and center part of my mind was screaming at me that what I had done wasn’t enough. That he deserved so much more. And he did.

All the same, I tried to take a deep breath and calm down.

“I’m not telling you anything!” Safan snarled as he scrambled to pull a cloth from his desk drawer and stanch the bleeding in both hands.

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