Page 33 of Arresting the Warlord

I snickered.“And poor Tia found herself living in a cold, dark cave with little food or medicine.”

“That’s when fate stepped in. Tia and her family were killed by an Alliance hunter when they tried to flee Tanith. Cantor blamed Zarek for their deaths,”Jake responded.

“Did the moron attack Zarek?”

Jake removed the comm-links from the dead tourists’ severed arms. “No, the moron was captured by an Alliance patrol and spent two hundred years in one of their prisons.”

“That explains the rage. I take it Cantor finally got out.”

“He did and promptly decided to kidnap Detja.”

“And his revenge didn’t go as planned,”I said.

Jake laughed. “Detja kicked his ass.”

“I would have loved to have seen that. I’m surprised Zarek let him live.”Taking a deep, calming breath, I moved over to the heads.

Jake’s mouth tightened into a hard line as he scanned the woman’s mangled head.“That bastard still had friends in high places. He was sentenced to three hundred years on Vesta, a penal colony. He had served two hundred years of his sentence when he escaped a year ago.”

“Did he go after Detja again?”

“No. He simply vanished.”

“You think his friends in high places helped him disappear?”

“We do, but there’s no evidence to support our suspicions. Zarek sent Jivo to find him.”

“And here we are.”I carefully examined the area to see if I had missed any evidence. Nope. All body parts had been bagged and tagged. “Did we miss anything?”

“No. Another memory download and we’ll get your investigative skills up to Coletti standards.”

I gave Jake the stink eye. “I’m already a dammed good investigator.”

“For someone working in a Podunk police department,” Jake replied.

“And the jackass is back.”

Jake shrugged. “As my mate, you must have a certain level of expertise.”

“Mate?”

“Yes. Mate. You belong to me, CeeCee, now and forever.”

With a growl of rage, I drew on my shaman powers and whispered, “Sepulcrum ibidem solus novum. Vem Hum. Domum rotundam!”

A small black cloud formed over Jake.

“Don’t even think about,” Jake warned.

“I belong to myself. Not you. Not the Coletti Empire.”

“It’s a done deal. Nothing you say or do can change that fact, buttercup.”

“Wanna bet? Miraculin. Vivtorie construxit!” I smiled as a downpour of rain hit Jake.

Jake teleported around the butte, but the rainstorm kept up with him.

Poof! I suddenly had two hundred and eighty pounds of wet male wrapped around me. “Turn it off.”

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