Page 50 of Vows of Revenge

His eyes flared. ‘Kassia—I have to speak to you.’

‘Get away from me!’ she cried again.

She tried to plunge forward again, down a path—any path. Any path that would take her away from this nightmare. But she felt her arm taken in a grip she could not shake.

‘Kassia, listen—listen!’

‘To what? What else is there for me to hear? My father has said it all!’

Damos swore. Vehement and vicious.

‘Your father is a brute! Don’t take any notice of him—he isn’t worth it!’

She rounded on him. ‘And you? Are you worth anything more?Areyou? Because what the hell was going on in there? What is all thisabout? Why is Cosmo Palandrou here? Why did you say my father’s deal would still be on the table for him if he wanted it? What deal? And why...whydid my father say those things about me? Those hideous, hideous things!’

The words, the questions, tumbled from her, anguished and uncomprehending. She was caught in this nightmare. She’d been catapulted into it. Her heart was pounding—she could feel it—and there was nausea inside her, rising up. She stared at Damos, still hearing her father’s vile denunciation ringing in her ears.

Desperate denial filled her.

It’s not true, it’s not true!

‘Damos,why?’ she cried again.

Her eyes clung to his, but there was something wrong about them...something wrong in his face, in its starkness, in the tightness of his mouth, the set of his jaw.

A sudden fear went through her.

Damos was speaking, answering her. His voice was as tight as his expression.

‘There is no good way to tell you this, Kassia—and I wish to God you’d never had to know! I never intended you to. But Cosmo Palandrou was there tonight because your father wants you to marry him,’ Damos bit out, his face stark and grim. He gave a harsh, short laugh, bereft of humour, and his breath incised sharply. ‘Make thatwantedyou to marry him.’

Kassia was staring at Damos. There was still something wrong with his face—but then there was something wrong with the universe right now. Something hideously wrong...

‘Marry Cosmo?’ she said. Her voice was hollow, her eyes uncomprehending.

‘Yes,’ Damos said grimly. ‘Look, I have to explain...’

She heard him incise his breath again, as if forcing himself to speak, and when he did constraint tightened every word.

‘Your father is after Cosmo’s company. Cosmo’s playing hardball and holding out for more. So...’ His breath knifed again. ‘Your father was going to throw you into play. Offer Cosmo the role of his son-in-law.’ His voice changed. ‘Kassia, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry that he said such things to you! I never—’

She raised her hand to stop him. What Damos had just told her about Cosmo Palandrou could not be true! It couldn’t be! Her father couldn’t possibly want what Damos said. And yet...

Why else would Cosmo Palandrou be here this evening?

The hollow inside her became suddenly a yawning chasm, And why else had her father been so angry to see her with Damos? So angry with Damos?

‘He called me those vile things because you were with me,’ she said blankly. ‘But why?’ Her words were suddenly as heavy as stones. ‘Why was he saying...saying that you...you were only interested in me because I’m his daughter? And why was he so angry withyou...?’

Damos’s face was stark, his features like granite. She saw him take a breath—brief and harsh.

‘Because,’ he said tightly, his mouth set—as if, she thought suddenly, he did not want to speak but was making himself do so, ‘your father is not the only party interested in acquiring Cosmo Palandrou’s company.’

Kassia heard his words. And as she did so a wheel started to turn very slowly somewhere in the recesses of her shattered mind.

‘You,’ she said. Her voice was empty.

He nodded. There was still that closed expression on his face, the same tightness in his voice and in the set of his mouth.

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