Page 19 of My Orc Billionaire
“When they were done with us, the media made a case that we deserved compensation, so we were given hush money. Abydos took his, found the lithium mine—no idea how he did that, but he’dalwaysloved rocks and nature, climbing all over the mountains since we were kitlings. Anyhow…” He shrugged. “He got rich, and some of the others invested in his company, and they got rich too.”
I had questions about the mine and his refining plant, and the town, and the year they spent with the scientists, most of which Tarkhan—and occasionally Sami—could answer. But when I started asking questions specific to Abydos, my cousin’s Mate became more and more reluctant to answer.
Finally, he winced. “I’m sorry, Riven. I know you’re only asking because you’re curious about your employer, but…if you really want to know abouthim, you’ll have to ask Abydos.”
I managed not to snort. Imagine me asking him all sorts of personal questions like that.Ha.
But I patted the air in a conciliatory gesture and propped my booted feet up on the edge of the firepit. “Iunderstand, you’re loyal to him, and I’m sorry if I made you feel?—”
“No, no, it’s okay.” Tarkhan smiled a little crookedly down at Sami. “I love him, I do. I just don’t feel right revealing all his secrets.”
“Especially to thehelp,” I quipped, and offered a bright smile when both of their disapproving gazes snapped to me. “Okay, okay, one more question. Not about him specifically, just…ah…” I mean, itwasabout him, but also general. I realized I was plucking at the cuff of my cozy orange sweater but didn’t stop. “An orc’s tusks.” I snuck a peek across the fire. “Are they sensitive?”
Tarkhan hummed, glanced down at his Mate, then met my gaze. The flames threw his rueful expression into shadows and planes.
“Very sensitive,” he finally said. “We can feel and even taste with them.” His arm tightened around Sami, who giggled slightly, and I suspected there was something sexy they weren’t sharing, thank God.
“So, hypothetically…” I plucked at the orange thread again. “If a tusk was to break…?”
Tarkhan held my gaze, and I knew he knew who I was speaking about. But he finally answered.
“Hypothetically…Well then, it would hurt like shit. Traditionally, when a male breaks a tusk in warfare or whatever, he caps it to allow the nerves to heal. Leaving it exposed to the air causes pain and irritation. Only someone truly stubborn would leave it uncapped for eight years.”
My eyes had widened, remembering all the times I’d seen Abydos flick his tongue against his broken left tusk. “Eight years,” I whispered, wonderingwhyhe tortured himself like that for so long. “How did he break it?”
But across the fire, Tarkhan’s expression twisted ruefully, reminding me of his vow not to share his friend’s secrets. I held up my palm to interrupt him. “Nevermind.”
I didn’t need to know specifics.
Because it wasn’t only Abydos’s left tusk that was broken. He had scars up and down the left side of his face and body, didn’t he? Burn scars, wounds that hadn’t healed right. I wondered what had happened to him in that science facility, and if that was the explanation for his pain.
His hatred.
I remembered what he’d roared that first night, claws out as he’d pointed to his face.Humans are dangerous. I’d told him I hadn’t hurt him, I’d told him I had scars too.
And I did.
But my scars were still new.
In ten years, would my heart be as twisted as Abydos’s was now?
Chapter Five
Abydos
I stoodin the glass-enclosed office which overlooked the pit mine, my arms crossed as I frowned down at the horrific scar on the face of the earth. A scarI’dcaused.
“You want some coffee?”
I started, jerking my gaze to Garrak, who’d limped up to my side. “Not right now,” I told him. I would likely need some by this evening.
He shrugged, following my gaze out the window. “You seem distracted. Everything look good down there?”
No, it looked horrible. But I nodded. “Running at peak efficiency. As if you would allow anything less.”
My Director of Mining Operations nodded in satisfaction, resting his fist against the windowsill to take some of the weight off his prosthetic. It was a habit I doubted he was even aware of. “We’re going to surpass last quarter’s output, even with the protestors disrupting commutes and whatnot.”
Without turning to look at him, I grunted. “How are the guys feeling about that? Frustrated?”
