Page 79 of Now or Never
“There’s nothing I can say that would satisfy you.” He set the glass on the table, his forearm on the edge. Fingers around the drink. “Any interest or curiosity in the young woman you adopted will be misconstrued. You already know my opinion of the company you keep here. Any other person in your periphery will immediately be viewed as a potential victim if I bring themup. When I only wish to get to know you and those you hold dear.” His gaze drifted over in the direction where Bruce had remained with Amara, and she was pretty sure she saw a slight curl in his lips.
“You don’t have a problem with Amara or Zeyla the way you do with Bruce. Why is that?” Seemed to her it was backward. Surely, it meant Kenna should be more wary of Amara becauseDominatushad no problem with her.
“She’s given up a lot of her more…problematic activities.”
“And as such, she doesn’t represent as much of a threat?” Kenna hoped that was a mistake on their part.
“We all have our ends, and those who stand in our way. Perhaps, if given the chance, I could usher my people into a new era.”
“Global control?” She wasn’t sure it wasn’t the goal of any of the candidates forImperatoristo take over Canada, the UK, Europe, and the US in one go. Whether that presented a threat to innocent people under their rule likely depended on who was voted in.
“Am I to apologize for wishing to be king?”
He’d been born in the wrong country if he wanted that. “You already have a whole lot of power.”
“There is always more.”
“What do you know about Major General Schnell?”
Petyr blinked, and the skin around his eyes contracted.
“Could he be the one who tried to kill you?”
He muttered a word in Croatian she probably didn’t want translated.
“Is he alive?” Kenna asked. “Because if you know where I might find him, I can put a stop to the present threat.”
“We have rules.” Before she could respond, he continued, “But in this case, his actions are permitted. As yours would be.”
“So, because he has other people do it, the rules of engagement permit him trying to take out you and probably everyone else who threatens him being voted in asImperatoris.”
Petyr hissed in a breath.
She wasn’t going to apologize for saying that aloud and potentially jeopardizing the secrecy of it. “This is about innocent lives. People caught in the crossfire. Too many have lost their lives for whatDominatuswants. It has to stop. Here and now, this needs to end.”
“Then ensure I gain the vote, and you will be safe.” He sat back and sipped his drink, so satisfied with his plan. Except that put more innocent lives at risk.
He wanted her to bargain for her family’s future with his bid for power. As if that was the surest way he had to become the leader.
“What I do isn’t for you,” she stated.
“The end result is the same,” Petyr said. “Your safety and my leadership are intertwined.”
He seemed to genuinely believe he was her best bet at a future that didn’t involve more grief and terror than she’d ever experienced before in her life. Which was saying something.
“I don’t want any part of this.” She couldn’t care less than she did about who was in charge, except that he was right. Kenna didn’t want to admit that much, however. Why let him know that he was right and might be her safest bet? If she was interested in gambling with her future, that was.
She would rather trust God for the outcome.
“Let the chips fall where they may.” She shrugged her bare shoulders, suddenly aware she’d come to this event in her finest just for this. “Or help me eliminate a dangerous threat, both to you and to innocent people.”
Rather than leave the fight up to her and claim mutual benefit when her family inevitably succeeded—which always meant lives at risk—he had to participate in this.
“Help you how?” he asked.
Kenna found herself back on solid footing, rather than off balance by this man who hid his lethality behind a veneer of civility. She doubted she was cut from his cloth, even if she were genetically related to him. She’d been raised by the man she called Dad, and he’d never been a foreign dignitary.
Malcom Banbury was a man who fought for his brand of justice.
