Vetta had a sleepless night—a very restless night.
She couldn’t leave the palace all morning because her quarters were being cleaned out, and it would make the maids suspicious if she went out before that time and was out for long.
She waited impatiently; by afternoon, the worry was almost dissolving her liver. When the maids finished purging all the rooms in the mistress’s quarters, she sent them away. Then she dressed up in a yellow, well-embroidered corset and a very long veil to hide her face when she left the palace.
It was a long walk because she couldn’t take the carriage. That would raise too much suspicion.
Vetta knocked on Karandy’s door when she finally arrived. It was cold outside, and her insides were in chaos as she waited impatiently for him to open the door.
A few minutes passed before the door opened and Karandy stepped out.
“You left me standing out here!” she hissed as she pushed past him into the house.
“I’m sorry, Mistress, but I had to discharge the woman that spent the night with me. We wouldn’t want her seeing you here now, would we?”
That calmed her down. “You take whores to your house every day?” Her disgust was apparent.
“A man has an appetite,” Karandy answered as he locked the door.
“They caught the two women we used. They’re being held in the palace dungeon.” Vetta got straight to the point.
“I know. I heard all about it yesterday.” Karandy walked past her and strode into his small kitchen to make something to drink.
“What are we going to do!?” Vetta burst out, unable to keep calm anymore. “Do you have any idea what this means?”
He nodded, and that’s when Vetta saw his worry too. “I’m more worried than you are, Mistress,” he admitted. “I’m the person these women know. I’m the one that made a deal with them and gave them money.”
“You said you swore them to secrecy!” She glared hard at him.
“I did. But you, more than anybody, should know how hard it is to be interrogated by the king. Hell, just standing in front of him is as unnerving as shit. Makes a man spill his guts.” He downed the drink and slammed the wooden cup on the old table.
Vetta knew the truth of his words, and it did nothing to calm her nerves. She remembered vividly how Karandy implicated himself during his interrogation by the king. He was whipped and demoted as punishment.
What in Hades had she gotten herself into?
She should have gone with her original plan. At least that one involved only Karandy, and it would have been a cleaner job.
“I know you think we should have gone for our original plan, right?” He didn’t try to keep the smugness from his tone.
Admittedly, she nodded, then glared at him with superiority because she didn’t like being in the wrong.
At that moment, Karandy didn’t care. “It would have been a faster and cleaner job. I put on a mask, ambush the both of you, get her in a dark corner and fuck her brains out. You watch it happen and tell the king all about it so that she can’t hide it. So damn simple.” He took a cigarette and a lighter from the wretched counter beside him, then lit the cigarette up and took a long drag.
He was being disrespectful to her by smoking in her presence. In normal circumstances, Vetta could order him to be whipped for such blatant disrespect. But this wasn’t a normal situation.
“So, what do we do now?” she asked, ignoring his smoking.
He took another long drag. “I can take care of it. I can make sure those women never say a word about me, no matter how well they are interrogated.”
Hope flared in her eyes. “You can?”
He nodded once. It was very easy to ensure that part happened.
“How will you do it?”
“I have… connections. You don’t need to know, Mistress. I can get it done, but I’ll need a huge reward.” He planned to kidnap both women’s children and send word to them in prison. He’d give them a choice.
Their silence or their children.
Mothers are too predictable. He smiled within himself and took another drag of his cigarette.
“Money is never the problem.” Vetta reached into her corset, withdrew a small, wrapped cloth filled with coins, and dropped it on the table. “Just get the job done.”
Karandy took the money greedily, as usual.
But this time around, he wanted something else too.
.
.
.
CHAPTER 22
SHE WILL NOT CRY. SHE WILL NOT CRY.K
arandy’s eyes slid lustfully all over the mistress’s body. She was clad in an expensive yellow corset designed with several spreads of lace over it. Apart from the worried scowl on her face, the mistress was a beautiful woman—a beautiful woman with a black heart; he conceded, as his eyes did a slow once-over on her.
But her black heart made her even more attractive. He wanted her. Had wanted her for a long time. It was high time he demanded what he wanted.
Karandy dropped the unfinished cigarette on the table and looked at her. “I want something else too, Mistress.”
She frowned at him. “What is it?”
He was nervous to ask, but he had no reason to be. They were in a dangerous situation, and it was not as if she could tell the king because it’d expose her too. He had always wanted to eat from the same plate the king ate from, and even though the woman he wanted more was the former Princess Danika, the mistress would do for now.
Karandy stood and walked closer to her, lust in his eyes.
Vetta saw it, and her eyes darkened in anger. “You’d better not say what I think you are going to say,” she hissed.
“I can give you pleasure, Mistress,” he growled.
He raised his hand to caress her face, but she slapped his hand away. “Don’t ever put your hand on me! Ever again! I will not tumble in the sheets with dirt! How dare you even have such intentions!? I am the king’s woman!” Her eyes filled with fire even as her traitorous body reacted, but she was determined never to lie with him. How dare he!?
Now that his intentions were clear, Karandy became bolder. “The king will never know. And it’s just this once.”
“You’re not touching my body,” she spoke through gritted teeth. “You take the money and get us out of this mess you put us in!”
Karandy almost reminded her it was her idea to carry out that plan, but he didn’t. Instead, he boldly ran his hand down her arm. “This mess is big, Mistress, and it will not look good if we’re caught.”
“Those women know you only. They will rat on you only.” She smiled superiorly.
“And I will rat on you,” he informed her shamelessly.
The smile vanished from her face. Vetta’s eyes narrowed angrily. “Are you threatening me!?”
He flushed guiltily, but raised his chin all the same. “It doesn’t have to be that, Mistress. It’s just sex.”
“If you’re to fuck any of the king’s women, it’s supposed to be Danika. Not me.”
“But I find you more attractive.” He lied smoothly, with desire.
Vetta’s eyes flashed. The woman in her that had always felt like Danika was better than her felt pleased immensely. She cleared her throat and averted her eyes. “Still, I’m not letting you put your filthy hands on me.”
He shrugged and moved away, then picked up the bag of coins from the table and gave it back to her. “Those women will just have to tell on me then. I can’t guarantee that I will keep my mouth shut, Mistress.”
“Don’t be stupid. Think with your head, you dirty slave. They will kill you!” she hissed at him. “Do you really want to gamble with your life!?”
He shrugged. “My life means nothing. And I’ll be taking you with me.”
Vetta’s anger knew no bounds—mostly because she knew she had been defeated. This was NEVER supposed to happen! She swore never to let a man without privilege touch her again in her life. She was no longer that slave!
But here it was again. This bastard wanted to pull her down to his level! She would never forgive him for this!
Vetta hid her loathing well and crossed her arms. “Are you on herbs? Because I am not carrying your filthy seed inside me!” she snapped at him.
Karandy smiled triumphantly, not taking any offense from her insults. After all, he was about to fuck the king’s mistress. “Yes, Mistress. I cannot get you pregnant.” He was a man that slept with cheap whores all the time, so he had to buy herbs from the medicine woman down the road periodically.
Vetta nodded and began taking off her clothes. Outside, she looked cool and calm about it, but on the inside, she was seething in anger and rage.
Just the thought of what would happen made her skin crawl.
But first things first: she would do this and come out of this mess.
Then he would regret this; she would make sure of it! She vowed inwardly as she undressed.