TENET: 36
Don't host visitors.
- Dr. H. VynFleet, 132 Tenets of Childcare & Maintenance
APRIL
April strode up to the elevator, needing to be as close as possible when Khall returned.
But when the doors finally slid open, it took her a second to get her head around what was happening. Instead of Khall, she was looking at a tall figure in a dark suit. He had massive shoulders and a shiny bald head. And the sight of him nearly stopped her heart.
“Vlax D’agryx,” April breathed, pulling Bo behind her.
“You landed in a real pretty place, didn’t you, sweetcheeks?” D’agryx sneered, looking around like a predator assessing his prey.
“I sent you a payment,” April said, willing herself to stand straight and tall. “Our business is done.”
“Oh, no,” D’agryx growled, his eyes glittering dangerously. “I say when our business is done. And it’s far from over. You’re mine, and you’re coming with me now.”
“April takes care of me,” Bo yelled, darting out from behind her.
“Oh, what have we here?” Vlax said, amused. “Don’t you know little girls are meant to be seen and not heard?”
Bo glowered at him.
“Bo, I need you to go to your room now,” April said quietly. “Minerva, please take her.”
Minerva stepped forward to grab Bo’s hand, and gasped.
D’agryx had pulled out a laser dagger. It sizzled and flickered in the air between them.
“The little lady will stay right here, I think,” he said. “And you too, big sis. I saw both of you dancing in that video today. Maybe you’d like to join your so-called nanny? Come and work for me?”
“That’s enough,” April spat, stepping between Vlax and Minerva. “Your imagined problem is with me. You will leave these children out of it.”
“Now there’s where you always get it wrong, sweetcheeks,” D’agryx said, his voice a menacing purr. “You think you get to call the shots. But that’s not how the world works. I’m teaching you a valuable life lesson. You should be thanking me.”
She stared into his vicious pale eyes, wishing she could kill him. She’d never had a thought like that about anyone before, even when she’d been on the run from this dangerous man. But now that he was here, with Bo and Minerva, everything had changed.
“Now, I’ve rented a very nice airship, thanks to your contribution, April,” he said, pointing toward the balcony with his dagger. “It’s going to take the four of us back home, and if your employer wants his brats back, he’ll make a contribution too. A much larger one, I think, don’t you?”
April’s eyes were fixed on the airship floating next to the balcony. Her mouth had gone dry with terror.
D’agryx stepped backward and kicked a chair between the open doors of the elevator, effectively trapping the car at the penthouse level. Now no one else could get to them.
April’s heart sank as her last hope disappeared.
To make things even worse, D’agryx pulled a blaster from his pocket, so that he had a weapon in each hand.
“Let’s go, sweetcheeks,” he said. “You first.”
She racked her brain, but could think of nothing to do but obey.
“Go now, or I start using the blaster on the kids,” he hissed. “A shot to the knee will cut their dancing careers real short.”
Minerva moaned, pulling Bo behind her as April’s bracelet began to buzz.
“Do not answer that,” D’agryx said. “Peel it off and drop it on the floor. All of you, drop your bracelets.”