Total pages in book: 94
Estimated words: 89162 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 446(@200wpm)___ 357(@250wpm)___ 297(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 89162 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 446(@200wpm)___ 357(@250wpm)___ 297(@300wpm)
There were laws against revenge porn now, but someone rich and famous like Zach Wyndham always seemed to be above the law. No police department would arrest him, let alone prosecute him! No lawyer wanted to take him on—not that Molly could afford a lawyer. Nobody would stop her horrible ex from making her life a living hell over and over and over again because nobody cared…
She sobbed it all out as Torus held her and he listened silently, stroking her trembling back and shoulders as she cried. At last when her sobs had turned to sniffles, he said two words,
“I care.”
“What?”
Molly looked up at him uncertainly. Her eyes felt red and puffy and her throat was sore from sobbing. She was sure she’d misheard him.
“I said, I care.” His face was grim and his silver-gray eyes had a dangerous glint of red in them. “I don’t understand how a male is allowed to treat his female the way you have been treated, but I do not think it is right and I do not blame you, Molly,” he added.
“You…you don’t?” She gulped and swiped at her eyes. “That’s really nice of you but…but I know you have to let me go anyway.”
“No, I do not!” he exclaimed, his eyes blazing. “Your employment here is not terminated.
“It’s not?” Molly could barely believe him. “But I’m sure everybody saw the video—”
“It was sent only to our department,” he told her. “I have instructed everyone to delete it from their files and when I get back, I will wipe it entirely from the Mother Ship’s mainframe.”
“When you get back?” Molly sniffed. “But…where are you going?”
“Hunting.” His voice was grim, but he was gentle when he scooted her off his lap. Molly turned around to face him. Even with him sitting and her standing, he was still taller.
He took her by the upper arms and looked earnestly into her eyes.
“Promise me that you will not end yourself while I’m gone,” he said. “Promise me! Give me your word.”
Molly had never seen her stoic boss look like this. He was angry—absolutely enraged, that was clear from his blazing red eyes and the set of his mouth—but he wasn’t angry at her.
“I…I promise,” she said in a small voice.
“Good. Now go back to work.”
“I can’t—” she began.
“You can. I don’t want you to be alone!” he snapped. “At the very least, go get your friend, Lana. The two of you have my permission to take the rest of the day off with full pay. Do what you want, just do it together.”
He rose and towered over her like a tree or a giant in a fairytale. Molly looked up at him, confused.
“But I don’t understand.” She shook her head.
“You don’t have to. Now, are you going to obey me?” His tone was so stern and his eyes were so scary, that Molly didn’t dare to disagree.
“Yes, Sir,” she said submissively.
“Good. You can call Lana on the Think-me and ask her to come out to meet you, if you want to—if you don’t feel like you can face the rest of the department,” he told her. His voice grew fierce. “But you have done nothing wrong. You can hold your head high, Molly. Remember that.”
Then he left the room, almost at a run. By the time Molly had pulled herself together and looked out into the corridor, he was gone.
5
TORUS
Rage was a bloody red curtain drawn down over Torus’s eyes. He stopped only once on the way to the Docking Bay. He made a quick detour to the Information terminal to look up the home address of Zach Wyndham.
A score of articles popped up and he read through them quickly. Most of them talked about what a “tech genius” the male was and how millions of humans were delighted with his computer apps and games. There were also mentions of how rich he was and how he had several domiciles in various parts of the world.
Torus made a note of all of them and used the Kindred-to-human database to get addresses for each one. This male was not escaping him—he would fly around the entire fucking Earth if he had to in order to find him!
As it turned out, the very first address yielded results. Torus set his shuttle—which was built to Jorgen size and so was much larger than a regular Kindred ship—down on the perfectly manicured front lawn of a mansion located in the state called Virginia. As he swung out of the shuttle, a man in a black suit came rushing out, waving his arms.
“Hey, you can’t park there! Nobody parks on the lawn!” he exclaimed. Then he seemed to get a really good look at Torus. “You can’t…” he began again and then trailed off.
Torus stepped up to him. The man was a pretty good size for a human, but Torus still towered head and shoulders above him.