Fated Blades
- Автор: Эндрюс Илона
- Серия: Kinsmen #3
- Год: 2021
- Язык: английский
- Год: Montlake
- ISBN: 9781662500435
- Жанр: Любовно-фантастические романы
Электронная книга - «Fated Blades». Краткое содержание книги:
At first glance, the planet Rada seems like a lush paradise. But the ruling families, all boasting genetically enhanced abilities, are in constant competition for power―and none more so than the Adlers and the Baenas. For generations, the powerful families have pushed and pulled each other in a dance for dominance.
Until a catastrophic betrayal from within changes everything.
Now, deadly, disciplined, and solitary leaders Ramona Adler and Matias Baena must put aside their enmity and work together in secret to prevent sinister forces from exploiting universe-altering technology. Expecting to suffer through their uneasy alliance, Ramona and Matias instead discover that they understand each other as no one in their families can―and that their combined skills may eclipse the risks of their forbidden alliance.
As the two warriors risk their lives to save their families, they must decide whether to resist or embrace the passion simmering between them. For now, the dance between their families continues―but just one misstep could spell the end of them both. (less)
“What was your father shipping?”
Ramona gave him a side-eye. “Wouldn’t you like to know.”
“The tax on exporting relucyte relays is thirty percent,” Matias said. “It’s quite prohibitive. Of course, your father couldn’t possibly be shipping relucyte. That would make him a dirty tax evader. What were those shipments labeled? Oh, I remember now. Low-grade transistor modifiers.”
She picked up a pebble and tossed it at him.
“Was it worth it?” he asked.
“No. I didn’t want to marry Gabriel, but Father threatened to excise me, and he was stubborn enough to go through with it. Karion had just lost his arm, and Santiago kept getting into dumb fights and creating legal issues. I had to stay. A year later I forced my father out.”
He thought her father had peacefully retired. “How did you manage that?”
“I had help from my mother. She’d wanted to retire for a long time. And my father didn’t resist very much. He was in his late fifties when he had us. By the time I took over, he had worked on behalf of the family for seventy-two years. The day after he retired, we were out of the relucyte business.”
“How did he take it?”
“Surprisingly well. He believed in trial by fire. In ancient times, my father would have thrown me and my brothers in a pit with wolves to fight over scraps to toughen us up. He later told me that I had been too passive. Forcing me into a marriage I hated ‘galvanized’ me into action. When I had gotten the better of him, it just confirmed in his head that he had done everything right. The relucyte was no longer his problem. He settled into his forced retirement. Occasionally he calls me and nags me about producing some grandchildren.”
“Why didn’t you have any? You like children.”
“I didn’t want to have Gabriel’s children.”
The finality in her words struck at him.
“It’s not because he didn’t want to. Gabriel would have loved to have a little version of himself. It was a punishment.”
Inwardly, Matias recoiled. He’d never understood why he and Cassida were childless. They’d slept together often enough, at least in the first two years. Neither of them was infertile. Now he knew. Cassida didn’t want to have his children. She had written him off.
“What kind of man is Gabriel?” he asked.
Ramona sighed again. “Charming. He is easy to talk to. He’ll greet you with a welcoming and genuine smile. He makes you feel like he’s really glad to see you and very interested in whatever you have to say. You’ll talk to him for fifteen minutes, and half an hour later you can’t recall exactly what you’ve discussed, but you’ll be left with this vague pleasant feeling. And if somebody asks you about him, you’ll tell them Gabriel is the nicest guy.”
That explained volumes.
“At first I tried giving him a position with the family. Nothing too important, but enough to keep him busy. He had a nice office and his own team. He played businessman for about three months. He was openly distracted during meetings, he forced his subordinates to make decisions for him, and he gave his team no direction, but he charmed the four female employees into his bed. One of them was almost three times my age.”
“Why?” Why would a man married to Ramona be with anyone else?
“Because he could. Cheating is pathological with him. I quietly replaced him and told him to direct his attention away from the family’s employees. Having your husband screwing everybody who works for you tends to damage one’s standing.”
He knew kinsmen who would’ve killed for less. “Did he ever try to justify it?”
She shook her head. “He didn’t feel he had to. The first time, when I was angry and hurt, he waited until I vented enough, gave me that charming smile, and told me he’d made reservations for a special dinner the next day.”
“Did you go?” He would bet his life she hadn’t.
“No.”
A shadow flickered across her face. Gabriel had hurt her. She hid it quickly. She was a proud woman, but Matias had seen the knot of pain, outrage, and sadness that for a moment twisted her mouth and dulled her eyes. He would have to be careful in Adra. If he got his hands on Gabriel, the urge to wring his neck might prove too tempting. Ramona wouldn’t mind being a widow, but he couldn’t rob her of the satisfaction she would feel when she made her husband sign the annulment.
“Gabriel agreed to the marriage because the alternative was, in his words, ‘too messy,’” she said. “I thought that if we couldn’t love each other, at least we could try to be a team since we were stuck together. After the fight, I knew we would never be a couple. So I settled for leading separate lives. I made him comfortable.”
For some reason, that word made him violently angry. “Why didn’t you divorce him?”
She gave him a small sad smile. “The agreement my father signed has a ten-year noncompete option. If I divorce Gabriel before the ten years are up, his family will cancel my shipping contracts. If I attempt to hire a different shipping company, I will owe his cousin a huge amount of money in compensation. It will cripple our family financially.”
He had a rotten feeling. “And if Gabriel dies?”
“Funny you ask. If Gabriel dies, I will also be fined. Although this fine will be one-tenth of the amount I’d have to pay if I divorce him. His existence is inconvenient to his family. They want him dead without staining their own hands with blood. They expect me to murder him to cut myself free.”
Rage swelled in him. “Your father—”
“As I said, he thought I was too soft. This was his lesson about hard choices.”
He wasn’t sure who he wanted to strangle more, her father or her husband.
Her eyes were clear, her gaze hard. “I won’t do it. I will not allow them to force me to kill another human being. I alone will decide whose life I choose to take.”
Gabriel was the dumbest man in the galaxy.
Ramona sighed. “My plan was to wait the contract out. Once we got the seco research, I realized that it was the perfect way to get the family’s finances on solid ground. We had to find something to replace relucyte, and the seco presented an ideal opportunity. I threw myself into work.”
He knew that feeling.
“I didn’t expect any marital loyalty,” she continued. “I gave Gabriel plenty of money and all the freedom he could handle. All he had to do, literally, the only thing he had to do, was to be loyal to the family. He was incapable of even that. Do you know how he got our files, Matias? He walked into the cyber center, smiled, and downloaded them. Nobody paid him any attention. We’d labeled him harmless and useless for so long that nobody even questioned his right to be there. He walked right out with all of our research. This is the man I married. And now I am done. I no longer care about his family or the fines. I only want to be free of him.”
She would be free of him if it was the last thing Matias did.
Ramona shrugged as if trying to take off a restraining garment. “Your turn.”
“I needed a law.”
“The sixth-level tech embargo,” she guessed. “That was you?”
He nodded. “Seco development required importing Kelly-particle agitators. There was no way around it. It would take eighteen months to build them planet side, eight months to set up the factory, and the rest for assembly. We didn’t have the time or the funds to do it, but we could buy them for a fraction of the cost. I pulled some strings to get the proposal for lifting the embargo on the Senate floor, but Drewery and his bloc shut it down.”
Surprise slapped her face. “You sold yourself to Drewery for the seco research, and we and the Davenports benefited from it.”