Dark Abyss by Kaitlyn O'Connor (top fiction books of all time txt) 📗

a hell of a lot more like a cold dismissal. They’d dragged her from her home in the middle of the night, in her nightgown, nearly drowned her, scared her half to death, and then grilled her almost non-stop for two days and that was all? ‘We’re cutting you loose, ma’am’? ‘Sorry for the inconvenience’?

“That’s it?” she demanded in dawning anger.

“Yes, ma’am.” He hesitated. “Unless you’d like to help further the investigation by giving us a description of Miles Cavendish and anyone else you might remember from the party.”

She gave him a stony look. “I’m not sure how helpful I could be. My memory of it isn’t very clear after two days of interrogations and almost no damned sleep! To say nothing of having the pure piss scared out of me by having four men invade my house in the middle of the night and haul me off without even bothering to tell me they were cops!”

“That’s what I thought,” he said grimly. “You are your father’s daughter.”

Anna narrowed her eyes at him. “And you, of course, aren’t a bigot for judging me by something I had no control of, but I’m a bigot because I think it would be better for everybody to focus on feeding people rather than tampering with their DNA!”

“Nobody’s judging you!” Simon growled.

“Like hell!” Anna snapped. “I’m sitting here, aren’t I?”

Simon ground his teeth. “It was a lead we had to follow.”

“Now I’m a lead? I’m not even a person?”

“I didn’t come in here to argue with you!” Simon snarled.

“Why did you come? Why didn’t you send one of the others?”

“Because I’m High Guardian. It was my orders to take you, and it’s my job to explain and apologize!” he growled.

“Well! You did that! And with such charm I feel better already!” Anna snapped sarcastically. “When do I leave?”

“Not soon enough to suit me,” Simon muttered, turning on his heel and stalking toward the door.

Spying a book on the table by the bed, Anna snatched it up and threw it at the door as Simon slammed it behind him.

“That’s considered assaulting an officer of the law!” he growled from the corridor.

“So arrest me and beat me up with your nightstick, asshole! You’ve already terrorized me, and manhandled me, and locked me up, and drilled me for hours and hours, and breathed for me!” She cringed when she realized that she’d accused him of drilling her. “I meant grilled!”

“I’m going to be really pissed off if you broke my book!”

Her shoulders slumped when she heard him stomp off down the hall. The urge to cry came out of nowhere. She sniffed, blinking at the stinging in her eyes, wondering why she felt so … thrown away … so afraid.

It occurred to her with a force that dried up the urge to cry that she was afraid.

She wasn’t relieved to discover they were going to haul her back to her place and dump her.

Because Miles Cavendish had found her and she wasn’t nearly as convinced as they seemed to be that he’d given up on her and left for good. What if he came back for her? What if he sent someone to collect her?

Beyond that, how was she going to live? Carry on her research? Her home, her research garden and everything in it belonged to Miles Cavendish! He owned her! She wasn’t even sure it would be safe to try to get another research grant. She hadn’t known he was behind the one she’d gotten! How could she ever be sure he wasn’t behind anything else she happened to get? Keeping tabs on her, having her constantly watched, maybe demanding that she become a part of his organization?

That was why her mother had run as far and as fast as she could, to keep from being tied to a man who thought killing was an answer, and she’d run until she had gone to college. Her mother had desperately wanted that for her, and she’d known she would never earn a degree if she was yanked out of college and moved every six months or so.

She didn’t know her father had had anything to do with her mother’s death. The police had never solved her murder. But it wasn’t beyond the realms of possibility, whether it was likely or not. Miles thought nothing of killing people he didn’t even know! How much more motive would he have for killing someone who’d crossed him?

Her mother had to have known something or she wouldn’t have run to start with.

And what about her? Why had he suddenly decided to reveal himself? Had he leapt to the same conclusion that Simon had? Read her papers and decided she saw things the same way he did?

As far as she knew, she was his only child. Had he decided it was time to start grooming her to take over?

That seemed just too farfetched. If he’d been having her watched, he had to know that she didn’t have it in her to run anything, certainly not an organization like his. But what other reason might he have?

Not love, certainly.

She was never going to feel safe again, not while he lived! Not when he could pop into her life at any moment and turn it upside down!

That’s why she was so angry with Simon. She felt like he was throwing her to the wolves!

That was most of it, anyway. As soon as she realized that much, she also realized that, in spite of everything, she was deeply attracted to him. It was deflating to be so summarily dismissed when she