“And you?” He kept his eyes on her face, wanting to read her every expression.
“I didn’t talk much. I was quiet and I worked hard to learn everything. I practiced with anyone who would practice with me. There were a couple of the guys who were decent. Starks didn’t pay much attention because I did the work and didn’t flirt. He noticed I was good, but that was about it. The better I was, the harsher he got, but I didn’t care because it made me better. I knew not to challenge his ego.”
Malichai kept his gaze fixed on her face. There was so much more, and she was trying to sound matter-of-fact when there was so much pent-up emotion, she could barely contain it.
“Douglas Hines, one of the trainers, was nice. He worked with me most of the time. Over the years, I liked partnering with him because he was fast, and I had to be faster if I wasn’t going to get hit. Sometimes we practiced with rubber knives. In the beginning he’d raise welts all over me where he could slip through my guard, but eventually, he couldn’t do that anymore.”
She rubbed her chin and then stroked three fingers over her throat. Both were nervous gestures. “That was important to tell you. I’m not just rambling. One day Starks came outside where we were working with those practice knives. The rubber ones. I loved those workouts.”
There were tears in her voice and he wanted to comfort her. He made himself stay where he was. He needed to know everything about Starks she could give him.
“He was angry with Douglas and told him that training with rubber knives was for pussies and I would never learn anything unless I felt the blade go in. He pulled out his knife and indicated Douglas do the same. They went at it, and it wasn’t a training session anymore. Starks meant to kill him. Douglas knew it too. Starks was the head man in the yard, and there was no one to protest.”
“Starks always did have to be the best at everything. He liked to show off.” Malichai didn’t like where this was going. The fact that Amaryllis hadn’t flirted with him, had acted as if she barely acknowledged him, would have driven Starks crazy. He had a deep need to be noticed, to always be the one everyone feared or admired. Once his attention was centered on Amaryllis, he would have begun to really see her. Seeing her meant wanting her.
“When he slipped past Douglas’s guard and sank that knife in, I could see he’d gone for the kill. I tried to fend him off and he hit me hard. I tried to go for the kill myself. I have a poison I can use, but I couldn’t deliver it. I don’t know why. When he hit me, I blacked out.”
That was the first time Malichai had heard about a poison, but it didn’t surprise him. Bellisia could deliver a poisonous bite, as could Cayenne and Pepper.
“When I woke up, Douglas was dying, his blood running all over him, the ground and me where I lay next to him. Starks was sitting about six feet from us, just watching Douglas die with me next to him. I tried to help Douglas, and I called for help. A couple of the girls came, but none of the guards approached. They were all afraid of Starks.”
Malichai’s gut tightened into hard knots. He knew Amaryllis. He’d made it a point to observe her. She was extremely protective. She was fierce. And she was a warrior. He wanted to reach out to her, to stop that young girl from making a terrible mistake, but she’d already made it, he saw it on her face.
“Douglas died in my arms, his blood all over me. I got up, dusted off my knees, which was ridiculous, considering I was covered in blood and dirt from where I’d fallen when Starks hit me, and I walked over to where Starks was just sitting there watching as if he was at a movie theater. I kicked him right in the face. He wasn’t expecting it and he went over backward.”
Starks should have been expecting it, Malichai would have been. The man had been watching her, but he hadn’t really figured her out. His ego was probably too big to allow him to see her for what she was.
“I followed him, kicking and punching. I think I was a little insane. I tried again and again to kill him, to use the poison on him, but I couldn’t deliver the venom. The other guards eventually pulled me off of him. I think they did it to protect me, but I fought them too. In the end, Whitney came out to see what the commotion was about, and he sedated me. After that, my life was a little bit of a nightmare.”
Malichai could well imagine. The other guards would never make the mistake of laughing or even smirking at Starks, but he would always know they saw a girl beat the crap out of him.
Amaryllis rubbed the pad of her thumb across her forehead, back and forth, a soothing gesture, but he found it mesmerizing. “There was a photograph. Someone took it with a cell. No one was supposed to have a cell, especially in the yards around us, but one of the guards must have snuck it in.”
Malichai groaned. “Seriously? What did he do with it? Did he want to get you killed?” He wanted to find the guard and teach him a lesson. Again, it was far too late. The damage was already done.
“The photograph apparently was printed out and taped to Starks’s locker. I never saw the picture, but it was of me kicking the crap out of him. He was on the ground with his hands up, trying to keep me from kicking his teeth down his throat. He tried to make a joke of it, saying he thought it was funny and he didn’t want to hurt me, but no one believed him.”
Because it wasn’t true. Malichai might have found it funny to have a girl beat him up, but Starks never would. Never. And he’d never forget. Starks would be fixated on her, completely obsessed. He would want her to know he was superior to her and he would set out to prove it.
“Your life became somewhat of a nightmare?” he prompted.
She shrugged. “When we trained, if he was there, he singled me out and I always ended up hurt. Always. He was careful of my face, but certainly not the rest of me. I was always the example. He would pull me out of the lineup and instantly the yard would go eerily quiet because everyone knew he was going to hurt me.”
“Did you fight back?” He knew she had. Amaryllis didn’t have it in her to surrender to a man like Starks.
“Every time. That made him very happy and very angry at the same time.”
“Whitney decided he wanted you for his breeding program?”
“I’m certain it was Starks’s idea until Whitney found out about my ability to heal. Prior to that, Starks was very insistent. He began telling me Whitney was going to pair us. He’d whisper it to me when we were training. I completed every mission Whitney sent me on, but it didn’t matter how good I was in the field, Starks had Whitney’s ear and he thought it would be a fitting revenge. Then I healed that cut and the girl told on me. So, I knew I had no choice but to escape. And I did it right out from under Starks’s nose too.”
“All right, baby.” Malichai sighed. They were definitely in trouble. “Starks is going to be an enemy who will never stop until he’s dead. I think you know that. When I knew him, he always had to have his petty revenge against the smallest perceived infraction, I can imagine how he would feel about you besting him over and over.”
“I had no choice, Malichai.”
Her lashes lifted and she gave him that blue-eyed look that tore at his heart. He couldn’t imagine thinking he had her and then losing her. Starks would be insane with the need to find her, especially if Whitney really had paired them.