“No … they … are … not.” Ginny gave him a withering stare. “I saw you kill Gyi with your own hands.”
Slowly, he capped the syringe.
“Finally … finally!” Satisfaction poured out of Allerton as if he had run a mouse into a corner and was about to beat it to death. “My dear, that was what I waiting for.”
Ginny fiddled with her bracelet, as if he was beneath her notice. “What? For me to admit that I saw you kill Gyi, and willingly watched Manny being beaten by your men to what I assume was his death? You should have just asked. I would have told you that first day you sent for me to come to your office.” Ginny said carelessly, dropping the secret she had harbored for so long and downplaying the admission to deliberately rile him even further. It was everything she could do to set aside her hatred and disgust of the man to appear unaffected.
Her plan worked.
Angered by her indifference to what he believed to be his victory at getting the admission from her, Allerton reached out, ripped the bracelet from her wrist, and flung it across the room. The metal clinked on the glass table.
“That was very rude.”
His veneer of sophistication cracked, exposing the monster within. His hands encircled her throat as he began strangling her, shaking her like a rag doll.
Forcing herself not to panic, she grabbed his wrists, fighting dizziness as she used her nails to rip into his flesh. At the same time, she brought her knee up … hard. Allerton released her with a howl of pain, as he went to his knees.
She would have kneed him in the face, but two guards caught her by the arms and dragged her back. The guard who’d brought the polygraph machine took out a baton from his holster, pulling his arm back, preparing to bring it down on her head.
“Stop,” Allerton ordered, using the edge of his desk to help himself to his feet. Holding onto the desk, he slowly limped around it to sit down on his chair. Then, flinging the syringe onto the desk, he opened a side drawer to take out a golden handle.
Ginny frowned at the object, not understanding what it went to.
As Allerton rose from the desk, she watched his eyes go to the computer screen while simultaneously pressing a button on the golden handle. With a click, the handle lengthened into a long cane.
Straightening to his full height, Allerton started to move away from his desk when something must have caught his eye because he turned back to the computer.
“Riz, Desmond is by door six. Go see why he is loitering there.”
Ginny wanted to rub her arm when the guard released her, but the second guard secured her other arm. The three additional guards in the room closed in on her.
“You’re such a coward. You have to pay other men because you’re too much of a wimp to take on one woman by yourself.”
Coming out from behind the desk, Allerton slid his hand down from the golden handle to the middle of the cane to twirl it between his fingers. Then, as he drew closer to her, he let the cane slip through his fingers until he held the handle once again. Raising the cane higher in the air, he moved it around and she heard it create a whizzing sound.
“What happened to the islanders on Clindale?” Ginny asked before he could strike her.
An evil smile played on his cruel lips. “I’ve been waiting for you to ask me that question. What do you think happened to them?”
“I think you killed the strongest ones and sold the weaker ones.”
“You’re too astute for your own good. Move away from her, Nino.”
The guard hastily dropped her arm to move a safe distance away.
Ginny didn’t cower or try to run, knowing the guards would be on her in an instant to drag her back. She simply and proudly raised her chin. “Who did you sell them to?”
Swinging the cane in an arch, he then brought it down, hitting her in the thigh. Agonizing pain splintered through her, forcing her to her knees.
“I didn’t sell them. I gave them away for free.”
“You don’t do anything for free.” Childhood memories of the generous people who she had considered family gave her the strength to keep antagonizing him.
“I did receive a few perks,” he boasted with a mocking laugh at her disgusted expression. “I didn’t keep any of them for myself. I haven’t kept my wealth intact by being foolish. Being blackmailed or incarnated holds no appeal for me.
“I have found, while men exercise caution with their businesses, where women are concerned, they tend to lose their judgment. While I’m not above taking advantage of their lapses, I have lived my life above reproach. I have not had to refute claims of any sexual crimes. I keep my sexual activities to those who are willing, and where I can’t be accused of coercion. It’s not as stimulating or exciting, but then, neither do I have to bow to a woman’s demands or deal with an unexpected pregnancy. Too many of my friends have been held hostage to the dictates of their child’s mother, both financially and emotionally. I am accountable to no one but myself.”
Ginny let her eyes spew the hate she felt. “That’s not true. Just because your crimes haven’t been discovered, doesn’t make you’re unaccountable. One day your crimes will catch up with you.”
“If that day comes, which it won’t,” Allerton continued, unperturbed by her threat, “I have several residences where I can live just as comfortably as I do here.”
“My death won’t go without punishment.”
“By whom? The Last Riders?”
The whizzing sound of the cane was the only forewarning she received as Allerton brought it down on her shoulder.
Ginny winced in pain but didn’t lower her hate-filled eyes from his.
“Please,” he scoffed, “they won’t even be a thorn in my side. Your parents?”
The cane whizzed again before striking her other shoulder.
Ginny held Gavin’s image to keep strong. He had suffered for years at Slate’s abuse; she could bear whatever Allerton dished out to get the answers she needed.
“Jasper?” Allerton gleefully went on, trying to tear her down mentally and physically. “You’ll be seeing him when Nino reunites you with Gavin. He was no threat to me. Soleil? She has been loyal only to me, even before your disappearance. Why do you think your parents remained on Clindale after there was no further need of them to do so, and why does she stay on Sherguevil with me now?”
“You tell me.” Flippantly Ginny asked the question wanting the answer more for Trudy than herself. Her sister deserved her own answers.
“Jasper was a brilliant engineer, unfortunately for him, too brilliant. I needed him on my team. No one doubted Jasper’s integrity, and it was much easier when several of my patrons needed permits. It took awhile for him to decide to get on board, but eventually Jasper agreed.”
“You blackmailed him, forced him to give the go-ahead for permits,” Ginny guessed.
Allerton smug grin became even more pronounced. “You give me too much credit. I wasn’t the one who blackmailed him.”
“What did Mother use to blackmail him?”
“You’ll have to ask her that question. I left that tedious task to her.”
“You’re lying.”
“How does it feel to be lied to?” He said as he swung the cane.