Chapter6 Don’t let her screaming disturb the other guests
Maeve Thorne
Gideon let out a soft, condescending laugh that made my skin crawl. “Swapped? How convenient. Tell me, Dr. Thorne, are you aware of what we found in Damian’s system? A lethal dose of neurotoxin. Precisely in your area of expertise.”
He turned to the others, spreading his hands in a theatrical gesture of absolute certainty.
Viktor Kruger sat back in his chair, thick fingers idly stroking the heavy signet ring on his left ring finger. His eyes moved over me like I was a product on an auction block, calculating worth, calculating risk.
And Silas… Silas Voss didn’t even look up, as if the entire conversation bored him. The same man who had been buried inside me just hours ago, who had whispered my name while I fell apart beneath him, now treated me like I was invisible.
A wave of helplessness crashed over me so violently I almost staggered. In every operating room I’d ever worked, facts mattered. Evidence mattered.
Here, on this floating kingdom, truth was whatever the most powerful man in the room decided it was. My chest tightened until breathing hurt.
How the hell had I let myself believe, even for a second, that last night meant something? I had been nothing but a convenient distraction. A drugged, desperate woman who practically begged him to fuck her.
Of course he’d taken what was offered. Any man would. The realization burned like acid in my throat. I felt cheap. Used. Disposable.
I clenched my jaw so hard it ached and tried one last time. “I demand to be tried under international maritime law. The Elysium may be in international waters, but I am an EU citizen. I have rights—”
“Rights?” Gideon cut me off with another mocking laugh. “You still don’t understand, do you? On this ship, the only law is Mr. Voss’s will.”
He turned toward Viktor. “Mr. Kruger, I’ll need a secure holding area while arrangements are made to transport her back for proper processing.”
Viktor’s fingers paused on his ring for a fraction of a second. That small pause felt heavier than any shouted threat. He gave a single nod to the two armed operatives standing by the door.
“Take her to the entertainment lounge. Lock her down.”
The words had barely left his mouth before rough hands seized my arms. The metal cuffs bit deeper into my wrists as I instinctively twisted, trying to break free.
My body still felt sluggish from whatever they’d pumped into me earlier, but adrenaline surged through my veins anyway. Panic clawed at my ribs. They were taking me away like I was already convicted.
They dragged me toward the exit. As we passed the poker table I wrenched my head around, desperate for something, anything from the man who had saved me in that corridor hours ago.
“Silas,” I whispered, the word cracking.
He didn’t look at me.
Instead, in the coldest voice I’d ever heard, he said to Viktor, “Don’t let her screaming disturb the other guests.”
The door slammed shut behind us. The sound ripped through me like a gunshot. My eyes burned with hot, angry tears I refused to let fall.
I stopped fighting after the third yank on my arms. There was no point wasting strength. Not yet.
They hauled me through twisting hallways, past closed doors that probably hid more depravity than I wanted to imagine, until we reached a room marked “Entertainment Lounge.”
The two operatives shoved me inside. One of them unlocked the cuff from my right wrist only to immediately snap it around a cold metal support pole that ran from floor to ceiling.
Then they were gone.
The silence that followed was worse than the dragging. I sank slowly to the floor, back pressed against the icy metal. My wrist already burned where the cuff had cut into skin.
The room was dimly lit by emergency strips along the baseboards. A pool table sat in the center. Dartboards lined one wall.
Through the large windows I could see nothing but black ocean stretching into forever.
I closed my eyes and tried to breathe through the panic that wanted to swallow me whole.
Think, Maeve. You’re a neurologist. You solve problems when everyone else is losing their minds.
But my thoughts kept fracturing.
The exhaustion from the drugs and the endless adrenaline crashes kept dragging at my eyelids. I fought it. Losing consciousness here would be fatal.
But my body had limits, and I’d been pushing them for hours.
Just a little longer. I told myself. Just hold on.
I don’t know how long I drifted in that half-conscious state before the door slammed open.
Cold water hit my face like a slap. I gasped and jerked upright, coughing violently. Gideon Adler crouched in front of me, holding an empty water bottle. His ice-blue eyes gleamed with cruel amusement.
“Wakey wakey, Doctor.”
Gideon’s voice dripped with fake cheer as he crouched in front of me, but all I felt was a surge of pure, burning rage.
*He again? What the hell does this bastard want now? *
My blood boiled so fast I could barely keep from spitting at him. He held up a thick folder and flipped it open. The pages were covered in dense legal language.
“Here’s your lifeline, Thorne. Sign this confession. I’ll recommend leniency. A few years in a comfortable facility. You get to walk out eventually. Maybe even practice medicine again someday.”
His tone was almost kind. Almost. But I saw the trap. I saw the hunger in his eyes. He wanted me broken. He wanted me to beg.
I wiped water from my eyes with my free hand and focused on the document. Even with blurred vision, I could see the words clearly enough.
This was a full admission of premeditated murder. My stomach turned. If I signed this, I was signing my own death warrant.
But if I didn’t… God, what would they do to me?
I laughed. The sound came out hoarse and broken, but it was still a laugh. “You really expect me to believe that? The second I sign this I’ll never see daylight again.”
Gideon’s pleasant expression vanished. He rose to his full height, eyes turning flat and dangerous. “Hard way it is, then.”
He snapped his fingers. Two large operatives stepped into the room.
One of them held a sleek black stun baton that crackled with electric current.
