Saved by Venom: 3 (Grabbed) (27 page)

Refusing to dwell on everything that could go wrong with Venom’s mission, Dizzy stripped out of the sexy outfit, removed her makeup and stepped into a warm shower. Keeping an eye on the digital display that logged their daily water ration, she made sure it was a short one. Wrapped in a towel, she brushed her teeth and rubbed on some lotion to guard against the dryness of the air onboard the
Valiant
.

Rather than her usual nightgown, Dizzy opted to pull on one of Venom’s undershirts. With her short stature, it fit her like a nightdress anyway. Certain sleep would evade her without his heavy arms wrapped around her, Dizzy decided to read on the living room couch until exhaustion gripped her.

But as she stepped out of their bedroom into the main living area of their home, Dizzy spotted a strange figure out of the corner of her eye—and freaked the fuck out.

Her shrill shriek of terror startled the man hovering near the entryway. She realized he was going through her purse. He snapped upright and ate up the floor between them with powerful strides. When he stepped out of the shadows, Dizzy recognized him as Torment, the Shadow Force interrogator.

“Stay back!” She jumped out of the way and put a chair between them. “If you touch me—”

“You’ll do what?” Smugly amused, Torment crossed his arms. “You realize I’m about twice as tall as you and three times as heavy, right?”

She swallowed hard. Oh she realized her limitations, all right. “What do you want?”

“Not what you’re thinking,” he said with clear annoyance. “I’ve never forced myself on a woman in my life. Don’t insult me by questioning my honor.”

“Honor, huh? How honorable is it for a man to break into someone’s home?”

“I didn’t break in. I have the codes to every door on this ship.”

“
That’s
your comeback?”

“It’s the defense I’ll use when Venom files a complaint against me when he returns.” Torment’s harsh expression softened a bit. “He will return, in a little bit. Venom is among the most tenacious soldiers I’ve ever met.”

His reassurance eased her fear some. “Why are you here?”

“A few days ago, Terror gave you a letter from the man you think is your father.”

“He
is
my father.”

“I’m not here to argue about your DNA. I need to know what was in that letter.”

She suspiciously narrowed her eyes. “Why?”

Torment studied her for an unnervingly long moment. “Would you like to meet your real father?”

“What?” she asked, taken aback. “What do you mean? How?”

“His flagship was rerouted here for his safety after the Splinter attack on the
Night Bird
. He’s currently in the war room. I’ll take you to him and let him tell you the truth.” Torment took a step toward her. His cold, unfeeling eyes made chills race along her spine. “It’s time someone finally told you who you really are—and what your mother was.”

A shuddery, trembling sensation gripped her belly.
What my mother really was
?
Who I really am?

Dizzy recognized that this was one of those moments in her life where everything was going to change. Torment’s intriguing but potentially dangerous offer promised answers that she desperately wanted.

“I need to change.”

He nodded. “Hurry.”

Dizzy rushed into the bedroom and quickly got dressed. She picked up the corner of the mattress and retrieved the still-sealed envelope she had stuffed under there for safekeeping. She hadn’t yet worked up the courage to read what her dad had written to her out of fear that it might be a final goodbye—a goodbye she wasn’t willing to concede.

Out in the living room, Torment zeroed in on the envelope. She gripped it tightly against her chest. “You take me to my biological father first. Then you get the envelope.”

Even as she spoke, Dizzy recognized that Torment could take the envelope from her without much of a fight. Proving that he was an honorable man, he nodded. “Fair enough.”

They left the apartment and stepped into the elevator. She noticed that certain sections of ship on the navigational screen were blinking orange. He must have seen her curious gaze as he scanned his wrist and gained access to an unblocked screen. “We’re in lockdown. Only authorized personnel are allowed to move about the ship until the admiral lifts the orders.”

The serious, no-nonsense set to his jaw discouraged her from asking the myriad questions burning the tip of her tongue. Where Venom would have been only too happy to tell her everything she needed to know about lockdown procedures, Dizzy sensed that Torment wasn’t about to indulge her curiosity.

After switching elevators and bypassing four different security checkpoints, they reached a heavily guarded entrance. One of the soldiers guarding the door stepped forward to frisk her but Torment blocked him. He shot the man a withering look. “Don’t touch Venom’s bride.”

The soldier paled and cleared the path to the double doors. “You can go into the war room, sir.”

The doors hissed and separated. Despite his intimidating presence, Dizzy stayed close to Torment. This was clearly an area where a woman like her had no business intruding and she didn’t want anyone to think she was snooping.

They progressed down a dark hall to a massive dimly lit room filled with computer equipment. The three-story-high walls were covered in screens that projected all sorts of data—radar images, troop and aircraft movement, radio traffic and more. Her gaze drifted to the live feeds from the rescue mission currently being mounted for the crew of the
Night Bird
who were floating in pods.

“What the hell is that woman doing in here?”

It was a voice she had only heard once before—at the wives’ meeting—that drew Dizzy’s stunned attention. Orion, the harried admiral and commander of the
Valiant
, glared from his perch atop a raised balcony overlooking the war room. A moment later, General Vicious approached the railing, glanced down at her and frowned.

But it was the third face that appeared between the two men that almost sent Dizzy into a full swoon. Torment steadied her with a hand pressed between her shoulder blades. Her knees knocked as she stared into the eyes of the man she had last seen arguing with her mother on that fateful morning of the embassy explosion. He had aged since that day but those brilliantly blue eyes looked exactly the same.

The man who Dizzy was now certain was her biological father finally spoke. “Bring her to me, Torment.”

Both the admiral and the general glanced at the man between them with confusion but neither questioned his order. It occurred to her then that this man—her father—outranked both of them.

Up on the raised platform, Torment stood behind her, preventing her from fleeing down the short flight of stairs. Orion flicked his fingers and sent the lingering support staff back down to the main floor. Dizzy engaged in a staring match with her father. She counted the five stars on his uniform and realized he was one of the highest-ranking generals in the entire Harcos military.

“Thorn?” Vicious carefully questioned his superior. “How do you know Venom’s bride?”

Thorn? Of course
, she thought sadly. Briarlina. Thorn and Lina. It had been right there in front of her the entire time.

Her father closed the distance between them. His eyes reflected the strangest mix of sadness and happiness. When he reached out to stroke her cheek, Dizzy held still and allowed him the small intimacy. “She is my daughter.”

Orion’s face slackened with shock. “Your daughter?”

“Yes.” Thorn’s hand fell from her face. “She is mine.”

Dizzy supposed she should find comfort in his public acknowledgment of her. He could have easily refuted her lineage.

Vicious looked downright angry. “You abandoned a female child on a planet where most women don’t even see their fortieth birthdays? Where childbirth deaths are nearly forty percent?”

Thorn took the criticism in stride. “I didn’t even know she existed until a few days before the embassy bombing in The City. I
should
have known. There’s no excuse for the way I abandoned sweet Lina.”

At the mention of her mother’s name, Dizzy finally found her voice. “How did you know my mother?”

Thorn sighed heavily and glanced at Torment. “Did you tell her?”

The Shadow Force operative shook his head. “I felt it was best to hear this type of truth from you.”

Thorn motioned to a nearby chair. Dizzy gratefully sat down, certain her legs wouldn’t hold up through the story she was about to hear. Her father leaned back against a table and gripped the edge with his hands. She spotted the bright-red cuff encircling his thick wrist. It was similar to the white cuff Vicious wore on his left wrist—a cuff that matched Hallie’s collar.

“You’re married?”

Thorn nodded. “Yes, but that came after your mother—and you.”

She guessed that was better than the alternative.

“You know that your mother was a stewardess with Cross Colony Air, yes?”

“I do.”

“What you don’t know is that Lina was recruited as an asset for the Shadow Force within weeks of gaining employment there. Her position with the airline gave her a good clean cover for ferrying information to undercover agents. It allowed her to complete secret surveillance on passengers we suspected of being Splinter sympathizers or terrorists themselves.”

Dizzy’s mind reeled. What had Danny said at the wedding reception? Hadn’t he mentioned something about the Shadow Force cultivating contacts and assets in this sector for decades? “My mother was an agent for your government?”

“A very good one,” Thorn confirmed. “People saw that beautiful face of hers and immediately discounted her as being nothing more than a pretty girl. She used that to her advantage.” His mouth curved in a wistful smile. “They had no idea how incredibly brilliant and talented she was.”

Dizzy tried to reconcile this new information with the memories of her mother. She couldn’t believe that a woman who ran a muse agency had been a highly skilled operative for a foreign government. “How did you two…?”

“At the time, I headed a small forward operating base on Safe Harbor. That was my official cover. Truthfully we were running a covert operation to build the foundation of the Shadow Force in this sector. We sensed the small Splinter movement gaining ground at the time would soon spiral out of control. This end of the solar system was so wild and unknown. We believed it would be the one place they would look to hide so we wanted boots on the ground and agents in play. Your mother was one of those foundation agents.”

Thorn’s gaze skipped over her shoulder. He seemed to be reliving the memories of her mother as he spoke. “I tried to ignore my attraction to her but it was futile. She ensnared me with one smile.”

Dizzy hoped he wasn’t going to get very specific about their affair. She didn’t think she could handle
that
much truth.

“I loved that woman.” He caught and held her gaze. “You are never to doubt that you were created in love. You weren’t a mistake or an unwanted inconvenience. You are the natural product of a love so deep and so strong it spanned decades.”

Dizzy blinked as tears welled in her eyes. “If you loved my mother so much, why did you bail? Why weren’t you around when I was a baby? Why am I only meeting you now?”

“Our love was forbidden. Operatives are never supposed to cross that line—and I damn sure never should have crossed it with a subordinate and a native. When I was promoted and moved to the front lines, I couldn’t take her with me. I didn’t have enough points. If I had taken her as my mate they would have demoted me or bounced me out of the force entirely.”

“So you chose your career over my mother?”

“At the time I planned to come back for her when I had the points. By then though, she had married Jack Lane. Once I learned she had married, I stopped digging and Grabbed a mate from a different planet. I didn’t ask about any children in their marriage. It wasn’t until I came to this sector with the
Indefatigable
that I learned you even existed. I realized then that she had married Jack to protect you.” Thorn hung his head with such deep shame. “I won’t stand here and make excuses. I own that mistake—and it was a mistake. It’s the biggest regret of my life.” His mouth slanted with sadness. “Not that hearing that makes any difference to you.”

“Not really,” she said crossly. “For what it’s worth, my dad—my
real
dad—more than made up for your absence.”

Thorn flinched. “I’m glad to hear that he was the man I couldn’t be.”

“Touching as this family reunion is,” Orion carefully interjected, “we are in the middle of a Splinter attack. If this can wait—”

“It can’t,” Torment interrupted. “What General Thorn hasn’t told Dizzy is that her mother was never deactivated as an agent. When she married Jack Lane and moved to The City, she continued to operate as an in-country asset for the Shadow Force. Her position as a wealthy banker’s wife and as a business owner allowed her to mix and mingle with the government and social elite of Calyx.”

“My mother was spying the whole time?”

Torment nodded. “She correctly projected that the League of Concerned Citizens would develop as a front for the Splinters. Over the years, she mapped out the connections between members of your government, the Sixer gang and the Splinter forces. So much of the intelligence framework for our current mission came through Lina. When she was killed, we scrambled to fill her spot. We needed someone who could keep his finger on the pulse of the Splinter movement, someone with the right connections.”

Dizzy’s mouth gaped as it all started to make sense. “You used my dad.”

“He didn’t know,” Torment explained. “Not exactly,” he added. “We used one of our other undercover assets to provide him with the seed money to start his black market operation. We were able to keep tabs on the Splinters through the movements of supplies along his chain. He’s been incredibly useful to us—until now.”

She narrowed her eyes at Torment. “What does that mean?”