That sense of noblesse oblige was why he’d joined and funded the Resistance as Kere.

Unlike his father, Arturo saw the people as tools to be used and destroyed when they no longer served his needs.

Pip kicked him again. “Get his cards and anything else he has of value. We can sell it.”

“Yeah,” Timmon laughed. “I have many needs.”

Shocked and horrified by their ruthless animal behavior, Darling lay helpless as they stripped him completely bare. While they pilfered his belongings, they found Zarya’s ring on his pinkie where he’d placed it last night so that he could keep that small part of her with him.

Don’t steal it.

It was all she had left of her dead mother… Her only inheritance.

His throat tightened as he remembered her giving it to him six months ago. “I can’t take this, Zarya. I know what it means to you.”

“Please take it. My father used to say that it would protect me from harm. See…”—she’d pointed to the side of the stone—“ it has the face of Tearsa on it.” Tearsa was the goddess of healing and protection. “I’ve never been wounded while wearing it. And I want her to protect you, too. Please, Kere. You’re everything to me. I have to know that you’re safe at all times.”

He’d allowed Zarya to put it on his pinkie and had sworn to her that he’d protect it with his life.

It was a vow he intended to keep.

Even though Darling was paralyzed, he focused the mental powers he had as hard as he could. They weren’t going to take her ring without a fight. Touching the part of his mind that functioned on a higher level, he managed to clench his fist shut to keep them from removing the ring.

They tightened their grip on his hand as they attempted to pry it open.

Darling used everything he had to keep his fist tight and to protect that ring like he’d promised.

Pip cursed him for it, then pulled out a knife and sliced his finger off.

Pain ripped through him as tears dulled his sight and his head swam. He felt so sick.

Jeering in triumph, Pip danced his severed finger in front of Darling’s eyes as he slid the ring off it. “Bonus round. Now we have proof to send to the governor that we have him.” He tossed the bloody ring into the air and caught it. “And I have something I can use to buy my wife a new dress and pay some bills. Thanks, Highness. Tim, stop the bleeding. We don’t want His Royal Faggotry dying on us like his bitch sister did.”

Appalled, disgusted, and heartbroken, Darling let the agony and horror of everything that had happened in the last few minutes wash over him. But worse than that was the fear of what would happen to his mother and Drake after they killed him.

And they would.

There was no way in hell his uncle would ever spend a single cred to get him back. Not after Arturo had already sent an assassin to kill him. And he knew that for a fact. He had given the contract that Arturo had signed listing him as the target to Hauk for safekeeping until tonight when Darling had planned to use it to call Arturo out at the CDS.