Free Lie to Me by Gracen Miller

result in Stone receiving the coldshoulder and wouldn’t win him any friends. Not that he wanted or needed bastards like Jones as friends. And he sure as hell could bet Jones wouldn’t suffer even a set down by the board.
    “Because she’s my favorite, the twenty lashes is a light punishment. Had anyone else intervened the way she did, they would’ve received the same fate as the thief. See? I can be lenient when warranted.” His grin didn’t reach his eyes, and Stone suspected he’d enjoy her agony. Probably a sadist who gets off on another’s pain .
    In the end, he needed Mack whole to question her about Kella. Struggling to think of a reason to dissuade Jones from reprimanding her, he ran through a variety of scenarios, but came up empty-handed. His gaze fell on Mack. She rubbed her cheek as Jones instructed his guards to get to the punishment immediately. After publicly executing the thief, they were ordered to string Mack up right afterward and have the punisher apply the lashes.
    “Why are you in my Quad?” Jones crushed his cigar into an ashtray on his desk.
    This was his lead in to pause Mack’s penalty. “I’m following a lead on my wife.” Her gaze struck him, and a hint of fear entered her eyes. The severe punishment of electrical lashes hadn’t dented her bravado. What about the mention of his wife frightened her?
    Jones shrugged aside Stone’s adventure. “Good luck with your find. Please let me know if I can be of assistance.”
    “Delay Mack’s punishment.”
    “Anything but that.” Several seconds elapsed as they stared at one another, before Jones shifted his gaze to Mack. “What do you know about his wife, Mack?”
    “No-nothing.”
    She knew something. Of that Stone was suddenly very sure. “I’ll buy her from you.”
    James flinched and cut a hard glance in his direction, evidently surprised by his appeal. Even though his intentions were honorable, and meant to protect her, his guilt triggered his inability to look at Mack and gauge her reaction.
    Stone sensed Jones’s bemusement over his outrageous request. “Interesting proposition since you no longer offer the sale of even Xenos.”
    Shutting down his X-gene clinic had caused uproar among Regents. Jones had been one of the most vocal of the lot, and even Stone’s dad, Peter, had balked at the decision. Going against advice, he’d honored his wife with the closure. He’d coolly reminded the other Regents his Quad, his rules. That had gone over as well as an active whore preaching morals from the pulpit. They’d ganged up on him to oust him from power, teleporting into his Quadrant with a thousand-man-strong army. It was good other Regents dismissed Stone’s effectiveness as a leader because he’d neutralized the offense with a drone strike. Before breakfast their offensive had been negated. In the beginning of his tenure he’d become the asshole dictator who threatened other Regents’ way of life. Stone’s aggressiveness to protect his position, and their necessity for the perishables he grew in his territory, or their need to utilize his teleportation services, had resulted in the other Regents slowly giving up their beef and inviting him back into the fold. It was a tenuous alliance at best.
    Stone didn’t trust a damn one of them. His memory was long and unforgiving. And three years wasn’t nearly enough time for them to forget the ease with which he’d defeated them. He was always on the defensive, waiting for another surprise attack, and it was why he maintained high security at all times. At any given moment, an assassination attempt could be made on his life.
    “What do you think, Mack?” Jones’s question snatched Stone out of his thoughts. Jones rubbed her head like he would a dog, and she leaned way from him. That earned her a yank on her hair, and Jones forced her to lean against his thigh. “Answer me. Should I sell you to Regent Emmerson?”
    “I think you’re going to do what you want regardless