Page 61 of Scars Run Deep

He stilled, then spun back to me, as the growl of my words slammed into him.

“Be very careful. You’re in no condition to lay down a threat to a man like me.”

“It doesn’t matter what condition I’m in, if a threat needs laying down, it will happen.” I strode up to him. “But that said, threatening the father of the woman I care about, a father who isn’t a curse on his child’s life as I’m used to, wouldn’t be the greatest move, would it?”

He cocked an eyebrow.

Good. He wasn’t sure where I was going with this.

He’d just unwittingly confirmed that there was a limit to his ability to read me, to see into my intentions.

There was room to move on my end, should I need to use it.

And it was for one inexplicable reason.

The way I felt about Aurora.

He watched me curiously as I drew closer. If I’d been someone prone to bursts of optimism and looking on the bright side, rather than rooted in dealing with the dark and dire, I would’ve sworn he actually looked impressed. The great, big, bad Revenant impressed by somebody twenty years his junior.

“You’ve researched me in invasive depth. You know me. You know I’m a rational man, that I’m a cold and calculated bastard, that I’m unapologetically ruthless in every move I make. And knowing that offers you comfort in the form of a pattern, a way to possibly predict what I’ll do, how I’ll respond to different sources of pressure, how far I’ll go in various scenarios.” I shifted my weight. “The thing is, there’s been no pattern with Aurora. No constant. I’ve held back too much, then I’ve pushed too hard. I’ve been reckless. I’ve recognized her needs and put them before my own. I’ve made exceptions for her. I’ve relinquished control and I’ve even given it over to her on occasion. None of that is characteristic of who and what I am.”

His brow furrowed as he tried to reconcile my revelations with what he knew about me, the profile he’d built in great detail.

Good luck with that. Even I couldn’t reconcile it.

At least, not yet.

“So, if you do steal her away into the shadows, I honestly don’t know what I’ll do, how far I’ll go to rectify that mistake. I can tell you one thing, though. It will be a hell of a surprise to the both of us. Not the good kind either.”

“Asher—”

“Give her the respect she’s fucking well earned, Lance. Let her make the choice.”

He stared at me in that invasive way I was used to subjecting others to.

It was amusing being on the other end of it.

He grunted, then demanded bluntly, “Who do you think Nyx is?”

If he thought such a pedestrian tactic of changing the subject was going to work here, he had another thing coming.

“Pulling Aurora out won’t make her safe. If you’d thought that, you would’ve already done it. The moment she’d come to Hexwood, in all likelihood. You recognized that her being on my territory throws up a barrier between her and Carson. You take her now and you run, he’ll chase. It’ll escalate the danger, while right now it’s in a stalled state.”

“You know as well as I do that he’s a highly unpredictable opponent when his baser desires are in play.”

“He’ll be incredibly distracted soon from that and forced back into a purely business mindset, once I begin dismantling the remainder of the dollhouse operation.”

“It’s still a risk.”

“This whole situation is. But, together, we can outmaneuver him.”

“If I somehow look past the three of you fucking around with my daughter?” He scoffed. “You’ve got some balls, kid.”

“I was never allowed to be a kid.”

“You were groomed to become that psychopath’s heir.”

I nodded solemnly. “How do you do it?”

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