Page 122 of Lock Up the Darkness

“What are you talking about?”

“I keep them in line and that keeps them off the Head Infidels’ shitlist. They’re both loose cannons, each for different reasons. Reasons I’m sure you’ve already identified. Our fathers don’t tolerate that. I contain things, contain them. Without me, they’d be on actual leashes, never mind the metaphorical ones I need to employ sometimes.”

“That’s incredibly fucked up. They’re human beings, not toys.”

“And yet, it’s the world the three of us exist in. Our unfortunate reality. Don’t let the big mansion and glitz and glamor fool you. There are no true riches here.” I loomed over her. “And, for the record, I held back with him that night.”

“Because he’s still breathing?” she bit at me, sarcasm dripping.

“I would never harm him in that way. Him or Jonah. What he sustained were mere scratches compared to what they could’ve been. And, let’s just say that you’re the only one who got all of me that night.”

“You mean—”

“I mean, I wouldn’t risk causing serious or permanent damage. I’m sure he felt he was taking me balls deep, but he most definitely wasn’t, not even close.” I waggled my eyebrows. “That privilege was only had by you.”

“That’s not much of an apology. Although, given what I’ve come to know about you, it is reassuring.”

It was? “I’d expected you to tell me that I’m a piece of shit, not to let it go.”

“Oh, I haven’t let it go. I’m gonna keep an eye on your treatment of him going forward. But I understand you think you’re doing this to protect them, that, as fucked up as it is, it’s actually coming from a good place. Although, one that’s kind of corrupted by you needing to exert power over people because there are so many aspects of your life where you can’t as a result of the way your fathers have set things up for you.”

“Interesting.”

“Oh, and while we’re at it, that privilege was mutual.”

“It absolutely was.”

She looked startled. “Uh… well, good then… good.”

I brushed my fingers over her cheek. “Thank you.”

As her startlement only intensified, I explained, “What you were able to do for me… it’s not a small thing to me.”

“You’re welcome.” Her lip curled. “No small thing indeed.”

I laughed. A real, unencumbered laugh that had her utterly mesmerized.

“What?” I asked.

“Nothing. Just… you should do that more often.”

I slid my hands down to her hips. “Speaking of doing things more often, you know what they say about muscle memory, yes?” I skated a palm up her thigh and a soft moan escaped her, the delectable sound hitting me right in the gut—and, of course, the dick.

She snatched my wrist before I got to my target. “While that’s more than just a little tempting for the both of us, I did actually come in here for a reason. I just wanted to gauge where your head was at first, or if you wanted to wait until tomorrow to deal with it.”

“Waiting until tomorrow to deal with things isn’t exactly the way I operate.”

“I figured. But with you seemingly being in a funk, I wasn’t sure if this was an exception of some sort.”

I dropped my hand from her and shifted my weight. “What’s happened?”

“The program is almost finished running. It’s already spat out some standout data.” She pulled her phone from the back pocket of her jeans, swiped it open, then showed me an alert from the app she’d created to monitor any significant finds from the program we’d written on my laptop.

One word was flashing on the screen.

Myltenhus.

I saw her note my reaction. The fact that there was one.

---