Page 46 of Lock Up the Darkness

“Yes.”

He cursed under his breath.

His eyes were wild.

His hands were even shaking.

Talk about ruffling feathers. And that hadn’t even been my intent. That unflappable demeanor was nowhere to be found now. I was seeing behind that mask he wore so well.

He shoved a hand through his hair. “How did you connect it to me?”

“I can’t reveal my source.”

One moment I was on the stool, the next I was ripped across the room and slammed into the wall beside the fridge, his hand wrapped around my throat. “This isn’t a game!” he roared in my face, his entire body shaking in fury.

I choked and blinked past the jarring sensation as he’d knocked the wind out of me. I didn’t even have the hard leather of my jacket to cushion the impact of the rough stone. It was draped over the stool at the island because I’d been seeing to the damage I’d sustained during my scuffle with Jonah.

Asher’s heady sandalwood scent infused my senses, surrounding me wholly.

“I can’t… reveal it, because… I don’t… know,” I struggled to eke out through his brutally constricting grip around my throat. “Anonymous.”

He stilled for a moment and I could’ve sworn I actually saw a flicker of true fear in his eyes. But it was gone in a blink, like it could’ve been just a mirage or something.

His grip loosened a little, enough where I could draw in an unencumbered breath, but not enough to alleviate the threat that he was posing as he loomed over me.

“Tonight wasn’t a one-off then, little lamb,” he said, stroking his thumb over my pulse point, his eyes hooding as he felt my rapidly thrumming heartbeat. “You have a habit of falling for served up bait.”

“It wasn’t bait.”

“How do you know? You took intel from an unknown source, upturned your life, and came down here on no more than a whim. Sounds like you were baited to me. Very likely, by my father. And because you were so easily manipulated, it risks jeopardizing me and my boys by extension.” He grasped my thigh, hard enough that it had me hissing. “If I don’t punish you now and dispose of the loose end he believes you to be, he’ll descend on us.”

“What happened to bringing him down?”

“You’ve just unwittingly proven how reckless and foolish you are. I can’t work with that.”

“I verified the intel.”

He cocked an eyebrow. “How?”

“Because I’ve been at this for years. Three to be exact.”

Realization shone in his eyes. “Right when I took position as head of the Hexwood faction of the Infidels.”

“Wherein an initiation took place. A test from your father to prove you were up to the task, to prove you were as ruthless and as monstrous as he is. Well, more like to ensure you became that.”

A haunted look passed over his features.

“Revenant was that test,” I went on.

He released me and staggered back, scrubbing a hand over his face.

“You can’t know this. No one can.”

He stared at me incredulously, his mind clearly working a million miles a minute to try to figure out how I knew all of this.

“You didn’t kill him, did you?”

“Him? How do you—”

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