Page 43 of Crave Me

“Careful there,” Caspian warned, flipping down his hood, which I recognized as one of Caleb’s, as he came to us. “I’d caution you to reserve judgment. Especially when I’m looking at Skylar standing here in her Onyx gear, aware that the tracker in my Harley was tampered with so that you could clearly have her take it out far away from the mansion without me being able to track her whereabouts, knowing also that a team was deployed without my authorization.” He glared between Luke and I. “You circumvented me and launched an operation without my knowledge, one involving the woman I love.”

Asher hung back, looking completely unaffected by the tension rapidly escalating in the room to a dangerous level.

Of course it wasn’t so much as touching the unfeeling bastard. He was, however, using it as an opportunity to study us in that known invasive way of his.

When he saw me notice, the little shit smirked.

I hid my tense reaction as something flitted across his face, something more than what he’d employed with studying the others.

He knew something.

In that moment, the pieces fell into place and it became apparent to me that Caleb had reached out to him regarding his suspicion of me. It seemed Asher had discovered something, or come very close at least.

Either way, it was clear that he hadn’t conveyed that to Caspian, or he would be reacting a whole lot differently toward me right now.

What was his game?

“Dante discovered a potential lead,” Luke informed Caspian. “We both agreed that it needed to be verified first before we brought it to you. You’ve already suffered through too many false ones already. We didn’t want you enduring another.”

“That’s not your call to make. The buck stops at me. Everything goes through me.”

“We’re in this together, Caspian,” I reminded him.

“And yet, you’ve just proven otherwise.”

“Bullshit,” I bit back. “You’re on the edge.” I gestured at Asher. “Bringing this psychopathic puppet master here is a definitive testament to that.”

“There’s no need for name-calling now,” Asher spoke for the first time, finding amusement where there shouldn’t be any. Psychopath indeed.

“Damn, I really wish Cal could be witnessing this,” Damien commented.

“Shut your mouth,” Caspian snapped.

“Involving him is pouring gasoline on already raging flames, King,” Luke told him.

“Agree to disagree,” Caspian shot back.

“We’re already dealing with unruly elements, adding another one into the mix—especially the likes of him—is majorly detrimental.”

“A security risk also,” I cut in.

“You know, the way I see it, we can use all the help we can get. The whole psychopathic element sounds like fighting fire with fire, just what we need against Elijah,” Damien spoke.

“Yes, because you are so well-known for your strategic thinking,” Luke threw at him.

Damien lifted his shoulder then gazed at Asher. “Plus, he’s smoking hot. Never hurts.”

“I said, shut your fucking mouth,” Caspian snapped at him again.

He was definitely feeling the weight of things, unable to keep himself checked like he would normally be able to do so incredibly well.

He was fast coming undone.

And having a dangerous element like Asher Monroe here working beside him could prove to be extremely detrimental in that area.

“Enough!” Skylar’s voice rang out.

In the next moment, she stole all our attention, as she strode toward the command center with the memory stick in hand, telling us over her shoulder, “This thing has the tracking information for the two trucks used to transport Bastian and Caleb once they switched out the vans about a hundred miles north of that intercept point, as Dante managed to determine.”

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