Page 201 of Seizing Control: Part One

No pun intended, notwithstanding the effect her sweet intonations have on my dick.

“Sure...” I drawl, buffing my nails on my chest, then inspecting them.

As much as I want to let him know that I heard the way he tortured Lily earlier, I refrain. The tech that allows me to monitor my woman is my secret—he’s so jealous that he’d sabotage it if he found out. For the sake of my sanity, and to ensure the success of the agreement with the Adjudicator, I need to maintain my connection with Lily.

My addiction is a blessing and a curse.

Too many nights spent fucking my hand to sound of my woman coming around his dick.

“Brutus has emptied out Hades’ bank accounts and he’s liquidated your estate.”

There is a tremor in Slash’s voice as he fights to keep his temper. I revel in the distraction his abrupt peace offering provides. Gaze tracking his movements, I watch as he unties his hair. The rattled man allows it to fall around his shoulders before he uses his fingertips to scrape the dirty-blond locks back into place. I grin when the snap of his hair tie is loud in the empty warehouse. It’s too easy to read him, the tic he’s had since his late teens a dead giveaway to his fragile mental state.

It pleases me to know that my sweet thing is fucking with his head. The snake deserves nothing less. His cowardice is a bug in my plan. My inability to trust him with Lily’s safety is maddening. It’s fair turnabout that he flounders in doubt over her love for him.

As uncharitable as my thoughts may be, I school my features, hiding the grin that curls my lips, determined not to set him off when he’s actually trying to work with me. My tone is mild when I tell him, “We’re aware.”

Slash’s nostrils flare like a pissed-off bull. “You set him up?”

“Yes.” I nod. Clocking the way his fingers curl into fists, I shift my weight onto the balls of my feet. “Figured the way he drained his kids trust accounts means he’s hurting for money—that isn’t an easy fix now that he’s been cut off from the Shamrocks. With me dead, and Dad in hospice—” The low-level guilt that constantly churns in my gut makes itself known when I mention my dying father. “—it was a logical next move.”

“Are you trackin’ him?”

“We are.”

“Great. Just great.” Slash spins around and strides off in the direction of the door he entered through. “Wasted my fuckin’ time comin’ down here, then.”

“I have a lead for you,” I call after him. His step doesn’t falter. Raising my voice, I announce, “Joker and Honey are in town. You’re welcome to join my team and I once we have them in custody later tonight.”

“Fuck me.” Keeping his back to me, Slash hunches his shoulder and jams his hands in his hair. “I’m not in the mood for this shit.”

The olive branch I’ve extended flings back to slap me in the face.

I should’ve anticipated it.

It’s an unforced error.

My blunder in forgetting that Slash isn’t the man I thought he was.

He’s not high-principled, wise, and caring.

The wilting sugar plum is a selfish coward.

“It’s fine,” I remark when he doesn’t say anything further. “I’m happy to handle them myself.”

“It’s not that, Ve—Lazarus.”

“What is it then?”

“You can’t act like we’re still a team. We’re enemies... two men fighting for the same woman. I refuse to fall for your buddy-buddy bullshit—not when I know you’d put a bullet in my head if it got you back in my duchess’ bed quicker.”

“Noted.”

As the understanding that pushing him to see that a treaty is the only way forward will only end in a fight dawns on me, I abstain from pushing back against his declarations. Whether he likes it or not, we are a team. Nothing like the team I once believed us to be, but a team, nonetheless.

Lily is the prize and the key.

Protecting her supersedes our rivalry.

---