Page 61 of Seizing Control: Part One

Unwanted.

9

VENOM

The two guards shielding the door move aside to let Gabriel into the grimy meeting room at the Perth lockup. I’m more worried about my dad than I am myself at the moment, yet the sight of Slash following behind my lawyer sends a ripple of fear down my spine. There is a dullness to my best friend’s gaze that makes me think something’s happened to Lily in my absence.

When I rush forward, the mouthiest of the guards shoves me in the chest.

I barely feel him, shouldering past him with a scoff of impatience.

“What the fuck’s happened?”

Looking down his swollen nose at me, Slash frowns. “Nothin’.”

“Why the face, then?”

Shrugging, he clears his throat, a flicker of irritation clouding his gaze before he tamps it down into a blank expression that makes me wish my hands were free so I could bloody his nose again. “It’s the middle’o the damn night... I should be home in bed, not skulking around in the bowels of the Perth lockup to clean up your latest mess.”

His subtle innuendo about his normal nightly routine is masterful. A timely reminder that I hate him nowadays, not the other way around. Shit has been tense between us since I walked out on Lily while she was losing our baby, but I never expected him to attempt to take my place in her bed or her heart. I left my woman under his protection without a worry that he’d try to steal her from me. He repaid that trust by stooping lower than a snake’s belly in his efforts to turn her against me.

His actions are a knife in the back.

They go against the code we live by.

Yet, I’m not as blind to the reality as he thinks I am.

The hours spent in the lockup, twiddling my thumbs while the cops delayed processing me, brought me some clarity. If Lily was going to love anyone other than me, I would have wanted it to be Slash. That’s the concrete, no fucks given, fact of the matter. He’s always been a good man. A capable man. I’ve spent my life envying his book smarts, his even-keeled personality, and his tight-knit family—even though Crystal went out of her way to make it clear that she thinks of me as an honorary son.

It’s the secrets, the deceit, the way he took pleasure in telling me that he’s made her come.

He’s not the man I thought he was.

The Slash I knew would’ve bitten the bullet and faced me head on, and accepted the licks that came with his declaration. The raw fact of the matter is that the man standing before me with a slight smirk and a look of insolence is a stranger.

Carter McKinnley Hudson is not a good man.

I know, up close and personal, that love makes fools of us all, but Lily is worth publicly claiming, no matter the consequences, and Slash fell short of that bare minimum when he should’ve known—and done—better. After all, he bore witness to my failure when she was fifteen. He has seen first-hand how that mistake set us on this Godforsaken path paved with pain, misery, loss, and sorrow.

“I think we’re gettin’ off on the wrong foot,” Gabriel declares. After he moves to situate himself between me and Slash, he lifts his chin toward the uniformed pissants overseeing this clandestine meeting. “I want his cuffs taken off and complete privacy... this room will be swept for bugs, all security vision scrambled, and any eavesdroppers will be dealt with—permanently.” The three men shuffle from foot to foot and exchange a look, then the one closest to us swipes his hand under the table to retrieve a small black box. “Much obliged, gentlemen.”

Grinning like a shark, Gabriel places his briefcase on the metal benchtop and extricates a wand of some sort. As he moves around the meeting room, I allow the big-mouthed guard to take hold of my bicep and lead me to the opposite side of the metal table to Slash. I perch on the steel chair, legs spread wide, forearms hovering over the tabletop while the cuffs are unlocked.

The metal bracelets I’ve been wearing for at least an hour have cut off my circulation. Blood rushes to my hands, my fingers tingling and cramping. While I massage them back to life, Slash takes the chair in front of me and Gabriel ushers the guards out of the room. Glass rattles in the door when it closes, the metallic clanking of the blind being lowered the sole sound outside of our slow breathing. I flex my fingers, staring at Slash the entire time, until he is forced to lower his eyes to escape the mocking in my gaze.

“The screws are obedient,” I remark to Gabriel as the guards footsteps recede in a hurry. The older man, still wearing a suit and tie despite the early morning hour, inclines his head with agreement, then wrinkles his nose and grimaces. “Don’t worry, you get used to the stink.”

It’s a lie—I don’t think my sense of smell will ever adjust to the piss-tanged air.

Air that I’m going to breathe for the foreseeable future if I’m to have any hope of keeping Lily out of Hugh St. James’ sadistic reach and my brotherhood whole.

“Have you spoken to my dad?”

“Yes,” Gabriel assures me as he takes a seat in the spare chair. “I’ve been with Hades most of the night. He’s doin’ well—has his oxygen tank and a nurse has tended to the injuries he sustained during his arrest.” A lump wedges in my throat as the violent scene in the bar at the compound flashes in my head. “What he did was foolhardy, but it’s also dealt with one of our bigger problems.”

“Joseph Kingsley?” Slash asks in a flat voice.

“Partially,” my bespectacled lawyer responds absentmindedly. He pops open his briefcase and shuffles through his paperwork. “Here.” He slides a flick-knife across the table to me. “Stash that somewhere useful.” I pocket it immediately, even as worry courses through me at the thought of attempting to smuggle it back to my cell. “With Joseph Kingsley formally dispatched and Kristoff Maddison incapacitated, the Maddison clan is in the midst of a power struggle.” Pushing his glasses up his nose, he exhales loudly and leans back in the metal chair. “It’s a vacuum that could swallow up the Shamrocks if they’re not careful, however it also buys us time to get our ducks in a row and avoid this. For that we have Hades to thank, agree?”

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