Page 82 of The Villain

“Over her lack of respect, complete disregard for drawing attention, the fact that she’s fucking you for information on us all,” Blaze starts listing off while Melissa glares at me.

“Two of those things are true,” I shake my head. “I’ll ask if she’ll talk to Matthias but I seriously doubt it will help you.”

“If Matthias won’t do something about it, we will,” Felix tells me flatly.

“I was told you were called off,” I point out, my smile dropping away. “Did you get an ok for taking care of it?”

They all glare.

“I didn’t think so.”

“You have no idea who she is,” Blaze snarls.

“Yeah. It’s called getting to know someone,” I shrug.

“Shade,” Andi glances between us all. “Dad said that she’s the one who took care of Bishop Glasgow.”

“What?” I ask in confusion.

“The guy that was stalking me during-”

“I know the name. I don’t know the connection,” I interrupt Andi with a frown.

She hurries to my side to whisper. “Tera called South in to take care of Glasgow. She called dad and told him that you guys were focused on a bit player when we had bigger fish to fry and she was calling in her backup.”

Wait. What? She was here last year messing with a guy we were actively following and no one knew?

“Did you know?” I ask her quietly.

Andi shakes her head with wide eyes. “The first time I heard of South was when Tera told me she destroyed their stuff. I had no idea she existed. Tera has never mentioned her before.”

“So she calls her in and she beats the man unconscious. Big deal,” I frown at her.

“He died in the hospital,” she hisses.

Yeah. Because I killed him.

“So?”

“She killed him, Shade.” She insists.

I frown, “No, she didn’t.”

“Ok, she beat him up enough that he was shipped to the ER but he died there from his wounds.”

“Andi,” I grind my teeth. “She didn’t kill him.”

She takes in my pointed look and her mouth drops open.

“Tera sent in enough proof that his guilt was a slam dunk. Just because he didn’t have the balls to grab you doesn’t mean he wasn’t planning to. He had everything laid out for your arrival. He stole your clothes and makeup to have for when you got there. His basement was ready for you. You think I was going to let that stand? Let him wake up and go back to normal?”

“Did you have an ok?” She whispers weakly and grabs my bicep as her eyes fill with tears.

“It was a personal project. I don’t need approval for those,” I tell her grimly.

Her lips tremble wildly and she throws her arms around me tightly.

“I love you, Evan.”

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