Page 84 of Devil May Lie

“Anyway, it probably started there? My own little rebellion of sorts? Whenever I was home and knew we weren’t going to an event, I’d walk around shirtless. Because I was usually doing sports or in training, my parents let it slide. It became a habit after that.”

“My parents are…also strict.”

“Your parents sound like assholes, actually,” Madden corrected, and there was a bitterness to his tone that hadn’t been there when he’d been talking about his own. “You don’t give your kid the type of extreme trauma you have if you’re a decent person. I’m admittedly confused, though. I thought I’d heard that you and your family were close?”

“Let’s just say your mother isn’t the only one who cares about appearances.” His family was also upper-class, though they weren’t Royals. They owned and operated the planet's largest real estate investment group, Obsidian Swift. “My mother was born into the mafia. She’s worked closely with the Voids all her life. To her, the fact I was chosen by Baikal for his Satellite is my only redeeming quality. Close?” He snorted.

“If you don’t even like them, why do you care what they think of you?” Madden asked. “Just because they’re your parents?”

“For the most part, I don’t anymore,” he said. “We see each other at events that I’m forced to attend, but I spend more time with Flix’s family than I do with them, and that works just fine for us. It’s just…I can’t forget the way my father looked at me that day.”

Berga lifted a hand and rested it lightly over Madden’s wrist, needing to make a connection himself all of a sudden to help stay grounded. He never talked about this with anyone, not even his best friend. Didn’t really understand why he was so willing to do so now. Why, whenever Madden asked about it, it suddenly seemed easier to bring up.

“I’m not the reason she tripped,” he began, voice lowering. “But I could have tried to stop her fall. If only I’d reached out and caught her…Maybe it would have made a difference.”

“Why didn’t you?” It didn’t sound like he was judging him for it.

The corner of Berga’s mouth tipped up in a humorless half-smirk. “There was blood on my hands. I didn’t want to ruin her dress and get scolded. Isn’t that ironic?”

“You were a child,” Madden pointed out. “You reacted the same way most six-year-olds in that situation would have. If it’s anyone’s fault that you hesitated, it’s your parents. And you aren’t just a part of the Satellite, you’re the Butcher. The second Canham realized you were at my place the other night he started practically drooling over you.”

“You’re exaggerating.”

“I’m not,” Madden insisted. “I’d pretty much decided then and there that if you didn’t kill him, I was going to for having the audacity to covet you in front of me. He didn’t bat an eye at the idea of attacking a Royal, but the second you showed up, he turned into a preteen lusting after his first crush.”

It was weirdly nice hearing that someone wanted him that badly, even if it was mostly about sex. It was still more than Berga had had in the past, and he wanted to hold onto it. Wanted to hold onto the feelings Madden brought out in him.

“If you need help with anything in the future,” Berga said, “let me know.”

Madden grinned at him. “Will do, Butcher. But now, you should get some rest. If the doctor finds out how we spent the day, she’ll have my head.”

“I’d like to see her try.”

“Down, Butcher. It’s Ledger’s mom. The goal is not to elicit a war because we’re together, remember?”

Couldn’t argue there.

Finally, Madden tugged him in and tapped his forehead lightly against his. “Sleep, baby. Our problems will still be there in the morning, I promise.”

“You’ve been making an awful lot of those.”

“And I intend to keep every single one.” He grinned. “You do the same.”

“Of course.” Berga didn’t intend to lose the Mad King.

Maybe he never had.

Chapter 21:

“There’s been no movement from Grimes and Fraunz,” Flix said. They were gathered at the Bunker in the morgue deep in the south wing.

Berga was inspecting the body of one of the Brumal’s soldiers who’d been found shot point-blank in the back of the head earlier this morning.

“You’re sure there’s no connection between this death and the dead Royal?” he asked.

When he’d been unconscious, there’d been a serious death that had needed his immediate attention. But he’d been suffering the aftereffects of his episode and had been useless to them.

That couldn’t happen again. He’d done such a good job of controlling himself all these years; he couldn’t afford to backpedal.

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