I narrow my eyes at him. Is that what this is about? I’d ask how he knows about my visit, but Lucas is omnipresent. He knows everything that happens in this town.

“And?”

He pulls the pen away from his mouth and starts tapping it on the desk. “She said you were asking about witnesses and shit.”

“Yeah, she said it was a young guy named Pendleton.”

“The conversation upset her,” he says, eyeing me in ways that make my channel clench.

I scrape my teeth along my bottom lip and glance down at the floor. “She didn’t look upset.” I glance back up at him. “She was busy moving. Did you know she was leaving?”

He shrugs one shoulder, and stands up, coming around to the front of the desk. “Of course, I did. And who could blame her?”

“You didn’t think to…I don’t know,mention thatto me at some point?”

We’re several feet apart, but I swear, I can feel the anger coming off him. It’s like a blast of heat aimed directly at me. “Why the fuck would I do that? You don’t give a shit about Gabriel.”

Oh, for fuck’s sake. “Seriously, Lucas? Hypocrisy isn’t a good look on you.”

He steps closer, his blue eyes darkening. “What was that you said a couple of weeks back, ‘Gabriel’s dead, but we aren’t?’”

“I saidIwasn’t,” I correct. “I can’t speak for you. You might very well be dead inside. I’d have that checked out if I were you.”

He laughs, but the sound is completely drained of amusement. “You like to pretend you’re so much better than all this. Like you’re above the dirty dealings of the Burning Crown. But the night you were initiated, you become one of us—” He grabs my face, and forces my head to the side so he can whisper in my ear, “And, that night, when my cock drove into your cunt so deep you bled, I realized something. You and me, we’re exactly the same. We both need pain to feel alive.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

Lucas

I studyher face as my words land. I don’t know why I told her I was the one who’d initiated her. Maybe I wanted to wipe that holier-than-thou look off her face. Or maybe it was me lashing out after that comment about me being dead inside. Either way, she knows now.

Disbelief registers in Wyn’s wide green eyes and she pulls against me weakly, like my words have zapped the strength right out of her.

“No. That’s not—” Her throat moves as she swallows. “You’re fucking with me.”

I’m still holding her face, and I drag my nose up the column of her neck, before burying it in her hair. Inhaling deeply, I take her sweet essence into my lungs. Then I sink my teeth into that sensitive skin just below her ear, exactly like I did that night.

She pushes against me and I release her. And, fuck me, but my dark soul feeds on the fear I see in her eyes. A spark of excitement ignites in my chest.

Her breath is coming in short little pants, and she takes a step back like she’s about to run. I hope she does. Because then she’ll know—there’s nowhere she can run that I can’t catch her.Nowhere.

Wyn’s hand flies to her throat and I can tell she’s trying to gather her composure. I know, because I’ve studied Wyn for so long I could apply for a fucking Ph.D. in the subject ofher.Every hitch in her breath, every micro-expression. It’s all coded in my brain.

“But…you hate me,” she says, clinging to that single fact like it’s evidence that I couldn’t be the faceless bastard who fucked her in front of everyone.

I move toward her. My door is still open, and she’s only about twenty feet away from it, backing up slowly.

“You’re right.” That familiar anger coils tight in my gut and radiates out into my bloodstream. “Before you showed up a year ago, I fucked whoever I wanted, whenever I wanted, never knowing…” I’ve caught up to her, and her breathing is labored now like she’s struggling to draw in each breath. “...Once I got that first taste of you, I’d be addicted. I fucking hate you for that.”

She blinks at me like she’s processing what I’m telling her. I wonder if she ever suspected it was me that night. “Did Gabriel know?” she asks, her tone hollow.

“Yes,” I say, my voice equally void of emotion. “I told him I’d been chosen to initiate you.”

We’re not supposed to tell anyone outside of the Sacred Sons, but Gabriel and I were close, and honestly, there wasn’t anything I wouldn’t tell him. At that point, anyway.

“After that night, I couldn’t stop thinking about you…and then you started dating Gabriel, so whatever I felt, I had to bury deep down. And do you know what happens to things that are buried?” My eyes meet hers. “They fester and rot.”

“None of that is my fault,” she answers.