Page 17 of Nest Of Lies

“You disagree?” I’m not surprised, Mills is seriously protective of her.

“Valen is terrifying on the best of days.”

“And?” I ask in a low growl.

“I didn’t realise the intent was to make her scared of us.”

“Well, nothing else has worked to deter her from sneaking in.”

Mills rolls his eyes, and I pretend not to see him do it. I can cope with everything so long as I can ignore the bullshit.

Valen slides into the room, his eyes wide. He’s got shaggy black hair that’s almost made of ringlets. His grin is wide, and his dark brown eyes twinkle. Ianto is the one who put every single tattoo on his skin, and he’s not a work of art.

I groan. “Valen!”

I say his name in pure exasperation because I know with just one look, I just know what he’s done is going to piss me off.

He winks at me and pulls open the fridge, snatching a can of beer out of it, and then hopping up on the bench, ignoring the violent growl Mills gives him as he snatches a plate of biscuits out of his way.

“What did you do this time?” Ranger asks.

Valen snags three biscuits, takes a massive bite of all three of them, and chews quickly, while Mills growls louder.

“I threw all her clothes into the pool.”

I freeze. Wheeze. Cough. Choke. Gasp for air, and all the while, I can hear warning bells screaming in my head. Lia is going to go crazy when she finds out.

“I’m sorry, I think I misheard. Did you say you threw all her clothing into her pool?”

“No!” He finishes the biscuits and licks his palm. I’m relieved because for a moment there, I thought the worst. “I threw all her clothes in our pool.”

I grab at the wall to keep me standing as the complete shit fuckery of a disaster explodes in my brain, showing me every single likely scenario, and none of them are fun at all.

“How does this help us, Valen?” I snap. “Payback, a prank for a prank. You went too far.”

His face falls. “I did?”

“You fucking know you did. What were you aiming for?”

He snags another biscuit and looks up at me, and I know he’s neither sorry nor ignorant. I have kept him on a short leash, and this is his payback.

“Hmm, I probably shouldn’t mention that I stole her favourite teddy bear, then, I guess?”

He pulls out a teddy the size of my hand. It’s black with huge, big amber eyes. It’s cute, I guess. She sleeps with it. We’ve all stolen into her house enough, and I have a thing about watching her sleep. She never sleeps without the bear.

“Valen!”

He laughs, grabs some cooking twine, builds a noose, and jumps up on the island, ignoring Mills’ protests and hangs the teddy from the exhaust fan.

“Seriously?” I growl. “And how did you get this done when I only just told Ianto? I must have been insane to make you road captain.”

Valen snorts and suddenly shouts. “Catch me!” He flies across the room, straight at Ranger, who, to his credit, somehow spins and catches him, only stumbling back a single step.

Ranger kisses him hard, and then drops him unceremoniously to the ground.

“Where is Ianto?” I growl out.

Mills shoves a handful of biscuits at me, turns me, and pushes me out of his kitchen. I glance back once, seeing the teddy bear swing.

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