Page 36 of Martyr

Lake flicked through the list, irritation bubbling beneath his skin. He kept a hold on it, his exterior immaculate as he sat in the far corner of the third level at the Club House. It was a rare sunny day, and sunlight pooled in from the window to cast this half of the large room in a golden hue that glinted annoyingly off the screen in his lap.

He was too lazy to move, so he put up with it, eyes scanning the list of information he’d secured from West earlier this morning.

This morning, when he’d arrived back to the Roost to find his bed cold and his room empty.

For a fleeting moment, the sheer panic he’d felt had been all-consuming and unlike anything he’d ever experienced before. Fortunately, the feeling had passed. After what he’d done, there was no way West would have allowed Nix to run from them.

He’d stood outside his friend's bedroom door for what had to be ten minutes before he’d changed his mind and walked away without checking. They shared everything, always had, always would, but…Part of Lake had to admit that he wasn’t ready to see Nix alone with one of the others.

Would he be softer with them?

Sweeter?

More willing?

Not that he hadn’t been willing for Lake. Sex wasn’t the issue when it came to his Songbird. Sex was actually the only thing holding them together, in fact, and Lake wasn’t above using that to his advantage.

Using that as a weapon to coerce Nix into doing exactly what he wanted when he wanted him to do it.

Nix didn’t think with his dick, but he could certainly become distracted enough to forget things because of it. At least temporarily.

Maybe Lake should have done that instead.

Maybe he should have impaled him on his cock before sinking his teeth into his neck. If he’d made the experience feel good for him in some ways, would Nix be this upset with him now?

“Brooding?” Yejun appeared suddenly, sinking into the plush navy chair across from him, eyes already on the scenery outside.

“Hardly,” Lake denied, flicking the list on his screen back to the top to start again. He hadn’t actually been paying enough attention to it to recall what he’d already read.

Thrice.

Yejun grunted. “If you were going to worry about him hating you, you shouldn’t have acted on impulse.”

“It wasn’t impulsive.” He felt his best friend’s gaze rest on him and sighed. “All right. It was a little impulsive.”

“Why is that?” Yejun cocked his head. “Something happened.”

“He was attacked.”

“No, there’s more to it than that.”

Lake didn’t like keeping secrets from them, but neither West nor Yejun were ready to hear about Nix’s cousin. Theyhadn’t developed a strong enough bond with him yet. Until then, until they were both as obsessed with Nix, telling them was out of the question.

Part of that was selfish, because Lake had long since accepted that he needed Nix.

But they did as well.

“Why did you ask West to hand over the King's list?” Yejun must have realized Lake wasn’t going to tell him anything and slumped back into his seat, changing the subject. “What name are you hoping to find?”

“I’m not sure,” he admitted. “But there’s a good chance our hacker is in here.”

Yejun frowned. “What do you mean? The hacker used Iris to get information from the app. If he was already a member, he wouldn’t have needed her.”

“We both know that’s not true.” This wasn’t the place to properly voice what he meant, so Lake merely caught and held Yejun’s gaze with his own.

Swearing, he crossed his arms. “All right, if you want real talk. We already dealt with that list anyway. There’s no way we missed something.”

“Nix seems to believe so.”

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