Page 82 of Shielded Heart

Arcanthus shrugged, forcing himself to hold his casual visage. “Is there a point in me telling you the same?”

Straek leaned his head forward and spat on the floor.

Pressing his lips together, Arcanthus glanced down at the glob of saliva near his foot. “That was rude, Straek.”

“Fuck you.”

“Someone has to clean this room when we’re done. Now, any mess made by myself or my associates is understandable—this is our place, after all. Butthis…this is just uncalled for. You’re a guest here. A show of respect could go a long way in your situation.”

“You think I’m scared of you?”

“Clearly not.”

“The boss is going to take you apart piece by piece, sedhi, and make you wish you were never born.”

Arcanthus tipped his head back and sighed heavily. He’d learned throughout his life to always maintain the act—to always project confidence and calm no matter what he felt inside. He’d been slipping up in that regard more and more lately, and his current fury made it difficult to follow that rule, but he refused to show anything other than arrogance and indifference to this scum.

“I was worried you were going to go this route,” Arcanthus said. “It’s so…typical. The Inner Reach is going to kill me, me and my whole family are dead, you’re not going to give me anything so I should go fuck myself. It’s justtiresome, isn’t it?”

Arc leveled his gaze on Straek. “If you’re going to go this route, at least come up with original material. Your onigox friend said the same thing right before I killed him.”

The groalthuun’s expression hardened, and he bared his large, flat teeth. “I’m going to—”

“You’re not going to do anything,” Arcanthus growled.

Straek snapped his mouth shut and glared at Arc, nostrils flaring with heavy breaths.

Sighing again, Arcanthus smoothed down his robe and settled both feet on the floor, resting his elbows on his thighs as he leaned forward. “It seems you may be experiencing some difficulty understanding your current situation. Here’s how it’s going to work, Straek—I’m going to ask you a question, and you’re going to answer. If you don’t—or if I’m unsatisfied with your response—I’m going to move just a little closer to letting my vorgal associate do with you as he pleases.”

“You think anything you can do to me is worse than what the Syndicate would do?” Straek laughed bitterly. “You have no idea what you’re dealing with, do you?”

“A better idea than most, my friend. Why were you sent after me?”

“Fuck. You.”

Arcanthus frowned. He leaned back in the chair, propping one arm on the armrest with his fist raised. He extended his index finger. “Why were you sent after me?”

The groalthuun’s eyes shifted to Arcanthus’s fingers. “What does that mean? What are you doing?”

Arcanthus raised his middle finger along with the first and repeated his question again.

Straek’s jaw muscles ticked, and he released a huff of air. “I…I don’t know.”

Quirking a brow, Arcanthus began straightening his next finger.

“I’m not lying!” Straek said hurried. “I really don’t know. Boss saw your picture and said you needed to die. As soon as he figured out a way to get you in the open, he sent a bunch of us to kill you.”

Arcanthus halted the motion of his finger. “Why does your boss want me dead?”

“Like I said, Idon’tknow.”

Arc’s third finger straightened. “Only two left, my friend.”

“He doesn’t explain that stuff to us, damn it! We just do what he says. He’d kill us if we questioned him. All I know is he kept it in our gang and threw a lot of people at you. You must’ve done something to piss him off, because I’ve never seen him get like that overoneperson.”

An icy drop of fear tumbled into the blazing fires in Arcanthus’s gut, making his stomach churn. This wasn’t confirmation that the Syndicate knew his true identity; it didn’t mean they were after him because of the events on Caldorius a decade before. It was far more likely that he’d slept with thisboss’sfemale and the tryst had been discovered—that would’ve been more than enough to be sentenced to death by a Syndicate officer. Before Samantha, Arcanthus had been somewhat promiscuous, and he’d made mistakes before…

But that didn’t ring true to him, and in this situation, hehadto assume the worst—because regardless of their motives, the Syndicate wanted him dead. The only piece of good news—if it was even true—was that the hit hadn’t been passed along the Syndicate’s chain of command.

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