Page 32 of V for Vindictive

As if he hadn’t escaped death, then gone and gotten himself blacklisted by the Organization, Phillip strolled over with his lips tilted. “And no, you can’t use it. I know how eager you’ve been to get your petal-soft hands on Blood Slayer, V.”

The sexual innuendo wasn’t lost on me, but all I felt in that moment was intense relief. Phillip was back. He was home. I’d never tell him how much I’d missed the bastard, but the feelings of it rushed my throat and made it impossible to speak.

Nigel growled and blocked Phil’s path to me. “You have some fucking nerve.”

“I’d get out of my way, dog, before I forget why I let you stay in the first place,” Phillip warned hotly before his enchanting ocean eyes slid over to me. “I traveled a long way to be here, and you’re no obstacle at all. Don’t test me.”

I hadn’t really seen Phillip bare his teeth, ready to tear out Nigel’s throat, quite like this before. It wasn’t how I expected our reunion to go. I’d had enough pettiness to last a lifetime, and these two never let up.

Before anything else could be said, I landed a blow on Phillip so hard that he was sent vaulting back. Nigel’s eyes widened in astonishment, and even Sloan seemed to be surprised by the turn of events, but neither of them intervened. Nor would they dare.

Phillip deserved nothing less.

In a swift second, I hovered over the jerk who’d toyed with my heart for months. Kneeling, I eyed the Austrian with what was likely a vicious gleam in my eyes. I fought back the urge to fuse our lips together in a violent kiss, one that I’d dreamed about for weeks, and opted for a sneer instead. “You have some fucking nerve,” I repeated Nigel’s words, voice bottoming out.

Phillip’s gentle smile nearly stole my rage, but I held it together. I wouldn’t forgive him so easily, and I’d make him pay for the nights I mourned him—when I didn’t know whether he was alive or dead. All the days I spent drowning in the guilt for leaving him behind.

“I know you hate me. I deserve it. But, pet, I’ve missed you.”

Throat tight, I swallowed again and again to keep from crying, body frozen in the crouch I’d taken. “You’re right.” I stood to my full height, leering down at the bastard, and Phillip made no move to get up. “I do hate you.” Turning around, I left him on the asphalt where he’d landed and headed towards the house without ever looking back at him.

I hate you mostly because I love you so much.

“Isn’t it risky for this asshole to join back up with us and attend one of our missions?” I asked Sloan, after the three men I’d abandoned returnedto the house. Phillip didn’t get so much as a glance from me, and I could practically hear his amusement every time I ignored him.

Within seconds of our abrupt return, the rest of the group fought for space in the living room to play nosy neighbor to our less-than-welcoming reception of Phillip. Sloan had gently ushered me to a seat and served me a much-needed cup of coffee. His calming energy helped drag out some of mine.

It didn’t go unnoticed to anyone how affectionate the Brit’s smile was towards me, or how often his hand seemed to find purchase on my body—always touching or caressing within perfect view of everyone else. The least amused was Phillip, but very few would know any better. To an outsider, his usual assholery was plain as day. But to Sloan and I, it was evident in the barely-there twitch in his neck he wasn’t happy about how often Sloan touched me.

Serves him right.

“Ever heard of hiding in plain sight, V?” the asshole Hunter remarked, chuckling in a way that made my heart miss a beat.

But the Austrian’s eyes were stone-cold and calculating my every emotion, tearing apart my poorly constructed façade of nonchalance, determining what was really in my heart, and it was the entire reason I couldn’t let our eyes meet.

He’d know how much I missed him; know how much I wanted to hate him but never could. Know how my heart yearned for him, and how his return had settled the acidic burn living in my chest every day since I abandoned him to his fate. But I’d never let him see that in my eyes. I wouldn’t let the douche-canoe off that easy. I wanted to break him, evenjust a little, for how conflicted he made me. For the fact that now I was caught between two, all because he left and made room for someone else.

Eyes on Sloan, I touched the gently smiling Hunter’s hand in full view of Phillip, making sure that nothing about my hand over Sloan’s was hesitant or lacking affection. It was a bitchy move, but one the asshole deserved.

Sloan was my strength, had been for weeks, and he eased the trembling in my body with a single touch of his hand over mine. Calmed a rampant pulse sure to destroy me. Soothed an erratic heart, which suffered every time I looked at Phil. From the way his hand wrapped around mine and his azure eyes glinted, the Brit knew it all.

Thank Buddha for this sweet, gentle man...

After sneaking a glance at the Austrian Hunter, it was evident the move had done its job. Phil’s eyes had a dangerous glint in them and his jaw was impossibly clenched, just seconds from breaking teeth.

“Can you relay to the bastard in the corner that I don’t need his snarky-ass response? You’re plenty capable of answering a question I askedyou,Sloan.”

Sloan’s mouth tilted, his face expressing how little it bothered him to be used to stoke the other Hunter’s flames. Squeezing his hand and letting my fingers cling to his, I silently apologized to the other Hunter, wishing my desire to punish Phillip didn’t mean tossing the Brit in the middle. His answering smile suggested he wasn’t the least bit angry about it, and the gorgeous man even added a small kiss to the top of my hand for extra oomph.

I owe you one, Sloan, you fucking saint.

Sungho, who I was told knew about our vendetta against the Organization and could be trusted, sat in an armchair nearby, smirking. I caught thesmile when I peeked at him through my peripheral. The rest of the group was huddled in a corner, watching the car crash that was my love life in real time like it was a trashy reality show. They didn’t even try to hide their gross interest in what I’d do next to systematically destroy the Austrian for everything he’d done to me.

The bastards were eating it all up.

I hadn’t been open about what I was feeling, but most picked up on the tumultuous relationship I had with Phillip and how attracted I was to Sloan at the same time. At the end of the day, I was a girl wrought with a broken heart, and I didn’t do a good job of hiding it.

Tiff and Mia were joined at the hip, and their whispered conversation didn’t go unnoticed by me. “I love this new feisty V. She’s all bite and no bark. The asshole deserves every bit of poison she spits at him,” Tiff conveyed with a wistful huff.

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