Page 36 of The Devil We Know

I sigh and incline my head at him in acknowledgment of the validity behind his statement. “Were you going to tap dance out here if I’d waited any longer to come out?”

“Whatever it takes to draw some attention, apparently.”

“Who the fuck are you?” Tony asks from behind him.

He jumps, obviously startled, and I laugh. “You didn’t notice we weren’t alone for the last two minutes, either. Was that part of your plan, too?”

Kaian’s gaze swings back to me, and he glares at me. “Well, you don’t have to be mean about it.”

Tony laughs as he walks closer, stopping when he’s standing next to Kaian. “You obviously don’t know Antoinette very well.”

His eyes light up as he says, “Mrs. Beast? What a pleasure.”

Tony’s laughter increases, and he slaps his hand against his thigh as he jokes, “Mrs. Beast. That’s great.”

I mean, I’ve been called far worse things than “Mrs. Beast.”. Unlike Darius, nicknames in general don’t bother me much. So, I smile as I reply, “Mrs. Beast in the flesh.”

After a few moments, Tony finally stops laughing. “Kaian Volkov. Now, I heard a fair amount about you in passing, so your behavior so far tonight seems kind of odd.”

“Did you catch our previous conversation?”

Tony nods, an excited gleam in his eye as he says, “You know I like me some fuck around time.”

I raise my brows at Tony as I ask, “What are you doing here?”

He gives me a bored look as he responds, “You said there was a possible intruder, and you’re going to go investigate. Did you think we would just sit back and wait for you to report back as to what happened?”

I shrug. “Didn’t really think one way or another about any of it.”

He shakes his head, looks at Kaian, and says, “Women.”

My hand shoots out, and I grip his earlobe between my thumb and index finger knuckle, squeezing viciously before he can yank himself away as I say, “What was that? What did you say?”

He yelps, and Kaian jumps back as Tony laughs and yells, “Nothing. I didn’t say anything.”

I yank my hand away without releasing my grip on his earlobe to get one last dig in. “That’s what I thought.”

I look over at Kaian, who is staring at us wide-eyed, likely uncertain what the hell is going on as I ask, “How about you? You got something you want to say?”

He puts both his hands up in front of him and shakes his head. “Nope. I’m good.”

Tony straightens, throwing me a crooked grin as he responds, “You know I’m only messing with you, Nettie.”

I snort, resisting my urge to give him another slap, and then Kaian mutters, “Are you guys always like this?”

“Like what?”

“I don’t know,” he replies. “Just seems like an inappropriate time for jokes?”

Tony rolls his eyes, and I snort dismissively. “No such thing as an inappropriate time for jokes. Sometimes, you gotta do whatever it takes to get through the day.”

Kaian gives me a confused look, and Tony adds, “If you don’t like our jokes, you can fuck off.”

I laugh again, and Kaian puts his hands up again as he retorts, “I’m sure they’ll grow on me over time.”

“Sure they will,” Tony scoffs. “We may as well go in. Everyone else should be here soon, and we can try to figure out what we’re going to do next.”

We turn and walk toward the door into the building, and then I realize Kaian isn’t following behind, so I turn back to him and ask, “What are you doing?”

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