Page 86 of Golden Eagle

“Ooh, blood smoothie,” Alexei said. “Those are delicious in the summer.”

Lanny ignored him, glaring across the room at Nik, and only partly because it was a less frightening prospect than facing Trina. “Yeah, well, not all of us live with fresh blood dispensers.”Ha, he thought, viciously, for one stupid second. And then, uh oh.

The fridge door fell shut with a slap as Nik turned to face him fully, soup container threatening to buckle in his grip. His face hardened into the mask he’d worn in the ring earlier, that cold fury that had gotten a much-larger vampire thrown across the cage. When he opened his mouth, and a growl slipped out, his fangs were showing. “Don’t you ever–”

SLAM.

They all jumped.

All but Trina, who’d thrown the front door closed, and now stood glaring at all of them. Shit, she looked murderous, eyes flashing, her expression eerily similar to Nik’s.

“That’s enough,” she said, low and dangerous, voice shaking with repressed fury.

“Babe,” Lanny started, because he was an idiot.

“Enough,” she repeated. “I am sick to fuckingdeathof all you jackasses acting like dumbass cavemen. I’m the only woman trapped here in Testosterone Land, and maybe that makes me the stupid one, butmy God, you’re all fucking morons!

“You” – she jabbed a finger in Alexei’s direction – “don’t have enough morals and sense to keep this one out of the goddamn undergroundhuman fighting ring. You” – Jamie – “are a tattle-tale. You two” – she whirled to face Nik and Sasha – “have been in love with each other since nineteen-fucking-forty-two, and have only just now hooked up.”

Sasha went beet red.

She turned back the other way. “You…” Her accusatory finger wavered in Dante’s direction. “Well, I don’t know you, but your accent keeps jumping back and forth, and your hair looks really stupid.”

He gave a quiet gasp.

Lanny cleared his throat – he was already a dead man at this point; why not help her drive the nails in the coffin? “What about me?”

“You.” Her gaze snapped to him. Still cold, still furious…but brittle enough to break. The sharpness in her tone bled out to exhaustion. Heavy and flat. “You knew better. Or maybe you didn’t. I can’t decide which one’s worse.”

“Let me explain.”

She stared at him.

Sasha said, “Maybe we should go…”

“Splendid idea,” Dante said. Alexei followed him to the door, and a moment later, Jamie, big-eyed and looking properly chastened, left, too.

Nikita lingered; Lanny was aware of him in his periphery. Was aware, too, of Sasha plucking at the cuff of his jacket and murmuring, trying to draw him toward the door.

Lanny kept his eyes on Trina, on the way her face had settled into a kind of resignation and disappointment that scared him. To Nik, he said, “I’m getting real tired of you acting like I’m going to hurt her.”

A beat. Nikita said, “You already have.” But he let Sasha tow him away.

The door shut, and they were alone.

Lanny’s headache intensified; wincing tugged at the healing split along his scalp. “Trina–”

She turned away, put her shoulder toward him, arms folding across her middle. It sparked a sudden fury in him – an instinctual one that he tamped down. It was a defensive posture she’d adopted; shielding herself.

He’d growled at her today. Chased her. Told her she couldn’t leave.

God, he’d been a jackass.

He sighed. “You can yell at me some more if you want.”

“I wasn’t yelling, I was talking forcefully. And I didn’t want to do it.”

“Had to feel good, though. I deserved it.”

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