Page 88 of Sloth
Grinding his teeth, he stared back, gaze never wavering.
“I know that duty is what you make of it,” he said. “I know that it’s hard, and sometimes you think you’re doing the right thing, but you’re not. You make mistakes. I also know that there is no mistake you can’t come back from.” Her eyes narrowed, but she said nothing, so he added softly, “Your family misses you.”
She backhanded him. He breathed through the numbing pain on his other cheek. This was good. It meant he was getting to her. He spat blood on the floor.
“You’re a filthy liar,” she declared, and Max actually heard emotion in her voice. “You speak of duty, but I know what you did for your friend. I know that you went on a killing rampage all in the name of so-called justice. How are you different to me?”
“I’m not proud of what I did,” he replied as a suffocating feeling sat on his chest. He frowned, fighting back the memories of his time exacting revenge on the insurgents that murdered his friend. His mind went completely dark and filled with utter chaos. It hurt him to talk about, but if it kept her attention away from Sloan, then so be it. He snarled at her. “Those assholes killed my friend. It was war. But I should have listened to my leaders. It’s a regret and a stain on my heart that will follow me to my grave.”
This made her blink and her toneless voice was back. “You are stained. You embody everything she fights against. You murdered in cold blood. You are a sinner. You are unwanted.”
No. He shook his head. That wasn’t true. He’dfeltSloan’s emotions. He knew the truth. She loved him as much as he loved her. She and her family would find him. He just had to hold out. He trusted her. But, even as he repeated the mantra in his head, the doubt Daisy had planted began to grow.
What if their brief reunion wasn’t solid? What if Sloan oscillated back to whatever motivation kept her from coming after him the first time? What if she got to thinking about their relationship, truly thinking, and decided that someone like her—a warrior for justice—couldn’t love someone like him… a flat out murderer.
Max took a deep, shuddering breath.
He pushed out the doubt and replaced it with hope. If he couldn’t trust their relationship, then they were back in the same place they’d been two years ago, and he wouldn’t do that. Not on his end this time. He could only hope Sloan felt the same on her end.
“I can feel your despair knocking at the edges of your soul, Maximillian Johnson.” She leaned closer and whispered.“Let me in, little piggy. Let me in.”
“I won’t let it in. You shouldn’t either.”
One of his escape scenarios involved turning Daisy to his side. She was a Lazarus; the eldest of eight. Sloan had told him they thought Daisy perished in a fire. Looking at her now, Max could barely see the faint pale sliver of scar tissue down the side of her face. Being burned alive as a child would be a horrific memory, perhaps one the Syndicate used against her. That fire started when their biological mother decided to destroy all the evidence of the project. What if the Syndicate told Daisy she was part of that evidence and that her mother wanted her dead? There were many gaps in the reasoning and knowledge of what really went down that day, and Daisy only went by what the Syndicate had told her. Perhaps these gaps could be exploited to bring her back to the right side of the battle.
He knew one thing for sure: whatever they’d told her to make her believe she was worth being left behind, it had eaten away at her psyche. Shewasdespair.
“How did you meet Sloth?” Daisy asked. Again.
They’d been at this for an eternity.
He gave her the same answer he gave every single time. “You mean Sloan?”
She pursed her lips and stood to tower over him. “You know who I’m talking about. Enough of this nonsense.”
There was that tremor of emotion again.
He smiled. “Can’t remember.”
A boot to his ribs was her response. He coughed, doubled over.
“When did you know you were her mate?”
Now he laughed. “In Australia, we’re all mates.”
Another eye-watering kick to his gut. This time he rolled, curled to protect himself. His head lolled and pressed against the cool floor, taking a small comfort in the temperature. The specks in the stone aggregate were green.
Daisy dragged him back to sitting and shoved his back against the wall. He winced at the pull from the cable ties around his raw wrists and ankles.
“When did she discover her powers were linked to you? Was it the first time you copulated?”
He arched an amused brow. Copulated? That was new. She’d never asked about intimate details before. “Now, I’ve been told my cock was magic, but that’s taking it a bit far, don’t you think?”
Besides… they’d never gotten that far. Not yet. Thoughts of that event kept him warm at night. He knew exactly how their first time would go. Already, his mind took him there, sliding into fantasy, and away from reality. Silk sheets. Diamonds.
Daisy let go and stood back, nostrils flaring as she glared down at him.
He was getting to her. Why? The crude language? Unlikely.
