Page 70 of Psycho Alphas: Part Two
My gaze darted to him in an instant.
Hehadremembered.
The number I’d chosen for Thistle hadn’t been arbitrary. It was a detail I’d thought slipped by him, but perhaps I was wrong.
“She’s worth more than Knox,” Ace snarled. I swear he was going to crack a tooth with the restraint. It was a pleasant sight.
Thistle broke at last, giggling. “He’s pranking you.”
Ace swallowed, eyes snapping to her. “It was more?”
“‘Course it was more, you muppet!” she said.
He was rigid, eyes darting between us. His hand dropped to her waist, instinctively pulling her close as he glared at us.
Something unwound in my chest as I watched them. I could almost feel it from Rogue, too. It was hard to gauge exactly how much of a psychopath Ace was. Whether or not Thistle was truly in his sphere of protection, or if she was as disposable as he’d made her feel.
She might have trouble reading him at times, and I got it, but from Alpha to Alpha this signal was a beacon. Not exactly the kind of soft and squishy love most soul matches might be able to offer, but he cared.
He cared alot.
Even if only because it affected his ego. I doubted, however, that therewasanother currency for him.
“He paid five million,” Rogue grunted into the silence.
“Five… million?” Ace looked entirely torn between shock and relief.
“Yeh.”
“A… bidding war?” he asked.
“There was, but he overshot by a whole mountain,” Thistle put in.
“Why?” Ace asked.
I folded my arms, my eyes meeting Rogue’s. I’d never said it out loud, though I always assumed he knew.
“Because of me,” Rogue said with a shrug.
“You?” Thistle asked.
“Was exactly a hundred times what I paid for him.”
Okay. So he had noticed.
“It was?” Thistle perked up.
“He was being facetious,” he snorted. “Trying to make me sweat.”
Well.
Not the word I would have chosen, but not terribly inaccurate. Ihadwanted him to sweat. I’d wanted him to lose sleep wondering what kind of value—to me—translated to five million dollars.
Turns out I had been just as unsure about that as anyone else.
Made it a great wild card, I suppose. He couldn’t have worked it out if I hadn’t.
Ace finally relaxed, and it looked like work for him to remove his hand from Thistle’s waist.
