Page 59 of The Villain
His jaw tenses, and I see a twitch. “You know a simple thank you would suffice.”
“Answer my question. What are you doing here when I’m not here?” I glance at my open bedroom door, walk over because I have a feeling. When I find the bed empty, I stalk back and round on Jet. “Where is she?” I ask, my voice that of a predator.
He grins.
I glance at the door that leads to his bedroom.Correction. Not his bedroom. The room he used to use when he stayed over. When things were different.
He watches me.
I draw a deep breath in. She’s in his bed. I know it. She’s in his fucking bed. “Did you touch her, Jet?”
A smirk curves one corner of his mouth upward. “Would it upset you if I did?”
I fist the collar of his shirt. “Did. You. Fucking. Touch. Her?”
He grips my collar, mimicking my posture. “Well, I’m no magician and she couldn’t walk so what do you think?” He shoves me backward, unafraid. Jet knows me better than any member of his family. There was a time when we were friends. As close as brothers. Maybe I even wanted that and that’s why he’s so fucking brazen now. “You seem pretty upset considering the fact she’s just collateral.” He pauses dramatically and I want to fucking kill him. “Or isn’t she?”
“It’s none of your business what she is.” I drop my grip and walk away, pushing a hand through my hair.
I hadn’t planned on leaving her down there for as long as I did. It was only to scare her. I planned on going back in half an hour, max. Just giving myself enough time to clean up the blood. Take care of the wound. But then the shit hit the fan.
By the time Enzo called to let me know Jet was here. That he’d gotten Allegra out, she’d been down there for three hours.
Shit. Why is my life always such a fucking shitshow?
I walk over to the cabinet where I keep a bottle of whiskey and pour myself a glass. I down it in one go anddon’t offer him any. Instead, I pour a second and turn to face him. I know what he wants. I saw how he looked at her. And I need to manage this.
“Allegra’s off limits.”
He studies me and I wonder what he sees. Wonder if I’m not as good at hiding what’s in my head as I like to think I am. Jet knows me better than anyone else though because Jet was there when the ground fell out from under me. When Seth’s disease progressed too far, too fast, when my father’s illness took hold of him and destroyed his life. Jet knows about Seth. In a moment of weakness, I told him. I’d needed to tell someone. To talk to someone. I’ve wondered ever since that night if that was a mistake.
“We’ve shared before,” he says, voice low. My hand tightens around my glass. I knew he wanted her. I fucking knew it.
I turn away and shake my head. “No.”
“If she’s nothing more than collateral, why does it matter?”
“I said no.”
“Fuck’s sake, Cassian, you’re not going to fuck her anyway!”
I spin to face him, my mouth open to respond because I knew it was a matter of time before he’d throw that in my face, didn’t I? But before I can, a sound comes from behind me. As if on cue, no, more likely she had her ear pressed to the door, my Little Moth, we turn to find Allegra standing at the door of Jet’s bedroom. She looks from me to Jet and back, her eyes narrowed, fury making her hands into fists, her lip into a snarl. Her hair is awild mass around her head and she’s fucking beautiful in all her rage, and I remember how she clung to me when I took her down to the crypt. How she changed.
How scared she was.
Her rage had gone, only fear left in its place. Being down there triggered something, some memory. I want to know what. And I want to know if I’m right about the kidnapping. If her father had ordered it.
She steps out of the room then, coming fully into view and when I see what she’s wearing, when I see Jet’s shirt on her, my brain fucking rattles against my skull and all thoughts are gone, but one.
He. Touched. Her.
She’s wearing his fucking shirt.
She’s naked underneath. I know. I stripped her myself. And for her to be wearing his shirt now? Did she want it?
The fury I feel has no words.
I shift my gaze from Allegra to Jet. He’s looking at her too. Hell, he can’t seem to drag his eyes away and I can’t read his expression. My hands turn to fists so tight, my fingernails almost break the skin of my palms.
