Page 57 of Devoured
For once, I couldn’t make a back-handed joke about that.
“I worshipped her,” I said, the only way a man like me could, “until she betrayed me.”
The trees rustled, and a woman with red hair and black eyes stepped out from the darkness. She looked down at me. She had tattoos on her arms, even one on her neck.
I had seen a picture of her. She had worked at the Dahlia District once.
“This is a warning,” she said. She crouched in front of me, our eyes meeting. “Iris has been good to me. Always has. And if you hurt her in any way, he’ll take care of you.” She nodded at the man. “And if you break her heart,Iwill take care of you myself.”
She knew Iris then. How close were they? Was it one of the ex-servers Iris had visited recently, or someone else? The woman kneeled beside me and cut the plastic ties. The masked man disappeared into the trees. I stared at Vanish through the open spaces between the bushes and branches. Some security team to not notice these two, and also not see that I was taken into the surrounding woods. I would have to fire the men on staff tonight.
The woman gave one last warning: “Don’t fuck with her, Price.” Then she disappeared into the woods too.
Heat radiated from where the gun had landed on the back of my head. I stomped to my car, disinterested in following that couple into the trees. I had a gun in the glove compartment of my car, but what point would it make? Fucking pieces of garbage.Fucking Iris. She had sent them to threaten me, to make sure that she got her way.
But the woman had said she didn’t want me breaking Iris’s heart. As if we were a couple.
What the hell was going on between us?
Could I be mad at Iris? When I had done the same thing by sending out the Adler’s team to watch her? To make sure she didn’t do anything stupid.
It was all familiar. Too familiar.
I dialed the Adlers in the car, driving to my penthouse in the city.
“Hey—”
“Did your men notice anything odd about yesterday?” I said, cutting off Wil.
“Off?” he asked. “Nah, none of them mentioned anything. I can check with Derek though.”
“Yeah. Do that,” I muttered.
“Did something happen, man?” he asked. “You sound different. They haven’t let her go more than three hundred yards without following her. I’m sure she’s fine.”
“She met with someone yesterday,” I said. “And I’m almost positive that person attacked me tonight.”
“Oh, shit,” Wil said. “We can bring her in. My brother, Axe—” he paused, taking a deep breath, “He’s got some interesting ways of working confessions out of people.”
No. I didn’t need that. I would deal with this on my own. I couldn’t trust anyone but myself to do it correctly. “Keep the watch on her. A closer one.”
“Got it.”
“Another question.” I pulled into the parking lot and let the valet take my car. Kept the phone on my ear. Popped the tablet. I needed to chill the hell out. “Teagen. Does that name ring a bell?”
“Yep,” he said. “It does. Why?”
“Iris mentioned her.”
“They were friends or something.”
“What happened to her?”
“She’s hanging out with Ethan.”
“Who the hell is Ethan?”
“My brother,” he said sternly. “What do you want with her anyway?”
