Page 5 of Run Like the Devil

In fact, other than when he’d shown up—and the time after that—he’d kept his wings out of sight.

Why?

I didn’t dare ask, especially not in front of everyone.

“You should have stayed dead,” Hale muttered.

“Rude.” Yazmor looked toward me, as if checking in. “Right?”

“Yes, Yazmor, that’s right. That’s pretty rude.”

Yazmor’s grin was like a wagging tail of a puppy who’d just gotten praised for good behavior.

“Yeah, well, I meant it to be rude. We were one fucker down, and now he shows back up like the last few months didn’t happen? Like his little game didn’t almost fucking crush you?”

An ache started in my chest at his unexpected care.

And just as quickly he put an end to it. “Now he’s going to get pity sex all the damn time. It’s fucking unfair.”

I blew out a long breath, sending up some stupid prayer for patience. It probably wasn’t a great idea to be asking shit from a god I planned on overthrowing.

But maybe it was like sex before a break-up—one last bone tossed before it all ended.

“Back to the point,” I said.

“Should we really discuss this in front of him?” Tyrus’ voice made me aware of just how little he’d said thus far. At my look, he went on. “Gorrin lied to us all about what he truly was. He is connected to Hubis and must have returned to the Plains after what happened. How do we know he wasn’t feeding Hubis information this entire time? How can we trust he isn’t doing so now? How many times have you ended up in the wrong place at the wrong time, Loch? You can’t tell me that his appearance at this time isn’t suspicious?”

I opened my mouth to tell Tyrus he was wrong, but no words came out. I wanted to trust Gorrin, but I really had no good reason to. Everything Tyrus had said was right, after all.

What we were here to do was unprecedented. It was dangerous and difficult and having an unknown involved only added to that danger.

When I said nothing, Gorrin spoke up, his expression showing no signs of hurt. Then again, distrust in the Chasm was pretty much the name of the game. “I understand your concerns, and as much as I wish I could tell you to trust me, I know those would be empty words and nothing more. I have no proof of my intentions or loyalties, after all.”

“Are you really trying to say you’re loyal to us?” Tyrus lifted his dark eyebrow to call Gorrin an idiot.

And Gorrin’s soft snort in response said he read it that way. “Of course not. I still have no issue destroying every one of you three. My loyalty is to Loch, as it has been since she arrived.”

“So says the man who almost tore her fucking mind apart,” Hale all but snarled, his tone drenched in anger and violence.

Which meant this meeting was headed way off course. I knew better than to butt in, though. They had to work this out.

Better they pulled weapons and fought here than ignore it all and have it happen in the middle of our plan, right?

“I know exactly what her mind could take. I would have never pushed her far enough to do any true damage.”

“Doesn’t change that you hurt her. I don’t exactly trust your fucking loyalty when you do that. I’ve done a lot of shit to her, but I sure as fuck never hurt her like that.”

His words struck me as far less innocent than they sounded. They took me back to the rough sex we’d had a few times, to the way he touched me, the way things often ran that line between pleasure and pain.

I tried to wipe the thought away before anyone could read it on my face, but a glance at a smirking Yazmor said the bastard had noticed.

“I know exactly what this place does to those who are not prepared to survive here. You three understand it as well, have seen others destroyed by it. I did all I did to make her strong enough to survive here,” Gorrin said.

“And how’d that fucking work for you?” Hale’s lips tipped up on one side, the lopsided grin as good as an insult.

“I may have been short-sighted,” Gorrin admitted, his voice softening just a hair. “She has done well for herself in my absence. I am not saying I made the right choices, only that I made the one I believed was right for her best interest. Unlike you, I don’t coddle her. You prefer to be the good guy, to have her like you rather than to have her safe. My actions may have been harsh, but they were done for her, no matter how distasteful I may have found them.”

And there went that ‘I’m wrong and sorry’ tone from Gorrin’s voice. Honestly, he’d managed it longer than I thought him capable of. Now he’d gone right back to that arrogance, as if challenging Hale to respond.

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