Page 130 of Merciless

“You seem to be doing an okay job holding off. He’s obviously got his reasons.”

“None of it makes any fucking sense,” he complains, rubbing his scruff-covered jaw.

“I believe her, though,” I confess somewhat hesitantly.

“What?”

I take a sip of my own coffee as he drills me with eyes that terrify almost everyone in this town. Hell, this state.

“I don’t think her and Mav are playing us.”

“Fucking hell, J. You haven’t even got inside her yet, and she’s got you wrapped around her little finger.”

My teeth grind and my lips thin at his comment.

“Maybe I’m wrong,” I mutter. Although, just like how I knew the best way to crack her, I’m pretty fucking sure I’m right here too.

He’s silent for the longest time as he sips his coffee and thinks about my words. I keep my focus on the screen, leaving him to it.

“Say you’re not wrong,” he says quietly. “Why is she doing all this?”

I shrug.If I knew the answer to that then we wouldn’t be fucking sitting here, would we?

“She hates Victor.”

“Who doesn’t,” I counter.

“Yet, she’s willingly working—”

“Possibly not willingly,” I add quickly.

“Well, she’s working for him apparently because he has something over Mav and she’s trying to protect him,” he says, explaining everything we know.

“Right?”

“I dunno, something just seems off. We’ve all done a lot of bad shit that we could be put down for that Victor knows. Why isn’t he threatening us? What does Mav know that we don’t? Why is he a risk?”

I place my mug on the counter and turn the vibrator off.

“How about we go down there and find out?”

He studies me for a beat.

“Just remember who’s in charge here.”

Lifting my hand, I salute him before downing what’s left of my coffee and pocketing my cell.

“Wait,” I shout when he’s at the door. “Shall we make her a coffee?”

He looks back over his shoulder.

“You think that’s a good idea?”

“I do. She’ll appreciate it.”

“Fine. Make her a fucking coffee. She doesn’t like it too hot, though.”

“Obviously. No one is as big a freak as you, asbestos mouth.”

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