Page 73 of Battle Lines

No.

It was somethingelseGraham had done. That was the part I wanted to know. She said he didn’t take anything. However you didn’t have to take in order to inflict damage.

I inflicted plenty over the years and got very little out of it.

“Did Ezra touch you?” Reed asked in a voice populated with so much menace, I got a thrill. He was on the verge of murder. It was right there in his tone. If not murder, then a great deal of bloody mayhem. I could go for some mayhem.

“Mayhem,” Milo said in a low voice. I doubt it carried, though it entertained me that he echoed my own thoughts. Then he held out a hand to her. Interesting. Lainey took his hand and let him pull her to him. He moved her completely behind him.

So he read the obvious and present threat in the room.

Surprisingly, Graham clearly got it too, though he didn’t take the warning to heart. Or maybe it only served as a red flag to a bull. He jerked the silk tie at his throat loose as he faced Reed. “Yes, I fucking touched her. I kissed her, I tasted her, and I made her come. What do you fucking care?”

Lainey B dropped her chin and shook her head. I only got her profile, so the wound wasn’t totally visible. But the strike Graham lobbed at Reed drew blood from more than one target.

“She’s a woman, or have you managed to delude yourself this whole time? She gave herself to Hardigan… and when I asked for it, she—”

Whatever he’d been about to say, Reed didn’t let him finish. He struck Graham almost blindly. A raw sound tore out of him like a wounded animal. Glass shattered and even as Graham staggered, Reed struck him again.

And again.

It was almost entertaining.

“Stop,” Lainey ordered, and I half-considered pouting. Maybe she could let them go a few more strikes. Reed had a really vicious right hook. He had Graham by the shirt and was switching to a full-on jab. The repeated blows were going to end up cracking someone’s cheekbone.

Couldn’t happen to a nicer asshole.

“Stop,” Lainey said again, and this time she started forward.

Fuck.

Milo must have had the same thought, ‘cause he waded into the pair. He caught Reed and drove him back away from Graham and took a couple of blows for his trouble. When he smashed his fist into Reed, it was a beautiful thing. It knocked him right on his ass. Graham staggered forward, but I straightened to intercept. Lainey didn’t need blood on her dress.

“Kotyonok,” Graham said, blood bubbling on his lips. He stumbled and I caught him before he dropped on her. “Let go of me.” He tried to pull away, but I just gave him a not-so-gentle shove into a chair. The guy was about to land on his face.

“Stay the fuck down,” Milo ordered behind me. “The point of talking was not to beat his face in. I can do that myself.”

“She’smine.” The words sliced through the room and Graham shoved out of the chair, his eyes going wild. Well, one of them. The other was rapidly swelling shut.

“Yours,” he scoffed, bloody spittle flying. “Everything is yours. Until you don’t care anymore. Your secrets. Your possession. Your plans. Did it occur to you that maybe we don’t want to be? That we have our own goddamn feelings?”

He wavered on his feet, and then he turned toward Lainey again.

“I didn’t hurt you.” Only he didn’t sound so confident. “Right?”

“Does it matter?” I didn’t think it was possible to chill the temperature in the room further, but Lainey B surprised me. “This is about possession, not feelings. This is about control—not caring.”

Hurt echoed under her tone and I shifted to glance at her. Her eyes remained dry, but I didn’t think that was more than a facade. A mask she wore in place of the one she’d shed when they came in.

“You want to hurt Adam because you gotyourfeelings hurt. You’re lashing out because I’m not taking your side.” She shook her head. “I don’t want to do this now. I doubt I’ve ever wanted to dothis.”To be fair, she wasn’t wading into the fight. A few punches could be cathartic. “Pretty Boy, if you still have something to discuss with the pair of them, I’ll be in the hall with Karagiani. I won’t go back to the party without you.”

With that, she collected her mask and her gaze landed on me.

“Bodhi.”

“Lainey B. You want company or for me to keep them from killing each other?” I don’t even know why I made the offer. I’d rather go with her and let them kill each other. Hell, we could sit and watch then go back to the party. As it was, though, she didn’t seem especially happy so I wanted to take that into consideration.

“Lainey—” Her name fell from both Reed and Graham’s lips as they started toward her. Well, they attempted. Milo shoved Reed back, and I knocked Graham back into his chair. He was definitely not capable of fighting back right now.

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