Page 34 of Live To Tell

I step forward and catch the coin as it descends back towards Dorian’s hand. “The Circle ‘deal with’ people and ‘unpleasantly’? Yet still you don’t see a connection!”

He holds his palm out for the coin. “The fact of the matter is, Violet, I don’t care. People murder each other all the time. They go missing. Does this affect me? No. You? Also no, so I don’t know why you’re wasting your time.”

I straighten my shoulders and drop the coin into his palm. “To solve what happened.”

Dorian’s eyes turn to the ceiling. “Didn’t you heal properly from your encounter with the fencepost?” He looks at me and chuckles at the confusion. “Violet Blackwood and her bleeding heart.”

“Is it wrong that I want justice?” I snap. “That I believe people should be treated fairly?”

He chokes a laugh. “Well, it isn’t very ‘you’. You’re already tangled in enough lives. You lay yourself open to problems if they don’t behave as you expect or wish. Betrayals. Disappointment.” He slams down the coin, “Anger, Violet, and we both know the issues that could cause. In this family, we only care about each other. Life and the world isn’t fair. Nothing you can do will change that.”

“Yet Ethan and Zeke spend all that time creating change with the shifters?” I retort.

“That’s not justice and fairness. That’s self-preservation.” He pulls his legs from the table and swings around in his chair. “Everything I do is for us.”

“Including killing shifters?” I blurt.

Dorian’s body tenses into an unnatural stillness. “Who accused me of killing a shifter?”

“Nobody. I’m talking about Oz.”

He scoffs. “Violet. Oz wasn’t a shifter. He was a construct. I’d class my actions as putting Oz out of his misery.”

“And Leif?” I ask, my blood icing at Dorian’s attitude and admittance. “Were you tempted to ‘put him out of his misery’ that night?”

“Ah. So, the boy saw.” Dorian slants his head. “Don’t make me regret leaving him alive. I doubt the shifters would approve of my actions and I wouldn’t want them to know.”

“Exactly!” I hiss.

Dorian stands and looks down at me, hands in pockets. I noticed his presence less when living with the man, the energy encompassing him and everybody Dorian’s close to was natural to me. Since spending time away, his sheer physical and magical aura hits me more when I’m in a room with him.

Worse, I sense the sharp edges of malevolence I once welcomed within myself.

“I never intended to kill Leif because he wasn’t a threat to us,” he says evenly.

“Isn’t,” I correct.

“Wasn’t,” he repeats. “Sure, Ethan wants to help him out because he likes interfering, but Leif means nothing to me, Violet.”

I swallow hard. “Leif means something to me. You will never harm him, Dorian.”

For an unnerving amount of time, he stares at me before turning away. “I’ll speak to my friend in the Circle. Your mother would like a chat before dinner. Such a shame you didn’t bring your friends this time.”

“Because you won’t have the opportunity to interrogate and intimidate the guys?” I ask. “And no way would Grayson come here, even if I asked.”

He returns an impassive look. “You still speak to him?”

“We’re friends.”

“’Friends’,” he mutters darkly. “I’m putting everything into tracking down the kid’s uncle. You’d better hope Grayson isn’t back in the family fold.”

My eyes go wide. “Josef almost killed Grayson and left him to bleed out!”

“And if Grayson wants to avoid worse, he might do as he’s told next time. Have you considered that?”

“You’ll never trust him, will you?” I retort.

He shrugs. “Trust is a valuable commodity that I rarely spend.”

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