“No, but it’s not like we actually asked, either,” Angus explained.
“What the hell is wrong with you guys?” Fate snapped. “You’re hanging out with her all day and night and you don’t at some point slip in the most obvious questions?” Fate leaned back in the chair he was seated on. “She might still lie but at least we’d have something, which is more than we have now.” He let out a disgruntled sigh. “Either way, she doesn’t leave our sight. As long as they want her, she’s with us. Fuck those bastards.”
Lars watched Fate as he tried to remain seated but then stood up, losing the battle between remaining calm and embracing the aggravation. He moved around the room, shoulders tensed.
Lars got it. He knew what Malokin had just put Karma through. How he’d forced her to do things she didn’t want to, to help him further his objective. He’d dangled Kitty the Black Cat Lady’s life over her head. Malokin had monitored every aspect of her existence and fucked with her in a way that was just plain old creepy. Fate would use any tool he could to retaliate against him or his men at this point. And at this moment in time it was keeping Faith under their control. Right or wrong, Lars liked the idea of keeping her.
The thought of Faith leaving here to go be with one of Malokin’s men made his breath stop in his chest and his fingers clench into fists.
Maybe it was wrong to go along with it just because he didn’t want anyone else to have her but he didn’t feel like he had a choice. The idea of her with someone else was so repulsive it made him want to throw the tattoo bench he was leaning on through his own window.
If Lars wasn’t going to sleep with her, there was no way in hell he was going to let anyone else do it. He thought of how close he’d come to doing just that, a few minutes ago, upstairs. Her sudden unease finally jarred him out of it but he’d almost grabbed her and thrown her on his bed. And whether she realized it or not, she’d been as ready as he was. He wasn’t sure she knew the kind of heat she’d been throwing off.
“I agree with Fate. We keep her under wraps here until we know what we’re dealing with,” he said.
Between both Fate and now Lars putting it out there, no one else would disagree. They were the de facto leaders. If they were in agreement, the matter was basically closed, unless one of the other guys had a seriously strong objection but it wasn’t likely. The other three were always the easier going of the bunch. It was decided. Faith wasn’t going anywhere. With a strange sense of relief, Lars straightened up.
“Where you going?” Angus asked, as Lars made a move towards the door.
“Upstairs.”
“You going to wake her up to question her?” Fate asked. Lars shouldn’t have been surprised that the guys knew what he was about. They’d only known him for close to forever.
It was burning Lars up to not put the question directly to her. He should’ve just asked her before but the shock of the bloody message had thrown him. Then he’d felt bad pressing her. But the idea was churning up his insides, and he needed to hear her response before he lost his shit completely. “She’s still up. Her heartbeat was beating too quickly to have fallen asleep yet.”
Bic stood from where he’d been sitting on the counter. “I want to be there.”
“Me too.” Angus took a step toward the door. Fate and Cutty looked ready to come as well.
He’d wanted to do it in private but after how close he’d gotten to sleeping with her, maybe having the guys around wasn’t such a bad idea.
Chapter 13
Faith was awake when she heard Lars walk into the room. He kept coming until he was standing over where she lay in bed. “The guys and I need to talk to you.”
She sat up, the only thing surprising to her was why they’d waited this long. She’d been expecting the questions to start ever since she’d woken to the message on the ceiling. She’d known her plan of pretending that everything was fine was stupid. She was almost embarrassed of herself for thinking she’d pulled it off.
“Where are they?” she asked.
“Waiting in the hall. I wanted to give you a minute,” he said.
“Go get them. Let’s get this over with,” she said as she got out of bed.
He took a couple steps toward the door and then stopped. He walked over to where jeans were laying folded on top of her bag and handed them to her. “Here.”
The t-shirt he’d given her fell just below mid-thigh but she didn’t argue and just took them. To her, the guys seeing a little leg wasn’t a pressing issue right now. But who knew, maybe the guy who used to be the Evil Eye had become Amish or some shit.
Jeans on, Lars finally went to the door, giving a holler down. The guys piled in a minute later.
She didn’t know what to expect, and she wasn’t sure if she cared anymore. After waking up as she had, earlier in the evening, at first she’d felt like she was walking around in a state of disbelief. Horror had followed close behind, with fear right on its heels, and a strong instinct for self-preservation.
After Lars left, and she’d lain there alone in bed, something had clicked inside of her. She’d been trying so hard to survive and come to terms with what was left of her life that she realized she’d been throwing away who she was all on her own.
She hadn’t been herself since this had all begun and you could only be someone else for so long before your natural inclinations came back to the surface. Somehow, tonight had kicked her past fear into fuck it, if I’m going to go down, I’m going down on my terms.
She walked over to the living room area, where they were all gathered, and sat down on the couch. No one else sat but she didn’t care.
In less than two weeks, she’d died, been kidnapped by lunatics and saved by some of the scariest looking guys she’d ever met. Then she’d woken up with blood dripping on her, from a love letter a stalker who thought she was the one for him had put there. She’d finally hit her fuck it all, it is what it is point.
“What exactly was the extent of your relationship with Malokin, and do you believe it was him who left you the message?” Fate, her favorite person in the world, asked.
It figured that he’d lead the inquisition. He’d been the biggest bastard to her so far, so she wasn’t surprised. She’d give him a couple of points though, for his tactful way of calling the bloody words on the ceiling a message.
All the guys were staring at her, seeming equally interested in how she’d answer.
Cutty came and sat down next to her. “There was a certain feeling to it that gave the impression of interest on a deeper level.”
She liked Cutty and wasn’t surprised when he tried to soften Fate’s interrogation.
She hesitated answering as she looked at them, the guys who were supposed to be in her corner. They didn’t look so friendly and she was supposed to explain that someone who was with their archenemy, for reasons that still weren’t clear, thought that she was meant to be with him? No, that wouldn’t fly too well with this crowd.
“I’m not certain who left the message.” Then the fuck it, I’m done with the act. It’ll be whatever it will be kicked back in. What were they going to do? Kill her? Torture her if she said it? Might as well get it out on the table now. “But I’m fairly certain it was Malokin’s second in command, Keith. He was introduced also as Despair, which I didn’t quite understand the significance of, initially. He thought I was the one for him. Is that what you wanted to know?”
Cutty opened his mouth twice but kept shutting it. Angus scratched his head, Fate scowled, Bic was nodding his head as if he was still digesting her words like a bad meal that gave him acid reflux. When her eyes landed on Lars, he looked like he wanted to kill someone. That she hadn’t expected, and her eyes moved quickly back to Cutty, who was still alternating between a forced natural look and gaping.