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Xhex closed her eyes. “You don’t want to do this.”
“I agree. But none of us want to be in this situation, and the only thing that’s worse is sitting around, doing nothing.”
“I can respect that, but why would you think Blade can do—”
“He was Daniel’s boss. They used to work together, and Daniel has a lead that Blade may know what to do with.”
Xhex cursed under her breath. Fucking Blade. Of course shit was more entangled than she’d known.
“What exactly did Daniel used to do?” she asked grimly.
“He worked for what he thought was a clandestine arm of the U.S. government.”
And why hasn’t this come up before?Xhex wondered. But at least that was one question she could answer: Because her brother was a lying, manipulative, dangerous sack of shit. That was why. God only knew what he had done with a bunch of humans like Daniel Joseph at his disposal. The only thing she could be sure of was that it probably made money and definitely wasn’t a crocheting circle with an Etsy shop attached.
“Look,” she said, “it’s not my business to tell you what to do—”
“So please have him meet me—”
“—but my brother is no savior you want.”
“—up at the summit tonight.”
The two of them talked over each other, but ended at the same time, like a pair of dancers pirouetting around separately to harmonizing chords.
“You’renotsafe around him.” Xhex did nothing to hide her don’t-be-a-dumbass tone. “And yeah, I know you’re a wolven, and I don’t doubt you’re deadly when you want to be, but he’s deadlyallthe time.”
“I’m not afraid of him.”
“You should be.”
“So is this a no?” the female demanded. “Are you telling me you won’t reach out to him?”
Xhex looked at herhellren’schest and focused on the star-shaped pattern that marked his pec. The symbol of the Black Dagger Brotherhood was embedded in his flesh, the marking that was given to each Brother during induction somehow something he had been born with.
“Hello?” the wolven prompted. “Have you hung up on me?”
Xhex pictured her brother, from his gleaming black eyes to his coldly beautiful face to the black hair that was so like her own—
Her past rushed up at her, just like the floor had, and the impact was as pleasant as the rug burn on her shoulder: Instantly, she was back over twenty years before, bound and gagged, being dragged into a van up at thesymphathcolony. She hadn’t known where she was going to end up, but she’d beencertain of three things: She was being punished. She was not going to survive this.
And her brother had been the one to lure her back to the Colony and turn her in to her family.
Blade’s face was the last thing she’d seen before the bag was put over her head, and there had been no emotion on it whatsoever. As if she’d been lower than a stranger. As if she had been a dog to be put down.
After that? Off to the lab she had gone. Where she’d been experimented on by humans… tortured, really—
“No,”she blurted roughly.
“No, you haven’t hung up?” the wolven said.
“No, I’m not going to get in touch with my brother on your behalf.”
The wolven expelled a frustrated breath. “You could be sentencing a good man to die. Or letting his murderer go free.”
Absently, Xhex realized her free hand was shaking, so she tucked it under her hip. “But I’m definitely keeping a good female alive. My conscience is clear, believe me.”
“I don’t need you protecting me.”
