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“Fascinating,” I said. “How about you answer my question?”
“Close your eyes, Killian,” he ordered.
“No. Not until—” The man moved impossibly fast—faster than I’d ever seen from him. He hauled me to my feet, magic flinging the couch aside. I had no chance to catch my bearings as he threw me into the wall. His hand closed around my neck tight enough to make a difference.
Fuck me, the man was powerful. Every attempt I made to fight him off was like him swatting a fucking fly. I stood no chance.
“When I say jump, you say how fucking high,” he snarled darkly. “Close your fucking eyes.”
I did as he ordered because I didn’t want to find out what would happen if I didn’t. Every nerve in my body was on edge at the loss of my sight. I trusted him, but I didn’t.
“Listen closely, Killian,” he ordered. “Under the music. What do you hear?”
A growl rippled through me as I leaned into my monster. I tuned out the music and the crowd. I tuned out Knight giving orders at the bar and the security staff breaking up a fight.
Under all that, buried deep, I heard it.
Them.
I heard them.
The whimpering and crying, the screaming and praying. Dozens of voices mingling together—an overwhelming collection of broken souls coming together violently.
My eyes snapped open with disbelief.
“Do you… is your… work room under the club?” Work room? Was that what I was calling the place he went and fucking killed people? Jesus fucking Christ.
“No. I built my nightclubs over my dungeons, so no one will ever hear them scream,” he corrected. Fucking lovely. “When I say if you ever have a fucking issue, you let me know, it’s because I have the means to satiate your monster stashed all around the fucking world. And if you ever cross that fucking line without me, I will drag your ass down to one of my dungeons, and I will pay back what you’re owed for who you hurt and how.”
I nodded because as much as I wanted to believe I held any sentimental value to Lane, I knew I didn’t. Not really.
Lane made a phenomenal ally, but he also made a horrifying enemy.
“Ask me what happened to my wife, Killian. The mother of my children,” he said. I swallowed hard. The knot in my stomach told me I didn’t want to know. He ordered once more, “Ask me.”
“What happened to your wife, Lane?” I whispered.
“I said once that I couldn’t ignore the war because it came into my home,” he told me. An anger I’d never seen in him blazed in his blue eyes. It transformed him in a way I couldn’t explain, but my heart kicked up in my chest. “Aodhán bit my wife without me knowing, and she never said a fucking word. In the middle of the night, she shifted. She killed my sons in their beds before I knew what was happening—left them in pieces for me to find. I knew she was a feral wolf, but ask me what I did to her. Ask.”
His grip on my neck tightened as he leaned in closer.
“What did you do, Lane?” I managed to get out.
“I hunted her. For weeks, I hunted my wife. When I finally caught her, I didn’t fucking kill her. I strung her up, and I tortured her for every last bit of information I could get about Aodhán and his growing pack. Six weeks I let her heal over and over again before I carved her up all over again.”
My stomach rolled.
“If I’m willing to do that to the woman I was ready to give up immortality for, what the fuck do you think I’ll do to you if you fuck this up?” The question was barely uttered, but I felt it with every fiber of my being. “There’s nowhere you can run that I won’t hunt you down and find you. There is no fucking God where you’re concerned. There is only me. I am your judge. I am your jury. And I will be your executioner. I am absolute. Do I make myself clear?”
Reminder to self: never fucking cross Lane.
I nodded, my throat on fire from his hand. Satisfied, he released me and stepped back.
“Is this how you welcomed everyone to the fucking team?” I rasped, rubbing my neck to ease the pain. On edge, I tracked his movements around the room as he made himself comfortable all over again.
“I froze Dante to the brink of death for seven years,” Lane replied all too casually. “And I taught Keagan just what those fucking knives of his were capable of. He still has the scars to prove it. I made Kal face his worse fucking fears over and over until he was numb to them, and Beau made friends with his own firing squad over three years. No one joins my team unscathed.”
“And Maia?” I asked.
