Carnell claps like a child at a birthday party and picks up the knife beside his plate.
“Interested in testing your strength against Aleksander’s magical skills? No?”
He laughs when they both simply stare back at him—Luca in horror and Nix in rage. “No fun at all.”
“What are you going to do with us?” Nix asks with pure, venomous restraint.
“Well, Austin. I think you’ll be my guests until I can remove the remaining threats to Allistair’s dominion. Then we willcelebrate…publicly at the party where I welcome my son back into the fold. Connall! Where are you, you lazy ass?!”
Carnell calls, and Connall materializes out of nowhere.
“Yes, sir?”
“Show our guests to their room. Only our moderate best for my son’s concubine and his enforcer. Aleksander will supervise.”
“Goody,” Withers murmurs.
They follow Connall to the edge of the patio, but Carnell calls them back.
“Austin?”
Nix doesn’t give him the respect of turning and acknowledging him.
“Boy, there are worse things than what Dawson has learned at his father’s knee, and Aleksander is an expert. Be good,hmmm?Oh, and…enjoy.”
Aleksander giggles at the macabre praise.
Luca’s heart starts pounding at the threat. While Nix has never, ever told them the specifics about his time with Hayes, Luca remembers Nix’s night terrors and his injuries clearly.
He squeezes Nix’s hand, but his mate has already shut down, eyes straight forward, preparing for what Luca can only dread.
Connall leads them slowly upstairs to the back of the house overlooking the garage and driveway.
“That’ll do, Connall. I can take it from here. I have a bit of unfinished business with Rhodes’s bitches.”
Connall stops cold in the doorway and hesitates before opening the door and moving through the bedroom and into the adjoining bathroom.
“There are towels and clean clothes for you in there. I’ll be back with something for you to eat in fifteen minutes.”
The butler emphasizes the last bit like he’s trying to tell them something.
Luca can’t believe that he’d thought Connall would be their savior.
“Fifteen minutes isn’t near enough. Make it an hour…unless you’d like to watch?”
Ew.
Connall smiles but leaves them. “Fifteen minutes,” he says again before closing the door.
“Bastard,” Luca mutters under his breath.
“He is a bit, yeah. But Carnell likes him—or loathes him—which is sort of the same thing. The bastard smiles every time he looks at him. I think it’s because they’re related or some shit. Makes him feel good to boss Connall around.”
He sits on the edge of the bed, leaning back on his hands with his thighs spread.
“All of Carnell’s people were someone. Dude loves knowing a doctor cleans his toilets or that the previous son of the Ambassador to Mexico mows his lawn. Fucking king complex. Now, let’s see what’s under that hideous t-shirt, little novice.”
Luca laughs—there is absolutely no way Nix is going to give in to this hideous asshole. He’s claimed and loved, and he’s theirs.
