Lachlan, barefoot and shirtless, flexes his toes as the bullet pops out of his foot and the wound heals.‘Fuckin’ hurts,’ he hisses.
‘Lotta bones in your foot,’ Riley tells him.‘Better than your dick, though.’
‘I appreciate your restraint,’ the former bodyguard sneers sarcastically.
Quietly, Riley says to Kade, ‘You’re gonna have to handle him.’
Kade balks.‘What?’
‘You heard me, First Captain.’
‘I mean, yes, I heard, but, like, what the fuck are you talking about?’
Lachlan laughs and echoes, ‘First Captain?’with derisive, playful scorn.
‘Can you shut the fuck up?’Kade snaps at him, then focuses on his boss again.‘He’s immortal, Riley.We can’t—’
‘He’ll play nice for you.’
‘How do you know that?’
Riley sweeps his gaze over Lachlan.‘You’ll play nice for him, right?’
The smile fades slowly.Lachlan tongues his cheek.‘Yeah, I will.’
‘There, see?’
‘That’s… a lot to take on faith, isn’t it?’
‘My faith is inyou,not him.’Riley looks over Kade’s shoulder at Lachlan.‘I’m warning you right now not to cause more trouble.’
Lachlan shakes his foot, last of the wound now vanished.He healed much faster that time.‘Your warning means less than nothing to me, Little Harker.You can’t kill me, you can’t hurt me and I still have devices planted in places you don’t know about, so watch your fucking tone.’He mimics Riley’s accent to add, ‘I’m warning you.’
Kade bristles.‘Don’t speak to him like that.’
‘I can’t believe you’re defending this thug.’
‘Don’tspeak to him like that!’
‘I don’t want to speak to him at all.I only want to talk to you.’
If he can’t be killed or even restrained and the “other devices” threat is credible(it clearly is)then aggravating him will backfire.Riley is right.All they have right now is the fact that this man wants to talk to Kade.
‘If I let you, will you agree to some ground rules?’
‘I’ll agree to whatever you want, Kade.’
Glancing at Riley for the go ahead, given a small nod, Kade says, ‘OK, then obviously no harming anyone in here.No shooting anyone, no killing anyone, no hurting my boss.No activating any devices.If you’re here to talk to me, thentalkto me and don’t spill blood.Can you agree to that?’
The older man has a faint smile playing around his eyes, like he’s amused by Kade’s demands.‘Anything else?’
Riley gives a small shake of his head.Kade says, ‘No.’
‘I askedyou,not him.’
‘We want the same things.’
‘Fine.I agree not to kill any more members of Iron Star for now.’
