Page 97 of Bitten By the Basilisk

Bruno also joined them. “I’ll fill you in later.”

Silas stared coldly as the elevator door slid shut in front of Lance’s supremely punchable face.

“Sorry, Boss,” Bruno said. “I tried calling to give you a heads-up.”

Indeed, back in the other garage, his phone had begun vibrating seconds after Alice had pressed her soft lips against his, and he hadn’t remembered to check his messages before getting in the car.

“It wouldn’t have changed anything,” Silas said with a shake of his head.

Maybe he would have thought to drop Alice off at the front entrance and spare her the scene she’d just witnessed, but she would’ve seen through any excuse he gave her.

“Good luck, Basilisk,” Conrad said, he and the two members of his nest now waiting to take the elevator up. “I don’t think I need to tell you that Lance isn’t fit to lead a parade, let alone a nest.”

Silas sighed as he nodded. “Will you let my father know?”

Conrad scrunched his mouth in reluctance. “I don’t know that I’m the one to tell him the male who almost killed him just challenged his son.”

“What?” Alice breathed, looking up at him with indignation. “Did he really almost die?”

Silas’s stomach dropped. He had held back that detail.

“You led me to believe challenges only last until the loser is paralyzed. That guy…he’s really going to try to kill you? He wasn’t just talking shit?”

He turned, grasped her shoulders. “You met my father. He made a full recovery.”

“How close was it?” she asked.

He hesitated to tell her, As close as you can get.

So she posed the question to his lieutenants. “How close?”

Both of them shot him a look, but Nic was the one who answered. “He was…practically eviscerated.”

Alice heaved a heartbroken sigh and looked up at Silas accusingly. “Perhaps I should have challenged you to be completely honest with me. It’s not like you didn’t have the opportunity.”

He grasped her hands and sank to his haunches, not caring who saw, needing only to beg for forgiveness. “There’s nothing else you don’t know. I swear. I just didn’t want to scare you away.”

Her flat-lipped expression said she would no longer accept that excuse. “You know what will scare me away? Dishonesty!”

“No more omissions. Come upstairs and ask me anything you want,” he entreated her, briefly nodding toward the elevator. Conrad and the others had left.

Alice shook her head, opening up a hole in his chest. “No, I…I need time to think.” She tugged her hands out of his grip as she stepped back, her gaze averted. “Can either Nic or Bruno take me back to the spa?”

Silas rose shakily to his feet, everything in him battling the instinct to throw her over his shoulder.

“You are my mate, Alice,” he avowed. “I sense it as innately as the breath in my lungs. I don’t know why our thread remains hidden from you, but you have to admit there have been signs.”

“You mean the kite string? That was just a coincidence,” she said, shrugging.

“What about the photos we took?”

“They’re…just pictures.” The way she shifted in place while glancing obliquely at his lieutenants told him she was mainly thinking of the kiss the photo booth had captured.

“Do you still have your print with you?”

“I think so.” She unzipped her small backpack and fished through its contents. When she brought out the bookmark-shaped print, she held it in a furtive manner, as if it were a state secret.

He would’ve found her shyness adorable if he weren’t desperate to convince her they belonged to each other.