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On the drive home, Cauldron called me.
“What?” I said when I answered.
“What’s your problem?”
“Just got my hands dirty.”
“Roan?”
“Kyle.”
“What did he do now?”
“Fucked with Elise. So I fucked with him. What do you want?”
“Are you home?” There was a bite to his voice, as if at any moment he would explode. “I’m in Paris.”
Fuck. “I’m out. Let’s meet up somewhere.”
“If I drink another scotch, I’ll keel over and die. I’ll just wait at your place.”
I couldn’t talk him out of it without raising a huge red flag, so I kept my mouth shut. “I’ll be there soon.” After I got off the phone, I texted Camille.Awake?It was midnight, and she went to bed early, so I figured she’d sleep through the whole thing. She’d probably never know that Cauldron had been there at all.
* * *
Cauldron beat me to the house and was in the living room when I walked in.
A glass of water was on the table.
“Well, that’s a first.” I took the seat across from him.
He cracked a smile, but only barely. “Where’d you put the body?”
“I didn’t kill him.”
“You didn’t?” he asked in mild surprise. “Don’t you think that’s stupid?”
“Last thing I need is to start a war with the Skull Kings. That would be stupider.”
Cauldron had stopped shaving, so his typical shadow was now a full-on beard. His cheeks were hollow too, and his signature summer color had faded to a pale white. It’d only been a week since Camille had shown up on my doorstep, but his haggard appearance suggested it’d been months. “And you really think that’s the end of it?”
“I told him this was his final warning. If he does it again, then I’ll have to.”
“You’d go to war for this woman?”
Without hesitation. “Yes.”
“You said it wasn’t serious.”
“I’m not a fan of an asshole forcing a woman to do something she doesn’t want to do.”
Cauldron released an abrupt laugh mixed with a scoff. “That’s rich.”
“I never made Camille do anything she didn’t want to do—”
“Like walk out the door?” he asked incredulously. “Live her own life?”
Distance and time had given me perspective, and now I felt shame for what I’d done. “Not the same thing. This asshole wants to treat Elise like a goddamn sex slave. And don’t act like you’re much better than me. She tried to leave, and you wouldn’t let her. So fuck off.”
