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Liam’s icy blue eyes caught me approaching quickly in the mirror propped up against the wall. He set down the dumbbells he was currently curling and turned to face me. I smiled inwardly at the deep purple bruise around his eye. Asshole. “Do you need something?” he asked, giving me the slow once-over. His eyes lingered on the shopping bag tucked under my arm before leveling his gaze to mine. “I’ll be bringing breakfast in a minute. I just need to get one more set in.”
Was he being serious? Because if not, I was ready to give him a matching set of black eyes. “Yes, I do need something. A ride home, remember?” I shook my shopping bag at him. “Don’t worry about feeding me. I can eat at home. Chop, chop, let’s go.”
He pressed his lips in a thin line. For a moment, all I could focus on was the sound of Demie chewing. Did he really need to chew that loud? He was eating soggy cheerios after all.
“Skye,” Liam said softly, emoting for the first time since I’ve been here. Well, emoting a new emotion beside pissed off. “We can’t let you go. I’m sorry. Ansel is right, it’s not safe enough to let you go.”
The paper bag crinkled as I squeezed it between my hands. If only it was Liam’s neck. “But you promised me. You said if I did this, you would help me. You put me in a club full of sex traffickers and drug dealers. You put my life at risk. You owe me, Liam.”
He exhaled a long, low sigh. “I know. What I did was unforgivable. But for the sake of being honest, I never intended to take you home. I only said that to get you to the club in the first place.”
“So am I just stuck here forever?” I practically screamed, my voice coming out shrill. I didn’t care if I was the crazy, shrill woman right now. I was pissed.
“Not forever,” Demie said, quickly jogging up to us. He kept out of arm’s distance of me—smart orc. I was ready to start punching whoever got too close. “We’re just here until we’re able to stop Gregor.”
I wanted to laugh. This was so ridiculous. I may know nothing about organized crime, but it didn’t take an expert to know they were outnumbered. Gregor had a whole army and Ansel had two misfits he didn’t even let help. It didn’t take an expert to see this was a fool’s mission.
“When will that be?” I demanded, sounding like that old, entitled woman you always found screaming at a teenager at a fast-food joint because he forgot to add extra cheese to her order.
Demie glanced at Liam, raising his brows.
“Well,” Liam started. “We were hoping the club would bring us the information we needed to move forward, but . . .” He cut himself off with a shrug.
I was shaking. “How long have you been,” I waved my hands in the air, motioning to the warehouse around us, “doing this?”
“A year,” Demie said quietly.
A . . . year? Did he say a year? I don’t have a year. I’ve only been here a few days, but I could already feel my Carter window closing just when it barely reopened.
But a year . . . I couldn’t even fathom what my life, or lack thereof, would look like. Carter would probably be married with his first kid on the way. What about my job? My family? I breathed through the tightness slowly building in my chest. I was not having a panic attack right now. I had bigger issues to deal with. “You’ve been doing this for a whole year? That’s insane. Why?”
Liam’s back straightened as he schooled his features into a scowl. “He’s our brother, and we made an oath to protect him.”
Yeah. Yeah. I heard the spiel last night. Save it for the Oscars. I loved my younger sister, but not enough to put my life on hold for a year. “Liam, what did you mean by the avenge the dead mission? Why is it so important you get this guy?”
“Skye,” Liam said slowly, looking irritated, “I don’t know if Ansel would like me talking about this . . .”
“Why? Are you scared of your big, scary orc boss? Worried he’ll give you another black eye? Because if you ask me, it is looking a little uneven—”
“Gregor killed his parents,” Demie said suddenly. It took me a long second to register what he had said. I couldn’t breathe; it felt as if all the air had been knocked out of my lungs. “Our parents,” Demie added under his breath. “The orcs who took us in when the world turned their backs on us.” Demie lightly touched the symbol tattooed on his right bicep. I hadn’t noticed it until now, but it was the same twisting Celtic knots Ansel had on his back. “We made an oath to serve his family and now Ansel is the head, we must protect him.”
“Demetrius,” Liam snapped, his fury turned to the orc standing in front of him.
In the corner of my eye, Demie shrugged.“What?”he mouthed to Liam. “She’s involved now. She deserves to know,” he said, loud enough for me to hear.
“So you have the same tattoo?” I asked Liam. He nodded reluctantly, lifting his arm to show me the inside of his bicep. The same symbol was there, etched across his muscle. I turned my attention to Demie. “And that’s what you cut off Robbie, then? Your family’s tattoo?”
Demie hesitated, looking ashamed, but eventually nodded. If I had to guess, he didn’t want me to know his hands were just as bloody as Ansel’s. Too late for that.
I stood there quietly for a few seconds as I let the information absorb. Well, I wasn’t angry anymore, but I wasn’t quite sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. But the real issue was, I didn’t know how to feel. I was numb.
Without a word, I pivoted on my heel and started heading towards the bedroom.
“You can eat your breakfast down here, Skye!” Demie called after me. I couldn’t be sure, but I thought I heard Liam hiss something under his breath to Demie.
Don’t worry, elf. I don’t want to eat with you either.“Uh, no thanks,” I said as I started to climb the stairs.
“Aren’t you hungry?” Demie called out again.
