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Noticing that the hellhorse had an odd expression on his face, she asked, “What?”
Cradling his mug, he idly tapped his fingers along its side. “There’s something I need to tell you.”
Tensing, Larkin narrowed her eyes. “How very ominous that sounded.” If he announced he wanted them to part ways, she was gonna kick his ass right here in his own wagon. Her demon would paint the walls with his blood. “Well, spit it out.”
He raised a hand. “First, I need you to promise that you’ll hear me out all the way before you react.”
“You’re serious?”
“Super serious. Promise me, Lark.”
She let out an annoyed breath. “Fine. I promise. Now cough it up.”
He straightened a little in his seat. “I saw Holt today.”
She went rigid. “Saw him?”
“To be specific, he was waiting for me outside the stadium before my race.”
Her eyelid twitched, and her inner demon stirred with a snarl. “What did he say to you?”
“In sum . . . I must have an ulterior motive for being in your life, and I’m mistaken in thinking that you won’t bond with him eventually. Oh, and he’ll be gone from Vegas for a short time, which I think you’ll agree is good news.”
Good news would be hearing he’d been dropped into a vat of boiling hot oil and then set alight by the flames of hell. Larkin flexed her fingers as anger curdled in her belly. “I warned him to stay away from me and mine.” She especially hadn’t wanted him in even Teague’s general vicinity.
“And he knew you’d be pissed. That was why he did it. He didn’t truly want a conversation with me. He wanted to provoke you into contacting him.”
“Did he touch you?” The question came out through her teeth.
“No.”
“Did he threaten you?”
Teague hesitated, twisting his mouth.
Larkin leaned forward and laid her hands flat on the table. “Don’t lie to me, Rainbow Dash.”
“If that’s another My Little Pony character—”
“I want the truth. Now.”
Sighing, he scratched at the back of his head. “He said he’d come for me if I ever hurt you, but that was pretty much it.”
Spitting a curse, Larkin pushed out of her chair. Filled with a dark restless energy, she began to pace up and down. The whole time, her inner demon fumed.
It wasn’t bad enough that Holt had come here thinking he could use Larkin to deter his enemies from dicking with him, was it? No. The sack of shit had threatened the man in her life. A man who was barely in her life and could very well think I don’t need this crap and then go on his way if Holt pushed hard enough.
“It wasn’t much of a threat, Lark,” said Teague. “No cursing or snarling or anything. It was more like a casual statement.”
“I could give a shit how he phrased it. He threatened to harm you.”
“It didn’t do anything but amuse me.”
“So not the point.”
Knowing better than to touch a harpy who was firmly in the grip of anger, Teague didn’t give into the urge to get up and go to her. Instead, he angled his body to fully face her and said, “I wasn’t bothered by that, I was bothered that—” He ceased speaking as her demon abruptly surfaced.
Freezing in place, it pinned him with a black gaze that swam with fury. “I should have killed him long ago, consequences be damned.”
“Why bother? He’s irrelevant. To you. To Larkin. To me. And he knows it. He did this to try to make himself relevant.”
The entity’s hands balled up. “I want to dice up his eyeballs and feed them to him. Then his fingernails. Then his toes. Then his teeth.”
“I’m pretty sure he’d vomit several times.”
“I’d make him eat that, too.”
The delightful little freak really would. “This isn’t worth getting worked up over.”
“I disagree.”
“If you go to him, you’ll be giving him what he wants. He did this for a reaction. He’s trying once again to manipulate both you and Larkin. Don’t let him do it. Or do you want him to have that power over you?”
It squinted. “Now you are trying to manipulate me.”
“No, I’m simply pointing out the facts of the situation. I want you to look at it from every angle and not react out of anger. You’d later be pissed at yourself for letting him win.”
The entity sneered at him. “I don’t wish to speak to you right now. You’re making too much sense.” That fast, it subsided.
Larkin bent her head far to the side until her neck cracked. “My demon’s not much interested in being rational right now.”
“I got that impression. What about you?”
She sighed, rolling back her tense shoulders. “I know you’re right. I know that to pay him a visit would do nothing more than make him feel smug. But I’m so fucking done with his shit. You know, what really annoys me is that he won’t even be all that disappointed if I don’t go to him, because he’ll still have the satisfaction of knowing he pissed me off just like I pissed him off by trampling over his cunning little plan.”
