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Odin’s eyes narrowed, but he didn’t deny it.
“What does he care about?” Vetle propped an elbow on the table and turned to face him better.
“He’s been pretty upfront about that,” Hunter stared at Odin, “hasn’t he?”
“He’s a child who had his toy taken away,” he waved him off, “nothing more.”
“I never said I believed his claims of love are real,” Hunter agreed. “But that doesn’t mean Isa realizes that. What matters is he thinks he loves you, he thinks you belong to him, and it eats him up inside knowing you’re so close, and yet he can’t do anything about it.”
“He tried to have him murdered,” Vetle reminded. “You’re the one he hired to pull the trigger…”
“His mommy made him do it,” Odin drawled with a dark chuckle. “According to him, in any case.”
“That’s most likely true.” It made sense to Hunter. “Isa always liked the dynamic he had going between the two of you. The only thing he wasn’t fond of was when your attention strayed elsewhere. You did your best to stop that from happening, but—”
“Every person in this room remembers the longing glances passed between the two of you back then?” Vetle cut off in a teasing note before he seemed to realize it was just them and the twins, neither of whom had been around at that time. “You know what I mean.”
“You said you’d noticed nothing,” Odin stated, quirking a brow.
“Wren reminded me of a few occasions I’d forgotten,” he said.
“Damn Wren always sticking his nose where it doesn’t belong.”
“Anyway,” Hunter was the one getting them back on track this time, “we’re both idiots who didn’t notice how obvious we were being, apparently, but if Wren and Vetle noticed, Isa had to have as well.”
“I always thought you had a thing for me, Huntsman,” Odin pointed out.
“For the past ten years, you thought I’d been acting,” he said.
“Well, you did shoot me. There were mixed signals.”
It was still a bit surprising that Odin believed him now. Sometimes, Hunter was certain this was a long con, and one day he’d wake up to find a blaster to his temple and Odin mocking him about how idiotic he’d been for ever believing he’d let it go. He really would be stupid if thoughts like those didn’t play through his mind on occasion. Odin was a Dominus. There was more blood on his hands than could fill a swimming pool and Hunter would be foolish to ever forget that.
But…Odin wasn’t the only one who’d been tormented by their memories for that decade. Hunter had played back old memories himself, sure that he was misremembering conversations or sweet gestures. Many he’d even scrubbed from his mind entirely, as if thinking on them had hurt and confused him too much for them to remain there.
“The ten-year mark wasn’t too long ago,” he forced himself to set his personal stuff aside. “If I had to guess, that was the marker for Isa to begin. He figured he’d given Odin enough time for the initial burn of resentment and anger to dwindle. He must have started a fling with the Emperor so he’d have some back up should he need to back you into a corner. But then—”
“I showed up with you at the gala.” Odin blew out a breath and momentarily closed his eyes.
“Yeah.” Hunter clucked his tongue. “I told you that was a bad idea.”
“How many more times will you remind me of that?”
“Until it gets boring, most likely.”
“He got angry, thinking he’d wasted all this time being patient only for someone else to step in and receive that forgiveness he’d been yearning for,” Vetle figured, whistling low. “Damn.”
“Do we believe that’s why he attacked Jita?” Loni glanced between them all. “Because he was angry?”
“Throwing a tantrum,” Odin corrected, “but yes. After further search into it, we’re pretty sure that’s the only logical motive. Jita wasn’t working on anything that couldn’t survive without him there for a month, and he purposefully was beaten to the brink of death, but not killed outright.”
“How kind of him to leave him a fighting chance,” Vetle sneered.
“Too bad for him, I’m not kind,” Odin reassured him. “I won’t be returning the favor when I come from him.”
Loni swayed toward her sister, voice lowering, and asked, “Is that logical? Attacking a man over something as petty as jealousy?”
Corbi shook her head and Loni nodded as if that was what she’d thought.
