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Odin dropped his arms and stepped away, and Hunter almost pulled him back.
“He’s possessive,” Hunter said, unwilling to let it go despite the way Odin was scowling now, “but not toward me. Don’t you get it? Everything that happened tonight was because he’s angry you got away.”
“He tried to have me killed,” Odin stated.
“And I tried to kill you,” Hunter replied. “I had the biggest crush on you for years, but the second it came down to you or my sister, I was willing to put that bullet in your head.”
Odin narrowed his eyes. “Then why did you miss?”
He’d entered dangerous territory. Hunter shut his mouth and dropped his gaze. What could he say that would be believable but far enough from the truth Odin wouldn’t be able to figure it out?
“Don’t lie to me, Huntsman,” he warned. “This conversation changes nothing between us. The fact that I believe you were forced to do it changes nothing. It was still you who took me there, still you who pulled the trigger. I saved you from Isa because I’d rather watch you burn than freeze, and no other reason but.”
Hunter wasn’t delusional, he’d known that. Known that Odin hadn’t done it because he had feelings for him or anything of the like. Known that after this, he would be forced back into that hovercar and returned to Club Cherry.
And he would go, because he didn’t have any other option, but that didn’t mean he’d go quietly.
“And what about you?” he snapped. “What about the fact that you almost got me killed tonight? You swore I would be safe.”
“Someone spilled a drink on Loni,” Odin explained. “She was only distracted a moment but it was long enough. The second she realized you weren’t standing by the table she came and got me. I’m sorry I couldn’t get to you sooner.”
The apology, so easily given, admittedly threw him, but Hunter stayed strong. “A drink? Your highly trained bodyguard was tricked by a spilled drink?”
“Don’t insult her,” Odin said.
“Hit a nerve?” What was between him and the twins? He kept them close, but Hunter had heard a rumor that he’d rescued them from the streets. Did they sleep together, or was their relationship exactly what it seemed? A Dominus and his subordinates and nothing else?
“She’ll be reprimanded for her error in judgment,” Odin told him.
“And you?” Hunter challenged. “Who’s going to punish you for your error? Do you have any idea what you’ve done? Isa knows I’m here, that I’m alive. He—”
“I did exactly what I promised to do,” Odin interrupted. “I’ve trapped you, Huntsman, well and truly. Now, if you try to run from me, you’ll have Isa to fear.”
“Bastard.”
“Yes,” Odin moved back in, sliding his palms against the wall on either side of his head, “and now this Bastard is the only one you’ll ever be safe with. You can’t leave me, Hunter. If you do, you’ll be walking right out into the cold, and now that you’ve experienced what that’s like…”
Hunter shuddered without meaning to, glaring when Odin chuckled at his reaction.
“You said that you were offered payment for taking my life,” he hummed. “You left that part of the story out this time. Tell me, how much exactly was Isa offering?”
“My sister’s life and seven till coin,” Hunter told him.
“You could take a junker off-world for that,” he agreed, referring to Hunter’s plan to do just that. “It would probably be enough for you to settle on one of the nearby planets, but nowhere nice. The two of you would have had to work hard labor for the rest of your lives. It hardly seems worth it.”
“Compared to?” Isa had threatened his sister. He hadn’t had the luxury of debating what to do. “Meg was already in his hands.”
“And you never thought to tell me?” Odin ran his knuckles down the curve of Hunter’s jaw, cocking his head when Hunter pulled away. “You were going to beg me to help you find her, remember? Why didn’t you stick with that plan? Think of how differently everything could have turned out if only you had.”
“You wouldn’t have helped me.”
Odin quirked a brow.
“You were Odin Snow, the next in line, the leader of the Brumal. Who was I? Nobody.”
“You were the boy I ordered the cook to bake per for,” Odin corrected. “You ate six pieces that day. When we were finished studying and you got up to leave, the leftovers were already packed and ready for you to take. I had the snacks brought for you, Huntsman. They were made with you in mind. I was Odin Snow, but you weren’t a nobody then, and you aren’t one now.”
Hunter felt a little like he’d fallen into an alternate dimension, and for a moment he didn’t know what to say. Then he gathered all of his courage and managed to ask, “Would you have? If I’d come to you and told you everything, would you have helped me?”
