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He flicks a nonchalant glance up and down my body. “So you keep saying.”
I hold his gaze with hard eyes for a few seconds before shifting it back to Jace and doing the same. My voice is unflinching and full of authority as I declare, “No retaliation.”
Jace’s grip tightens on the fabric of my shirt as he grinds out, “If you think I’m going to let their attack slide, you—”
“I didn’t realize that the Hunters don’t pay their debts,” I cut him off, flicking a contemptuous look up and down his body.
Anger flashes in Jace’s eyes, but I swear there is some shame in there too.
Keeping my chin raised, I look expectantly between him and Kaden. A muscle feathers in Jace’s jaw, and there is obvious frustration on his features. Kaden, however, is watching me with his head cocked, looking as if he’s almost a bit… impressed. It makes heat spread through my body.
At last, Jace drags his gaze to Kaden, and raises his eyebrows in silent question. The psycho just shrugs.
“Fine,” Jace forces out as he shifts his attention back to me. “We won’t retaliate for this attack.”
“Good.”
“But only for this attack. If they come after us again, it’s open season.”
“Naturally.”
He holds my gaze in silence for another few seconds. Then he nods and, at long last, releases my collar. I brush my hands down my shirt, smoothing the fabric again, while Jace takes a step back.
“And I have another deal.” Looking up from my shirt, I meet Kaden’s gaze. “For you.”
Amusement blows across his sharp features, and he raises his eyebrows expectantly.
“Privately,” I say.
A smile curls his lips. Then he jerks his chin at me and starts back towards the stairs.
Jace remains standing deliberately in my way, so I have to carefully edge around his muscular body in order to follow Kaden. He turns along with my movements, keeping his sharp eyes on me and watching my every move as if I’m a venomous viper that has just slithered into his house.
Once I have finally gotten out from between his body and the door, I hurry to catch up with Kaden, who has already reached the stairs.
“Ice,” Kaden calls over his shoulder.
Confusion ripples through me, but then I realize that he is speaking to Jace, because the youngest Hunter grumbles under his breath.
“Yeah, yeah,” he mutters, and starts towards the kitchen. “I know.”
Leaving Jace to do whatever it is that he’s supposed to do with the ice, I run up the steps so that I reach the hallway upstairs right after Kaden does. His long legs and his head start had made me fall behind.
Only dark wood panels watch us impassively as we walk down the corridor until we reach Kaden’s room. Pulling open the door, he motions for me to step inside.
To anyone else, it might look like he was being a gentleman, holding the door open for me and letting me walk inside first. But I know it for what it really is. A move designed to make me worried.
After I walk inside, he could just close the door and lock it, trapping me in there. Or he could put a knife to my throat from behind my unprotected back when he walks in behind me. Or outright stab me in the back.
Straightening my spine, I ignore all of those possibilities and instead nonchalantly slide my hands into my pockets as I stroll across the threshold.
Kaden’s room looks exactly like it did the last time I was here. Dark wooden floor and walls, furniture in the same material, the large bed with the strange metal frame attached on top of the wooden one, and every single part of it obsessively neat and organized.
After sweeping my gaze over the entire space, I decide on the desk and start towards it. Pulling my hands out of my pockets, I stop by the desk, turn around, and then pull myself up so that I’m sitting on top of it.
A hint of surprise flits across Kaden’s dangerously handsome face.
I flash him a smirk.
