AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“She’s safe. That’s all anyone needs to know. And I’m not the one we need to be discussing here. No one but the people at Asta even know Arran bought my contract.” She shoves a hunk of fruit into her mouth.
“At Asta?” Rowan whistles.
“You bought her?” Noah asks, still on the same line of questioning.
Emily gasps. “Like a slave?”
Skye swallows down her food loudly. “No. No. It’s not like that,” she defends. “I needed protection. So I sold my—” she cuts off, as if she’s realized there’s no good way to explain it. “I’m his, so he protects me.”
“You fucking bought her?” Noah insists.
Finally having had enough, I slam my fist onto the table. “I had to, dammit!”
Everyone stares first at me, then at each other.
Carina clears her throat. “Whatever arrangement they have, it’s their business. It has nothing to do with the alliance.”
“I’m not a part of the alliance,” I remind her.
“You are. Whether you want to be or not, you’ve become one of us,” Luca says, leaving no room for argument. “Otherwise, you wouldn’t have felt safe calling us in the middle of the night.”
“Regardless, Skye is right. Very few people know that she was at Asta. It’s unlikely any of her enemies do.” I sit forward. “Gideon has been sending me letters asking for my father’s location in exchange for my life. And last night, he was at Maxton House.”
“That fuck was there and I’ve never even gotten an invite?” Rowan says. “Have any of you?”
“I have,” Noah tells him, and Emily nods in agreement.
“Gideon wasn’t invited!” I wipe a palm down my face. “It is the most secure location in the entire state, and he waltzes right the fuck in.”
The table remains quiet as they all digest that. If he got into one of my places, what hope do they have?
It’s Luca who finally breaks the silence. “You had him at your place and you let him go?”
I give him a look. “Don’t go trying to break that down. You fuckers have fought him twice and he’s still on the loose.”
“Was he alone?” Luca asks.
“Yes.”
“Do you know if any of your men betrayed you?” It’s Carina’s turn to speak.
“It must have been someone on the security team at Maxton House,” Noah says.
“They could all be compromised,” Rowan offers. “Have you shut down operations?”
“What about the security cameras?” Luca asks. “What did they capture?”
“Ruslan is going over the footage as we speak,” I inform them.
“And your brother? Where is he? Has Gideon visited him too?” Again, Luca.
Questions are fired at me so fast that their voices begin to intermix and I can no longer tell them apart. The nerves in the back of my neck tense and I burst out, “What the fuck is this, an interrogation? It just happened last night. I need to get back to figure it all out.”
The only sound that can be heard now is the clinking of Skye’s fork as she sets it on her plate.
Then Gunn tilts back his green drink and chugs the rest of it before he wipes his mouth with the back of his arm and throws in a suggestion of his own. One that has us all turning in unison to Skye.
“Has anyone considered that maybe she has something to do with it?” he asks.
