“Did something go wrong in Istanbul? Did someone…you know? Is that why you don’t want to talk about it?”
Ugh, why is he still talking about this?
I straightened and eyed him as I swallowed the remains of my drink.
“I’m done,” I said, and placed the glass down on the counter with a loud clang. “This has been…annoying. But if you don’t mind, I think I’m going to head home and do what I was trying to do here. Relax.”
“Theo—”
“Look, I have too many family obligations this week to deal with this shit. We’re done, Shep.”
At least with this conversation. If he wanted to revisit other things we might have in common—naked things—I was open to that. But judging by the frown forming between his brows, I knew that wasn’t in the cards.
“Tell Lucien and Kai I said goodnight.”
“This isn’t going to go away just because you want it to,” Shep pointed out as I started down the hall.
“No, but I can.” Then, just because I knew it would piss him off, I added, “Be sure to tell King he can kiss my ass the next time you talk to him.”
9
SHEP
THE FIRST CALL from King came when I was getting ready to jump in the shower the following morning. After the showdown with Theo, I’d decided not to get in touch with our leader right away, and not because of Theo’s insinuation about running off to King with every scrap of information I received.
No, I’d wanted to sit with it for a minute. Theo had removed his tracker, something that could have serious consequences once King knew, and though I wasn’t ignorant enough to think he wouldn’t eventually find out, I wasn’t ready for it to come from me.
I didn’t understand Theo’s motivations, didn’t know why the hell he’d been in Istanbul in the first place or why he felt the need to hide it from us, but what I did know was the seven of us needed unbreakable trust in each other. I had to believe—for now—that his reasons were for good. The possibility he’d work against us was too much to even consider, and I wasn’t going to jump the gun here. He’d always been loyal no matter how chaotic he could be—that was part of his strength and charm, after all. So even though he’d done the unthinkable, even though all the signs pointed to trouble, I hesitated.
Something wasn’t adding up, and until Theo came clean, I wouldn’t add fuel to King’s fire.
As I toweled off, I glanced down at a notification lighting up my phone. Seven missed video calls, and several texts were waiting for me. I sighed before running the towel over my hair and then wrapping it around my waist.
Let’s get this over with.
I glanced in the mirror, noting I needed a shave at some point today, and then reached up to fix my errant strands of hair into something that wasn’t a mess.
Not that I needed to bother looking decent for King—not anymore. This was about self-preservation.
Biting back a sigh, I headed out of the en suite and into my room and hit his number. He answered immediately, the phone barely ringing before that intense face filled the screen.
“Ignoring my calls?”
“I was in the shower.”
“How long are your damn showers?”
Somehow I resisted the urge to say something assholish about the fact that his were probably three times as long now with the company he was keeping, but that wasn’t my business, and I didn’t want him to think I gave a shit.
“What’s the emergency?” I said as I headed to the large windows and opened up the curtains. Even without the view of the water, it was a stunning sight, and a welcome juxtaposition to King’s mood.
“Have you spoken to Theo?”
“Haveyou?”
“Would I be calling if I had? He’s straight to voicemail.”
“Well, it’s been a big week for him.” I settled into the recliner by the window and forced myself to look at the screen instead of what was beyond it.
