And out.
And it was probably somewhere in this dungeon. He’d arm the bomb and get out before the castle collapsed.
Eric suddenly laughed. “No wonder you freaked out when I mentioned being poly and us having sex. Murder is clearly fine, but incest…”
“Don’t judge me, brother. I know exactly how much blood is on your hands.” Gus looked at Nikolett. “Do you know what he did, what he was? For years.”
“You cannot possibly be trying to take the moral high ground,” she said.
“Well, he did stop us from fully inviting him to be part of our trinity and thereby risking incest. He has a little bit of the moral high ground,” Eric said with mock patience.
“I know it was a lie,” Gus said coolly.
Nikolett looked at Eric. Eric looked at her.
They both looked at Gus.
“Ummm,” Nikolett said.
Gus blinked. “You were…serious?”
Nikolett leaned back against the wall. “I really think that I’m actually quite stupid.”
Eric snorted. “You’re not. Well. I mean maybe we both are, because the guy you described seemed like a good third for us.”
Gus’ astonished expression reminded her so much of Eric that it hurt to look at.
“You wanted…me.”
“She did.” Eric tipped his head to Nikolett. “You are, apparently, the only man besides me she could imagine fucking.” Eric shrugged. “Sophia’s right, Nikki, you have a type.”
“Please don’t remind me. I’m embarrassed enough that I wanted to marry the man who tried to kill me multiple times and sexually assaulted me.”
“I never tried to kill you.”
“You shot me.”
“In the shoulder,” Gus said dismissively. “And I wasn’t sure you understood the accidents weren’t accidents, so I needed one overt threat.”
“You dropped a bear trap in my garden. It broke my leg like a matchstick.”
That got a reaction. Eric and Gus wore identical green expressions for a moment.
“I didn’t…I didn’t know you. And I didn’t realize you were so…breakable.”
Eric snorted in derision. “As ifyoucould breakher.”
Gus ignored him, looking at Nikolett. “You were just the woman he was obsessed with and I wanted him to hurt.”
“That would have worked better if she’d told me what was happening. I didn’t know.”
“Well I didn’t realize you were being a dramatic asshole and running away from her,” Gus shot back.
Nikolett couldn’t stifle the slightly hysterical laugh. “You should have dropped a bear trap in his garden.” Nikolett tipped her chin at Eric. “Well, on his cliff. Break his leg.”
“I… This…” Gus shook his head, seeming to pull himself back. “You’re lying.”
“Not about wanting you as our third,” Eric said. “I was ready to walk away from all of this, give up everything, so I could be with her and not share her.
