For a just a minute, my mind is caught between the past and the present. Between the blue-gray hue of this dawning day when I look at him with loathing and the bright warmth of a young sun on a Saturday morning when I watched him with a heart full of love.
I used to love him.
How fucking embarrassing.
Cal raises his gun, approaching the bed while Beck covers him from the door. I’m supposed to stand back, to stay out of the way and let them work, but I can’t be bystander in this.
I rush across the floor boards on the tips of my toes, stopping him at the foot of the bed with my hand on his shoulder. When he looks at me, his features are tight with concentration. I’ve only seen this version of him once, when they came to save me from Jacob Marsh, and I don’t know if I can reach past his tactical mind and get him to hear my needs.
He lifts a brow, asking for an explanation for the delay. My gaze drops to the gun in his hands, and he shakes his head immediately. I stretch my eyes, pleading silently only to be denied again.
“My dragon,” I whisper, reminding him of what I said to Beck when he let his desire to protect me override my need to take care of some things myself. His worry is palpable when he relinquishes the gun, but I can’t focus on that right now. I can only focus on me. When they insisted on teaching me to shoot—a skill I didn’t want to acquire for obvious reasons—both of them said the only thing I should be thinking about when there’s a gun in my hand is the power I’m wielding.
So that’s where my mind goes, to the weight of the metal and the heat of Cal’s palm still lingering on the grip. To my index finger curved around the trigger, resting there but not applying pressure. And then, when Aubrey rolls to his side, positioning himself perfectly for me to line the barrel up with his forehead, it goes completely quiet.
I allow the muzzle to ghost over his skin, pressing lightly but not hard enough to leave a mark. Aubrey flinches awake, and I take four measured steps back, knowing that it’s important to stay out of his reach.
“What the fuck?” he mutters, throat clogged with anger and exhaustion. He scrubs at his eyes, blinking hard to make sure I’m real.
“Good morning, Mr. President.”
“The fuck are you doing here?”
He starts to sit up, everything about his posture suggesting he’s about to lunge at me, but Beck cocks his gun. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”
Aubrey freezes, neck rotating slowly as he takes in his surroundings. He tries to hide it, but I see the flickers of fear in those blue eyes when they finally land on me. “What is this, Selene?”
“You don’t know a reckoning when you see it?”
He throws his head back, laughing loudly. “A reckoning? Please. At best, this is a case of breaking and entering. At worst, it’s your signature on a death warrant for you, your boyfriends and everyone you love.”
I glance at Cal, smirking. “I hope you’re prepared to pay up, Drake.”
“I’m always prepared, pet.”
Aubrey grimaces at the exchange, and Beck laughs. “We made a bet. Selene and I knew you’d start with throwing around empty threats, but Cal thought you’d beg for your life first.”
“Do you want to know what the winner gets, Aubrey?”
“No, Selene. I want to know what Phineas is going to think when he finds out your pledge of allegiance was a farce.”
“You can ask him when he joins you in hell.”
“Joins me in…” The cackle he lets out cuts his sentence in half. He slaps a hand to his chest when he recovers. “Joins me in hell. That’s a good one.” He cards his fingers through his hair. “You’ve gotten funnier, Sel.”
“And you’ve gotten even more dense, Aubrey. I didn’t think it was possible, and yet, here I am, explaining something to you that should be quite obvious.”
“Which is?”
“That you’re going to die today.”
There it is again, that flicker. It stays longer this time, lingering in his irises as he eases himself into a sitting position and tosses the sheets back. The smell of sweat and bodily fluids waft up from the mattress, and I scrunch up my nose, disgusted.
“Still got an aversion to great sex, huh?”
“No,wehave plenty of that,” I retort, splitting a satisfied smile between my men. “I just have an aversion to you.”
“Is that why you want me dead,dear?”
