“How did you get out?” Liam asked.
A smile tugged at Silas’ lips. “It would seem the only witness didn’t turn up for the hearing. Without your testimony, they had nothing to hold me on. Hearsay at best. My case was thrown out of court.”
Liam gritted his teeth. In recent years, Silas had become more and more unpredictable—more and more dangerous. Someone had needed to stop him, but none of the other Vipers would have had the balls to stand up to him, so it had fallen on his shoulders. In a way it was fitting—somehow, he’d always known the responsibility would rest with him, not least because he’d known Silas the longest.
Whatever happened next, he would never regret his decision, even if Silas walked and he wound up dead. Because if he hadn’t made that choice, he never would have met Eve, and if the price for those few precious days with her was all of the days he had left, he’d pay it willingly. Those days would have meant nothing without her, anyway.
He just hoped it was over quickly.
When Silas pulled a switchblade out of his pocket and flicked it open, Liam held his breath, eyeing the blade warily while he tried not to imagine what Silas would do to him. He flinched when the man walked behind him, and then had a moment of blind panic about his claws before realizing they had already shifted back. His heart thudded frantically against his chest as Silas stood silently behind him. Their secret was safe. That was something. Once Silas was done with him, he’d have no reason to take an interest in Eve.
He waited to feel the knife in his back or for Silas to grab his head and slit his exposed throat with it. He did neither of those things. Instead, he cut open the cable ties that held Liam’s wrists bound, freeing him.
Liam frowned as he brought his hands around and shook out the pins and needles. He wasn’t sure what was going on, but he knew that Silas would never let him go, nor would he ever forgive Liam for betraying him. Forgiveness wasn’t in his nature. So why had he untied him? Liam eyed the door, but there were at least a dozen men outside with guns, probably more. There was no point making a run for it. Tied or not, he was trapped here. His only option was to stay and see how this played out.
Silas rounded Liam’s chair again and looked down at him.
“I’m disappointed in you, Liam,” he said quietly.
Liam knew that tone well. It was one that Silas used just before he lost it. He swallowed his fear.
“Someone had to stop you,” Liam said. “Why not me? Don’t you see what the Vipers have become? What the men have become? I didn’t sign up for this shit. Rape, mutilation,murder?”
Liam had thought that Silas might flinch at the mention of such things, but he didn’t. Quite the opposite, in fact. There had been a gleam of recognition in his eyes and even a modicum of excitement, and seeing it sicked him.
“So, you’ve learned about my eveninghobbies,” Silas said with a low chuckle.
The expression of pride on his former friend’s face made Liam’s stomach lurch.
“Hobbies?” Liam repeated, repulsed.
“Oh, don’t come the high and mighty with me,” Silas said, his upper lip curled in distaste. “You always did think you were better than everyone else, even when we were back in the group home.”
Silas flicked the blade closed and slid it into his pocket, still eyeing Liam with disgust.
“Always so damnmoral,” he spat. “It was sickening, especially for someone so powerful.”
“Powerful?” Liam spluttered. “What the hell are you talking about?”
Silas sneered. “You think I can’t smell the dominant in you? The alpha. You could have done so much with what you were given, but you’re too weak minded to be as great as you should be.”
Liam froze, staring at Silas in wide-eyed confusion. His old friend took in the look on Liam’s face and chuckled. Then he leaned down so that he and Liam were eye to eye and a moment later, his eyes flashed a bright amber color. Liam gasped.
“Yeah,” Silas said with a knowing grin. “I’m a shifter, and I know you are, too. I’ve always known.”
Liam shook his head. That couldn’t be true. It just couldn’t. Silas had been there for him. Had been the only one to care about him. And all this time… “You knew I was a panther shifter?”
Silas let out a surprised bark of laughter and clapped his hands together. “Well, I see you’ve made some discoveries about yourself, haven’t you? Yes, I knew. Of course I knew.”
Liam frowned. “But…why didn’t you tell me?”
Silas let out a soft chuckle. “Because I didn’t want you to know. Because it was amusing to me every time you talked about yourdelusions. It was pathetic, really, how you continued to ignore the best part of yourself—the strongest part.”
His face split into a nasty smile, a predatory gleam in his eye that made Liam’s panther stir inside him.
“Besides,” Silas gloated, “you were more useful to me when you were a scared little rabbit with me as your only real friend, because when you trusted me, you followed me, and I like it when people follow me.”
The anger bubbling inside him rose to the surface. Silas, his closest friend, had been playing him for their entire lives. Everything he’d ever told him had been a lie. He’d let Liam believe he had a mental illness for the entirety of his childhood and his young adult years. And the whole time, he’d been laughing at him behind his back.
