Sai slams his hands onto the table causing everyone to look at him, but he’s locked on me. “Listen, the only option is this. You’re going to convince Jasmine that even though we’re all fuck-ups who don’t deserve her, we’re sorry and we’ll spend eternity proving we can and will be good enough. Agreed?”
The others quietly nod, but I remain still.
Would eternity be enough? The things I’ve done. The things I’m still willing to do. I’ll always be a monster.
But I’ll pretend, for now. For them.
“Well, I think this was quite successful,” Julien comments as he stands.
Successful?
I watch him cast a brief look at my brother and Sai. I would have thought his words sarcastic, if it wasn’t for that look and the knowing smile now upon his face.
“We acquired some answers, at least,” he adds.
My jaw grits as realisation hits. “You played me.” I glance between the three.
Julien and Sai have never spoken to each other that way. At least not since I have known them. I should have seen it from the start. And now, they’re both sharing smug smiles, while Ezekial appears somewhat guilty.
“You orchestrated this,” I say. “The whole thing.”
“Well, there was a hell of a lot of improv going on near the end.” Sai grins, dragging his chair back and sitting, then reaching over to pat my shoulder. “Had to find a way to get into that head of yours, mate. But then you did the whole ‘we need to break the unit’.” He drops his voice into a cartoon-deep growl as he repeats it.
My glare becomes cutting, but it’s wasted on him. Always has been. He just winks.
But then something switches in his expression. His eyes darken, voice lowering into a thunderous droll. “But I hope I made myself clear, Kane. Because if youeversay something like that again, the three of us will chain you in the Pit, and I’llneverlet you leave.”
I glance at Julien, then Ezekial. Both are staring straight at me, unflinching. That look says it all. Sai isn’t alone in this. Together, they’d drag me back from the dark if they had to.
“You don’t get to leave.” A thin crackle of blue lightning pierces the air with Sai’s final vow, eyes never leaving mine.
I don’t know what I did to deserve these men. I say I’ll leave, and they take it as a challenge.
I lean back in my chair. “I’d like to see you all try.”
Sai blinks, his fingers flinching around my shoulder as he fights with his darkness, then he slowly lets out a breath edged with a laugh.
Colour returns to his gaze, and he releases my shoulder with a sly smile. “Don’t threaten me with a good time, Kane.”
The corner of my mouth twitches. Bastard.
“Anyway,” he stretches, draping his arm over the back of his chair. “We got what we wanted.”
I stare at him, and his grin only widens, urging me to take the bait.
“Go on.”
“You want her.” My brother’s words are immediate, and they knock me, everyone, into silence.
I’ve witnessed many things over my long life. Atrocities. Horrendous, life-altering situations. But this…
You.
Want.
Her.
Want is such a strange word. It’s shallow. A passing thing. A hunger you feed, then forget, something easily satiated. This isn’t that.
