“What’s his deal?” Brennon smartly lowered his voice to a whisper.
Rin debated whether or not to answer and then figured what the hell. “He wants me to come over.”
“Don’t!” Brennon’s hand whipped out again, clamping over Rin’s wrist. “What if this is it? What if he’s trying to get rid of you so he doesn’t have to bother with the betrothal?!”
“What is he sniveling on about?” Kelevra drawled through the comms.
“He thinks you’re going to throw me off the roof,” Rin said lightly, chuckling when Brennon gasped.
“And why would he think that?”
“Because I told him that our families set us up.” There was a lengthy pause and Rin frowned. “Kelevra?”
“Tell your friend to check Imagine,” Kelevra said, then in a clipped voice added, “I’ll give you the time you want, Flower. But there will be a cost, and you will be paying it in full soon enough.”
“I—” The call ended and he tapped his multi-slate. It hadn’t dropped. “He hung up on me.” That asshole! At least it sounded like he wasn’t going to force Rin into going back to the penthouse tonight. That was something. “Hey, do you follow Kelevra on Imagine?”
Imagine was a social media app that pretty much everyone in the galaxy used. They could share photos, videos, and captions, and there was a follow feature. Rin’s account was mostly just pics of him goofing off with the guys—a carefully constructed front to keep up the appearance of a social butterfly who could do no wrong. He never posted anything of substance, and he didn’t spend that much time on it.
He was still in the middle of scrolling to find the app on his multi-slate when Brennon sucked in a breath, drawing his attention.
“Holy hell, dude.” Brennon was shaking his head, his eyes tore from his screen and he stared at Rin wide-eyed. “You’re epically fucked.”
“What?” He frowned and giving up on his own, waved his fingers so that Brennon would turn his wrist and show him. Kelevra’s account was pulled up. He’d made a post two minutes ago.
Of Rin.
Sleeping.
In his fucking bed.
The silk sheets and the fact he was shirtless pretty much summed up for everyone what had transpired before the photo had been taken, but as if that wasn’t enough to appease Kelevra’s twisted sense of ownership, he’d gone and added a caption just in case anyone was too slow on the uptake.
Where my Consort belongs.
“I’m going to kill him,” Rin said darkly, completely losing the plot for a minute. “He’s dead. He’s so dead.”
“Whoa,” Brennon pulled his arm back. “Calm down. Yikes, Rin. I was just kidding. It’s not that big a deal. It’s only been seen by—” he glanced down and paled.
“How many?” Rin asked, slamming his fist down on the table when Brennon refused to tell him.
“Five hundred,” he blurted.
“It hasn’t even been up for five minutes and it already has that many views?” He groaned and dropped his head into his hands.
“Have you never checked his account before?” Brennon asked. “Practically the whole planet follows him. Don’t you?”
“No.”
“…Shouldn’t you? He tagged you and everything.”
“Fuck.”
“Okay, seriously, you’re starting to freak me out. What happened to rolling with the punches and this not being a thing? You seemed fine with it before.”
Yeah. Becausehe’d been faking. But Rin couldn’t say that. He could only dig his nails into his palms under the table, drawing blood, waiting for the prick of pain to help steady him and pull him off the edge. Fight or flight was starting and if he entered that state of being, he’d definitely lean toward fight and be in his car heading straight to Kelevra.
Which was no doubt exactly what that prick was hoping for.
