“No can do,” Kaz said, already retreating toward the wide-open doors. “Got the response I was looking for, so now I need to, how did you put it? ‘Get out’?”
Sier was fuming. “You did not say that to a client, Narek.”
“No way to talk to anyone,” Kazimir agreed, digging the hole even deeper for Nate and seemingly enjoying every second of it. “Even if we are friends.”
“We arenotfriends,” Nate snapped, clamping his mouth shut too late. He could practically feel the fireballs shooting from Sier’s eyes as she glared at him.
Kazimir chuckled, winked a second time, and then swiveled on his heels and disappeared into the night.
Like the total nightmare, demonic hell beast he was.
“Narek,” Sier snapped. “In my office. Now!”
Chapter 6:
“I don’t want it,” Nate barely recognized the restraint in his own voice as he spoke. He was standing in his garage, staring at the delivery the postman had made the other day, with a sick, twisted feeling in his gut.
After Kazimir’s impromptu appearance, Nate had come to the stark realization that if he could stand up against a Devil of Vitality, he should be able to muster the courage to do so with the other psychopath who’d inserted himself into his life.
“It’s a gift,” the man on the other end of the line replied back cooly. The sound of keys clicking and papers shuffling came through every now and again, cluing Nate into the fact he was in the office. “Didn’t your brother ever teach you it's rude to refuse a thoughtful gesture?”
“Don’t.” He stopped himself from losing his cool and closed his eyes. “Don’t bring him into this.”
“It isn’t my fault you both make it so easy.”
“Silver.”
His brother-in-law chuckled. “He does that as well, whenever he’s cross with me. Says my name in almost that exact tone. You two are very alike, you know? But also, incredibly different. Street racing, Nate?” He made a sound of displeasure. “What would Nuri say about that?”
And there it was. The real reason Silver Rien had sent him a brand new hoverbike. Not just any bike, either. The X-Con Rien 243 was worth more money than Nate could make in a decade.
“Is this a bribe,” Nate asked, “or a threat?”
“I used to think you were a slow moron,” Silver told him, sounding pleased. “It’s nice to know that isn’t the case after all.”
“I don’t want or need this,” he tried again. “Just tell me what you want and then have someone come pick it up.”
“The bike is yours. If you want to get rid of it, do it on your own dime.”
Nate bristled. He could never do that.
“You can’t, can you?” Silver said a moment later. “Do you want to hear an interesting theory I came up with the last time we saw one another, Nate?”
“No.” No he really did not.
The last time they’d seen one another had been at the wedding. Nate had been the only one in attendance who hadn’t been ecstatic at the merger of their two families. Everyone else seemed to think it was inevitable—apparently, most people on the planet Ignite had already assumed Nuri and Silver had been dating for years and years. Even Neve had been happy for them, though she’d been the hardest to sell on the relationship at the start.
Nate accepted that Silver was the person his older brother had chosen, but that didn’t mean he had to one hundred percentlikeit. Knowing who Silver was made it impossible. Though it was a well-kept secret.
“I know secrets too,” he said, even though that little voice inside that fought for self-preservation begged him not to. “You’re a psychopath.”
“That could work in your favor,” Silver didn’t sound even remotely surprised that Nate knew. Ignite wasn’t like Vitality,where the rulers unapologetically marched the streets uncaring if anyone knew they had an anti-social personality disorder. On their home planet, Silver had hidden that particular fact from his people, most likely to protect his position as CEO of Rien Inc. more so than the crown atop his head.
“How do you figure?”
“The expensive piece of machinery in front of you is one indication,” he replied. “The only attachment I have is toward Nuri. I’m also an emperor. Money means nothing to me. If there’s anything you want, I can gift it to you as easily as I did that bike.”
“It’s not a gift,” Nate argued. “Stop calling it that.”
