“All this time, all those accusations and doubts aboutmyloyalty, was because he fucked up way back when.”
Theo stormed through the wide living room and over to the bar cart by the wall of windows.
“And not only did he dare to question my loyalty, he had all of you questioning it too.” He pulled the top off the whiskey decanter and flipped over a glass.“‘Sure looks like you on the video, Theo,’” he said, mimicking King’s baritone. “‘Why did youtake out your tracker if you’ve got nothing to hide? I’m going to send Shep to make sure you behave yourself.’”
He poured several fingers of amber liquid into the tumbler. “Well… Fuck. You.”
To say Theo was angry, might just be the understatement of the century. In fact, I couldn’t remember ever seeing him so worked up. Usually the most rebellious and outrageous of my brothers, Theo wasn’t the type to spiral. But as he threw back the full glass of alcohol and reached for the decanter for a refill, I let him at it.
He’d been through it over the last month or so, and if anyone deserved to get blind drunk, it was him. But hopefully the food I’d ordered would get here before that happened. The last thing he probably wanted to do with sore ribs was spend the night hugging the porcelain throne.
“In all fairness, if he hadn’t sent me to watch over you, we wouldn’t be?—”
“What? Fucking?” Theo turned to me, his glass again full. “Don’t kid yourself, America. If I’d wanted to fuck you before that night, I would’ve.”
I tried not to take offense at the barb, knowing his anger wasn’t really directed at me. But that didn’t mean it didn’t sting. “Implying you didn’t want to?”
Theo took a swig of his drink and shrugged. “Wasn’t allowed towantto, remember? King’s rules.”
Oh yeah, Theo was feeling toxic tonight.
I was about to push for a more definitive answer when the intercom sounded. Dinner had arrived. “I’ve got to go get that, but we’re not done here.”
Theo rolled his eyes and turned his back on me. It was going to be a long night.
I headed down, picked up the Chinese food, and, after tipping the delivery man, took the elevator back up to my place.My mind was full of images from when we opened the storage unit to see all of our faces plastered on the wall with numbers like some kind of sick countdown to the main target—King.
I still couldn’t believe he’d kept such a huge secret from us. Yes, what he’d done had been to ensure the safety of Libertine and its members. But by going off on his own, he’d done the number one thing we never did: left a loose end. One that was trying to eliminate us one by one.
It was a rookie mistake. One I was sure was eating King up tonight. But he was the least of my worries. No, actually, I was done worrying about his feelings. That was someone else’s job now. Ortwosomeones. My main concern now was for the man currently propping up my wall with his hand as he stared out at the night sky.
Still drinking, Theo looked as if the window pane wasn’t there he might just jump out, and I couldn’t say I blamed him. He’d been through it lately. It seemed everywhere he turned there had been accusations, danger, stress, and all I wanted to give him now was safe harbor.
“Food’s here.” I walked over to the table in the living room and pulled out the small cartons. “Theo?”
“Don’t want food.”
I let out a sigh and scooped some beef lo mein onto a paper plate for him. It was his favorite, and after adding a couple of pork spring rolls I headed over to where he stood and placed it on the bar cart beside him. He needed to get some food in him or he was going to regret it.
“You need to eat, Theo.”
“No, I need to drink.” He held his glass up in a mock salute.
“That’s not going to help.”
“Really? Because right now it’s doing a damn good job at making me feel…less.”
“And that’s what you want? To numb your feelings?”
“Better than remembering that my so-called friends and family were so quick to blame me for everything. Thatyoudid too.”
I reached for his arm and turned him to face me. “Me?”
“Oui, you.” Theo shrugged out of my hold, and that was almost worse than him taking a shot at me. “Back in Monaco. You thought I’d betrayed our brothers.”
“No.” I shook my head. “I didn’t knowwhatto think.”
“And you think that’s better?”
