“Fine,” he says quietly, realizing I won’t let off this point. “If any harm is done to Viper, she’ll have the option to revisit that exact same amount of harm to me. We’ll observe an eye for an eye.”
I nearly fall out of my chair in surprise. I expected this to be much harder; either Cain wants Ember’s helpthat much… or he’s throwing me a bone and actually trying to be something approximating decent for once in his life.
“I want that in writing,” I say.
“You don’t trust my word?”
“Not particularly, no.”
Cain releases a rueful chuckle. He types something on his computer, clicks print, and out comes a contract illustrating precisely what we just discussed. He signs his name; I sign my name, and then it’s done.
I’ve bargained away Ember’s services, but it’s a fair deal.
“Get out,” Cain says dismissively. “Toby will confer with you regarding next steps.”
Outside his office, I check the livestream of my room on my phone. Ember’s not in bed anymore; she’s in the shower, washing herselfthoroughlywith soap. Her hand snakes between her milky thighs, and…oh fuck, is she masturbating?The footage is a bit grainy thanks to the water, but her hand remains between her thighs, and I think I see her knees buckle.Dear fucking God, she’s masturbating. She said she’s never gotten herself off before—
“Max.” Toby’s voice makes my head snap up. I pocket my phone and face him head-on.
“What are you doing here?” My voice is a bit too gravelly, but Toby doesn’t seem to catch onto it.
It only takes a beat for the blood to flow away from my cock and back to my brain, and that’s when I recall that Toby fuckingratted me outto Cain. Disliking Ember is one thing, and he’s entitled to his opinion; fucking Emberandme over by telling Cain something I explicitly specified should be kept from him is another thing entirely.
And preventing me from watching Ember get herself off to the thought of me—possibly for the first timeever—is straight-up bullshit. Who the hell does he think he is?
“I wanted to explain—”
“That you ratted me out to Cain?” I stare at him, unblinking. “Yeah, that might be something worthy of explaining, except Idon’t give a fuck. You went over my head for an assignmentI gave you, simply because you don’t like Ember. Because she killed your cousin whileenslavedto Dagon and didn’t apologize for it. Now, Cain is threatening Alina’s life.” I get into his personal space. “Please,explain.”
Toby’s lips thin. “Look, it wasn’t like that—”
“Wasn’t it?” I snap.
“No!I didn’t tell Cain because I wanted to get back at Ember. I might not like her, but I’m not going to actively try to hurt her.”
“Good, because if you do, I’ll kill you.” I lean forward. “And you may have seen enough of Ember’s work to be afraid, but let me assure you,I’m meaner. Especially when motivated by someone threatening my woman.”
“Got it.” Toby has the good sense to look afraid. “I didn’t tell him because of Ember. I told him because of Alina.”
My brows slam down. “What the fuck does Alina have to do with you ratting?”
“You can’t let Ember kill me if I tell you.”
Okay, it must bereallybad. “What thefuckdoes Alina have to do with anything?” Is he unable to save her? Have we been ordered to kill her? What’s the goddamnproblem?
Toby doesn’t respond. He actually looksnervous.
“Toby,” I prompt. “You have ten seconds before I start breaking bones.”
“Alina is my chosen,” he mumbles.
I nearly fall backwards. “Thefuckyou just say?”
“Alina is my chosen!” he says, louder. “There,happy?”
“No, I’m nothappythatthisis how you choose to spite Ember—”
“Not everything is fuckingaboutEmber!” Toby explodes. “Alina and I knew each other when we were infoster caretogether, asshole. We became really close. Then, shit happened that necessitated a split, and…”
