“Atwood,” Kane barked. “I want you standing guard outside the door at the end of the hall. Our newest crew member doesn’t go in or out without my explicit consent. Understood?”
Elijah straightened. “Sure thing.”
As the boy strode purposefully up the stairs, Kane turned to Adam. “Cromwell—escort Master Zhao home, if you would.”
Adam nodded, but Jules lifted his head, frowning in suspicion. “Back to the barracks, you mean?”
“No. I no longer have need of you, so you can leave.”
“Why?”
Kane fought to curb his irritation. He could feel Fletcher’s gaze on him and worked very hard to avoid it. “Because I said so. You didn’t want to be here in the first place, and now you don’t have to.”
“What did Zaria want?” Fletcher asked, and Kane cursed inwardly as Jules’s lips parted.
“Zaria was here?”
“Sheishere,” Kane ground out.
Jules pushed away from the banister, focus and anger flooding back into his face. “Where is she? I swear to God, if you hurt her—”
Kane cut him off. “She’s perfectly fine. We came to an agreement. As it happens, she’s more useful to me than you are. Her only term was that you be released from my employ. Now get out of my sight before I change my mind.”
Jules continued to gape, digesting this. “Like hell I will. I’m not leaving her alone here with you.”
“Christ almighty.” Exercising this much self-control was giving Kane a headache. He pressed his fingers against his temples before dragging them down to his chin. “You two and your unending desire to play savior for each other is getting on my nerves. Youwillgo home, and youwillleave Zaria alone here. Because if you don’t, I’ll put a bullet in your head just to be rid of you. Understand?” He wrenched his gun from his waistband. “You have three seconds.”
“You’re bluffing.”
“Do Ilook”—Kane clicked a bullet into the chamber—“like I’m fucking bluffing?”
A moment passed, static with tension. Finally, eyes burning withunconcealed hatred, Jules gave a jerking nod. He didn’t seem to trust himself to speak; instead, he simply wrenched open the door and walked out of the manor, Adam a hulking presence behind him.
This left Kane alone with Fletcher, who didn’t look very pleased about the development. Heartbeat pulsing hollowly in his ears, Kane stowed the gun away. The chatter and guffaws of the crew members in the adjacent parlor drifted into the entryway, but to him, they might as well have been in another world. For the first time in nearly a week, that pressure in his chest threatened to overflow. Each emotion he’d pushed down and avoided came bubbling to the surface.
He needed to say something. He wanted to say everything.
“Why did you bring Zaria here?” Kane asked instead.
Fletcher worried at his lower lip. One of his shoulders twitched up in an imitation of a shrug. “She begged me to take her to you, and I didn’t see any real reason to say no. If she wants to make foolish decisions, that’s not my business.”
“You’re lucky I didn’t decide to move.”
“I knew you wouldn’t.”
Part of Kane wanted to ask how Fletcher could be so certain, but he was afraid of the answer. Didn’t want to hear Fletcher say,I knew you wouldn’t go where I couldn’t find you, and have his weaknesses be laid bare between them.
“Why did you say yes?” Fletcher continued, wrenching Kane back to himself.
“What?”
“To Zaria offering to take Julian’s place. I didn’t think you’d be happy to see her, let alone willing to have her stay here with you.”
There was an edge to Fletcher’s voice, as if something important and unspoken hinged on Kane’s reply. He didn’t know what it could be and abruptly felt the need to defend himself. “I’m not happy. Iwasn’t. But I was telling the truth—recent developments mean she’s more useful to me.”
“What recent developments?”
This was it, Kane thought. A chance to prove to his friend that he could be honest. That he could and would approach things differently this time around. He lowered his voice. “Have you been reading the news this week?”
