“Yeah, it’s basically confined to me.”
Jayne took another step back.
Hadrian snorted. “But I know it’s not you.”
Syn winked at him. “Yeah. ‘Cause I’d have to be terminally stupid given the ease your brother walks through my head.”
That made her feel a little better. Maybe. “Any way you can trace it?”
Syn shook his head. “Jinx could do this easier than I can. He has clearance with the League databases. I’d have to breach them.”
All well and good, except for one minor detail. “We’re not exactly talking at the moment.”
“Why?”
She inclined her head to Hadrian. “He wants me to put a blast through Hadrian’s head. I refused.”
“Good call. ‘Cause Nero is an enemy no one wants. Not even Jinx is that good and none of us need your sister going after Nero. There’s a scenario made for a horror movie.” Syn glanced down at his computer. “Give me an hour and let me see what I can dig up. I might have a way to find out something.”
She sighed. “One hour. You got it.”
Without a second glance, she led Hadrian back into the crowded bar where discordant music thumped so hard, it felt like a second heartbeat. How could her sister listen to this?
If Hadrian still had his headache, he had to be in agony.
She looked back to see him scowling at the mural on the wall where the club had its name painted, alone with demons rising out of the letters.
He cocked a brow at her. “Devil’s Vein?”
“Yeah, they always come up with something weird. Don’t they?” She winked at him.
“Hey!”
Hadrian ignored the shout, assuming it was for someone else. At least until a huge hulking beast of a man rushed Jayne.
He grabbed her by the throat and slammed her against the wall. “You fucking slut! You killed my brother!”
That brought him back to the present. With his own feral curse, he grabbed the asshole, pulled him away from Jayne, and slugged him hard. “Leave her alone.”
He started for Hadrian, until he noticed his size. That caused him to back up and reevaluate how much he wanted to bleed tonight.
Hadrian put his body between the man and Jayne.
Instead of taking another punch, the nasty bastard spat on the ground at Jayne’s feet. “I hope an assassin puts a blast right between your eyes, you bitch!”
That just made Hadrian all the madder as the man’s real thoughts bombarded him. Those images . . .
Uh-huh. Without hesitation, he grabbed the asshole by his shirt collar and dragged him to stand in front of Jayne. “She’s not Eve Erixour, you stupid bastard. Apologize for attacking an innocent woman.”
The man paled considerably. “W-what?”
“You heard me. Apologize or I’ll give you a taste of what you wanted to do to her.”
Eyes bulging, he swallowed with a loud gulp. “I’m sorry.”
“Yeah, you are.” Hadrian slung him so hard against the wall, it knocked him unconscious. Still unappeased, he moved to Jayne as she wiped the blood from her lips. “You okay?”
“Another day in paradise.”
