“This isn’t over,” I warn because we will need to deal with it further. I can’t have her offing my members, even covertly.
I also won’t stand for her feeling threatened or afraid. But I’m handling that.
“Oh, I didn’t think it was, sir.” She snaps the honorific with enough cloaked venom that it’s practically unrecognizable beyond the finishing-school decorum, though to me, the hiss and fangs are unmistakable. “It’s not like I’m about to get off this call and head to Magie Noire like nothing happened.”
Wrath I was anticipating, but that I was not.
“What?”
“What?” she parrots innocently, and my patience has frayed to a tattered nothing.
“Zara,” I growl, sick that she might’ve heard something false or something true that sounds like more. “I met someone there in a professional capacity. That is all.”
I’m tormented that I can’t be there to hold her and reassure her.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” she says, so saccharine that my teeth ache. “But whatever it is, it doesn’t seem to be my business.”
Do you want it to be?is on the tip of my tongue. I can taste the full-bodied flavor of an invitation for prospects I neverconsidered until her, but I’d have to follow it up with how it doesn’t matter because regardless of all the power I have, it only puts her in more danger.
Whether she wants one night of my complete devotion or something more permanent, I’ve hurt her, and I get it. There’s so much I can’t tell her. And so much peril my involvement with her could bring. The thing Ivy danced around but didn’t say is that those who fail their loyalty test or trial are killed because they are determined to be threats to KORT. It’s considered a death for the greater good—a traitor among us is a menace to all involved. I don’t disagree. My business has a similar approach.
But of course, that was before I found myself enamored with the angel of death.
So, I keep my reply curt until I can sort through my reservations. “We’ll talk later. Put Bernard on the phone.”
Once he returns, I issue my command, ready to get on with my night. “Escort Miss West to the penthouse via Maddox’s apartment. Mercy and Tessa are expecting her.”
“As you wish,” he says. It’s refined, as usual, but there is a shadowy edge enclosing it.
“You disagree?” I challenge.
“No,” he offers without hesitation. “That’s why he was here. We were on top of it.”
He knew Shep had come for Zara, so he simply wanted to gauge my reaction.
“Fine,” I grouse, not pleased that he held that back, but grateful that he is my all-knowing Oz at the resort and even more grateful that protecting Zara is his sanction, apart from mine. Still, I ensure we’re on the same page. “Give her a bracelet and keep her under surveillance. From this point forward, she is never out of our sight.”
“Done.”
The second I kill the call, Maddox pounces as the other three study me with avidity.
“What trouble did our Slugger get up to?”
“Nothing.” I wave my hand to assuage their keen interest. “But Shepherd Lange had a heart attack.”
Ryker’s pinched brows frame his icy eyes with skepticism. “The closer?”
“That’s the one,” I confirm.
None of them miss the correlation.
“Are we still holding out hope that she’s a KORT asset?” he volleys, and it echoes my own thoughts.
KORT wouldn’t send a closer after her if she hadn’t yet found what we couldn’t uncover in years.Fuck.
Cash cackles—it’s one of arrogance, as if he could’ve predicted this outcome. “And surrender her trick she will not.”
A delighted scoff puffs out of Maddox. “So, maybe you sleep with one eye open.”
