“Why?”
“That’s none of your business.”
“Oh really? You didn’t seem to give a shit about that when you were down here before. I think the whole bar heard you.”
I shrugged, trying not to show how that bothered me. Being with Gabriel always made me forget the world around us. That was probably how we ended up here in the first place.
“Where did he go?” I asked, glancing around to see if anyone was listening. They weren’t.
“Home.”
I sighed. This was going to be exactly as painful as I expected. “And where is that?”
Nick grinned, nothing nice about it though. “You don’t deserve him.”
My wolf stirred under my skin, his whole fucking attitude getting to me. “I suppose you do?”
He had the nerve to laugh. “Ahh, that’s why you keep giving me murder eyes.” He leant closer, right into my space, and I let out a low growl. “Mase is my best friend. I’ve known him way longer than you, but we’ve never been like that, so put your fucking wolf away.”
I flashed my teeth at him, but there was no hiding the effect his words had on me. My whole body relaxed.
“If you don’t want him,” he said, eyes narrowing, “and you clearly don’t, judging from how you spoke to him, then why do you care about what I am to him?”
“It’s complicated.”
“Is it?”
“Yes.” I stood. If he wasn’t going to tell me where Gabriel lived, then there was no point staying.
“Do you know why he didn’t come after you that day?”
His words stopped me in my tracks. Something in his voice telling me I wouldn’t like it. “No.”
“Because he couldn’t.” Nick folded his arms, muscles bunching. “Because Tombs took him back to the compound to punish him for getting involved with a non-human. And then when he refused to tell him who you were or what pack you belonged to, he punished him some more.”
I felt sick.
And angry.
A slow-burning rage building from the pit of my stomach and growing in intensity.
“Punished how?”
Nick drew his bottom lip between his teeth, studying me. “You’ll have to ask him that.”
“I will if you tell me where he is.”
He watched me some more, and when I was about to give up and go hunt him down myself, he pulled a pen from his pocket and scribbled something down on the back of a beer mat. He didn’t give it to me though. “What do you want from him?”
I bit back another “none of your business” and went with the truth. I doubted I’d be getting that beer mat if he didn’t like my answer. “Honestly? I don’t know.” I ran a hand through my hair, trying to find the right words that wouldn’t give everything away. “But what I do know is that I need to talk to him. Tonight. After that…” I shrugged.
He tapped the beer mat on his lips. If I wanted, I could reach out and snatch it from his fingers before he even registered that I’d moved.
But I wouldn’t.
That wasn’t who I was.
He looked me dead in the eye. “If you hurt him, I know plenty of ways to cause you pain.”
