‘I don’t know.’Kade’s insides are cold with doubt that creeps like damp.
‘But, I mean, it seems like a really effective defensive measure,’ Luca points out.‘Maybe you were just especially reactive to it or something?’
‘He let me think it was some kind of… disorder,’ Kade says very quietly, eyes on his boss.
Luca gives his hand a brief squeeze.‘You want me to stay?’
‘No.Stand guard with Seth.Keep an eye on him for me, yeah?’
Luca nods, pats his shoulder.‘Heard.’
He closes the door and Kade steps forward.He ignores most of the argument with a strange, almost protective disinterest.There’s a shadow living deep inside Kade, something vast and dangerous moving far below the point sunlight can reach underwater, and if he chooses, it stays there.
He’s always been good at compartmentalising.‘Stop it, please.’
‘You deserved to know what was being done to you.’
Riley rolls his eyes.‘I’d already told him.’
‘Before orafterhe asked you outright, Little Harker?’Lachlan throws a heavy look towards Kade.‘You’re no better than his fuckingfather.’
‘Oh, but you are?’
‘The fuck would you know, huh?’
‘More than you think, Tanner.’
‘Yeah?Try me.Because from where I’m standing, you’re just a cowardly littlebitchhiding in his Tower and letting my boy guard your sorry ass!’
‘Lachlan, don’t!’
‘No, Jules, this piece of shit could have done anything but use the Hush Line on you, including telling you the fucking truth but he didn’t!You’re a prisoner here, just like you were in the Estate.The only difference is that I knewnotto implement such a vile fucking tool!’
Riley has the grace to show an ounce of regret when he looks at Kade, whose throat closes up, eyes stinging.His heart feels waterlogged,drowning.
‘You don’t understand,’Riley tells Lachlan, but he’s looking at Kade.
‘I’m not the one who needs to understand, Harker.Your “issue”is one thing; this was just shy of psychological warfare.’
Kade says, ‘Stop.’
The walls are closing in.
His head swims.
‘You let him think he had a fuckingdisorder,one that’s not even real!’
‘Please… stop.’
‘I did what I had to.’
‘He protects you,defendsyou like you hung the fucking moon when—’
Riley moves suddenly toward Kade, who sways to the side.All Lachlan’s anger drains like water through a sieve, focusing on whatever is wrong.
‘Kade,’ he says gently, a warm hand caressing his face as Riley catches him.‘Are you OK?Are you dizzy?’When Kade doesn’t answer, Lachlan reaches down, takes his wrist and presses two fingers into the centre of his star, blossoming instant relief.‘It’s all right.It’s gonna pass, and this time you’ll let it, because I’m going to tell you the truth, and so willhe.’
‘I d-don’t understand,’ Kade says, eyes closed, doesn’t want toseeeither of them, this room, this place, theTower.
