‘I’ve never seen so much blood,’ Jules whispers to himself.
‘I couldn’t push you from behind, you might have folded.’
‘You could have put a board under me, or—’
‘There were too many variables, and it was my failure to not anticipate your presence in the vent.Your safety is paramount to me.’
‘Can I see your hands?’
Lachlan thinks about sayingno,keeping the lines between them crisp and clear, but he owes him this for the slap.He takes a single step closer, extends his left hand, palm up.Jules studies it without touching.Lachlan watches his expression, sees the curiosity, the analysis.
‘Did you design those teeth?’
‘More or less.How did you know about the DVP?’Jules shrugs, backs off.‘So, what do you think about—?’
‘No.’
Lachlan expected resistance but it’s still disappointing.‘I could explain more about what it involves.’
‘I said no.’ Jules surveys him fully, has no right to seem so resigned for someone his age and yet he’s riddled with it.‘You’rehisman.I’m not stupid.’
‘Fair enough.I’m sorry again for—’
‘Bodyguard,’ he says, tone guarded.
Bodyguard,Jesus Christ.
‘Yeah?’Lachlan prompts, searching his face.
‘If you lie to me again about Mimi, I’ll make you sorry for it.’
‘Heard.’
‘Now get out and stay away from me.’
CHAPTER SIX
Despite Jules’ refusal, Lachlan goes about ordering the construction of a training room.It’s necessary anyway for himself and for those he’ll eventually recruit.They need to stay sharp.
The second month is stable.
Not better, not worse.
Lachlan is extremely thorough when it comes to selecting a second in command, mostly because he knows their loyalty will be directly routed to the old man and that troubles him.That finalinstructionstill weighs heavy in Lachlan’s mind.
Lachlan has had someone in mind from the start.
Priscilla Carrigan, who he met in boot and kept in touch with.She’s extremely tough, ambitious and cold-blooded.All in all, he figures that she’s someone who can decide cleanly whether or not to take the job without any sense of obligation.
Lachlan performs her second interviewawayfrom the Estate, knows he’s being monitored, well aware that the “house devices” he uses are mirrored.Therefore the second interview marks the first serious breach in his loyalty to Alistair Penhalyx.
Lachlan is fully honest with Carrigan about everything.
The contract, Alistair, Jules and Mimi, the clauses, the slant towards imprisonment, all of it.Carrigan is a consummate professional, asks the same questions Lachlan did plus a few hedidn’t,knowing in advance the pitfalls of the contract.
‘What’s your feel of the father?’she asks, holding her coffee but not drinking it.Carrigan is twenty-four years old, and currently out of rotation.
‘Control more than protection,’ he answers, keeping to what he knows rather than speculating, which would lead down a dark path.‘The Estate is run like a city and the kids don’t leave,ever.’
