“She’d shut right down with him,” Chaos muses, relaxing against the chair and setting one ankle atop his opposite knee. “You might not see it, but you’ve built a rapport with her, and a quick one at that. She told you she’s associated with the Devil’s Breed. That’s not information to scoff at.”
“I know.”
“Then where’s your hesitation?” He studies me in my periphery, yet to touch his drink. “Do you think you failed because she hasn’t jumped into bed with you?”
Asshole’s the best psycho-manipulator I know. Steers you down roads you’d rather avoid and sits there, indifferent to the shit it brings with it.
I don’t answer, not liking how rough this road looks.
Asshole pushes anyway. “Is it because yoursexualcharm doesn’t work? Because she makes you use more vulnerable means to get to the truth?”
“What would you know?” I sip at the drink defiantly.
He smirks, looking toward the fire. “I’ve known you long enough, man, to understand why you goof around as a fuckboy.”
Fucker better watch his next words.
“You’ve never once gotten real with me. Not in the way Jinx does, or Loki.”
Skating a thin line.
“You’ve brushed off every goddamn issue in your life as a joke. Even having a kid with Reno.”
“You trying to get me expelled from the club or some shit?” I fake a stunted laugh. “Because you’re really making me want to smack you in the goddamn mouth right about now.”
“Take a deep breath, assshole.” Chaos finally entertains the idea of a drink. “I’m not the enemy here.”
“Then who is?”
He sets the glass down and stares me dead in the eye. “You are.Youare your own worst enemy, Fang.” Bastard rises from the seat and returns to his desk, tossing a final, “Let that woman do something about it while you help the club,” over his shoulder. “And tell her I want a word. Now.”
TWENTY-FIVE
JENNA
“Come with me.”Fang towers over where I’d resumed last night’s game with Darla, face grim as he stares down at the table.
“Why?” Skepticism stretches the word.
Darla glares at me, eyes hard.
“What?”I mouth at her.
Fang grinds his jaw, fixated on the motionless draughts pieces.
“Just go,” Darla mutters. “We can pick this up after.”
Traitor.I rise to my feet and lift my eyebrows at the asshole as though to say,“Well, come on then.”
He leads me through the foyer to the room opposite. I’m struck by two things as I walk in the door: one, that this appears to be Chaos’s office.Damn it.And two, the gorgeous shelves on two walls which give off majorBeauty and the Beastvibes.
“You want me to stay?” Fang asks his president.
The intense guy doesn’t bother looking up from the laptop on the desk before him. “Nope.”
I catch Fang’s eye and wilt a little at the frustration and hint of disappointment that I find. He strides from the room, doorclosing behind him with an ominously dense thud.Why do I feel so abandoned?
“You’ve been here less than forty-eight hours,” Chaos states, not wasting a single second. “And already you’ve given me more problems than anyone else has in the past week.” He looks up, piercing me with his blue and brown eyes. “That’s not the kind of drama I usually tolerate around here. I think it’s about time we even the scales.”
