Page 5 of The Villain

What Ihadn’texpected was whatever was inside that shed. Delicate features. Wide-set green eyes that might have looked ugly on any other face. A full lower lip, glistening from the swipe of a tongue. Dark red hair that had somehow still looked lush despite being sweaty and smashed from the hood.

Devlin Walsh was a pretty boy. Of all fucking things.

I took another long drag. Blew out the smoke. Scratched at my scalp.

I’d think this was my father sending me one last fuck you from the grave, but there was no way he’d do this. Not when my sexuality was something he’d tried to beat out of me since I was six. I’d never told him, but he knew. Fucker had been a bloodhound for anything he’d considered a defect. A weakness.

I had never felt that way before. Being bisexual was just a part of me, and I was proud of who I was. But right now, I could almost see my father’s point of view, because being attracted to the Detroit Devil was a fatal flaw in my design.

The creek babbled. A breeze blew. Sweat dripped down the back of my neck and dampened the collar of my T-shirt.

Footsteps sounded behind me, and I knew it was Rhys without having to turn around. He didn’t say anything, just waited for me to speak. It was one of the reasons he’d been my best friend since birth. He didn’t fucking annoy me.

When I’d ordered Devlin’s abduction, I’d had a plan. Avenge my father. Because that’s what we did in my world. That’s what was expected. After Patrick’s death, our crew had fractured: those loyal to the old bastard, and those loyal to me. The Patrick loyalists wanted Devlin’s head, and the only way I could prevent one of them from shooting me in the back was to show respect for my father. I had to put Devlin in the ground.

And I’d been content to do that—after I’d gotten as much information out of Devlin as I could. That had always been on my agenda. Find out what Devlin knows. Glean the dirt, thesecrets, the blackmail. Whatever I could use. It had been a good plan, until I’d looked into those green eyes and felt his throat work under my grip. And now…

… no.No.I had to stick to the plan. The plan was solid. Air-tight. Iron-clad.

But as I remembered how his Adam’s apple had bobbed under my palm, my cock kicked in my jeans. This was a big fucking problem. Because Devlin Walsh, of all people, had looked at me in a way no one else had ever looked at me.

All my life, I’d been someone people took from—my loyalty, my strength, my name. Maybe even a good fuck. But Devlin’s eyes promised togive.

Maybe this was another trick to get under my skin, to make me think things I shouldn’t about the man who’d killed my father. Sweat trickled down the back of my neck, and goosebumps rose on my arms. I should go in there right now and end him. Just terminate this entire issue.

My face will be the last thing you ever see.

Promise?

The trees lining the creek weren’t dense, so I could still see the back of the shed he was being kept in. The long yard of our property stretched beyond it, ending in the building we all called “Frank.” It was a Frankensteined monstrosity, half house and half dorm, where most of our crew lived when they didn’t have families.

I caught Rhys looking at me out of the corner of his eye. I’d been quiet too long.

“You have thoughts?” I asked.

His posture relaxed, and he turned to lean against a tree trunk. “He’s not what I expected.” Rhys had been the one leading the crew that grabbed Devlin from his grubby motel room.

“Understatement.” I took another drag from my cigarette. “Can’t decide if he’s playing games, or if he’s right where I want him.”

“Games?” Rhys’s eyebrow quirked.

I thought about how much to tell him. I didn’t keep secrets from Rhys, and he knew me better than anyone, but something about that interaction with Devlin made my tongue lock up. I needed to think. Alone. I knew Rhys wanted answers—despite being my best friend, he still expected things from me. Just like everyone else.

I dropped my cigarette butt in the dried grass and ground it out with the heel of my boot. “Hack and Mads are on Devil duty. Those two, and those two only. They go into that shed to feed him and empty his bucket. Switch his cuffs to the front so he can piss. And I don’t want them saying a single word to him. No eye contact. Nothing. He’ll try to bait them, but they have to ignore it.”

Rhys’s dark eyebrows rose higher the more I talked. Maybe it was because I didn’t usually string that many words together, or maybe because my instructions were a little fucking weird. Devlin Walsh wanted attention more than anything, and I was going to withhold it for as long as possible.

Then I blurted out a sentence I hadn’t expected to say, but the words rolled unbidden off my tongue.

“Keep the light on. I don’t want him in the dark.”

I told myself it was part of the torture, but I knew the real reason.

Rhys flinched at the command and he opened his mouth, probably to ask a question I didn’t want to entertain, so I cut him off. “And for the love of God, do not let J?—”

A door slammed from across the yard, and both of us turned to see a figure stalking away from Frank. Rhys and I were bothmoving as soon as the familiar man with dirty blond hair broke into a sprint, the knife in his hand glinting in the afternoon sun.

“Shit.” I broke into a run, and Rhys quickly fell into stride beside me. “Cut him off!”