Chapter 15 Shep #2
Don’t let him get to you. Don’t let him get to you, I played on repeat in my mind. Because if there was one thing I knew about East, it was that he got off on riling his rivals, and I wasn’t about to give this little shit any satisfaction.
Instead, I employed every ounce of control I had, cocked my head, and measured him with a much cooler eye than he could ever hope to possess.
“Interesting point of view coming from someone who is friends with two actual brothers—by marriage—who are fucking. Tell me, do you voice your disapproval around them too, or is this merely a pathetic ploy to get under my skin?”
East snorted. “Please, I don’t want to have anything to do with your skin.”
“Yet you’re still currently close enough to make it crawl.” I brushed by him and headed over to the bar I knew King kept fully stocked in the mid-century bureau by the wall. I needed something to drink, and I didn’t give a fuck it wasn’t even noon.
“Sure,” East drawled. “Help yourself.”
After putting the glass stopper back in the decanter, I turned to see him eyeing me from where I’d left him standing on the other side of the room, and for the first time since King had hooked up with him, I allowed myself a second to really look at East.
I guessed he was handsome, if you didn’t know him in any way.
He definitely knew how to dress. Loafers that looked reptilian in nature, light-colored slacks that fit him to perfection, and the silk shirt that flowed around him only added to the relaxed way he effortlessly fit into King’s luxurious home.
Bet this little fucker would throw a fit if someone threw noodles at him. The thought made me smile.
“Don’t mind if I do,” I finally said, then took a sip of the whiskey. “Since I bought the decanter set.”
East’s eyes widened, and the fact he didn’t know that made me feel pretty fucking good.
Yeah, swallow that, you pompous little dick.
Like water off a duck’s back, East shrugged the comment away, arrogant enough to recover from the insult with surprising nonchalance. Or maybe he was so used to being handed his ass that it was like any other conversation.
“So let me see if I can piece together what’s going on here,” he said, strolling across the room toward me.
“Prince Psycho in there wanted to talk with King about everything that went down recently, but is too much of a pussy to do it on his own, so he asked his big, strong boyfriend to come protect him.”
The balls on this guy…
My fingers clenched around my glass so tight I was shocked it didn’t shatter in my hand.
“No?” East said when I didn’t immediately respond.
But it wasn’t that I didn’t have a response in mind—it was more that I knew how mad King would be if I killed one of his boyfriends.
“Okay, so maybe it’s that you wanted to come here with Theo to snoop around your old place and see what you were… passed over for. I could see that.”
Okay, that was fucking it.
I threw the glass onto the expensive rug covering King’s wooden floors, then stalked forward until I was toe to toe with East.
“You’re gonna to wanna get out of my face, little prince,” I growled, and the fact he had to angle his head up to meet my stare made a punch of adrenaline rush through me.
“Little, huh? Apparently I’m big enough for your King.”
I could hear the blood rushing around my ears as it boiled to an all-time fury, the red haze clouding my vision so close to exploding I could feel the heat flushing my face.
Then he smirked.
I reached out, grabbed hold of East’s silk shirt, twisted it in my fist, and hauled him forward until our noses all but touched.
“What are you gonna do next, Mr. Winchester? Punch me?”
I wanted to. Christ, I wanted to. But as my name echoed around the vast room I’d once shared with King, I realized what I was doing.
What I was close to doing. I was giving East exactly what he wanted.
He’d riled me up, and I’d be damned if I let this little shit get to me.
Not when there was something and someone far more important than him counting on me in the other room.
With Theo’s face in mind, I let go of East’s shirt and shoved him away from me.
“This isn’t about you or me or even King. It’s about Theo and what he went through.”
East shook his head, disbelief entering his eyes. “Are you really that stupid? Has your dick made you blind—”
“Watch it, kid.”
“—to how torn up King is over this?” East’s brow furrowed, his own concern now slipping past the pompous bravado he’d been exuding from the moment we arrived. “He’s not sleeping, barely eating, and instead of being his second-in-command, you’ve fucked off and decided to pick me over we.”
It was no secret that I didn’t put much stock in anything East had to say, but this time his words drew me up short, and so did his tone.
Libertine was like an extended family of sorts. That was why it worked. We had the utmost faith in one another, trusted each other implicitly. But there was no denying the fractures that had formed over the last month, making it feel as though I’d needed to pick sides—to pick my man over my leader.
East was right, though it pained me to admit it. I’d been so caught up in my new role as lover, boyfriend, and protector that I hadn’t stopped to think about how what had happened was affecting everyone else.
Theo might’ve been my everything, but he was also their brother and King’s responsibility.
He was an integral part of Libertine, losing him would’ve gutted our organization, and the weight of that realization would be weighing most heavily on the one who had, for one second, let his feelings cloud his usually impeccable judgment.
Maybe if I’d taken the time to call King, to talk to him about my changing relationship with Theo, he wouldn’t have made such an impulsive move. One I knew he was still beating himself up over.
Then add to that the discovery at the warehouse and…
Yeah, East was right, goddamn it.
I’d been so caught up in my own world, my own anger, worry, and frustration, that for the first time since joining Libertine, since becoming second-in-command, I had picked me over we, and that wasn’t how a leader acted.
“Just because you aren’t together anymore”—East’s voice floated through the air and brought me back to the present—“doesn’t mean he doesn’t care about you or…miss you, I guess.”
I glanced at where East was doing his best to appear unaffected as he straightened his silk shirt.
“He tell you that?”
East’s eyes met mine and narrowed slightly. “He doesn’t have to. I could feel it. So could Zac. Just because you have someone new in your life, doesn’t mean you have to pull away from the old. He’s your brother, your King, is he not?”
Jesus Christ, it was a sad day when I was getting handed my ass by James fucking Easton.
Seemed that today I was Twiddledum.
“He is. And it’s about time I go find and remind him.”
I started forward, about to go and look for Theo and King, when East stepped into my path.
“Don’t get too friendly,” he said, running his eyes down over me. “I’m being amiable for King’s sake. You get too close to him, I’ll cut off your fucking balls.”
And that, right there, was exactly what King saw in East.
He might’ve been young; he might’ve been a brat. But he was a ballsy motherfucker, and he would fight for his man.
I liked that for King. It made me…happy.
And with that thought in mind, I smirked and leaned down to say by East’s ear, “I’d like to see you try, little prince.”