Chapter Twenty-Seven #2
Toby barks out a sardonic laugh. “Right, like you found someone else? Yeah, no. That’s not how it works, Max.” he rakes his gaze up and down me, and raises his eyebrows accusingly. “What if roles were reversed and I was the one telling you—”
He doesn’t get to finish that sentence. I slam him up against a wall with my hand around his neck, get in his face, and squeeze.
“Unfortunately for you, roles are not reversed. Now, I may enjoy being the nice one out of leadership, but never mistake me for soft. That would be a fatal misconception.” I lean in until we’re nose to nose.
“Find. Someone. Else.” If he doesn’t, and Ember finds out about this, she’ll never forgive me.
She might ignore the deal we made and resume trying to kill me—and I have no doubt that if she tries long enough, she’ll succeed.
Then Cain will make an example out of her, and it’ll be game over.
“No,” Toby hisses, baring his teeth at me. “I made up my mind before I knew Ember’s connection to Alina. I’m not going to change my mind just because I found out Ember knew her for a couple months.”
“Knew her for a couple months?” I scoff. “She spent the last five fucking years going through hell to keep Dagon from Alina!”
Ember might deny the existence of her humanity, but it’s plain to see in the fact that she’s allowed herself to be abused and tortured relentlessly simply to save a half-sister she barely knew, simply because she loves her.
“You don’t understand—”
“I understand that Ember will probably kill you if you go for Alina, and I just might let her. You don’t know what she went through, Tobias, and I hope like fuck you never will—because most of our operatives couldn’t survive that shit and still be somewhat sane.
” I shove him away, satisfaction snaking through me when his head smacks against the hard wall.
“You better change your mind. And if you don’t, watch your fucking back. ”
“Dagon is after her!” Toby roars. “He’s had men trailing Alina for years, and I didn’t fucking see it because I didn’t know to look for it.
She is in danger, Maximus. Dagon is as well-connected as the Nighthawks.
He’s a powerful enemy. I can get his men off her trail, I can ask Greyson or Cain to put protection on her, but it won’t be enough until Dagon’s dead.
And even then, he’ll have failsafes in place to kill her after he’s dead. ”
He’s right—there’s no denying that. I know enough about Dagon to understand that he’s an extremely dangerous enemy, and that we’re going to need to put serious muscle on Alina to protect her. But it can be done—we have some of the best trained fighters in the world.
“I’ve already warned you; I’m not going to do it again. For now, what you’re going to do is send me everything you have on Alina. I will send men to protect her immediately. And, once Dagon’s dead, I’m never going to bother her again. If you get away with interfering, you know what’ll happen.”
I stalk away, casting him a glare as I go.
My next stop is Greyson and Scarlett’s apartment.
Scarlett opens the door with flushed cheeks and a bright smile.
Luci is curled around her neck like a choker; Greg is at her heels, whining for her attention.
As soon as he sees me, he charges forward and knocks into me with enough force to nearly topple me.
I chuckle, sinking to my knees and embracing him, letting him lick my face and rub his fur all over my body.
“Gresyon!” Scarlett calls. “Max is here to see you!”
I arch an eyebrow at her. “Who says I’m not here to see you?”
“The confused and lost look on your face. You need advice about Ember, and I can’t give it to you. But I will say, she thinks you had a thing for me and is blowing it out of proportion. You might want to take care of that.”
Fuck. That is something that needs taking care of. I saw the jealousy on Ember’s face at the gym, but I haven’t done as much as I should to clean up that mess.
Greyson appears beside her, immediately planting a possessive hand on her hip. He looks me over. “What’s going on?”
“Life,” I say. “And other problems. You got a minute?”
“For you? Of course.” He kisses Scarlett’s head and pats her ass. “Breakfast will be up in a few. You good?”
“Mhm,” she hums. “I’ve got Luci.”
Greyson’s expression sours. “The demon that goes for my eyes every time I look at you for too long?”
“Don’t be silly,” she responds. “He’s warming up to you—”
Right on cue, Lucifer launches off of Scarlett’s shoulders and flies at Greyson’s face like a ballistic missile, hissing, spitting, and biting. Greyson stumbles back, trying to throw the cat off him unsuccessfully. Scarlett and I share an amused look.
“Fuck!” Greyson roars. “You fucking—”
“Luci,” Scarlett coos. “Come here, love. Leave Grey alone.”
She gently plucks Lucifer off Greyson, who casts the cat a baleful glare. “Keep coming for me, and I’ll euthanize you.”
“Keep threatening him with that, and I’ll poison you again,” Scarlett says brightly. She turns towards the bedroom. “Have fun, boys.”
Greyson watches her go with a clenched jaw. When the bedroom door clicks shut behind her, he turns to me. “I fucking hate that cat.”
“But you love Scarlett enough to tolerate him.”
He only grunts in response, waving me in. “Are you here to take back your dog? I’m sick of Scarlett’s attention going to animals instead of me.”
He is one possessive fuck. “Yeah, I’ve got him. Can we talk in your office?”
“Sure.” He leads me there, shuts the door behind us, and motions me to the couch. We take seats on opposite ends of it. “What’s going on?” he prompts.
Everything comes tumbling from my mouth at once.
Ember’s deal with Dagon, Toby’s designs on Alina, Cain’s threats to Ember…
the words burst out of me. I’m used to Greyson being the one to come to me for advice, but in this instance, the roles have reversed.
I have absolutely no idea how to move forward, and I need an unbiased opinion.
When I’m done speaking, Greyson clicks his tongue.
“Alright. This is definitely a clusterfuck. I’ll talk to Cain and see if we can veto Toby, but he’ll probably say no.
He wants the Claiming to become a part of regular life here, and denying men their Chosens isn’t a good way to go about that, especially when they have prior history—which gives them a better chance of success.
So, you need to figure out a way to make Ember okay with the probability that Toby’s going to bring Alina here. ”
“How?” I demand. “Her worst nightmare is Dagon hurting her. Having Toby kidnap and hurt her instead won’t be any better, and she’ll have to see it—”
“I don’t think Toby’s going to hurt her.
Not really, and not in any way that doesn’t involve a routine punishment for indiscretions or disobedience.
Scarlett settled here despite everything I did to her; Ember will settle here; Alina will probably settle here.
Toby came to me about his Chosen a couple of months ago, and the way he spoke about her…
” he trails off. “He’s not going to harm her. He’s just going to…”
“Claim her,” I say flatly. “I don’t think that’ll improve anything in Ember’s eyes.”
“She’ll have to learn to live with it.”
“She’ll kill all of us before doing that.”
Greyson arches an eyebrow. “If you can’t contain her, if we can’t contain her, then we deserve to die.”
Greg starts licking my hand, sensing my distress and offering moral support. I’ve missed my furry dude. I need to take him on a nice, long walk to make up for my abandonment.
“We’ve gotta try to get Cain to give us veto power—”
“We can try,” Greyson cuts in, “but you know how he responds to questions on his authority. Not very well.”
That’s the understatement of the century.
“Alright,” I hiss. “I’m not going to say anything to Ember yet. Please see what you can do about getting Cain to fuck off.”
“I’ll do my best,” Greyson agrees, but the look he gives me says it won’t be good enough.