12. Threx Worst-Case Scenario #3
Holy shit.
Wolfe was shifting the hit to Lyla’s head. Going public so they’d know what she looked like.
I blinked.
“What?” Wolfe asked, reading my face. “You got a better idea?”
“Daphne agreed to your little side-fuck deal to keep her safe,” I ground out.
“I can try to talk to Karsten. See what he wants more than revenge.”
Bile spilled into my mouth.
“What in the hell? Wolfe, do you hear yourself?” I laughed, grinding the cigarette out on my forearm.
“Talk to Karsten? We’ve been running shit for Marianne for years, and what will you say?
Hey, sorry we stole back our guns and shot your son, but it’d be cool if you let my queen live? He’ll shoot you in the fucking head.”
“Then come up with a better plan!” Wolfe snapped, throwing his hands in the air. “Reapers won’t take it. Too political. Marianne is hiding, and I’m not going to Cross. He’ll ask for all your souls, and then what was the point of all this?”
The point? There was no fucking point. We were fate’s side joke. The black spot. What happens when broken humans fuck and don’t give a shit!
“If we play hacker and remove the hit from the list, he will shift intel inside, and it’ll be more than Lyla he’s after. That would mean total lockdown, and we’d be on the run.”
I gulped, shaking my head. Don’t get me wrong, I was no hero, and as long as Daphne was safe, my pancakes would go down just fine. But I couldn’t wrap my mind around a world where he could do this to Lyla. I could do it. But him?
There was a slow creak as my door flew open in the middle of the night. Daphne slept in my arms, her bare shoulders pressed against my chest.
“What is it? Everything okay?” I asked, trying to figure out why Wolfe was standing there, staring at us.
I’d gotten really good at busting through his walls as of late, and man, if you think I’m fucked up, this nepo prince of the Underworld doesn’t let anyone in long enough to matter. Not that I did either. But Daphne made me feel human most days.
“Wolfe?” I asked again, and he didn’t answer. He just stood there, as if he needed something and didn’t know how to take it.
“Everything okay?” Daphne murmured, lifting her face from my arm. She caught Wolfe’s shape by the door. He did not speak, only shifted. “Oh,” she yawned, understanding something I didn’t.
“Wolfe?” I growled, but Daph shook her head, scooting me against the wall with her ass.
“Come on.” She patted the mattress, and he flicked his eyes toward me.
What the fuck was happening?
“Daphne?” I shot her a look, but she gestured again, and Wolfe stepped forward.
What did she expect us to do, snuggle?
I didn’t move when he slid under the covers, and she leaned in, pressing a kiss to his lips. A fever hit my core, shoving heat into my fists. Kissing was a point of contention. It was one thing that he took her body, but another to have her mouth.
“It is okay,” she spoke into the darkness, stroking his cheek.
Sensing my discomfort, Daphne rolled to face me, holding my head to her chest, letting Wolfe nestle in behind her as if we both belonged there.
And maybe to her, we did.
Wolfe didn’t know how to say he was fucked up. Or how to quell the rage that life had given him. And because Daphne had spent a lifetime reading between the lines, he didn’t have to. He needed her, and she knew it.
“Look at me,” Wolfe snapped my attention forward.
“I’ll try my best to keep Lyla alive. But right now, our key priority is getting Daph on that plane to Maine.
That picture is shit. No database is pulling a face from it, and once Lyla goes public, there’s no reason for them to suspect her.
We’ll let Karsten think he’s won and keep the contract active until we can move the pieces on the board and find leverage. What time is it?”
“Nearly two,” I answered coolly, searching the starless sky for I don’t know what.
The problem with Wolfe’s plan was that I didn’t give a shit about the club. Sure, I loved these guys, but I loved Daphne more. That was final. Absolute. So, whether this ended with Wolfe’s plan or me with my hands around Karsten’s throat, I didn’t care who, or what, or how. I only cared about her.
“Look, Threx, worst-case scenario, this blows up, and we call war.”
“Really, Wolfe?” I gestured for Nathem when Rinley showed up with the rest of the scrapers to make this night disappear, then stalked toward the car. “You think that’s the worst thing that could happen?”
He swallowed.
Of all the men I knew, Wolfe understood that being dead was nowhere near as painful as wishing you were.
The silence spread between us, but I refused to let it linger. Daphne was about to get everything she’d ever wanted, and somewhere deep inside me, I knew we would burn. Because I was done fighting to be the man she needed if the monster kept her alive.
“Let’s go,” Wolfe said, rolling down the window. “We need to get to the airport because the only way this plan works is if Daphne gets on the damn plane. And you and I both know that is not happening without you.”