26
SEVEN
Unfortunately, we weren’t stationed in the Menagerie for our next shift and to avoid unwanted attention, we had to report to where we were scheduled.
Needless to say, neither of us was happy about it.
G wanted to skip breakfast to maximize our time with Emersyn, but I’d told him that was stupid.
We needed to keep up our strength and assume a low profile.
As we walked to the mess hall, I thought back over the night.
I deserved an award for the amount of restraint I showed.
Truly. We’d known she’d most likely be attacked, but seeing it come to pass was enough to snap my already frayed bit of control.
I’d had to stop myself from almost killing one of them, and we were hopefully about to find out who—I really hoped it was Marcello.
This undercover gig was a lot harder than I expected, simply because we couldn’t attach ourselves to Emersyn and ghost her every move.
I didn’t like this hot and cold aspect with someone I was supposed to protect, and now that I’d seen her—touched her—it was like she was a magnet.
I rubbed my chest where that invisible tension attempted to pull us back together.
“What’s wrong with you?” G grumbled.
“I don’t like leaving her alone,” I muttered. “So many things could happen if we’re not there.”
G grunted in response. He was in a foul mood this morning, but since I wasn’t exactly faring any better, I didn’t say anything.
Neither of us wanted to think about what could be going on when we weren’t there to protect her, but we also couldn’t risk drawing unwanted attention.
I sighed—Rune needed to hurry the fuck up.
We pushed our way through the doors into the large mess hall.
I thought it looked like something out of a Viking movie, with long communal wood tables and a massive stone fireplace.
Electric lanterns hung on the walls next to woven tapestries of forests and medieval hunts.
The only thing that broke up the age-old ambiance was the glint of a stainless steel industrial kitchen visible through a wall of paned glass on one side of the room.
I couldn’t care less about the aesthetic though. My attention immediately went across the room where Marcello sat next to Angel and sure enough, Marcello looked beat to shit. He had bruises along his jaw, a black eye and a swollen split lip.
“Will you look at that,” I mused.
Suddenly, G moved from my side.
“Fuck, G, wait—” I don’t know why I bothered. He was gone across the room before I could intervene. When he got to the table, G grabbed Marcello by the back of the neck and slammed his face into the wood.
Oh hell. I sighed and settled at G’s back where I sent a few pointed looks to some of the men who looked like they were thinking about getting involved.
“What the fuck?” Marcello exclaimed.
Angel rose from his seat. “Whoa, Griffin, what’s this about?”
I studied Angel’s face. It was free of any injuries. There was a cool, calculated caution in his eyes as he regarded the scene, but he didn’t appear concerned. Marcello struggled against G who ignored Angel entirely and leaned down closer to Marcello’s ear.
“Don’t fucking touch her again,” he snarled.
“She needed to be disciplined,” Marcello ground out from behind clenched teeth.
I bristled at that, because what the actual fuck—
“I don’t care. Don’t touch her again.”
“Mahoney said we could have anyone in the Menagerie on our time off—” G shoved Marcello into the wood again, and cut off the last of his words.
“I don’t give a fuck what Mahoney said,” G growled. “This will be your only warning.”
G looked up at Angel and I watched them lock eyes. G noticed what I had—Angel wasn’t involved. G shoved off Marcello and stepped back. Marcello lunged up and went to go after G, but Angel stepped into his path and grabbed his arm.
“Enough,” he said, quietly. “Not here.”
“And tell whoever was with you the same applies to them,” G said.
“Fuck you,” Marcello spat. “You’re going to regret this.”
“Doubtful,” I said.
“You two should go now,” Angel said, his voice firm, all traces of his usual suave manner gone.
I herded G from the room and toward our next post. Once we were far enough down the corridor, I shook my head.
“You just had to provoke him.”
G ignored my comment. “We need to know who the other guard is.”
“We could have done that without painting a target on our backs,” I said dryly. “You know we’re doing this whole thing called undercover. Not sure if you know what that is—but one of the main things is we don’t draw attention to ourselves.”
G wasn’t amused. Usually he found me at least slightly funny.
I sighed. “Why do I have the feeling this is going to end up being a hot extraction,” I muttered.
“I’m going to kill him,” G said.
I perked up. “Want to bet on who gets him first?”
G scowled. “Not everything has to be a competition.”
Wow, okay. He really was in a terrible mood.
I sniffed. “That’s a cute way of saying you’re worried you’re going to lose.”
“Fuck off, Seven,” he grumbled.
I chuckled, not deterred in the least. “What do you make of Angel? He seems rather…neutral, don’t you think?”
“He hasn’t stared at Emersyn once,” G agreed, begrudgingly contributing to the change of subject like I’d hoped he would. “In fact, he’s stared more at you than he has at her.”
“You think?”
“Oh yeah.”
“Interesting,” I chuckled. “Maybe I should test the waters. I haven’t been on that side of the pool in a hot minute—”
I was suddenly slammed into the wall by G who had his fists in my shirt and a murderous expression on his face.
“Don’t you fucking dare,” he snarled. “That’s the enemy.”
Well, this was new. I smirked and carefully peeled his fingers off my clothes.
“Exactly. I might be able to get us some intel.”
“I said no.”
I tilted my head at him, and narrowed my eyes suspiciously. “What’s wrong with you today? You’ve never been like this with my other conquests.”
G’s jaw tightened and he abruptly turned and continued down the hallway. I jogged and caught up to him.
“Including that time I had to make out with that kingpin’s son in the coat closet of that gala—”
“Just drop it, Sev.”
“You were okay with that,” I scoffed. “Don’t see why this is different. Well, besides the fact that Angel is way hotter.”
“I swear to God, I will fucking shoot you.”
I laughed and saw his lips finally twitch in that way I knew was him attempting to hide his amusement. His scowl was a bit lighter now too. Mission accomplished.
“Fine, fine. But, jealousy looks really good on you, G,” I teased.
He responded with his middle finger and I grinned the rest of the way to our next assignment.