A Worthy Opponent (Wicked Villains 3)

I twist in the seat to look at him. “It’s a bad idea to love me.”

“Maybe.” He shrugs a single shoulder. “But I don’t think so.”

I want to shake him. How can he sit there, so at peace with the emotions that have to be raging inside him? How can he possibly be okay with loving me? With cutting himself open for a woman who might walk away the first chance she gets? “What if I leave you and then you’ve shown your entire ass to your territory? It will weaken your position to make a fool of yourself over a woman, even one you married. Your enemies will use it against you. People could die, Hook. What the hell are you thinking?”

“You know what I’m thinking.”

His arrogance leaves me breathless. “You can’t possibly be that sure of me. I’m not even that sure of myself.”

He shrugs again. “Time will tell. We have larger things to worry about now.”

That’s the damn truth. Larger things like Hades.

And Peter.

Chapter 20

Hook

With every step into the Underworld, Tink’s tension rises. With every step, I become more fluid, more relaxed. It’s easier to respond to a threat when you’re not locked in place; a lesson I learned the hard way from my old man a very long time ago.

Meg meets us in the bar. I didn’t know what to expect when she called Tink here and had my wife require my presence as well. Pride, maybe. The kind of arrogance I have in spades. None of it is in evidence. Meg looks tired. Really fucking tired.

She glances at me and zeroes in on Tink. “I’m sorry.”

“Why are you sorry?” Tink shifts closer to me. I don’t think she realizes she’s made the move.

Meg sure as shit notices and narrows her eyes. But instead of commenting, she responds to Tink’s question. “Our security was bypassed. They wouldn’t have been able to do any damage on the upper floors, but we’d put all your packed possessions in the storage room off the garage.”

Understanding hits me. The shit we intended to pick up this week. All of Tink’s shit, aside from the stuff she has stashed at our place. I press my hand to the small of her back, the only support I’m sure she’ll allow. “How bad?”

“They destroyed everything.” Fury and sorrow comes off Meg in waves. Her hands clench and unclench, and she holds herself just as still as Tink does; as if she wants to offer comfort but knows it won’t be accepted. “I’m so sorry. We’re working on finding the responsible party, but—”

“There’s no need.” Tink takes a shuddering breath. She’s shutting down, tucking herself behind her massive walls, piece by piece, until there’s nothing left but a curious blankness I still sometimes see in my nightmares. She hasn’t worn this expression since she was still trapped under Peter’s thumb. “It was Peter.”

“You can’t know that.”

“I do know that, Meg.” A thread of anger in her voice, but she shuts it down immediately. “He’ll come at me in any way he’s able to. Since I haven’t been available as a target, he went after something that matters to me.”

I stroke my hand up her back. I can’t help it. She’s shuddering the tiniest bit, the only indication of how deep this cut goes. “We’ll replace it.”

“Don’t be absurd. That’s five years’ worth of investment. Not to mention the commissions I’m going to lose because of the works in progress lost.” She shakes her head. “No, this is a blow I won’t recover from.”

Meg glances at me. “It happened on Underworld property. We failed to protect it, so we will replace it.”

“Some of those fabrics were custom dyed. It’s impossible.”

“Tink.” I put enough snap in my voice that she finally looks at me. The emptiness in her eyes scares me more than anything to date. It’s exactly how she looked at me when I desperately offered her an escape. I keep my tone abrasive. “Stop being such a fucking martyr and accept help that’s being offered. This is important to you. We want to help, so let us help.”

“It’s my problem.”

Meg makes a sound perilously close to a snarl, but I’m already talking. “That’s bullshit and you know it. We’re married, remember? What’s yours is mine, baby, and that means he stole from me, too. That can’t stand, so sit down, shut up, and make a list of what you need to fix it.”

Anger flickers across her face, shattering the numbness into a thousand pieces. “Fuck off.”

“Get off your ass and make me.”

“Children,” Meg murmured.

I hold up a hand without looking at her, keeping my focus on Tink. “Don’t test me, Tink. I’ll have you on your knees and choking on my cock before you can finish the next sentence.”

She presses a single finger to the center of my chest. “Try it and see what happens.” She bares her teeth at me. “I’m a biter when I’m riled.”