“Guess we’ll see, won’t we?” Cohen pushes to his feet. “If that’s all, we got shit to do.”
“Yeah, that’s everything. Watch your backs.”
“Always do.” He moves to the door and is gone, quickly followed by the others, until only Broderick remains. He obviously has something to say, so I sit there and wait for him to work up to it.
He doesn’t make me wait long. Broderick drags his hand over his close-cropped dark hair. “We might have bit off more than we can chew with this.”
“Monroe is just one woman.” A very dangerous, very volatile woman.
He snorts. “Yeah, no shit. But we don’t just have Monroe. We have Fallon and Jasper and Matteo. Winry seems sweet as hell, but she’s still an Amazon. I can’t get a read on Mabel, despite the information we have on her, but the bodyguard worries me.”
“Donovan says he has it under control.”
“Uh-huh.”
I curse. “Look, this was the only way. We’ve gone over this.” Probably thousands of times at this point. “The Amazons and Mystics broke the peace. They gave people and resources to ensure the Paine family name disappeared off the face of the earth. If we tried to take back the faction without doing something to ensure their good behavior, they’d crush us just to get us out of the way. Having their people as Brides mean we can’t move overtly against them right now, either, but we planned on that.”
“I am aware of that.”
I push to my feet. “We make it work, Broderick. We’re committed. We have to see this through.” Our very survival depends on it.
“I know. Fuck, I know.” He joins me on his feet. “You should see the way she looks at Shiloh, Abel. Like a tiger who’s got their eye on a nice, juicy steak.”
“Shiloh can take care of herself.” That’s not what this is about, though. He knows that Shiloh is likely a match for Monroe—or he’d know it if his heart wasn’t all tangled up over her. It’s one of those unspoken things, though. He won’t thank me for calling him on it, but I can’t risk him being distracted when we need him most. “Just move on Shiloh like you’ve been wanting to do for years, and it’ll be a nonissue.”
His mouth goes flat. “If we’re going to start handing out advice, maybe you want to talk about what the fuck you’re doing with Eli? Kill him, or fuck him, but if you flaunt fucking his woman under his nose long enough, he’s going to come for your throat.”
I know. I plan on it. “Let me worry about Eli.”
“Then let me worry about Shiloh.”
He has me there. I hold up my hands. “It was just some friendly advice.”
“Worry about yourself, asshole.” He turns for the door. “I’ll keep the compound locked down while you’re out today. If Harlow can really get supplies and shit lined up, I’ll need to talk to her soon to get that ironed out.”
A strange possessive urge rises in me, a desire to keep Harlow away from everyone. I give myself a mental shake. It doesn’t make any sense to secret her away, no matter how much I enjoy her pussy. She’s an asset—a valuable one at that. Locking her away makes me no better than that fool Eli. I’m not a good man, but I’m sure as fuck smart enough to give Harlow a little lead and see what she’ll do. “I’ll send her your way tomorrow.”
“Good.”
My next stop is Eli. I wait outside his door for several long moments, steadying myself. Dealing with him means icing him out, not giving him anything to use against me. It means wrapping my rage in chains and shoving it down deep. There will be plenty of time to torment him later; right now I need him to do what I want.
I walk through the door without knocking. Eli is lying on the bed, his arms propped behind his head, staring at the ceiling. He’s wearing a pair of low-slung jeans, his glasses, a pendant—and nothing else. His torso is more developed than when I saw him last, muscles clearly defined, and it’s also covered in an assortment of mottled bruises. He doesn’t look over as I close the door behind me. “Finished with Harlow?” There’s no bitterness in his tone. He sounds perfectly detached, as if he doesn’t care one way or another.
He always was a little fucking liar.
I cross my arms over my chest and lean against the door. “I’m not going to be finished with her anytime soon. You let her slip through your fingers, and she’s mine now.”
“Is she?” He still doesn’t look at me, doesn’t change his tone at all. “That might be what you believe, but I wonder if it’s true.”
I slap my responsive anger down. Thirty seconds, and he’s already digging around under my skin. Eli’s been off his stride since he lost that match yesterday, but apparently he’s taken the time to find it again. Unfortunate. He’s a hell of a lot less dangerous when he’s reeling and all fucked in the head. I’ll have to be extra careful with him going forward. “You going to play nice, or we going to have to do this the hard way again?”