When He's Sinful (The Olympus Pride 3)

Camden said nothing. He waited for Julius to do as Esme had always done and try to dominate the conversation. Julius didn’t disappoint.

“It’s like sitting across from that fucker,” said Julius, no inflection in his voice. As if “fucker” wasn’t so much an insult as the word Julius had grown accustomed to using when referring to Dirk. “You have Esme’s eyes, though.”

Camden still said nothing, knowing there’d be no sense in questioning Julius straight off the bat. The more interested Camden seemed in what Julius had to say, the longer the male would take to spit it all out.

Julius’s eyes dropped to the claiming bite. “Mated, huh? I guess you claimed that curvy brunette with the tight ass. Good choice. You didn’t bring her to meet me?” Julius tutted. “That’s not nice. She should get to know your family, right? You don’t have much of that left.” It was a taunt, pure and simple. Julius’s smirk faltered when Camden failed to react. “Not very talkative, are you? Anyone would think you weren’t pleased to see me, your own uncle.”

For a brief moment, Camden deliberately looked past Julius to the wall behind him, as if bored.

Julius’s eyes narrowed. “If you’re not going to speak, I’d have to wonder why you came here at all. I suppose you’re eager to get back to that hot piece of ass you’ve mated. I would be, too. She’s got an impressive rack. No man would be able to look at those tits without imagining how it feels to slide his dick between them. Am I right?”

Knowing he’d need to call Julius’s bluff, Camden turned to Vinnie with a sigh. “I told you he’d just sit here and spurt out stupid shit.” He pushed to his feet. “I gave you the minute you asked for. Now I’m leaving. Do what you want with him.”

“I’ve been watching you for some time, nephew,” Julius blurted out.

Camden didn’t react. He simply headed for the door.

“I’ve seen things happen around you that you yourself didn’t see.”

His hand on the doorknob, Camden half-turned toward Julius, ensuring he still looked bored. “Is that so?”

Julius twisted his mouth. “I have an … associate in your old pride. They told me how someone vandalized that fucker’s grave. At first, I thought it was you. I thought if anyone would hate him enough to do that, it’d be you. He imprisoned your mama. He murdered her by killing himself. He left you all alone. That shit can cut deep. So, curious as I am, I looked you up. I figured something must have happened to set you off. But your life seemed good. Stable. You didn’t seem stuck in the past, dwelling on old shit.

“I wouldn’t have given any of it another thought if something hadn’t later been sprayed on my sister’s grave.” Julius’s tongue darted out to touch his lower lip. “My associate in the Crescent pride. They told me I was a suspect. Well I knew it wasn’t me, so I decided to take a closer look at you. And then I noticed something interesting. Very interesting.” He paused. “I wasn’t the only one watching you.”

Camden fully faced him and leaned back against the door, but he didn’t ask Julius to elaborate. He already knew the man would draw this out and drip feed him information.

“Yes, we know about Wayland,” said Vinnie. “You’re not telling us anything we don’t already know.”

Julius didn’t even acknowledge that the pallas cat had spoken. He kept his gaze locked on Camden as he went on, “I know hate. I don’t feel much, but I’ve felt hate. He feels it for you. I could smell it on him. He wore it like cologne. And I got to wondering if he’d graffitied the graves, thinking it’d wound you. So I watched him watch you. He sometimes sensed it; almost spotted me a few times. The thing is, though, no one sees a tiger if they don’t want to be seen. He’d then shrug it off, as if figuring he was being paranoid. Anyways, I learned a few things.”

“Like what?” asked Vinnie.

Julius still didn’t move his eyes from Camden. “Like he has a little helper.” He flicked his head slightly to the side when Camden gave no reaction. “Either you already suspected as much, or you’re just real good at only letting people see what you want them to see.”

It was neither, actually. Camden simply wasn’t entirely certain he believed his uncle. The bastard liked to play games, after all. And it was possible he was aiming to strike a deal to make the pride release him—his freedom in exchange for info they’d want.

“The two often met up and talked in whispers,” Julius added. “I’ve been close enough to hear what they said a few times. Seemed like there was some sort of blackmail scheme going on. The helper was always complaining that they’d ‘done enough.’ From what I overheard, they’re guilty of a number of things.”