Beast takes half a step in front of my chair. “It’s none of your business.”
Hook whistles under his breath. “Good luck with that.”
“You made it my business when you sent out an invite to bring me here—an invite, I might add, that sounded a whole lot like a command.” Tink crosses her arms under her breasts. “I talk to Isabelle alone or I walk—and I will be walking right to Meg and letting her know that this fuckery is taking place in her and Hades’s territory. Your choice.”
I fully expect the men to fight her on this. Neither of them takes orders well from anyone other than my father, and Tink’s married to the leader of an entirely different territory. But Beast finally steps back and Gaeton brushes a light hand across my hair. “Tell her whatever she wants to know, Isabelle.”
I twist to look at him. I truly do not understand the power dynamics in the room right now. “What? Why?”
“Because she’s a friend.” He gives a smile that’s almost a grimace. “And she doesn’t bluff.”
Their friend.
Maybe it’s true, but there’s a lot more in the way of undertones here that I don’t understand. Or maybe I simply never stopped to think about what Gaeton and Beast would look like as friends with other people. They socialized with the people that work under them, but that always felt almost like an obligation. Both men keep others at a distance as a matter of course. The fact that this woman is here, is close enough to demand answers without them seeing it as a threat or digging in their heels …
Every new revelation about these two drives home the truth; I really don’t know them as well as I thought I did.
Tink looks around and nods at the door to the bedroom. “In there. Now.” Another cross look at the rest of the room. “Keep an eye on these two, Hook.”
I follow slowly, clutching the robe to keep from flashing her. I’ve been alone with this woman many times in the past, but it feels a little like locking myself in with a tiger as I shut the door behind me.
She frowns at me and lowers her voice. “Look, I know better than anyone how the rumor mill churns in this city, but if you need me to get you out, I will.”
I blink. “Why would you do that? You’re their friend.”
“No shit I’m their friend, and sometimes that means taking a hard line when they’re fucking up.” She hesitates, but finally props her hands on her hips. “I would like to believe that neither of those guys would keep you here if you didn’t want to be, but Beast and Gaeton are fucked in the head when it comes to you, and the Man in Black dying has fucked them up worse. So as much as I’d like to say that they’d never do something so unforgivable, I can’t guarantee it, which is why we’re having this conversation.” She crosses to me and flicks open the robe a little. “So I’ll ask you again and I want an honest answer; are those bruises consensual or do I need to get you out?”
I look down. My body aches from everything we did yesterday, and I barely noticed the bruises. I flush with something like shame, though there’s a level of possessive pride in there. I earned these marks. I meet and hold her green eyes. “It’s none of your business, but I’m willing to give you an answer because I appreciate your offer, unnecessary as it is. The marks are consensual. I’m here because I want to be. If I wanted to walk out that door, they wouldn’t be able to stop me.”
She searches my face for a long time and finally exhales in a rush. “Thank fuck. I hoped they wouldn’t drop into the deep end like that, but grief does weird shit to people and I couldn’t be sure.” She starts to sit on the bed and changes her mind halfway through. “I don’t need any details you’re not comfortable sharing, but I’d like some.”
Most of it is common enough knowledge at this point. Beyond that, it’s not a bad idea to have this woman in my corner. “They left after my father died.” I wrestle down the grief pushing at the inside of my skin, just waiting to spill messily over everything. “Ursa is testing our boundaries, and we need them back.”
“Uh-huh.” Tink is still studying me. “And none of you three got over that mess from a year ago.”
“And none of the three of us got over that, either,” I confirm. It’s difficult to keep my expression locked down. “We agreed on two weeks. It’ll all be figured out by then.”
Tink raises her brows. “Sure it will.” She presses perfect red-painted lips together. “Okay, fine, I won’t hustle you out of here. You know why they called me?”