Beneath the Dust (Force of Nature #4) - Amber Lynn Natusch Page 0,55
appeared so subtle to me before, it now seemed like a battering ram trying to bash its way to the answers he sought.
Blood trickled out of Liam’s nose, and I wondered if Merc was slowly killing him.
“He has to stop,” I said quietly. None of the others seemed fazed by my words. “He’s killing him! Merc, please.”
“I have not seen what I wish to see yet,” the vampire king replied, his voice as cold and distant as it had been the day he’d tried to kill me.
Laughter broke out in the adjacent cell, reminding me of Kingston’s presence.
“Careful, Piper, careful…” he warned.
“Merc, you have to stop now!” I rested my hand on his shoulder, as he so often did mine, and drew him away. Dark, narrowed eyes looked back at me as if I were a stranger. Then suddenly, they shot wide, exposing their stunning grey color.
“Forgive me, Piper,” he said, taking a step back. I tried not to notice how Knox had positioned himself between the vampire king and me. “I find no treachery in him.”
“That’s what I thought,” I replied.
Knox let out a sharp exhale, then walked over to Liam. “You have to understand why I did this,” he said by way of apology. To Liam’s credit, he nodded and reached his hand out to Knox.
“Were I you, I would have done the same.”
Knox took it, then pulled him into a half-hug. “I never wanted things to be this way…”
“I see that now,” was Liam’s only response.
“There’s still the matter of the fey king’s eyes on this side of the veil,” Merc said, breaking the silence in the cell.
“And the fey queen wanting Piper dead,” Kingston yelled from his prison. “Don’t forget that…”
“Explain to me again why I can’t just kill him,” Dean said, fists clenched at his sides, “because every time he opens his mouth, I just want to yank his heart out through it.”
“I’m afraid that’s not anatomically possible,” Kingston said, baiting the enforcer from the safety of his cell. He knew we couldn’t let Dean kill him, and that fact made him bold.
Maybe we couldn’t let him die, but I was totally down for watching him get his ass kicked. Again.
“Keep messing with him and I’ll let him prove you wrong,” I shouted.
Heavy silence was his only response.
“Thanks P,” Dean said, fist-bumping me.
“Any time.”
“The fey king…” Merc said again, his patience waning.
“Right. Sorry,” I mumbled. Then I looked to Jagger. “Hey Jags…do you think Mack might not have learned his lesson the last time we paid him a visit?”
“Mack never learns,” he said, worry furrowing his brow. “Never.”
“His involvement would go against the temporary truce,” Merc pointed out.
Jagger shook his head. “Mack has no honor. If the fey king came to him about Piper, he’d cave in a heartbeat. I guarantee it.”
Merc’s gaze drifted to Knox. “Do you agree with his assessment?”
“Jagger knows him better than I do, but if he says that’s how it is, then that’s how it is. I’d bet my life on it.”
“Nobody’s making bets without letting me in on the action.”
Kat’s voice drifted down the hall before she made her grand entrance. Gone was the silken beauty of her evening dress, replaced by leather and denim and an expression that said she needed an outlet for her growing rage. The bear was nowhere to be found.
Kat looked at all of us crammed into Liam’s cell and then at the healing wounds on his face.
“Looks like I missed the real party tonight…”
“He didn’t have anything to do with it, Kat,” I said, stepping in front of her. “The fey king came for me. Jags thinks Mack is likely involved.”
“Which is exactly what I’m going to go find out,” Knox said, pushing past everyone to get out.
“You can’t go alone!” I yelled after him. “Maybe he’s expecting that.”
“Piper is right,” Merc agreed. “It’s a fool’s errand.”
Knox halted in the doorway, gripping the metal bars like he was about to bend them in half.
“I’m never alone—that’s what it means to have a pack,” he replied. Then a look of mischief flashed in his eyes. “Are you offering your services, your highness?”
Merc glanced to me, then back to the alpha. Power crackled through the room.
“If it means destroying the one responsible for this attack and the deaths of so many of my kind, then yes. I am.”
“Then let’s get going,” Knox said, stepping into the hall. “The night is still young. Might as well add another dropped body to the tally.”