you'll do to me if I betray Dallas. Guess you wouldn't bother lying now."
"No reason to. Especially since this whole thing?" Lex gestured to the girl's rumpled clothes. "It's not a threat to me."
She stiffened, and the emotion that finally broke through her desperate attempt at a stoic mask wasn't offense or anger, but a dark amusement. "That was going to be my argument. I'm not much competition for someone like you."
The words irritated Lex, and she spun away and stalked to the bar. "It's not funny. O'Kane women don't sell out like that. Lesson number one."
Silence greeted the words, stretching long enough for Lex to pour a drink before Six whispered, "I don't have anything else to sell."
"You look able enough." Lex poured a second drink and held it out. "You saying you can't work?"
"I wasn't--" The girl grabbed the glass and drained a double of Dallas's oldest and best whiskey. "I wasn't expecting to stay in his bed. I just needed something to offer now. I needed a trade."
To a man she'd already assumed didn't really want her. "A trade for what?"
She rubbed her thumb over the inside of her wrist, over unmarked skin, as if she could feel the lack of ink there. "Bren said he's leaving tomorrow."
"He is. We're going to Sector Two."
"I wanna go."
It was Lex's turn to smile in dark amusement. "No, you don't. I grew up in Two. You want to stay your ass right here."
Six stared into her empty glass. "I'm not an O'Kane. I'm not saying that to be a smartass, like I don't have to try'n follow your rules. It's just the truth. You might be safer here, but I don't know if I am. Not without..."
"Without Dallas around." Lex plucked the glass from Six's hand and refilled it. "Or is it Bren?"
That put her on the defensive. She muttered a curse and glared at the floor. "He's the one vouching for me, isn't he?"
"Don't be so touchy. I have a right to ask, especially if you think Bren's the one protecting you."
"Isn't he? None of the other guys have fucked around with me."
It made sense for the girl to assume that was Bren's influence instead of standard operating procedure on the O'Kane compound. "Is that what things were like with Trent in Three?"
This time Six sipped the whiskey slowly. "If you weren't his piece of ass, you were anyone's toy," she said finally. "Bren's not the leader, but I see how the guys watch him."
Reassurances were just words, and words meant jack shit. Lex drained her own glass. "Jasper'll be handling things while Dallas is gone. If you're not comfortable going to him and Noelle if you have any problems, then stick close to Rachel. Anyone tries to mess with you, she'll bite his dick off. Good enough?"
Six looked up. "When Dallas brought you in to talk to me after I first got here, I thought he was running some sort of stupid game. That he was an idiot, or took me for one. But he really fucking expected it to work, didn't he? He thought I'd trust you, because all the women trust you."
Lex gave her a slow grin. "Sometimes it takes a while, but yeah."
A flicker of amusement crinkled the corners of Six's eyes before she schooled her features. "You really don't fight over the men? Ever?"
"I didn't say that. People want what they want, even if other people have it." Lex paused to consider her next words. "But we don't lower ourselves. It's beneath you to chase after a man who belongs to someone else."
Six's gaze fixed on Lex's, and she swallowed. "I wasn't chasing him. I just figured--I mean, he's the leader of Four. Even when Trent had a woman, he still took his..." Her lips twisted. "His tax."
"Dallas gets enough ass. He doesn't need to coerce women who don't really want to fuck him."
The younger woman flinched, but didn't try to deny it. She didn't say anything until she'd finished her second drink and offered the glass back to Lex. "I don't get the rules here, and I don't think Bren can teach me the ones I need to know. Can Rachel?"
The truth was stark and uncomfortable. "You'll probably have to pick them up as you go along. But Rachel can get you started."
"All right." She hesitated. "What about Bren? Do you think--?"
Before she could finish her question, the doorknob rattled and Six's teeth clacked together. Dallas pushed open the door, his frown melting