you. Answer your damn phone when you’re going to be out for so long.”
I just stare at him as he stands up from one of the chairs at the dining table, casting those ebon eyes of his over me and then flicking them up to glare at Aaron when he comes in behind me.
“You’re right,” Aaron says, somewhat breathless, but resolute as he returns his leader’s stare. “We should’ve called and let you know we were going to be out longer than expected.” Vic taps his nails on the surface of the table and looks away, but not like he’s giving in, more like he needs a minute to trap some of that wild violence in his eyes.
“You’ve worked out your differences?” Vic asks, glancing back at me. He’s wearing dark purple cargo shorts and a loose white tank. The holes on the arms are so big, I can see his gorgeous chest and abs underneath. My body throbs in response, and I exhale sharply.
“By that, you mean, did you two fuck?” I ask, moving around the couches and coming to stand as close to Victor Channing as I dare. He looks down at me, and it doesn’t take a mind reader to tell that he’s absolutely furious. Sharing me with Hael is one thing, but Aaron? Aaron is a threat in Vic’s eyes. He had to know it would come to this, right? I couldn’t just step into Havoc and not come to some sort of understanding with my ex. He took a bullet for me. I won’t soon forget that. “The answer, by the way, is that yes, we did.”
Vic says nothing, but the shape his mouth makes when he frowns scares me a little bit.
“Why?”
Of all the questions Victor could’ve asked, that’s the one that trips me up the most. Why? Why?
“I … don’t know,” I say, because I don’t. Glancing over at Aaron, I can see that he isn’t sure either. Are we back together? If we are, how do things work with Vic? I chew at my lower lip for a moment. “That’s what the sex was about, testing our limits.” I lick my lips and taste the sweetness of Aaron’s mouth. If Vic is my poison, Aaron is my antidote. One burns so good that you can’t help injecting yourself, even if you know it’s wrong. The other is violent relief, a desperate soothing balm that feels like old memories and hope.
I’m stuck right in the middle.
“Our girl,” Aaron says, voice low. I glance sharply in his direction and see that his head is tilted down, his eyes focused on Vic. He’s breathing hard, but he’s calm. Almost too calm. “A Havoc Girl. You keep saying she’s yours, and I can’t blame you. I’d like her to be mine, too, but, uh”—Aaron pauses to grab a beer from the fridge, leaning his back against the door after it closes—“that’s not what we agreed on. You’re as bound to Havoc’s price as she is. Or are you above it, Vic?”
Victor just stares at Aaron, devoid of emotion, as impossible to read as always. The thing is, if you want to consume someone, you have to make room in yourself to hold all of that energy. You have to make space. And what happens to that bit of you that you give away? Sometimes it’s eaten by somebody else.
I can feel Victor inside of me—metaphorically speaking, at this moment anyway—and I know him much better than he thinks I do. His dark eyes slide to mine, studying me.
“I can sleep with any Havoc Boy I want,” I say, and there’s a visible ripple in Victor’s demeanor. He stalks toward me, but I’m not afraid. He just doesn’t scare me.
His hand lashes out, fingers curling around my wrist.
Aaron steps forward, teeth bared in warning.
“I keep trying to let her go, Vic, because I betrayed her, so I know I don’t deserve her. But you know what Bernie and I figured out today? I’m not the hero in the cape anymore. If I want her, I’ll have her. You agreed to that, when you slit her palm with that knife.”
“What’s your point, Fadler?” Vic asks, cocking his head to one side. His entire body radiates with rage, but he doesn’t act on it. He told me I needed to master my anger. How can I argue that, seeing as he’s most definitely got an ironclad grip on his own? “Your girl, my girl. I’m taking her into the