Deviant Games (The Controllers #8) - L.V. Lane Page 0,48

questions,” I said.

“Where did you put them?” Woodrow asked, going straight for the fucking kill.

Had it been a mistake to go to Lucian’s base? He’d said he’d deal with her. He wouldn’t keep her there, would he? Although I’d like to see the shit-show unfold if the government tried to muscle into his turf.

“You’re taking too long to answer, Ethan,” Woodrow said, shaking his head slowly. “I’m calling bullshit again. Think very carefully before you say something that’s going to get you court-martialed.”

My mental acumen was shot to shit when all I could think about was the carnage about to descend on my personal life. “I needed leverage,” I bit out. “So you don’t fuck up my life again.” My anger went from simmer to boil in the space of a sentence. “She knew I was fucking there. Bitch set me up to rut her through her heat.”

Woodrow cursed softly.

Victor’s face paled. “Lilly can’t know.”

My anger imploded. I huffed out a breath, sick to my core. “You think I can keep what happened under wraps from your daughter? We’re fucking bonded.” The words were like acid in my throat, a burning, churning rot that settled low in my gut. “She’ll know the moment she sees me. And I didn’t rut Olsen. I put on a show for the monitor, but that was more than enough.”

“You have Larissa Olson on Chimera?” It was Woodrow who caught up on the implications first.

A smile ghosted my lips. “I do. And if either of you tries to separate me from Lilly again, I will slit that bitch’s throat.”

“We needed you, Black,” Victor said, voice stony. “And you can’t leave the most infamous Omega in the known universe rotting somewhere for your personal leverage!”

I stabbed a finger in his direction. “Don’t fucking push me on this. I have to go home to my pregnant mate—your daughter—and explain to her what the fuck went wrong. Don’t—not today. I was so close to killing her. The only thing that stopped me was the belief that Lilly wouldn’t want me to.” My voice lowered to a whisper. “She said Lilly will forgive me. Maybe it was bullshit because she could read how close I was to ending her.”

“We’ll need her location, Ethan,” Woodrow said. “If not today, then soon. And we need to know she’s somewhere secure. Everything you have been through would be wasted if we lost Larissa Olson again.”

I nodded. But I couldn’t do this now. “I need to go home.”

Victor looked on the verge of demanding more, but Woodrow lifted a hand.

“We won’t get any more out of him until he’s seen his mate, Victor. Let him go to Lilly.”

Reluctantly, Victor agreed.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Lucian

THE POOR KID looked terrified. How did this bullshit keep happening to me? I was sick of the sight of Ethan Black. If he showed his ass here again, I’d have the fucker kicked out.

“You’re not going to kick him out.”

I grunted, my eyes narrowing on the source of trouble in my life… who was fucking tiny. “How old are you anyway? Are you even fucking legal?”

She blinked a couple of times. “I’m twenty-nine,” she said. “Does my age make some difference to my ruination?”

I snorted a laugh.

Poor little Omega looked like she’d swallowed her own tongue. Still, she’d been lumbered with Ethan for a while, assuming he had snatched her back from the Uncorrupted’s clutches. Long enough to put anyone in an anxiety coma. The Alpha wasn’t known for his winning personality. I’d seen a corpse with higher empathy skills.

She lowered her lashes, but I caught the briefest glimpse of a smile. Fuck—he’d said she could mind read—that this was the Larissa Olsen. What the fuck had I been thinking about? Right, Sasquatch. “Yeah, he’s an asshole. But I’m not in the business of ruining Omegas, whatever the fuck they’ve done and whatever their age. Neither is Black, so clearly, you’ve fucked up big time. You picked the wrong Alpha to mess with.”

“I know that.” Sadness entered her dull eyes. “You think I don’t know that?”

Her soft voice had a measured quality to it that was oddly soothing. The rest of her was plain to the point of being lifeless. Under my scrutiny, she began to shake in earnest. I’d been thinking of checking her into a room with a couple of guards on the door. But maybe I needed to call a doctor?

This was already a clusterfuck, and the fewer people involved, the better.

“You’re no better, though, are you? What would