seeing me here, imagine if he finds him here.”
“He isn’t expected to come until—”
“If that Viking gets his hands on you unexpectedly then it’ll—”
“He already has, and I took care of—” She doesn’t finish her words because I’m already on my way out of the room in the direction he came from.
He’s dead—plain and simple.
The brute thinks he can just touch my Davina while getting to walk freely around the island to do Hades knows what.
Not on my time.
Definitely not when I’m around. And he sure as fuck is going to learn to respect the living hell out of the woman that one day may open her heart to me, instead of using me as a teacher of things I know she doesn’t want from me.
My body spins around to face Davina again to unload another wrath of words on her, but she speaks instead.
“You will not see him.”
“Already did,” I reply. “And yes, I will.”
“Tobias.”
“Davina.”
She lifts a brow. “He is larger than you.”
“He’s stupider than me too.”
“Please.” Her face falls into a frown, one that would usually get me to do anything for her, except it falls short from hitting my rationality.
This time, I’ll get to kill something that actually deserves it. That touched something that I hold dear to my heart.
“No,” I deadpan.
“For me.”
“That won’t work.” I take a step toward her. “You see, I don’t handle a woman being touched or—”
“I handled it.”
“It shouldn’t be something you have to handle. Let me just kill the fucker so you’ll be safe, and we’ll look for how he got through the veil elsewhere.”
“We need information now.”
“How many times do I have to explain to you that he won’t speak? They are loyal to their people.”
“If he wants to live the rest of his days back home with them, he will speak.”
I lean forward. “You think trying to get him to be your friend is going to make him address all your concerns? Well I can testify firsthand that—”
“You’ve never been around a Viking,” she counters.
“I’ve been around killers and Hunters, Davina. I’ve seen men die before speaking. And that Viking in there is worse than all of them combined. Your sweet little face isn’t going to do shit.”
“My face has nothing to do with—”
“What do your sisters say?”
“It doesn’t—”
“I know Atarah doesn’t like it.”
Her eyes immediately turn into slits. “Are you speaking to her without my knowledge?”
“No, but she hates me, so I know she’ll despise him. I’ve been a pain in her ass for a few years now, so at least she knows who I am.”
“And she tries to get me to kill you off every other time you are here.”
I shrug. “You have a soft spot for me, darling, what can I say?”
“I need to try. I need to know if there is anything he knows that maybe you don’t.”
“The only thing we have in common is that we’re men,” I profess.
“You’re killers.”
“Most men are.”
She locks her jaw. “Not my people. Women are the killers.”
“We’re both humans.”
“That could be something, but your men can’t see the island.”
“I’m out of options.”
Davina remains silent for a moment before stating, “Maybe you can speak to him.”
“He won’t speak to me. You’d have better luck with him telling you to fuck off than I would. He’d flat out try to obliterate me with his fists.”
“Then let me handle it.”
“You’re pushing it, Davina.”
“I normally do, according to you, but this is serious.”
My nostrils flare. All of this is crucial to her well-being and her home, but she’s taking it too lightly. Handling something that she knows nothing about.
The Viking and I might be men, but he’s a different sort of male, and Davina has never been around a human other than me. He’d have no conscious of hurting her.
I’d kill for her.
But trying to get through her thick skull about it is like convincing my men to wear dresses.
“I promised I would protect you,” I rebuke. “I put my life on it.”
“And you do.”
I gesture toward the door. “I can’t when I’m searching for Lorne and you have a brute walking around your home.”
“He can’t hurt me,” she chimes.
I peer over my shoulder, back at where he left. “He won’t have a chance to.”
“I promise, I’ll be careful.” She touches my forearm to regain my attention. “I promise.”
“You can’t control everything, Princess.”
“Like you can’t control the sea, Prince of the Black Sea.”
“That’s fate.”
She straightens her spine like a little warrior about to go fight a giant. “And I’m his.”
A heavy sigh escapes