A Vigil in the Mourning (Soulbound #4) - Hailey Turner Page 0,71
a heat-seeking missile. “What else aren’t you telling me?”
“Estelle and Youssef are the ones who hired the hunters. We don’t have contractual proof, not enough to bring it to the police, but Estelle was meeting with one of the hunters at their home when I dropped off the body that Carmen brought us.”
“Carmen brought you a body,” Patrick said slowly, dragging out the words. “Why were you talking to her?”
“Because I told Jamere I wanted to meet with Lucien.”
Patrick dragged a hand down his face before turning his back on Jono. He paced to the window before looping back around to where Jono stood by the bed. “You met with Lucien?”
Jono refused to look away, so he was in prime position to watch all the blood drain out of Patrick’s face when he said, “I made a bargain with him.”
“Lucien doesn’t make bargains.”
“He did with me. With our pack.”
Patrick shook his head and turned his back on Jono again, lifting both arms so he could link his hands behind his skull. Jono watched the skin over Patrick’s knuckles go white and tried not to feel like he’d made the wrong decisions when he knew he hadn’t.
“I can’t fucking believe you did that,” Patrick ground out. “What did you give up? Lucien doesn’t give anything away for free, if he gives anything at all. So what the fuck did you offer him in return?”
“That our pack and all the ones under our protection would pray to Ashanti.”
Patrick’s entire body stiffened, and Jono stepped closer, reaching for him. His fingertips brushed Patrick’s shoulder, but the other man jerked away, spinning around on stumbling feet. He knocked Jono’s hand aside, high spots of color on his pale cheeks from the anger Jono still couldn’t smell through his locked-down shields.
“You what?” Patrick asked in a low, furious voice.
“We need to look after our borders. Estelle and Youssef keep breaching ours. None of the packs we protect are close enough to help each other if they go for a full attack, but we’re all within Night Court territory. The vampires can get to the packs in trouble in the other boroughs quicker than we can. We have a fae alliance. I thought, why not get one with the vampires?”
“Because it’s Lucien you fucking got one with! You can’t trust him, Jono!”
“He’s kept his promise to Ashanti about you,” Jono shot back stubbornly. “It shows he’ll keep his word.”
“It proves he’s biding his time to murder my fucking ass, is what it shows.”
“I’d never let that happen.”
“You’d never see him coming if he had the chance.”
Jono crossed his arms over his chest. “Do you think so little of me that I wouldn’t do whatever it takes to keep you safe?”
“I don’t know what you were thinking when you went to him. Maybe it was the silver and aconite poisoning messing with your head. The poisoning you didn’t tell me about.”
“I thought I was doing what was best for our god pack,” Jono growled. “We don’t have the numbers to fight Estelle and Youssef for territory. Alliances are all we have right now, and we needed more than just the fae.”
“You didn’t have to make one with Lucien.”
“Are you mad because I made the bargain or that I didn’t ask for your permission? Because I don’t need it.”
“We’re supposed to make these kinds of decisions together.”
“You were in Chicago—”
“You could have fucking called me!”
“You have a job, and this is mine!” Jono snarled. “You need to trust me to do it.”
“I don’t trust Lucien.” Patrick stepped back, his face closing off with a blankness Jono hadn’t seen since they first met. “And apparently you don’t trust me.”
“That isn’t what this is about—”
“You should’ve told me the second you knew it was the Krossed Knights hunting you,” Patrick cut in. “That group doesn’t stop hunting until their target is dead. Do you understand that? I’m going to need to notify the police about their presence in New York City and that they’re after you.”
“Casale already knows.”
Patrick stared at him, grinding his teeth so hard Jono could hear it loud and clear. “Were you smart enough to call him and put the PCB on notice you’re a target?”
“The PCB found one of the bodies Jamere left on the playground. I got called in because they had screenshots from CCTV of us together.”
“Fucking hell, Jono. You realize how that looks? You can’t afford to get slapped with a murder charge. Hell, you can’t afford any kind of charge, not when