Page 36 of The Wickedness of Man

Like a punch to the gut, I realized I’d never had any intention of leaving her alone for good. The second Harry had given me the ultimatum of turning on my fellow agents for the chance to escape, my first thoughts had been how I would get away and go back to Magda… and I knew better than anyone what the organization did to the men in its employ who fell under a demon’s thrall.

I’m so fucked.

I swallowed down my terror. I had to stay centered; focused. She might not have bewitched me on purpose, but there was no denying the effect Magda had on me. It was more than the sex; I’d been drawn to her from the very first moment I saw her getting out of the car—when I’d been watching her through a lens half a mile away.

Jax lifted his hand, extending it toward me with the air of a man who would brook no argument. Under normal circumstances, we’d dispense with this kind of ceremony,but Harry’s warning, along with the veiled nun behind him, convinced me to swallow my pride. I bent down and kissed the ring on his finger—a large, diamond encrusted ruby that could have probably fed a third-world country for a year—and idly wondered how many other lips had touched it recently. I stood back, saying nothing.

“This way,” said Jax, leading the way with the tell-taleclick-clackof his cane. He made his way toward the elevator doors nearest to us with a pronounced limp. “Unbelievable, Caleb.”

“Jax, I?—”

“I wouldn’t, if I were you,” the bishop warned.

I sighed. “Jax, please?—"

I doubled over onto the tile, clutching my gut, suddenly finding myself weak in the knees. I gave a strangled cry and collapsed, gasping hard as a strange warmth flooded me. My dick throbbed like it had its own heartbeat; for one long, unbearable minute, I shook and worried that I was going to pitch a tent right there in front of a priest and a nun, but thankfully, I stayed in place.

There it was again—that strange connection between Magda and me. It snaked around me like a soft ribbon, wrapping tight; like her arms had slipped over my chest. There had been something like a shockwave of her power, and now… now I could almost sense her, like a shadow just out of the corner of my eye.

“Caleb?” asked Jax. “What’s going on?”

I was panting hard, searching for an answer better thanI don’t know.

“I don’t know,” I mumbled. “I just got sick for a minute.”

I sat back on my haunches; watched Harry and Jax exchange a look that spoke of secrets I wasn’t privy to, but I was pretty damn certain had something to do with me.

“Can you stand,” sighed Harry, extending his hand as if to help me up, “or am I going to have to carry your ass?”

I forced myself upright, slapping his hand away, then went past Jax and stood in the elevator. “I’m fine.”

“What was all that about?” demanded Harry as we rode up. “Couldn’t tell if you were loving that or hating it.”

I felt my jaw clenching. “I got hit by a car, asshole—then beaten, tranqed, and beaten again—so maybe I’m just not feeling well. Or don’t you remember?”

Jax spun to face us, his caterpillar-like brows pinched together. “…Youwhat?”

“It was only after he headbutted me in the face and attacked everyone,” Harry snapped, gesturing to his nose, “or did you not notice the fucking blood everywhere?”

Jax stared at me now. “Youwhat?”

“He tossed the other agent on duty over his shoulder like a rag doll, broke my driver’s leg, then took down four recovery agents,” Harry sneered. “So yeah, he mighta gotten a little hit by avan, but you ask me, he deserved to be hit with a fuckingbus.”

Jax sighed and faced the doors again, his voice low and furious, the grip on his cane tightening. “We will talk about this upstairs.”

At least for the time being, I wasn’t heading for the cells—not immediately, anyway. I didn’t like that Harry and the veiled nun were with us; or that Jax seemed, at least in my estimation, as angry as I had ever seen him. The doors opened on a small, dark room with a one-way viewing panel at the back, a small wooden table, and two chairs.

Fuck. Interrogation room.

“Sit,” Jax ordered, resting his cane against the table and swiping his pastoral robes out of the way as he took the only other seat.

The veiled sister moved to the left of the door, Harry, the right. I sat with a sigh.

“Let’s start with the obvious,” said Jax with the patience of a man who’d never known patience in his life. “Where have you been since you went dark yesterday afternoon?”

I started to speak, but he raised his hand. “No bullshitting, boy. You’ve made a mess of this entire thing, and if there is any hope for you to get out of this intact, you’re going to talk. Now.”

“I know. I’m sorry,” I said.

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