Page 26 of The Devil's Mercy

Aodhan laughed, happy he’d struck a nerve as intended. “Always so possessive, little brother. You need to learn to chill.”

“No.”

Zane and his husband had only been married for a couple of months now, but the blowback from his wedding still lingered. One of the leads Calix had for his case happened at the wedding. Only, the detective had no clue that both killings that night had been done by the brothers.

“We both know you used my coworker to help solve your own problem,” Aodhan pointed out. “He made a perfect fall guy for you, didn’t he? Everyone believed it.”

“Of course they did,” Zane scoffed, as arrogant as ever.

To get back someone who’d wronged him, Zane had murdered a man and framed someone else for the deed. That someone else had been a pesky coworker of Aodhan’s, who’d gone to the planet to celebrate the wedding along with other members of their hospital staff. He’d tied it all back to the Imperial Heir of Vitality, killing two birds with one stone, so to speak. It’d been a flawless plan, really.

Except he’d forgotten to read Aodhan into it, and that very same night, Aodhan had ended up taking a life as well. Zane had taken out a heart though. Aodhan had removed a head. His killings had to fit a pattern in order to lead the I.P.F. where he wanted them. They were just lucky their schemes didn’t get tangled up.

If Zane had ruined things for him, not even the fact that they were brothers would have saved him from Aodhan’s wrath.

He’d put too much into things, traveled away from Mercy in order to plant bread crumbs. Contacting the captain of Calix’s branch and demanding he put their Third on the case had been the final move.

“We might not share blood, but we’re definitely cut from the same cloth,” Aodhan chuckled, then, when he didn’t receive a reply, sighed and asked, “Well, aren’t you at least going to ask me aboutyourbrother-in-law?”

“Last I checked, you and Titus Mercer aren’t married.” There was a long pause and then, “Unless this is your way of hinting that you’ve finally found a suitable Third.”

Aodhan leaned back in his chair, eyes narrowing slightly. Despite the way he’d just chastised Zane, he found he didn’t likethe thought of his brother talking about Calix in any fashion. Still… “And if I am?”

“Then I would congratulate you,” Zane replied. “Ifthat’s what you’re doing. Is it?”

“We’ve yet to secure him but…yes.”

Zane made a reproachful sound.

“Don’t look down on me, little brother.”

“Impossible, considering we’re the same height.” There was another thoughtful pause before Zane gave in to whatever he was thinking. He always did. He was easy like that. “Perhaps you should have remained on Vitality after all, you have everything it takes to be considered a Devil.”

Had he just thought his brother easy? Scratch that. He meant manipulative.

“Iwasa Devil, before I transferred off planet for med school elsewhere. Nice try,” Aodhan drawled, “but you’ll have to do better if you want to pull my strings.” He moved to prop an elbow on the edge of his desk, curious why Zane would want him on the same planet. “What? Mom and Dad still giving you a hard time for shirking their last name?”

Zane had waited until the day of the wedding to announce that he was dropping Solace and taking on his husband’s last name instead.

To say it wasn’t well received would be an understatement.

“You were always my replacement,” he said matter-of-factly. “The whole reason they took you in was to ensure the family line continued to run the businesses. You can’t blame them for their hostility now that you’ve shattered all their hard work.”

“Understood.” It was impossible to tell if he’d hit another nerve or not. Zane didn’t give things away unless it wasregarding his husband. That was the only time he couldn’t seem to control himself in front of Aodhan.

“Love makes you stupid,” he grunted, only to be met with a similar sound from his brother.

“Says the man who’s about to willingly enter a three-way relationship.”

“Comes with the territory. I knew what I was signing up for when I bound myself to Mercy.”

“So, you’re doing this for him? Going to accept another body into your bed because he asked you to?”

“On the contrary,” Aodhan argued. “I was the one who asked him.”

Because they might need a third in order to survive, but Aodhan sure as hell wasn’t going to allow anyone to get near them that he hadn’t picked himself. That’s also why this thing with Cal was so enthralling.

“I always believed it would be as you said,” he admitted, not sure why he was bothering, aside from the fact that at least he was comfortable knowing Zane wouldn’t judge him any more than he already did. “That one day, Mercy would come to me and order me to accept some stranger. That I would never be able to feel even a modicum of what I do for him for someone else. But that isn’t what happened.”

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