Page 53 of Sinner
“You’re extremely jealous right now,” he pointed out.
“And you’re not?”
“I don’t have romantic feelings for my best friend.”
“Sure, but he lied to the both of us.”
“He kept a secret,” he corrected. “That’s not necessarily a lie.”
Nix glared. “That so? How manysecretsare you keeping from me then?”
“None. I tell you everything.” Lake really did. Nix was his greatest confidant. Ironic, considering how they’d started.
He exhaled, clearly trying to get a hold of himself as they headed to the parking lot where Lake’s car had been left. “Aren’t you even a little bit mad?”
“A little,” he admitted. “But we don’t have all of the details yet. Maybe this conversation only just happened, and West hasn’t gotten the chance to tell us.”
“You don’t believe that for a second.” Nix yanked open the passenger side door and stared at him over the roof. “Why are you so…calm?”
“How should I be acting?”
“This is very unlike you, is all. Anytime I do something that displeases you, you throw a fit. Why is West getting a free pass?”
Lake shook his head and grunted. “He isn’t. The reason I’m not overreacting is because you taught me that it only leads to making mistakes. I’ll hear him out first, and if he doesn’t give us satisfactory answers, we can both hit him. How’s that sound?”
“Like you’re suggesting we gang up on a professional boxer and hope for the best.” Nix snorted but got into the car.
For all of their sakes, Lake hoped West had a phenomenal explanation for keeping this from them.
“What about the plan?” he asked as he slid into the driver's seat.
“Oh, mission accomplished.” Nix pulled a small black box from his left pocket and held it up. “I mirrored his device whilewe were talking. Just needed him to step away so he couldn’t see it downloading on his screen.”
“Is that why you didn’t rush off the second he told you about West?”
“Part of it.” Nix shoved the box out of sight and huffed. “But I also wanted to hear the rest. How about you? Are you nervous about Beck and his influence with the Order now that you’ve heard it’s directly tied to his feelings toward West?”
There was always the chance that West’s rejection would push his cousin to the edge, and that was something Lake now had to take into consideration. He’d never fully trusted his cousin though, so as far as he was concerned, not that much needed to change between them.
“We’ll have to keep an eye on him. Aside from causing trouble, he can’t prevent me from taking the throne at this stage.” Not that Lake wanted to have to deal with another Bardin trying to turn the Order or the High Council against him right now. There was already too much going on to add another burden to the list.
“What if he poisoned you?” Nix bit his lower lip when Lake frowned and shrugged. “What? It’s possible.”
“You think he was involved? If he’s in love with West, why would he try to kill him? Even if your theory about Hendrix merely trying to harm him to make a point is true, would Beck even take that risk? Something could have gone wrong with the dosage at any time.”
Nix shifted in his seat to better face him as they drove the short distance to the Roost. “He acted really strangely at the hospital after West had been shot. The second he heard us talking about poisoning, he freaked out and ran off. What if that’s because he was aware of the plan, but thought it was Yejun who was being targeted?”
“That’s…” It was a decent theory.
Which wasn’t good.
“He never openly backed his father, but if Hendrix had promised to help him be with West, Beck may have worked with him.”
“It’s plausible, but those are a lot of what-ifs, Songbird. You’re assuming he spoke to Hendrix about his feelings at all, but in all our lives, I’ve never once seen the two of them open up with each other.”
“Doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.”
“Doesn’t mean it did either.”
