Page 187 of Unrivaled
“And she still turned him down?”Kadan asked me, his eyes sharp.
“She didn’t believe me.”I felt sick at the memory.“Neither did Isolde.”Or, if she had, she hadn’t sold it to Audrey.
“What do you mean?”Kadan asked me, his tone deceptively light and casual.
I stayed there, hating the fact he’d used that tone.It made me go back over everything I’d said, everything it could mean.
Kadan was my friend.That voice he used on others.Not on me.
The quiet stretched out between us.His pupils weren’t blown out tonight.He wasn’t on the oil that made his head foggy and his pain further away.
“I told her Luca didn’t have her interests at heart,” I said eventually, because I had.“I told her he was part of a rebellion.I told her he just wanted La’Angi.Or I think I did.”I remembered with agonizing clarity her fury as she’d levelled her finger at the door and demanded I leave.I couldn’t remember exactly how I’d got there, or really much of what’d happened afterwards.
“You think you did?”Kadan asked me, frowning a little before sipping at his drink.
“There was a lot happening at the time.”
“Oh?”
The irritation at the gentle questioning wasn’t comfortable.“Don’t talk to me like I’m Luca, Dan.My oath is toher.I never made bones of that.And Luca was coming in like his shit doesn’t stink and she was letting him through the door.”When he opened his mouth, I scowled at him.“Don’t tell me she can fucking choose, Dan, when y’all did nothing except lie to her so thoroughly she didn’t believe the truth when I laid it out.”
Kadan’s brows rose.“She didn’t believe you?”
“No.”
He scratched at his cheek, glancing briefly at Callum.“Whywouldn’tshe believe you?”Kadan asked, and for the first time since we’d got onto the topic it didn’t feel like a trap, but a real question.
The silence was honest, the expressions truly confused.
Fuck.I gritted my teeth.“She and I…we’d just…called things off.”
“Ohshit,brother,” Callum breathed.“I need something stronger than cordial and then I need the whole fucking story.Wait.”He stood, but I was shaking my head.I wasn’t getting drunk and crying into my cups the night before the Butcher came back.
“He’s not going to drink,” Kadan called after Callum, then let out a long sigh.“Well, suddenly everything makes sense,” he said, and there was grief in the words.“I’m sorry, Chay.”
I shrugged.“No one’s dead, Dan.Anyway, she didn’t listen to me.So no harm done, I suppose.”
Kadan blew out a breath.“Even after how Luca ran his mouth the other day?Shestilldoesn’t believe you?”
“Me?”My mouth was dry.She didn’t believe in me, not anymore.I’d given her reasons not to.“She might believe Isolde.She doesn’t see him as a threat.Yet.”I took a long pull of the cordial.It didn’t wash away the bitterness that coated my tongue.
“What happened?”he asked, the question gentle.“Unless you don’t want to talk?It seems like you want to talk.”
Did I want to talk?Callum reappeared, two jugs in his hands, his mouth firmly closed and all his attention on me.
They’dhad no lovers of note in the past year, no big changes in their lives.I’d heard about Kadan’s ex, who was climbing the ranks in the cavalry and making his life mildly uncomfortable, parading the multiple men he was sleeping with under Kadan’s nose.But it had been the topic of conversation for about two moments.Acknowledge, roll eyes, shit talk, and move on.
The rebellion was everything.
If Luca wasn’t successful…
“If the Butcher knew I’d been with Audrey, can you imagine what he’d do to her?”I asked them.
They shared a look.It was another one ofthoselooks, the loaded, you-aren’t-in-on-it looks.“That’s it?”Kadan asked.
I laughed, but it was mirthless.I needed Thomas to explain why that wasn’t justit.“Come live in La’Angi awhile,” I told them.“Then we’ll talk.”
“Sorry,” Callum said, pouring wine into his cup.“I thought we were talking to Chay.Is this Luca, Dan?”
