He tacked on the qualifier because who was he to be giving orders. Even though these were his friends…or, at the very least, closest of acquaintances…the King and the Brotherhood were in charge.
“We’ll handle it for now.” Wrath’s voice dropped into grim territory. “You need to leave here. Right now.”
“Why?”
“Those males have been in this house, right?”
“Huh—oh, yeah. There’ve been to a lot of parties here, sure.”
God, who knew that the good ol’ days would be something marked by a matter of hours. The killings had instantly opened up a huge divide, a before and after that made it feel like he’d last been at Bathe with his boys ten years ago.
“Any address they’ve ever been associated with should be considered compromised.” Wrath’s head moved around as if he could see. “Do you have a safe house?”
His fangs started to tingle in his upper jaw. “I’m not leaving.”
“Yes, you fucking will. My son will not stay here anymore, and you’re hisahstrux nohtrum.”
Shuli glanced down at his absolutely-not-ringing cell phone once again. Not even a text was coming through on the damn thing, and he checked to make sure it still had service.
Of course it still had service. The reality was that Rols and Em were not going to get back to him. Ever. Fuck, what the hell was being done to them right now...
And no he wasn’t leaving. Hewantedslayers to come here.
He was perfectly happy to meet them on his own turf, and his violent roommate with all the tattoos was going to feel the same.
“Do you honestly think anyone tells L.W. what to do?” he muttered with exhaustion. “Even you.”
Across the way, the Queen put her hand up to her forehead as if she had a headache, and goddamn, he felt badly. But come on. Who were they all kidding?
“Where is my son now,” the King demanded.
Shuli tilted his head and laughed on a short, hard burst. “I have no idea. He comes and goes as he pleases. And before you give me shit about that, we agreed I’d do my best to stay with him, remember. I’ve kept my word on that, but there are limits.”
There was a long silence.
“I’d like to see his room for just a moment?” Beth asked softly. “I won’t mess with anything, I just…”
“Want to connect with your son.” He pointed to the hall and felt even worse for the female. “It’s down that way. And mess with anything you like. You’re his parents.”
Wrath turned to the front foyer and said something quietly to Qhuinn and John Matthew, who were guarding the entrance. Then the Queen took her mate’s hand, and the pair walked off. In their wake, he expected the other two Brothers to go down there.
“Your entire house is surrounded,” Qhuinn said, like he knew what Shuli was thinking.
Shuli nodded. Looked down at his stupid phone. Looked back up.
The Brother who always colored his hair was going dark green at the moment, and in the black leather and with all the piercings, he looked like one of the canvases hanging on the white walls, all harsh, shocking, hard-angled. Beside him, John Matthew was kind of all-American, but no one would mistake him for anything other than how dangerous he was given that he had two autoloaders out with the safeties off.
“You want anything?” he asked them. “Food, drink?”
Qhuinn shook his head. “What we need is nothing your butler can bring us.”
Nodding, Shuli texted the other two names out to the Brotherhood. Then he put his Samsung aside and wondered where his emotions were—and not as in how he felt. Rather, whyhe wasn’t reacting at all. His whole social circle, gone in one night to the enemy. He should be weeping. Cursing. Throwing things.
Instead, he was flatlined in a way that had nothing to do with intoxicants.
What he was clear on, though? He and L.W. and Rhamp might be going rogue behind the Brotherhood and the King’s backs, but it was absolutely the right thing to do. If they got caught? Well, things were going to be complicated in a very bad way. In the meantime, though, they were going to continue to cut downlessers, and fuck, he needed to tell both his co-conspirators what had happened.
Not until his visitors had left, however.
