Page 104 of Villain
“So you spoke to a relative stranger about our business,” he cut him off. “Someone other than me knows about this? Someone before me knew?”
Okay, he’d obviously botched this whole thing.
“Lake—”
“Do you have any idea what your bitch of a cousin did to Yejun?”
Nix grabbed onto his wrist despite the danger. “Don’t call her that.”
“I’ll call her whatever the hell I want, Songbird,” he practically snarled. “If you knew the details, you would say much worse about her, blood relative or not.”
“What does that mean?”
“You don’t need to know.”
“Lake—” He tried to push away from the wall, hissing when he was shoved back and that hand tightened, hard enough now that it momentarily restricted his breathing.
Why were these assholes always throwing their weight around trying to choke him?!
No fucking wonder his cousin had betrayed them.
The second Lake’s hold loosened, Nix couldn’t help himself, the words shooting off his tongue like vitriol.
“You’re all monsters,” he snapped. “What the hell did you do to my cousin? What the hell did you make her do?! Did West try and smother her with his cock?! Did Yejun force her to pose nude for him?! You all think you’re so high above the rest of us because of your connections to the club. You disgust me!”
“I’m the monster?” Lake’s usually icy exterior cracked even more. “Iris almost got Yejun killed. She almost cost him everything. Yet you have the audacity to stand here preaching like she’s some saint? Newsflash, Nix, you didn’t know your cousin very well. You might not have known her at all. Don’t take that out on me. She wrote you a letter telling you to come here? She practically gave you to us, but you want to defend her?”
“She didn’t!” In her letter, she’d told him not to come. She’d told him…
Oh, but she’d known he wouldn’t listen.
Of course she’d known.
Because even if Nix was now realizing that maybe Lake had a point, that didn’t change the fact that clearly Branwen had still known him.
But loyalty was a complicated thing.
Right now, it didn’t matter how much truth may or may not be in Lake’s words. What Nix knew for a fact, maybe the only thing he was certain of even, was that Branwen was his cousin. For years, she’d been the only person he’d cared about as a friend.
“Get off of me!” Nix swung, his knuckles connecting the side of Lake’s jaw.
They both froze simultaneously.
The hit had probably hurt him more than the Demon, his hand radiating pain which he ignored, too afraid to move a muscle.
“When Yejun finds out you’re related,” Lake’s voice cut through the silence like a sharp blade, but it seemed like he was talking to himself, “he’ll destroy you. It won’t matter that I’ve already named you our fourth. That won’t be enough to stop him from tearing you to pieces and scattering your parts across the city.”
Nix’s mouth dropped open but he had nothing to say to that. So far, Yejun had been the kindest to him out of all of them but…He was learning he wasn’t the best judge of character. Clearly, since in a matter of minutes, Branwen had gone from his closest confidant to a relative stranger.
“He’ll take you from me.” Lake’s head turned, his eyes dark but slightly clouded over, almost as though he was too deeply lost in thought to focus on what was in front of him.
Which, unfortunately, was Nix.
“I can’t blame him,” the Demon continued, still in that low tone, “but I also can’t allow it.”
Nix cried out as he was yanked forward by the collar of his shirt, the material tearing under Lake’s ministrations. He struggled as it was tugged down on the right, exposing him. Before he even knew what to brace for, Lake’s mouth was on that meaty spot between his neck and his shoulder.
When his teeth clamped down, there was no hesitation. He chomped into Nix’s flesh, tearing through skin, right down to muscle. He pinned Nix against the wall and held, growling when Nix’s struggles continued and he cursed and sobbed against him.