Elicit (Eagle Elite #4)(65)
Author: Rachel Van Dyken

“Mo! Get back here! Now!”

“No!” I roared turning on my heel. “You sick bastard! How could you!”

Silverware clattered to the ground as every head around the dinner table was focused in on us. It seemed even Luca and Frank were visiting for a nice calm normal dinner.

Too bad, so sad.

Tex reached for my arm and pulled me roughly against him, I turned around and slapped his face so hard my hand stung. “Don’t you dare touch me!”

“I’ll touch whatever the hell I want.” He grinned crudely. “You keep forgetting… I could own you if I want.”

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Nixon stand.

“Aw, baby.” I angled my head and threw a right hook to his face. He staggered to the side. “You wish.”

Tex rubbed his jaw. “Well now I don’t, hell you never brought that type of violence into the bedroom. I had no idea Mo… I could have totally tied you up—”

I slapped him again.

He gripped my hands. “Do it again, regardless, you’re nothing to me. You, you’re family, in a few days I’ll be a distant memory.”

I smiled sweetly. “Not if I kill you first.”

“I’ll sleep with one eye open.”

“And one finger on the trigger, lover.” I kneed him in the balls for good measure then stormed into the kitchen and poured myself a glass of wine. When Tex was done cursing I slowly made my way to the freezer and pulled out one solid ice cube. “I know it’s kind of big considering what you got down there.” I tossed it at his face. “But try to make it work, Campisi.”

“You’re lucky I don’t shoot you for your disrespect,” he sneered, batting the ice out of the air with his free hand.

“To kill me you’d have to kill Nixon, and Chase, and Sergio, probably Phoenix, definitely Luca, wow, bringing down all the families on yourself. That your big bad plan, Godfather? Make everyone hate you?”

“If I have to.” He stood to his full height. “Besides, what’s a few more deaths on my hands after Thursday? Hmm?”

With that he walked out of the room leaving me scowling in his direction.

Nixon was the first to speak. “Mind telling me what that was about?”

“Mind telling me why you didn’t shoot him?” I fired back.

Nixon rolled his eyes. “Shooting Tex wouldn’t help the rage, Mo, plus regardless of how awful he’s being, I kind of need him to live for at least three more days.”

“And after?” I asked.

“We’ll pick straws.” Nixon grinned.

Chase snorted. “Dibs on the short one.”

“You cannot kill him.” Luca slammed his hands onto the table, and stood. “He is the key to everything. You kill him and you sign your own death sentence.”

Frank stared straight ahead, his mind appearing to work a thousand miles a minute.

Phoenix met my gaze, his eyes piercing, knowing. I rolled my eyes at him and gave him the finger. Let the countdown begin.

CHAPTER SIXTY-TWO

There is no truth, only suspicion.

Phoenix

“YOU DIDN’T FIND that weird?” I asked again. “Not weird at all?”

Sergio took a long sip of his wine and stared out the living room window. “Mo’s always been a passionate girl and Tex, well, he’s coming into his own. After Thursday…”

“You mean after everyone dies…”

“Right.” Sergio shrugged. “Things will fall back into place.”

I rolled my eyes at his back and walked off. He was too calm. If anything, that irritated me even more. He reminded me way too much of Luca, calm, cold, calculating.

I’d officially had enough drama for the evening. With a yawn I made my way to the guest room and stepped inside.

Bee was sitting on my bed reading.

“What the hell are you doing?”

She didn’t look up, just turned the page. “Reading. Why what’s it look like I’m doing?”

“You’re in my bed.”

“It’s Nixon’s house, Nixon’s bed,” she said in a bored tone. “Did you know that Edward’s a vampire!”

Dear God, deliver me. This was my penance for being a bastard, torture by Twilight. Not okay. “You’ve been sheltered entirely too much, who gave you the book?” Name and social security number, if you please. I had someone to murder.

“Trace.”

I held back a groan. There went that plan. “How… kind of her.”

“He’s so hot.”

“You can’t see him.”

Bee looked up from the book. “In my head I totally can.”

Rolling my eyes seemed childish but it was exactly what I wanted to do. “Please don’t describe him. I’m tired and the last thing I want to talk about is fake vampires.”

She sighed. “Your loss, man.”

Man? What? Like we were bros hanging out now?

“Bee.” I licked my lips and tried a different tactic, one that didn’t have me sobbing and begging for her to get out of my room. “I really need to get some sleep.”

She lifted a shoulder. “So sleep.”

“In my bed.”

She scooted over. Her vanilla perfume hit me full force with that simple movement. Clenching my fists, I took a few deep breaths. It didn’t help.

Sweating, I croaked. “Bee, I sleep alone.”

Finally, she put the book on the nightstand and crossed her arms, making her body look that much… better, if that was even possible, in her tiny tank top and shorts. “But when you protected me you stayed with me.”

“To keep you alive.” I clenched my jaw until it popped. “Trust me, you’re safe here.”

Her eyes welled with tears. “Please, Phoenix?”

Tears. I did not work well with tears and she knew it.

Sighing, I reached back and peeled off my shirt then walked over to my dresser, pulling it open to grab a pair of track pants then slamming it shut. Without another word, I dropped my jeans to the floor and put on the pants then turned off the light.

“Thanks.” Bee whispered. “I just—thanks.”

She had no idea that her version of safe was deranged… almost sick. She was lying next to a ra**st, next to a murderer, next to an absolute monster and yet, that was how she found peace at night. While, me? I found none. None at all. Not when I heard her finally succumb to sleep, or when her arm reached for my body, or when she curled next to me and sighed.