The Darkest Secret (Lords of the Underworld #7)(23)
Author: Gena Showalter

Torin’s eyes widened. “You’re actual y voting to leave her be? A Hunter? What’d she stab you with? A magic wand laced with Prozac?”

“No, I’m not voting to leave her be.” Damn it! He had. “Fine.

We’l break her hands.” He wasn’t going to argue about her treatment. She deserved what she got, and he would just have to pacify himself with that knowledge.

“One other thing to consider,” Zacharel said. “Amun fought to reach her, and al of my warriors were needed to subdue him. If you hurt her, I think he wil object. And if he objects, I think many in this household wil be injured. But again, I give the choice to you.”

How magnanimous of him, Strider thought dryly. Zacharel had a gift for ripping your rationale apart with only a few words. But…Torin couldn’t force the issue now.

Stil . Prick that he was, Strider wasn’t exactly ready to back down yet, no matter that he was getting what he’d original y wanted. Zacharel irritated him, and part of him hoped to irritate the guy right back.

At least garner some kind of reaction.

“If we decided we wanted it done, would you be the one to do the breaking?”

“Of course,” Zacharel said easily.

Strider blinked at him. Not the answer he’d expected. Feet shuffling, maybe. A little waffling, for sure.

“But you’re an angel. Aren’t you supposed to be defenders of humanity or something?”

“She is not exactly human.”

“Then what is she?” The question whipped from him, his eagerness to know unparal eled.

“I do not have permission to tel you.”

The eagerness deflated like a bal oon, and Strider gnawed the inside of his cheek to keep himself from snarling. When Lysander final y crawled his way out of wild Bianka’s bed, Strider was going to have a long chat with him. He suspected daggers would be used between every word.

“We won’t damage her,” Strider final y said. “And I have a few conditions. I have to be the one to escort her to Amun.”

Just as soon as he could walk. He didn’t like the thought of anyone else putting their hands on her. She was—not his.

“Also, I want a camera in the room.” The words emerged harder, harsher. “We’l monitor what goes on twenty-five, eight.”

Torin nodded, his expression half satisfied, half steeped in guilt. “I’l have them placed and recording within the hour.”

There were cameras strategical y hidden throughout the entire fortress just in case Hunters snuck past their gate and traps, but not in any of the bedrooms. They’d al agreed. If the enemy could bypass everything else and enter one of the rooms, the Lords deserved to die. Privacy was that important.

If Amun ever regained his senses completely, he’d be pissed as hel about the new cameras. But better his fury than his murder.

Zacharel straightened from the post. “I’l inform my men of what is to transpire.” With that, he turned with the fluid grace of a dancer and strode from the room.

A dancer? Seriously?

Strider’s cheeks heated a whole hel of a lot more than before.

When Torin made no comment about his blush, he relaxed against his pil ows. As a sigh left him, he realized how tense he’d been in the angel’s presence. Now he scanned the bedroom, al owing the familiarity of his surroundings to comfort him further. His weapon col ection decorated the wal s, everything from ancient swords to modern-day firearms.

Only thing hanging on the wal that wasn’t a weapon was the portrait just over the bed. No. Not true, he thought then. The portrait was a weapon, too. Of seduction. In it, Strider was utterly naked and whisking through the clouds like an avenging angel. He was holding a teddy bear in one hand and a stream of pink ribbons in the other.

Anya had given him the nearly life-size monstrosity as a joke. But the joke was on her. He loved the damn thing.

“Where are the others?” he final y asked. “The other day you told me they were out and about, but not where exactly.

Or why. I’ve had a little time to think this through, and I realized they don’t need to keep the artifacts out of the fortress anymore. The Hunters aren’t swarming us like before. Word on the street is they vanished, which is bizarre, but Cronus says not to worry—and yeah, I talked to him, he just popped in the other day for no apparent reason

—so I’m not worried. Which means you aren’t, either.

Which means the boyz are away for a different reason.

Right?”

Torin’s sigh was an echo of his. “It’s just too dangerous around here, what with the angels being demon assassins and Amun visiting the dark side. Aeron, Olivia, Legion, Wil iam and Gil y are the only ones stil here. Not because I need help, but because they’re too weak to leave. And wel , Aeron has taken the blame for Amun’s condition and refuses to leave him. Not that you’ve paid any of them a visit, you slacker.”

Gods, he was, wasn’t he? “Thank you for shoving me down the shame spiral. How are they?”

“The guys are stil recovering from Hel Week, and the girls are taking care of them. Wel , except for Legion. She refuses to get out of bed.”

Aeron must be worried about her, too. Strider real y should have checked on him. On al of them. I’m a self-absorbed prick.

“The rest of the crew is spread out,” Torin said, “and I no longer have their locations. I told them not to tel me anymore, to just check in at least once a day so I’d know they were alive.”

“Why don’t you want to know where they are?”

“With the little Hunter here, the less I know about them, the better.”

True. “So, any news? Gossip?”

“You want gossip, you’ve come to the right place, my man.”

Some of the tension drained from Torin’s features as wel , and he rubbed his hands together. “Ashlyn’s pregnant.”

He rol ed his eyes. “I know, moron.”

“Yeah, but did she know she’s carrying twins?”

“No shit?”

“No shit. A boy and a girl. Fire and ice, Olivia said.” Olivia, the angel. She wasn’t like the assassins currently living here, but a joy-bringer. Aeron’s joy-bringer, in fact, and the girl did her job wel . The somber bastard had never been so…smiley, for lack of a better word. It was straight up weird. “Can you imagine twin demon hel ions running around this place?”

“No.” Strider had never spent any time with kids and wouldn’t even know how to hold one. Or what to say to one.