The Darkest Secret (Lords of the Underworld #7)(33)
Author: Gena Showalter

Some-some. Someone was picking up his woman’s vernacular. “Apparently he’s related to Lucifer.

That has to count for something.”

“Believe me. I know who he’s related to,” Lucien replied dryly. “That doesn’t change anything.”

“Yeah, but he’s strong. No one wil want to mess with—”

Again Lucien shook his head. “Nope. Like I said, he’s unreliable. He’l think of himself first and everyone else not at al .”

“I know.” Wil iam wasn’t demon-possessed. He was a god, according to himself, and had spent centuries locked in Tartarus—a prison for immortals—for sleeping with the wrong woman. Hundreds of them, in fact. He’d even slept with Hera, the former god king’s wife, and had been stripped of some of his supernatural abilities as further punishment. Exactly what those abilities were, he wouldn’t say.

Strider liked the man, even though, as Lucien had said, he looked out only for himself. Even though he could turn on you in a heartbeat, stabbing you in the back—or rather, the stomach—as Lucien had experienced firsthand.

My kinda guy, Strider mused. And since Wil iam wasn’t wanted here, maybe he’d want to leave with Strider. Strider made a mental note to text him before taking off. Never hurt to vacation with a friend.

So. Who did that leave to guard the fortress and those inside? “Kane and Cameo,” he said with a nod.

Disaster and Misery. “Since Amun’s better, they can return from wherever they are.”

Lucien pondered for a moment, then nodded in turn. “Al right, then. It’s settled.”

“One more thing. Tomorrow I need you to contact Sabin.”

Strider planned to be too wasted to be coherent. “He needs to return, too, and meet the female Hunter up close and personal. But don’t cal him until tomorrow, okay?”

While Torin had apparently been texting, Strider had been cal ing both Lucien and Sabin every day, giving them updates on Amun’s health. Only thing he hadn’t told them—yet—was Haidee’s identity. He didn’t know why. He’d certainly meant to share, but every time he’d tried, the words had congealed in his throat.

Al he knew was that he stil wasn’t going to tel them. Like him, they’d find out the truth as soon as they talked to her.

And when they did, Strider wouldn’t have betrayed Amun’s trust, but would stil have done al he could to safeguard his friend from the murdering bitch’s influence.

Shit. He was getting worked up again, fighting a need to stomp back to Amun’s room and do some damage.

Win? Defeat asked.

Oh, no. We’re not going there.

“Consider it done,” Lucien said.

“Good,” he replied, tangling a hand in his hair. “’Cause I real y need this break.”

Once again Lucien asked no questions. He merely straightened and gave another nod. “Pack while I hunt down the lucky twosome and bring them home.”

“No need to pack.” He had his weapons. That’s al he needed.

For the first time during their conversation, Lucien’s lips twitched into the semblance of a smile. “Twice you’ve said you need a break. We both know nothing wil change in a day or two. You’l stil be stressed, on edge. So I want you gone for at least two weeks, and that’s a nonnegotiable requirement if you expect transport. Pack.”

Death didn’t wait for Strider’s reply. He simply disappeared.

Strider packed.

WILLIAM THE EVER RANDY, as the shitheads here had started cal ing him, lay propped on his bed, a mountain of pil ows behind him. His covers were tucked around his waist and legs, cocooning him in a way he despised but refused to complain about because his Gil ian Shaw—nicknamed Gil y, also nicknamed Little Gil y Gumdrop, though only he was al owed to cal the seventeen-year-old human that last one—was responsible. She had a huge crush on him, and she had thought “tucking him in” would soothe him.

Unlike the tucking in, he’d done everything he could to discourage the crush. She’d told him she wanted to date a nonsmoker, so he’d immediately taken up the habit. Was even now sucking a disgusting cloud of ash into his mouth and blowing smoke in her too-appealing, perfectly sun-kissed face.

She gave a delicate cough.

Tragical y, the smoke failed to diminish the loveliness of her features. Big, wide eyes of the purest chocolate. Sharp cheekbones that hinted at the passion she would one day be capable of giving. A pixie nose, slightly uptilted at the end. Lush pink lips. And framing al that beauty was a cascade of midnight hair.

With a sigh, he smashed the cigarette butt into the ashtray beside him. Maybe it was time he took up drinking.

“Liam,” she said softly. Her nickname for him. A name he would kil anyone else for using. Maybe because it was hers and hers alone. She sat beside him, her hip pressed against his, warm and soft and completely feminine. “I have a question for you.”

“Ask.” He could deny her nothing—except a romantic relationship. Not only because she was too young, but because he…wel , he liked her. Yeah, shocking. Wil iam the Perfect—a much more suitable name for him—friends with a female other than Anya. The world should have ended.

But, in many ways, Gil y truly was his best friend. When he’d returned from hel , unable to care for himself, she had done so. She had fetched his food, endured his dark moods as the pain became too much, and washed his sweat-soaked brow when necessary.

If, when she reached maturity, he was foolish enough to touch her, their easy camaraderie would be ruined. She would be forever disil usioned about the kind of man he was. He didn’t want to disil usion her.

She deserved a man who would give her the world. Al Wil iam would give her was pain.

So, become involved? Hel , no. Not now, not later. He wouldn’t al ow himself to hurt her. Ever. He was many things

—a womanizer, a kil er. Cal ous, sometimes cruel, always selfish and dark in a way no one inside this fortress knew.

But this tiny little beauty had been through enough in her short life. Physical abuse, and so much worse.

She’d run away from home, had lived on the streets, taking care of herself when loved ones should have ensured her safety.

After Danika and Reyes, the keeper of Pain, had hooked up, Danika had brought her here. Wil iam had taken an instant liking to her. She’d needed someone to look out for her, and Wil iam had decided to be that someone. For now.

That meant destroying those who had destroyed her innocence and later helping her find a man worthy of her love. That meant resisting her.