Page 51 of Deadfall

A thought crossed my mind. “You two were the ones on the beach, weren’t you?”

Griffin jerked his chin in a subtle nod. “Apparently, I’m lucky I still have both of my eyes.”

I barely kept the smile off my face as my lips twitched. Griffin’s eyes dropped to my mouth, and I could tell he was pleased he’d almost made me smile. I immediately returned to a scowl and walked away, because fuck that, I wasn’t going to smile for this man, and my inclination to even have a conversation with him was of great concern. I threw myself back down into the grass and crossed my arms over my chest. I glared at the shape of him and reminded myself of all the reasons I didn’t trust him. Unfortunately, no matter how hard I tried, the list remained painfully short.

26

SEVEN

Unfortunately, we weren’t stationed in the Menagerie for our next shift and to avoid unwanted attention, we had to report to where we were scheduled. Needless to say, neither of us was happy about it. G wanted to skip breakfast to maximize our time with Emersyn, but I’d told him that was stupid. We needed to keep up our strength and assume a low profile.

As we walked to the mess hall, I thought back over the night. I deserved an award for the amount of restraint I showed. Truly. We’d known she’d most likely be attacked, but seeing it come to pass was enough to snap my already frayed bit of control. I’d had to stop myself from almost killing one of them, and we were hopefully about to find out who—I really hoped it was Marcello.

This undercover gig was a lot harder than I expected, simply because we couldn’t attach ourselves to Emersyn and ghost her every move. I didn’t like this hot and cold aspect with someone I was supposed to protect, and now that I’d seen her—touched her—it was like she was a magnet. I rubbed my chest where that invisible tension attempted to pull us back together.

“What’s wrong with you?” G grumbled.

“I don’t like leaving her alone,” I muttered. “So many things could happen if we’re not there.”

G grunted in response. He was in a foul mood this morning, but since I wasn’t exactly faring any better, I didn’t say anything. Neither of us wanted to think about what could be going on when we weren’t there to protect her, but we also couldn’t risk drawing unwanted attention. I sighed—Rune needed to hurry the fuck up.

We pushed our way through the doors into the large mess hall. I thought it looked like something out of a Viking movie, with long communal wood tables and a massive stone fireplace. Electric lanterns hung on the walls next to woven tapestries of forests and medieval hunts. The only thing that broke up the age-old ambiance was the glint of a stainless steel industrial kitchen visible through a wall of paned glass on one side of the room.

I couldn’t care less about the aesthetic though. My attention immediately went across the room where Marcello sat next to Angel and sure enough, Marcello looked beat to shit. He had bruises along his jaw, a black eye and a swollen split lip.

“Will you look at that,” I mused.

Suddenly, G moved from my side.

“Fuck, G, wait—” I don’t know why I bothered. He was gone across the room before I could intervene. When he got to the table, G grabbed Marcello by the back of the neck and slammed his face into the wood.

Oh hell. I sighed and settled at G’s back where I sent a few pointed looks to some of the men who looked like they were thinking about getting involved.

“What the fuck?” Marcello exclaimed.

Angel rose from his seat. “Whoa, Griffin, what’s this about?”

I studied Angel’s face. It was free of any injuries. There was a cool, calculated caution in his eyes as he regarded the scene, but he didn’t appear concerned. Marcello struggled against G who ignored Angel entirely and leaned down closer to Marcello’s ear.

“Don’t fucking touch her again,” he snarled.

“She needed to be disciplined,” Marcello ground out from behind clenched teeth.

I bristled at that, because what the actual fuck—

“I don’t care. Don’t touch her again.”

“Mahoney said we could have anyone in the Menagerie on our time off—” G shoved Marcello into the wood again, and cut off the last of his words.

“I don’t give a fuck what Mahoney said,” G growled. “This will be your only warning.”

G looked up at Angel and I watched them lock eyes. G noticed what I had—Angel wasn’t involved. G shoved off Marcello and stepped back. Marcello lunged up and went to go after G, but Angel stepped into his path and grabbed his arm.

“Enough,” he said, quietly. “Not here.”

“And tell whoever was with you the same applies to them,” G said.

“Fuck you,” Marcello spat. “You’re going to regret this.”