Page 146 of Deathless & Divided

“We both know I do,” Damian said, never lowering the gun.

“No, my boy.” Terrance smiled as Damian’s finger wrapped around the trigger. “I meant to say you don’t have to apologize. I understand.”

“Do you?”

“Yes,” Terrance said. “Take this as your final lesson, Damian.”

“What is that?”

“Trust no man.”

Damian pulled the trigger and didn’t look away.

Damian slammed the bathroom door open, zoning in on the figure he’d been searching for in the crowd of people since he arrived back at his wedding reception. No one noticed him gone and no one noticed him return. Damian was smart in that way.

Dino, however, had a few things to answer for.

The man barely got his pants zipped up before Damian fisted Dino’s tux jacket from behind. He yanked him away from the urinal and slammed him into the closest wall which just happened to be the side of a stall. The stall shuddered from the impact as Dino cursed his surprise.

Dino’s eyes flew wide at the sight of Damian. No doubt, Damian’s rage was clear to see if the way his muscles clenched and trembled with the sensations passing through him. It was like someone had kicked him straight in the fucking gut; like he’d been used and manipulated when all Damian wanted to do was stay the fuck away from that kind of shit.

“Whoa!” Dino said, his hands flying wide.

Damian’s fist cracked into the stall right beside Dino’s head. “Shut your mouth.”

“Hey!” someone shouted from inside the stall.

“Get the fuck out,” Damian growled.

A man dressed in a sharp suit quickly scurried from the stall without even flushing the toilet and disappeared from the bathroom. Once the door closed, all of Damian’s attention turned on Dino again.

“All you had to do was tell me the fucking truth, Dino,” Damian said through gritted teeth.

Every breath he took ached. He’d trusted Dino. The man put him in a positon by using lies and bullshit where Damian had to make choices he wouldn’t have otherwise.

“What are you going on about?” Dino asked, still not fighting back.

Damian slammed Dino into the stall again. “Ben, Terrance … ring any fucking bells for you?”

Dino’s brow lifted. “Hey—”

“No, be quiet. Unless you’re going to give me something worth listening to, I don’t want to hear another goddamn thing coming out of your mouth, asshole. I did the final job tonight—I followed that through like I said I would. But it had nothing to do with you, right? That was supposed to be all for me. You’re such a liar, Dino. Christ, it’s no wonder your eyes are brown. You’re so full of shit it’s starting to show.”

Dino laughed hoarsely. “Me? Take a good look in the mirror.”

“You could have told me the truth,” Damian repeated, willing his anger to calm. He didn’t want to go back out on the floor to find Lily feeling like he was. She would know; his girl always knew. “You could have told me that this was for your parents and what happened way back when. You didn’t have to lie to me and manipulate my weaknesses for your benefit. I was loyal to you. I would have done what you needed regardless of the rest, but I didn’t have to be one of your pawns. Lily didn’t have to be one of your pawns.”

“Neither of you are,” Dino said, shrugging.

“Right. Even when you’re caught red-handed, you still can’t tell the truth.”

“She wasn’t a pawn and neither were you. Everything I said about Lily and what I wanted for her was the truth. And so what, Damian? Who cares if I worked a little bit of revenge into the plan, too? What does it really matter now?”

It mattered a lot.

A war was beginning.

“How long do you think this is going to last, Dino?” Damian asked. “How many more people are going to die because your parents did?”