Page 95 of Temptation
“Are you even listening to me, kid?” Indigo asked. When I looked at him, he carried a smirk I knew all too well now.
“Barely,” I muttered and placed my elbows on the table, my head in my hands, and inhaled. “I feel like I’m in too deep, yet I still have no idea what I’m doing.”
“It’s tough, isn’t it?” I lifted my head and looked at him as he asked. “It’s tough trying to protect the people you love, while still keeping secrets from them.”
“You have no idea,” I murmured.
“I think I do. Look.” He turned toward me again after looking at Skylar and Sebastian. “You’re a smart kid, I’ll give you that. But you’re too young to be dealing with this shit. Do you even know what Judah Blackwood is capable of?”
“I do. At least I think I do.”
“I think you’re in too deep right now to back away, but you need help, Ash. Let us help you. I know you said that you don’t want us meddling in your business, but this is far too big even for you. This goes beyond Winworth, beyond Judah Blackwood and what he did to your family.”
“I know,” I breathed out. “Skylar mentioned something.” I looked back at her. “I already told you about Nikolai Aster. Do you know how he’s involved with all this?”
Indigo paled—his sun-kissed face immediately lost its color, and his hands turned into fists. His lips in a thin line, he leaned over the table and grabbed me by my neck. I could feel his fingers tensing on my skin, but he didn’t hurt me. Just like the other day when I mentioned Nikolai, when he stopped talking for a few seconds, I knew that his name couldn’t bring anything good.
“Do you know how she found out about him?” he bit out.
I shook him off me and leaned back in my chair. “I’m not sure.” I looked toward Skylar. “Nikolai was apparently Judah’s best friend before he died.”
“Dammit,” Indigo cursed and slammed his fist onto the table. “I thought they weren’t involved with him.”
“Who?”
His eyebrows pulled downward and almost whispering, he leaned closer to me, before he said, “The Syndicate, Ash. I already told you about this.”
“I know, but I thought—”
“Doesn’t matter what you think. Nikolai Aster might be dead, but the Syndicate lives. We’ve been trying to get rid of them for years, but we’ve never succeeded. Our president, Storm, has been trying to destroy them ever since he became the prez.”
“Then what should we do, Indigo? I can’t leave any of them in Winworth. I can’t risk their lives.”
“I know.”
“You said you wanted to help me,” I started. “This is how you can help me. I can’t leave my brother in Winworth, not until all of this is over. I can’t risk his life.”
“I thought he was with your uncle?”
“My uncle lied,” I grunted. “He fucking lied to me. That son of a bitch was part of the Order back in the day, and if he lied about that, what else did he lie about?”
“Fuck.”
“Yeah, exactly. So, I couldn’t leave Sebastian back there. Hell, I couldn’t leave Skylar either.”
“And what about him?” Indigo turned and looked at Dylan. “What about the pretty boy?”
“Pretty boy is off-limits,” I warned, looking where Dylan was sitting in the corner of the club, nursing a beer for the last half an hour.
“Oh, really?” Indigo chuckled. “And why is that?”
Because he belongs to me, I wanted to say.Because he belongs to me and Skylar and nobody else gets to touch him but us. But I didn’t.
“I can’t talk about that,” I murmured.
“Well, you’re gonna have to give me something, kid, if you want me to give all three of them our protection.”
“I can’t,” I gritted out. “I wish I could, but I can’t.” Not because I didn’t want to, but I still had no idea what was going on between the three of us, and until we figured it out, nobody else got to be involved. Not even Indigo.
