Page 34 of Obsession
“Do you?” Her gaze flicks to my throat again. “Because from where I’m sitting, Saint didn’t need much time to make you comfortable.”
The words cut because she knows exactly where to aim them. I let the first hit pass, breathing through it the way I used to breathe through Canon’s disappointment. “If you asked me here to insult me, you could’ve texted.”
Her jaw tightens. “I asked you here because this alliance was supposed to put me inside Obsidian.”
“I know.”
“No, you don’t.” She leans closer, keeping her voice low enough that the barista can’t hear. “Canon didn’t want me there just because I’m heir or because the optics looked good. He wanted me close enough to Saint to learn the structure. People. Pressure points. XR3 made Obsidian strong, but anything that concentrated has seams.”
The coffee shop noise fades beneath the rush of blood in my ears. “A takeover.”
Varina doesn’t answer quickly enough.
I sit back slowly, the pieces arranging themselves with a clarity that makes me feel sick. “That’s why he wanted you married to Saint.”
“It wasn’t supposed to happen fast.”
“And now that job is mine?” I ask.
She clicks her tongue and sighs, leaning back against the cushion of the booth. “You don’t have to steal formulas or put yourself in front of a bullet,” she says. “You just have to pay attention. You’re good at that. Routes, names, who Saint trusts, where Moth keeps records, which doors stay locked. Enough to keep the Rogues from getting swallowed whole.”
“The Rogues signed an alliance.”
“Don’t be naïve, big brother. Did you really think that’s all this was? Canon would never fucking let Obsidian take us over.”
I almost laugh. “That’s new. Usually I’m useless.”
Her face shifts. “You were never useless.”
“Don’t rewrite it now because you need something from me.”
The tenderness immediately dies in her expression. “Fine. Saint didn’t pick you because he loves you. He picked you because you were available and because he likes how you look when he has a hand on your neck. Don’t confuse getting your dick wet with being valued.”
The words land exactly where she means them to, splitting through everything I’ve been trying not to ask myself. Saint’s bed. Saint’s praise. Saint leaving before morning. Saint calling me good and then walking out for the night like I was something he’d put back on a shelf.
Varina regrets it almost immediately. I can see that, but regret doesn’t pull the blade out. “Do your job for your family,” she says, softer now.
I stand before she can turn the command into a plea. “You don’t get to say family when you mean Canon. You don’t get to use Mom without saying her name. And you don’t get to tell me Saint is using me like that makes what you’re asking cleaner.”
“Oisín—”
“You were angry because Saint took me instead of you. I thought it was because you were worried about me. Maybe some of it was. But you were also angry because he ruined the plan.”
She opens her mouth and then closes it as I place both hands on the table, flattening them inches from her.
“Little sis,” I spit out. “He chose me because he wanted to fuck with the system. If you haven’t already figured it out, Saint likes to be in control and an alliance wasn’t in the cards for him. He probably saw through your bullshit plan and chose me because I seemed safer.”
A hearty laugh pulls from her as her eyes flash with a hint of deviance. “You’re not safe, Oisín. You’re just a different vessel.”
I ignore that. I haven’t chosen what I’m going to do but it’s definitely not going to happen at the behest of my sister. “Next time you call, make sure it’s because you want to tell me that you miss me. Or maybe... just don’t call at all.”
The walk back to Obsidian feels longer than six blocks. By the time the clubhouse comes into view, I’ve replayed every word so many times that the meaning has thinned into pressure. Bricks is outside near the side entrance with a cigarette between twofingers and the expression of a man watching trouble return on its own feet.
“You know,” he muses, exhaling smoke, “when Saint says stay put, he tends to mean the words in order.”
I stop a few feet away. “Are you going to tell him?”
Bricks looks at me like I’ve disappointed him on behalf of common sense. “Already did.”
