Page 74 of Scarlet Wars
For a moment, the sight of him stole my focus: raven hair stark against the snow, his body all lean muscle and infuriating calm, cigarette glowing between his fingers as if he had all the time in the world.
And of course, he noticed me staring for a beat too long.
The bastard’s mouth curved into a slow, knowing smirk before he tipped me a wink that sent heat rushing through me and set my blood boiling for all the wrong reasons.
“Fucking player,” I muttered under my breath, forcing my attention back to the soldier choking at my feet.
“Will you stop that, Emma? And what the hell, Colt?” James’s voice cracked with disbelief. “Don’t you care about her at all?”
I didn’t even have to look to feel Caden’s exasperation. His reply came out flat, edged with boredom. “She’s just strangling him a bit, James. You’re acting like she’s peeling his skin off in strips.”
I cocked my head at the soldier, letting the haze pulse tighter around his throat. “Could I do that?”
“Enough!” James’s roar shattered the air. His Skindo snapped out in a burst of steel as he lunged forward, hand shooting toward me like he meant to drag me back by force. “I won’t watch you become this!”
Before he could reach me, Caden was there, stepping into his path so fast it was almost a blur. His hand clamped around James’s arm, iron-tight, holding him in place.
“Back off,” Caden said, voice low, calm in the way that was somehow more dangerous than shouting. “She needs to work through this.”
James’s chest heaved, his green eyes blazing. “Work through it? She’s torturing a man?—”
“Which is exactly what Offensives—not unlike you—do,” Caden cut him off, his grip tightening, “If you can’t deal with that, you get the fuck out of here.”
For a second I thought James might swing at him, but then he yanked his arm free, fury radiating off him in waves. Withoutanother word, he ripped open a portal and jumped through. He was gone before the green shimmer faded.
The silence left behind was deafening, broken only by the soldier’s ragged gasps and the steady hum of my haze.
Caden turned to face me. “Did you bother to talk to Walker after the Chiefs’ visit?”
A growl rose in my throat as I struggled to keep the asshole down. “Little busy at the moment here, Colt.”
“So that’s a no,” Caden said flatly, his tone dry. “Do us all a favor will you? Grow some balls and deal with him already. The way he’s circling you is pathetic, and frankly, I’m getting sick of watching it.”
I rolled my eyes. “I might have mentioned this once or twice before, but you have no sense of timing.”
Caden moved then, stepping deliberately into my line of sight, but not between me and the soldier.
No, he positioned himself rightbehindthe man, lowering into a crouch. The soldier flinched, his body trying to recoil even as my haze kept him shackled against the bark.
My vision narrowed, suspicion spiking. “What?”
Caden’s gaze flicked to mine, steady, unreadable, smoke still curling from the cigarette between his fingers. “There’s an easier way to get what you want.” His voice was quiet, but it carried enough weight to slice right through the haze buzzing in my ears.
My fingers twitched against the tether of my haze. “Which is?”
He exhaled once, the smoke ghosting past his cheek. “Depends on what it is you really want, Nightcrawler. Do you want the warrant…” His head tilted slightly, his attention cutting to the soldier’s purpled face. “…or do you just want to hurt him?”
I froze for a heartbeat, the soldier’s strangled gasps filling the silence.
Revenge or truth. What was I after?
It only took me an extra beat before I finally loosened my haze. “I want the warrant.”
Caden gave a single curt nod, flicked his cigarette into the snow, and straightened. His expression shuttered, pure business now. “Then let’s get it. Do you remember when we first visited Slava, how I pulled the memories out of that Radical?”
I nodded once, pulse still hammering.
“Good.” His tone dropped into command. “Restrain him. Chain him to the ground if you must. I’m going to teach you how to interrogate like an Offensive.”
