Page 115 of My Unhinged Alphas
Havoc glances at her. “A vicious one.”
She looks back at me. “And you’re telling me this like I’m supposed to take comfort in it?”
“No,” I say. “I’m telling you so you understand the scale.”
She says nothing.
Good.
Because she needs to hear it clearly.
“So I’m supposed to believe,” Lena says slowly, looking between the three of us, “that you guys are the good guys? That you’re protectors?”
“No,” I say. My voice comes out flat enough to stop the room for a second.
Her eyes come to me.
“We’re wrath,” I say. “We’re deliverance.”
She shudders. It’s small, but I see it. A shift in her shoulders. A flicker under her skin. Fear, yes, but not just fear. Something else. Something that makes her believe that I’m not just feeding her lies.
Havoc looks at me, then back at her. “I meant what I said before. We can help you.”
Knox turns sharply. “You said that to her?”
Havoc doesn’t even bother pretending not to know what he means. “Yeah.”
Knox scowls. “Why?”
Havoc rolls his eyes. “Because apparently I’m a reckless, emotionally unstable visionary who occasionally says useful things.”
Knox’s expression doesn’t change.
Havoc sighs, sarcasm thick in his voice now. “Sorry. Next time I’ll just let her spiral and stare moodily at the wall. Much better strategy.”
“That wasn’t the question,” Knox says.
“No,” Havoc says. “The question was why I told her we could help.” He tilts his head. “Because we can.”
Lena looks at him, wary. “Help me how?”
“You don’t have to be with us,” I say.
That gets her attention faster than anything else.
Knox looks at me now too, but he doesn’t interrupt.
I keep my eyes on her. “But we do need to find out who’s trying to hurt you, kill you even.”
The room goes still again.
Lena’s face changes. Not disbelief this time. Something colder. “Kill me,” she repeats. “That seems extreme.”
“Yes,” Knox says. “but it’s a possibility, and one we have to consider. They had guns, they were shooting at us.”
She lets out a short breath, almost a laugh, but there’s no humor in it. “That seems like a pretty major detail to keep dropping into conversation like it’s nothing.”
“It isn’t nothing,” I say.
