A. Arthur - Passion's Prey

“I don’t need to work anything out. But you definitely need to go.”

Wilson shook his head. “This isn’t going to go away just because you don’t want to deal with it. I’m going to keep digging because I know something’s going on with you.”

“Then get out your best shovel and have at it” was X’s flip retort.

He was very close to losing his cool with this guy. How dare he come up in his house asking him everything but if he’d killed Diamond himself? Obviously he had nothing besides that business card to go on, so X wasn’t giving him the time of day.

Just as they reached the door and X opened it, Nick was strolling down the hallway, sporting one of his designer suits and a royally pissed-off look on his face.

“Do you have a warrant?” Nick asked Agent Wilson.

“Not yet” was Wilson’s tight reply. He wasn’t looking very pleased with the new arrival.

Nick nodded. “Then you were just leaving. Here’s my card. If you need to speak to my client again you go through me.”

Wilson took the card Nick extended to him, giving both Nick and X a very pissed-off gaze.

“I’m not through with you yet,” he told X.

“Fine. But you’re wasting your time,” X told him with a serious glare.

“Like I said, get in touch with me if you need something else from my client.”

Nick was using his best lawyerly voice. X would have laughed at how polished and professional his friend sounded, when his usual dialogue was about kicking somebody’s ass. But he refrained.

“Right,” Wilson said, giving Nick a nod, then walking out the door.

The same door that Nick subsequently slammed so loud X thought the windows that lined the entire side of his apartment might break. He didn’t bother to stand there and wait for Nick’s tirade. Instead he walked into the kitchen and reached into the fridge. It was still early, but he definitely needed a drink to deal with what was about to take place here.

X pulled out a bottle of beer and twisted the cap off, taking a deep swallow as about two minutes later there came a quiet knock at the door. On a curse he heard Nick’s dress shoes clicking across his wood floors. Then he heard the door open and close once more. X began counting, had only gotten to five when Nick and Rome walked into the kitchen.

“What the hell’s going on?” Rome asked first.

Nick was shaking his head. “More important, where the hell is my sister and why didn’t you bring her home last night?”

X rubbed his free hand down his bald head and took another swallow of beer. “Number one, I don’t know what’s going on. I suspect they think I killed Diamond Turner, the stripper from Athena’s I met a while back.”

He was already walking out of the kitchen, a very angry Nick and a perplexed Rome following behind him. When he was once again sitting on the couch, X emptied the beer. “And two,” he stated, looking directly at Nick, “I wanted to keep Caprise safe. So I brought her home with me.” Not entirely the truth but he figured if he’d said, I wasn’t finished fucking your little sister, that’s why I brought her home with me, things were going to go to shit pretty fast.

“Safe from what? What were you even doing at that club?” Nick asked, standing directly in front of X.

Rome touched a hand to Nick’s shoulder. “The fact is that Caprise is safe. Right?” Rome asked, looking around the room.

“She’s still asleep,” X said, then thought about his words again.

Nick was shaking his head. “Negative. She’s locked in your bathroom. That’s where she called me from when she heard somebody talking about arresting you. That’s why we used Rome’s helicopter to get here as soon as possible, to keep your ass out of jail.”

“Fuck!” X stood and placed the bottle on the coffee table. He was about to walk back to his bedroom when Nick grabbed him by the arm.

“Whoa, you have some explaining to do first.”

“Get your hands off me, Delgado,” he said, a rumbling in his chest signaling his cat was damn tired of sitting on the sidelines.

“Just calm down, both of you clowns.”

That was Rome, always the negotiator, the problem fixer, the fucking Faction Leader.

Both Nick and X stood still. X looked down at Nick’s hand on his arm then back up to Nick.

Begrudgingly and with a look that clearly said this wasn’t finished, Nick yanked his arm away. “You and I are going to have a conversation,” he told X.

X thought about flipping Nick off, which wouldn’t have been out of the ordinary. It wasn’t as if they were planning some big-ass shifter wedding in the rain forest like Rome and Kalina had, or even a quiet ceremony at Havenway like Nick and Ary had shared not too long ago. No, he and Caprise had just had sex—some damn good sex, but still, just sex. Nick was X’s friend; they were even closer than friends; the three of them were like brothers. They’d been there for him when he needed them and hadn’t asked any questions. For that X would always be grateful. And it was that gratitude that wouldn’t allow him to disrespect Nick by brushing him and his concern off totally.

“First, Caprise is obviously okay because she was able to call you, Nick. Second, I want to know everything that happened at Athena’s. Then I want to know what that cocky-ass DEA agent who used Kalina in his sham of an investigation was here questioning you about.”

Rome had taken off his suit jacket and thrown it across the back of the love seat. He was loosening his tie as X came to stand by the fireplace. With his arms folded over his chest, he looked directly at Rome, who had now sat down.

“I wanted to see what was going on inside the club. We know Sabar’s running his drug through there, so I wanted to check it out. When I got there, Caprise was dancing,” he said, casting a glare at Nick. He wasn’t sure if Nick knew about his sister’s occupation. No, X was certain he didn’t. And the curse that came from Nick the moment he said it confirmed that notion.

“I waited for her to get off stage then took her back to her dressing room to question her.” He omitted the rest for everyone’s sake.

“Question her about dancing or the drugs?” Nick asked, as if he had to in the first place.

They were like family … except Caprise wasn’t related by blood, which meant he could sleep with her and remain loyal to Nick. Or at least he hoped so.

“I questioned her about the dancing. Up to that point I hadn’t seen any drugs—or any Rogues, for that matter. Then the scent came. They were coming to Caprise’s dressing room.”

“For what? Does she know any of the Rogues that frequent the club?” Rome asked.

“She wouldn’t associate with Rogues,” Nick said. “She’d kick ’em in the balls and laugh in their faces.”

X did chuckle at that, even though he was feeling anything but happy at this moment. “You’re right about that. But no, she said she didn’t know who could have been at the door. And I didn’t stick around to find out. My first concern was getting her to safety. So we jumped through the window. Seth and Zach were already waiting at the truck. I left them there to keep watch and brought Caprise back here.”

“And at no time did you think it was necessary to call me and let me know?” Nick questioned, jamming his hands into the pockets of his dress pants and staring at X as if he could pounce on him at any moment.

“Last time I checked I was a grown-ass man. I don’t have to check in with anyone” was X’s heated retort.

Rome held up a hand to stall Nick’s next comment. “Okay, so Caprise has been dancing at the club. Has she seen anything useful to us?”

X shook his head. “I don’t think so. Then again, she’s not really looking for Rogues. She’s sort of doing her own thing.”