Authors: Gabrielle Evans
“You did what?” Eyce’s eyes almost bugged out of his head, and his mouth dropped open in utter shock.
“I didn’t mean it like that.”
“Then just how the hell did you mean it?” Onyx demanded. “I’m not sure how else he was supposed to take it. Please, enlighten us with the underlying meaning, because I’m just as lost as everyone else.”
“I would, if everyone would stop attacking me!”
Fiero snorted. “Believe me, you’d know it if I attacked you.”
“Is that a threat?” Hex snarled, his voice deep and feral.
“Whoa!” Eyce stepped between Hex and the rest of the men, holding his arms wide and looking back and forth between them. “Everyone just take a breath and calm the hell down.” He turned and pointed at Syx. “What did Echo do before Hex acted like a complete dickhead?”
“He was upset because he knew we were keeping things from him. He was also smart enough to realize that we were hiding shit because we didn’t think he was tough enough to handle it.”
Eyce nodded sharply and turned back to Hex. “And this was a sufficient reason to treat him like something on the bottom of your shoe?” He spoke calmly, but fury roiled just beneath the surface. “Do you want him to leave? I know I wouldn’t stick around to be treated like that.”
“It wasn’t like that!” Hex roared. “You’re all blowing this out of proportion.”
“Now, who’s being childish?” Vapre asked.
“You can all go to hell,” Hex grumbled.
“Been there. Done that. Got the T-shirt,” Myst snapped back.
“You don’t deserve him,” Fiero said so quietly that Eyce barely heard him. “I won’t let you hurt him again.”
What the hell?
Eyce didn’t know what had gotten into everyone, but he needed to diffuse the situation before Armageddon broke out in their recently updated kitchen.
“You can’t keep him from me.” Hex came forward but stopped when Eyce’s palm caught him in the chest. “He belongs to me just as much as he does you.”
“He’s not a fucking piece of property!” Fiero yelled. He started to jump for Hex, but Eyce caught him in the chest with his other hand.
The two demons leaned close to each other, hissing and snarling, their canines elongating, and their pupils bleeding out to the corners of their eyes.
“Shit,” Eyce groaned a split second before Fiero shoved him out of the way and launched himself at Hex, tackling him to the floor and landing on top of him.
Eyce was back on his feet in an instant, but not fast enough to stop the other four from jumping into the fray. Sighing in exasperation, Eyce turned his back on the jumble of bodies in the middle of the floor and left the room. There was only one way to fix this. He didn’t relish the idea of begging, but he’d do what needed to be done.
“Echo!”
“They’re fighting because of me, aren’t they?” Echo asked softly from the corner of the couch where he was curled.
“I have no idea why they’re fighting.” Eyce swallowed his pride and reached a hand out for Echo. “I need your help.”
Echo shook his head. “It’s just going to make it worse if I go in there.”
“Trust me?”
Echo eyed him for a full minute before he finally nodded his head and pushed up from the sofa. He walked slowly across the room, reaching out to take Eyce’s hand, and followed him back into the kitchen.
Stopping just inside the entryway, Eyce gave Echo a little nudge forward. Echo looked over his shoulder, his eyes wide and fearful. “What do I do?”
“Just talk to them.”
Echo glanced at the brawling crowd in the middle of the kitchen then turned back to Eyce with disbelief written all over his face. “You’re kidding, right?”
Chuckling softly, Eyce shook his head.
“You are so dead if I get another black eye.” Then he marched over to their men, stopping just at the edge of the fight. “Hex! Vapre! Myst!” He shouted their names as he fisted his hands on his hips. “Syx! Onyx! Fiero!”
Eyce had never seen anything like it before. Everyone froze in place—some with elbows cocked back, others with their fingers twined in someone’s hair—and stared up at the smallest of them all.
“That’s better,” Echo said in a quieter tone. “Do you even know what you’re fighting about?”
All six demons just stared up at their little mate in apparent confusion. “I didn’t think so.” Echo sighed, his chest rising and falling slowly. “Now, I’m going to bed. I’ll see everyone in the morning.”
Walking away and leaving his men sitting on the floor gaping at him, Echo grabbed Eyce around the wrist and pulled him out of the room. “You’ve earned a reprieve.”
Eyce looked over his shoulder as he followed his lover out of the room and smirked at the men staring after them.
Chapter Six
Echo stripped off his clothes as he entered his bedroom and crawled into bed without comment.
“Do you want me to stay?” Eyce asked quietly as he shuffled his feet near the door.
“Yes.” Echo snuggled down under the blankets, wrapped his arms around his pillow, and closed his eyes. He didn’t feel like talking. He just wanted to go to sleep and pretend like the day had never happened.
“He didn’t mean it, you know.”
Echo turned his face into his pillow to muffle his groan. He should have known Eyce would insist on talking about what happened in the kitchen. Why couldn’t, just this once, he be the strong, silent type that didn’t feel the need to work things out with words?
“I don’t want to be difficult, but I really don’t to talk about this.”
“I know, but it’s not going to just disappear because we sweep it under the rug.”
“Can we talk about it in the morning then? I’m tired, and I just want to go to sl—” Echo groaned into his pillow again when a soft knock at the door cut him off. “Go away!”
He heard the knob jiggle, and the door ease open then close again with a quick snick. “Echo?”
“Can this day get any better?” Echo rolled over and glared at Hex where he stood beside Eyce just inside the door. “And in case you missed it, you can pick any part of that sentence to insert sarcasm. Now, go away.”
“Will you just let me explain?”
“No.”
“You’re being ch—”
Echo flew out of bed, stomping across the room, and jabbed a finger in Hex’s chest. “If you say I’m being childish, I will rip your balls off and fry them up for breakfast.” He reached out with his other hand and gripped Hex’s balls through his jeans, giving them a good squeeze to emphasize his point. “Do I make myself perfectly clear?”
Hex swallowed audibly as he bobbed his head in understanding.
“This isn’t childish. This is not wanting to listen to your lame excuses or false apologies.” Echo released the man’s balls and turned back to his bed. “When you can pull your head out of your ass and stop being a gigantic fuckwad, we can talk. Until then, I want you to leave.” Echo crawled back into bed and pulled the blankets up around his waist.
“I’m not leaving until you listen to me.”
“It wasn’t a request,” Echo said coldly.
Eyce leaned closer, whispering something to Hex that Echo couldn’t make out. Judging from the look on Hex’s face, the big warrior didn’t like what he was hearing, though. His face turned a couple different shades of red, the vein in his temple pulsed, and the muscles in his jaw ticked as he stared down at the carpet as though it had done something to offend him.
Rolling his eyes, Echo flopped back on the bed, pulled the covers over his head, and closed his eyes. Maybe by the time he woke up, Hex would have worked out a proper apology. For now, Echo would just try to forget he had an angry demon grumbling about his bedroom.
Of course, he couldn’t be that lucky, though. He’d done no more than curl into a ball when the bed dipped, and a big hand landed on his hip. “Echo?” Hex sounded a lot calmer, his voice softer, almost pleading. “I’m sorry,” he whispered. “I got some bad news just before you came into the kitchen, and I took it out on you. I shouldn’t have done that.”
Echo slowly pulled the blankets back from his head and blinked up at Hex, curious against his will. “What kind of bad news?”
“That lab you came from?” He waited for Echo’s nod before continuing. “You said it’s in the mountains east of here, right?” Echo nodded again. “The only mountains east of here are a few ranges that are part of the Rockies.”
“Okay.” Echo sat up straighter in the bed. “I don’t understand how that’s bad news, though.”
“The only range close enough for you to have traveled here in three days on foot is in the Glacier National Park on the Canadian border.”
“Son of a bitch,” Eyce growled under his breath.
Echo didn’t get it. “I’m sorry, Hex. I’m just not following.”
“The park is government-owned, baby. That lab can’t exist there without someone knowing about it.”
“Which means the lab is most likely government-owned as well,” Eyce said as he moved to sit on the other side of the bed. “This is bad, Echo.”
Echo shook his head vehemently. “No. The government doesn’t just lock people up and experiment on them. They don’t send guys with guns to slaughter innocent people.”
The looks his men gave him were so full of pity, Echo choked down the rest of his denial. “This is bad,” he whispered, repeating Eyce’s words.
“Yeah, it is.” Hex moved up the bed to sit beside Echo, leaning back against the headboard. “We can’t fight them and win, Echo.”
“Even if we manage to take down this facility, there will be others to take its place,” Eyce added. He leaned forward and placed his hand on Echo’s bent knee, giving it gentle shake. “We’ll keep you safe, though. Even if we have to move to Russia.”
A surprised chuckle burst from Echo’s trembling lips. “Russia?” He turned to stare through the parted curtains covering his window. The snow still fell heavily, swirling around in the wind and blowing against the glass. “Couldn’t you at least pick someplace warm?”
“The Galapagos Islands,” Hex offered.
“Better.” Echo pulled his knees to his chest and tucked them under his chin. “We can’t leave until after this stupid war is over, and I really don’t want to spend the rest of my life looking over my shoulder. Not to sound like a conceited prick, but they won’t stop looking for me. I’m too important to them.”
“We know,” Hex whispered. “We’ll figure out something.”
Echo rolled his head until his temple rested against his knee and looked up at Hex. “That still doesn’t explain why you’re an asshole.”
Hex grimaced. “And I don’t really have a good excuse, either. I was scared, and I handled it poorly. Fear and uncertainty are not emotions I’m used to. Then you walked into the room, and I could see it in your eyes that you knew what was going on. I just kind of lost it.”
“Why shouldn’t I have a right to know what’s happening? I’m the one at the center of this whole mess.”
“It’s my natural instinct to protect you—even if it’s just from bad news or things that would upset you.”
“That makes no sense. Your protective instinct told you to treat me like a piece of ass? Because that’s kind of what it feels like.”
Hex winced at his words, but Echo wouldn’t take them back. “No. I was scared and angry, then you came storming into the kitchen with your claws out, and I retaliated.”