Sinners & Starlight: Chapter Nine
Cade is forced to negotiate with both his rivals *and* his best friend...
This time, Cade’s laugh was genuine. “You’re not serious.”
“Serious as the plague, Devoy.” Lief didn’t draw his own gun, but he gave the signal to their men to train every weapon on their reluctant host. “If she was important enough to die for, she’s valuable to us.”
“Consider us taking your advice,” Anders quipped with a sudden cheerfulness, undoubtedly sourced from his renewed confidence at having the upper hand. “We’ll make a new heir. Maybe a sibling for him, too, just in case you decide to fuck things up again.”
Oleg chuckled. “An heir and a spare.”
“An heir and a spare, I like it!” All the men, save for Cade and Vic, joined in with a chuckle at the terribly overused joke. “So go on, Devoy. Hand her over to us and consider it a favor that we’re saving you the trouble of dealing with her.”
Cade set his jaw and waited for the old man to stop blathering before slowly turning around to face him again, raising his hands in feigned surrender. “First of all,” he began with a slow, wry smile, “I don’t have to do shit.”
One by one, glowing red dots appeared all over the Haldorsons’ guards. Then the Haldorsons themselves. He waited quietly until full recognition dawned on each and every one of them.
Their guns began to lower.
“Second of all, you’re what, fifty-five? Sixty-five? That’s disgusting.”
“A lot younger than you,” Oleg sniffed. He was the first to fully lower his weapon and even took the added measure to holster it before raising his own empty hands for the benefit of the snipers surrounding their little party. “Besides, Anders wasn’t talking about himself. We already agreed I’d be the one to mate with her.”
Cade couldn’t resist. “Shooting blanks, Anders?”
The Outworldish high lord glared, but didn’t make another move. He knew he’d been outnumbered and outmaneuvered. “Fuck you.”
With a nod from Vic, the red dots rose to each of their heads while more of Cade’s personal guards began to emerge from indoors.
And the bushes.
And pretty much everywhere that had once seemed empty when the Haldorsons arrived.
“Gentlemen.” Cade stepped into their circle and lowered his voice so only they could hear the threatening growl on the edge of his words. “I will overlook this incident as a matter of grief, and pain, and a general yet unfortunate misunderstanding. But let me be clear.”
He trained his eyes on Anders, making sure the high lord both heard and understood the depth of every syllable.
“Come into my home like this again and I will end your so-called Great House before you suck in one more pathetic breath. I will burn your entire estate to the ground and make your bastards eat the ash. Understood?”
Oleg and Lief looked to their eldest brother. It was clear Anders did not want to surrender, but even more obvious than that was what would happen if he didn’t. So, with no small amount of reluctance and rage in his eyes, he slowly nodded once.
“Good. Now go back across the lake and stay there. Any business we have? I will come to you.”
This time, Cade waited for exactly no one before turning on his heel and making his way back into the mansion. Vic assumed control of the clean-up measures, which included all but dragging the three brothers back down the semi-public entrance, out to their car, and ensuring every Haldorson man was identified and off the property in less than five minutes.
Seka met him at the French doors of the main entrance back into the living area, brow arched as she watched everything going on behind him. “Did I miss the party?”
“Where were you?”
“Helping your new house guest settle in. As well as settling the accounts from last night—the monetary accounts,” she clarified with one last glance out at the courtyard crowd. “Everything is up to date, everyone accounted for, and we already have rumors of at least three new pregnancies resulting from the festivities.”
Just like everything else to do with fae mating rituals, instincts moved fast. “Be sure to confirm and send our congratulations. Circumstances not withstanding, it sounds like everything was a success.”
Seka’s serene countenance brightened and spread with a mischievous grin. “Oh, I would say so, Lover Boy.”
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