“Lesta has his fingers in more pots than even that fucker knows. The Matheris family isn’t as loved as they like to think,” Jensen said, glancing down Trey’s body and stopping on the cot’s straps, lips pursed in thought.

“I don’t care how loved they are or aren’t. No amount of Lesta’s gods damn pots is going to get me out of here. And I don’t fucking want it to. I’m done. Whatever Lesta has planned, I’m done.”

Jensen’s eyes snapped back up to his face. “I told you to stop being a pussy.”

When Trey didn’t respond, he crossed his arms, revulsion coating his usual stoic expression. “The man I grew up with wouldn’t have chosen to lay in a fucking bed when someone he loved needed him. When his people needed him.”

“The man you grew up with is dead. What the fuck do you want from me?” he asked, leaning up until his neck ached and his bonds dug into his chest. “You want to help me? Then put me out of my gods damn misery, Jensen. That’s what I choose.”

“Even if that means leaving Vera blind when she returns, for you, and steps right into the viper’s nest?”

He flinched, his heart squeezing and constricting in his chest. And it only made him angrier. “What do you all think I can do? Look at me!” he yelled, his lips finally wetting as they cracked open and bled.

Jensen darted a glance at the door at his outburst, and then turned back, leaning his face over Trey’s. “I’ve seen you look worse. I seem to recall us both taking back-to-back beatings for each other from shithead kids around town when we were young.”

“Funny, I don’t seem to recall any of them torturing and starving me for days on end.”

Jensen just smirked, making him see red. If he said one more gods damn thing, Trey swore he’d somehow find a way to knock his teeth in.

“Honestly, you should thank His Highness. You’re far less ugly now,” Jensen said, tapping a single finger over his eyepatch. “Bit more of a coward than I remember though—”

Rearing up as much as his bonds allowed, Trey twisted, punching him as hard as he could in the side of his face. The sudden movement hurt, the burning along his side telling him he’d ripped open a stitch or two. But hearing Jensen’s barked curse and seeing him stumble to the side made it well worth it.

Fucking asshole.

Holding a giant hand over the side of his face, his friend straightened his spine, meeting Trey’s furious gaze as a rare, real laugh burst out of him. “Took you long enough. Looks like there’s some fight left in you after all, my friend.”

Chapter 14

VERA

The featherlight brush of something along her back sent gooseflesh down her spine, and she shuddered, rolling her body deeper into the warmth encircling her. A responding rumble tickled her cheek, and she grumbled, snuggling in closer.