No reason to feel a strange sort of jealousy witnessing evidence of their relationship. Their friendship hasn’t been damaged by being in Sabine Valley the way mine and Broderick’s has. If anything, they seem stronger than ever. Then again, Broderick and I have never been intimate the way Cohen and Maddox have.
I can’t think about that, though. No matter my attraction to Broderick, no matter how much he’s irritating me right now, the fact remains that he is one of the most important people in my life. Eventually things will settle down and we’ll reclaim those soft moments and the easy conversation and everything that’s disappeared between us.
We have to.
I attempt a smile, even as my insides twist uncomfortably. “Ezekiel was messing with you. You just weren’t asking the right questions.”
Cohen releases a long breath. “The right questions, huh? Let’s not make that same mistake twice.” He holds my gaze. “Are you fucking Monroe, Shiloh?”
Part of me expected the question. It’s the one I would have asked in their position, with the information they have at hand. Even after trying to prepare myself, my face goes so hot that I get a little light-headed. There’s no point in lying. If they haven’t figured it out already, they will soon because Monroe is about as subtle as a brick through a window. I shouldn’t like that about her, especially when it’s complicating my life right now.
I finally nod. “Yes.”
I expect them to be angry—or at least irritated—but Cohen slaps his hand against his thigh and stands. “That will be useful. Stick to that woman. She’s making moves, and we need to figure out what they are. I don’t care how you find out, whether it’s listening in during the day or at night with pillow talk. Just get it done.”
“Okay,” I say slowly.
For his part, Maddox looks conflicted. “Does Broderick know?”
No use lying about this, either. “Yes.”
They exchange a glance. Maddox finally says, “You want to talk to him, or should I?”
“I’ll do it.” Cohen starts for the door. “Right about the time I break up that little family get-together he arranged.”
Maddox waits until he’s gone to say, “I hope you know what you’re doing. Monroe isn’t like our people. She’s looking out for the Amazons, and she’s not about to let something as soft as emotions get in her way, no matter how fond of you she is.”
Just like that, my uncomfortableness is gone, replaced by the anger that’s quickly becoming my go-to emotion. I have fought and won and lost and bled with these people, and all it takes is Broderick losing his head for them to start looking at me like I’m a damsel in distress. I’m a fucking warrior. Gods, I used to be an Amazon. I know more about what Amazons are capable of than anyone in this compound, Brides excluded.
I am so damn tired of being underestimated.
I hardly recognize myself as I stand and pin him with a look. “Have I once, in the entire time we’ve known each other, given you reason to question my conduct?”
Maddox opens his mouth, seems to reconsider what he was about to say, and finally shrugs. “No.”
Yeah, I didn’t think so. “I understand that you and the others see me as some sort of stand-in little sister, but I am not an innocent. I haven’t been one since long before I ever knew the Paine brothers existed. I can handle Monroe.” I don’t know if the last bit is the truth, but I’m also not about to let my infatuation with the woman undermine my loyalty to the people I’ve spent the last seven years shoulder to shoulder with.
I hate that everyone is questioning that, as if I’m a babe in the woods who will be swept away by the first person showing me a kind word. Though I wouldn’t call anything about Monroe kind.
Even if she was so fucking sweet on my tongue last night.
“I have it under control,” I finally say.
“For all our sakes, I sure as fuck hope you do.”
Chapter 14
Broderick
Watching the Rhodius family speak softly to each other makes me so fucking uncomfortable. I have spent so much of my life hating the other factions, a hate that only ramped up after the night that changed everything. From what we’ve pieced together since, Aisling worked with Ciar of the Mystics and Deacon Walsh to conspire against us. The Mystics provided the drugs that the dinner was dosed with, and the Amazons sent a squad to barricade the exits and light the building on fire. If not for the fact that my brothers and I had skipped dinner because Abel called a surprise meeting, we would have died in that fire.
Aisling is Monroe and Winry’s mother, Jasper’s older sister. These three might not have been any part of the decision that ended with forty innocent people being killed, but they are part of the ruling family. They’ll have made different hard decisions that involved different deaths.