He followed close behind me. Daniel was stepping into sweats as I entered the room, his strong body showing no evidence of the damage it had taken. Declan hadn’t done anything Daniel couldn’t fix in a couple of minutes.
Dev gave him a caustic smile. “You win that bet, Dan. She thinks she’s running.”
Danny looked over at me, his lips a flat line. “Baby, don’t do this. You’re digging a hole.”
But it was my damn hole and there weren’t any bodyguards or people who wanted to hold me back down in my hole.
Dev didn’t seem to want to listen to Daniel any more than I did. “Before you attempt to leave, Zoey, I would like to ask you a few questions.”
Taking a deep breath, I moved to face him. “Fine, Dev, ask away.”
“What did you think you would gain by walking away today?”
That was an easy one. “I thought I would figure out what was happening to me. You didn’t seem to give a crap.”
“I will admit I mishandled the situation last night. I am very sorry about it. I should have listened to you. I can only say that dealing with your father put me in a bad mood. This morning however, is a completely different matter. You didn’t call me. Didn’t think to talk to me.”
“Oh, I did. I talked to you. You just turned out to be Declan.”
He shook his head. “And you should have called me. The minute you realized what had happened, you should have called me or Daniel.”
“Because you would have believed me.” They wouldn’t have. They would have come up with twelve different ways I’d done the wrong thing, and I was so tired of being treated like an idiot.
Dev looked to me, his face a polite mask. “Please tell me what I have done to earn this. What have I failed to provide you with? I’ve given you a home. There’s an entire staff to wait on you. You need only ask for something and it’s provided.”
“You wanted me to move in here, Dev. It wasn’t like I didn’t have a place of my own,” I shot back because I’d been called property one too many times already. “I can certainly get another. I stopped working because the two of you wanted me to.”
Daniel sat down on the bed, watching Dev and I circle each other. “Zoey, that was for the best. We’ve got to concentrate on taking over the Council. We’re close to being able to do it.”
“That’s not the point, Dan,” Dev said, his emerald eyes on me. “Zoey broke trust with us today. We agreed to this arrangement. She agreed to her bodyguards, and the first time she finds it inconvenient, she takes off on her own without leaving so much as a note to let us know she’s still alive.”
Anger welled in my gut. He wanted to do this now? Oh, I could do this. He had no idea what it meant to be followed every minute of every day. “The first time? I assure you, Devinshea, I’ve found Zack to be entirely inconvenient from the day you hired him.”
“Well, you get your wish on that one, sweetheart, because I fired them both,” Dev said smoothly. “Zack will continue to work with Daniel, but I’ll be supplying Lee with a one-way ticket back to Nevada in the morning.”
“Don’t. I like Lee.” And I hated the fact that I’d gotten him in trouble.
Dev’s face went stony and stubborn. “He was supposed to bring you home. I will not be defied like that. I’ve already hired a security firm to handle you from here on out. You’ll have four guards on you at all times and three others watching from a distance. I doubt you’ll be able to shoot them all.”
It was everything I’d dreaded. And everything I couldn’t accept. I couldn’t live like that. I’d hated the last several months where I was never alone, always watched. It made me insane. I couldn’t work, couldn’t breathe.
“I’m not going to be a prisoner.” I walked over to my closet and pulled out a backpack. I threw it on the bed. “You and Daniel can come and go as you please, but I have to give up everything I am so the two of you can play your little games with the Council.”
Taking my arm in his hand, Dev whirled me around, and I was shocked at the anger I saw there. It made me try to take a step back. He crowded me, using every inch of his six and a half feet to invade my space. “This has nothing to do with the Council, Zoey, and everything to do with the killer who’s stalking you. I apologize that you’ve been forced to give up the more impulsive portions of your personality in order to stay alive. And don’t you dare say I’ve given up nothing for you. You have no idea the sacrifices I’ve made in order to continue to remain at your side.”
“Oh, I have some idea,” I spat back, warming to my topic now. He’d kept a few things from me. “There was something about six priestesses. What’s wrong, Dev? You couldn’t find a seventh so you could screw a different girl every day of the week?”
“I knew she was going to find out about that one day,” Daniel said, staring at us with his arms crossed.
I was just about to ask how Danny knew about it when Dev’s demeanor changed, and I knew I’d pushed him past politeness. “Oh, sweetheart, I didn’t have one lover for each day of the week. I fucked all six of them every day of the week. I assure you, I took their pleasure seriously. It was my job, and I always do my job.”
“And the mistresses?” I asked because I just wanted it all out there. If we were going to break up, I wanted to know every minute detail. “I seem to remember you saying I was your only serious girlfriend. Guess that was a lie.”
“My brother was a busy boy today,” Dev pointed out. “He’s been telling tales. Let’s clear this up, then. I haven’t had any human girlfriends except you, and I’ve been absolutely monogamous since the moment we began dating, even when you returned to Daniel. I apologize for having a life before you, Zoey. We can’t all be as pure as Daniel over there.”
“Don’t you bring me into this, Dev,” Daniel warned. “I told you we were pushing her too hard. I told you she was going to wake up and want to be herself again and we would have to deal with it.”
Dev frowned Daniel’s way. “Well, of course. You know everything, Dan. I’m sure you’re planning on leaving with her.”
“I was planning on not letting her leave at all,” Daniel replied, looking fed up with both of us.
“You’re avoiding the point.” I wanted to get back to the fight. “Did you or did you not keep a bunch of women? I want to know if I’m just the latest in a long line of women Devinshea Quinn paid for and got rid of when he got bored.”
“You should know I was extremely generous with each of them when I was done,” Dev drawled with a bad-boy smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “My mother once asked if I planned to empty the royal coffers with payouts to my women. If it makes you feel better, lover, you’re absolutely the most expensive woman I’ve ever paid to fuck.”
My hand shot out, instinct leading me, and I slapped him with everything I had. I couldn’t stop my face from flushing with rage.
Dev shook his head to let me know my little attempt at violence had been somewhat pathetic. “You’re also the most trouble I’ve ever gone to for a piece of ass.”
“Stop it.” Daniel stood up, his voice stern. “Damn it, Dev. If I ever want to get rid of you, all I have to do is wait and let you do the work for me. Do you ever think about the shit that comes out of that mouth of yours? You don’t mean a word of it but it just keeps coming.”
Backing away from me, Dev sat down on the bed and let his head fall into his hands. “I was good at this once. I was good at handling women. I never yelled at a female until I met Zoey. I certainly never pushed one to strike me.”
“You never loved one before, man,” Daniel said quietly, and I knew this wasn’t the first conversation they’d had about me. It caught me off guard as I’d never considered they discussed me in anything more than a casual way. I knew they spent time together working and playing video games but not talking about their lives. Daniel obviously knew things about Dev he’d never chosen to discuss with me.