Fury and Flame | 3

6 | 3

D E L P H I N I U M

      It had been too long. Hours had passed since Jake had left and he hadn't come back since.

Every slam of the secret entrance made my head snap up, wondering if I'd see him in the threshold of the side room Jaxon and I were still situated in. My wrists hurt from the coarse rope, but I hadn't fought against it. There was no use. So Jaxon and I sat on the floor, shoulder to shoulder.

"Why didn't he want me there?" I finally voiced aloud when the thoughts were too much for my mind. "I could have had eyes on Hundsen from afar. I could have helped protect him from...whatever's going on."

A voice at the doorway cut off whatever Jaxon was about to respond with. "I know why he left your ass here while he went off to fight." I looked up to see Benton leaning with one shoulder in the doorway, a slight twist to his lips. "Don't you?"

"What are you doing here?" Jaxon snapped, looking ready for a fight with Benny, as always. "Shouldn't you be off somewhere, being smug and reading everyone's thoughts like the asshole you are?"

"I'm here to speak with my dear friend Delphinium. As for the thought-reading, I'll settle for yours for now," the assassin responded just as nastily. "Thoughts about your anger with Evans, and how your slip-up cost the both of you your freedom—"

"Tell me why," I interrupted, not particularly wanting to hear them get into it again when I was already on-edge. "Why did he go alone?"

Benton fixed liquid-dark eyes on me. "He had to do this himself—to show the Club that he alone is their best shot." There was a pause. "Evans suspected it was part of Hundsen's plan to lure you there as backup for him and end up killing you. You usually accompany him on his jobs anyway, especially where Hundsen is concerned. It's not surprising that he'd want revenge. And Evans had other plans."

      I sighed, sliding my back down the pole to sit on the ground. Eyes on the ceiling, I said, "Of course he didn't mention that."

      The assassin gave a low chuckle at that, like he knew something I didn't. "He doesn't mention a lot of things. You have no idea what he's hiding."

      "Like what?" I turned to look at Jaxon, who sat next to me, eyes straight forward. I could hear the bitterness in his tone, but I wasn't sure if it was for Benny or Jake.

      "Like his real name, not the one his father gave him. Or the extent of Hundsen's revenge on him for killing his father and taking the Club for his own."

      "I know his real name," Jaxon said, something in his tone a bit hollow. "In prison, they used his given name, Emerson. But he made it clear that I wasn't to call him by that name." I raised my eyebrows, not having known that. It would never seem like his real name to me.

      "And we know why he wants revenge on Hundsen: for turning his men against him and forcing him out of the Club—stealing all his power and getting him thrown into prison. And he suspected that Hundsen was helping his father scheme to kill him," I finished, finding it odd that Benny thought we didn't know it. Unless there was more, as I'd always suspected...

      "You're right in assuming there's more," Benny told me. "Why do you think he hit Hundsen so devastatingly with his wife's death? Because Hundsen took one of his family members."

      His mother... Had Hundsen killed her? "No..."

      Benny cut me off, eyes boring into my face. "After Nathan Evans adopted Jake and hardly let his birth mother see him, they struggled for years. As a weapons supplier, Hundsen had near-unlimited access to guns. So when Angeline fell into a depressive spiral, Hundsen took it upon himself to go to her and give her a gun. She ended herself that night."