Page 76 of Savage Empire

My hands twitch, flexing around the edge of my desk. “Wasn’t aware you two were close enough to have an alliance.”

“It’s a new development. We get along.” She shrugs. “Why do you care?”

“Who said I did?”

“Your tone,” Rayna deadpans, folding her arms. “And your eyes. You look like you’re trying to light a fire with that stare.”

“Don’t know what you’re talking about,” I grumble, averting my gaze. “What do you want, Rayna?”

I watch from the corner of my eye as she bristles, reacting to my clipped question. “Didn’t realize I was bothering you so much. I was hoping to give Sienna an approximate time for Elio’s arrival.”

Of course.

Why else would she seek me out?

“An hour,” I report dryly. “An hour and twenty minutes at most.”

“That’s fast.” Rayna looks surprised. “I’ll tell her now.” She takes out her phone and types quickly, sighing with something like relief as she sends the message.

“If that’s all, you can leave now.”

She flinches slightly and meets my eye. “What’s with the passive aggressive attitude?”

My jaw clenches, twitching hard. “You tell me. You’re the one who thinks she knows everything.”

“Aren’t you like, thirty?” She huffs, folding her arms. “You sound like you’re throwing a fit. If you have a problem, just say it.”

“I’m thirty-three, and that’s rich coming from you.” I have the sudden urge to shake her, just to put my hands on her in some way.

I don’t want to hurt her, but I want… something.

Shaking off the feeling, I continue, “You’ve apparently had a secret problem with me and my entire family that you’ve refused to bring up for over a week. Not during one of our many spats where I inquired about your trust in me. No, instead, you decided to air your grievances with an audience.”

“Seriously? You’re pissed at me for this?” She gapes, mouth dropping open as she pops her hands onto her hips. “Even your father isn’t mad about the outburst. And not to mention, a week isn’t exactly a long time to build trust. Of course I still have things you don’t know about!”

“No, of course. A week is just long enough for you to share secrets with Elio and develop an alliance with Leon. But telling the man who’s shown you over and over again that he’s going totake care of you about your best friend who’s in danger—no, too soon for that. Better wait to do that in front of the whole family.”

She groans, pinching the bridge of her nose. “Apollo, it was one dinner. Please, do us both a favor and get over it!”

“You think I’m pissed at you for ruining dinner? Now who’s the one who isn’t listening?” My voice is slow, disbelieving and dark.

Rayna throws up her hands, nearly growling in frustration. “What then? I thought we were fine. We came to an ‘understanding’ according to you. So what gives?”

Curling up a lip, I sneer, “You’ve yelled at me, insulted me to my face, attempted to slap me, and you think that causing the family dinner to go off the rails is why I’m fuming right now? I thought you were smarter than that.”

Rayna freezes, shoulders going stiff and eyes turning hard. “Did you just call me dumb?”

“Well, I didn’t just accuse you of being bright, did I?”

“Apollo!” she gasps. “You can be mad at me all you want, but mocking me and my intelligence is just low. What is your problem?”

What is my problem?

Will this woman ever stop testing my patience?

“You kept this from me. You all but charged me with being compliant in a young girl’s continued abuse, after everything we’ve just been through. I have doneeverythingfor you and Yordan, and still you see me as some kind of conniving monster.”

“I don’t see you as a monster?—”