Page 106 of Scavenger's Oath

Pushing back from the table, I straighten and cross my arms. “You know when I'm like this, you usually say I need a fuck. Should I return the favour?”

He throws me a look that could flay skin off bone.

Bingo.

“You're not good at hiding it,” I say, dropping the smile. “You think you are. But you're not.”

He exhales hard through his nose. I let this silence hang for a beat, then tap the map on the table. We don’t have time for this shit. There are people out there looking for her, and he’s sitting here sulking. We already found out too late.

Myles and I went over the plan this morning before Zane even got up. Our police station marked in red, traps and mines marked with crosses. The perimeter route drawn in a loop, supply cache points, everything.

“Here's the setup.”

He doesn't even fucking look.

I roll my eyes and run through the main points. “We’ll splitup. Create lures, pull attention. Make any scouts believe we’re holed up in the grocery store, which we’ll rig with snares, tripwires, even a beartrap if you can spare one. Myles will stay behind with Ivy.”

His head snaps toward me like I punched him. “What!?”

I blink slowly. “You haven't even heard….”

“I've heard enough!” he snaps. “You want to split our strength.” His biceps ripple with tension as his voice lowers to a deadly octave. “And leave Ivyalone.”

He says it like it's the dumbest idea I've ever had.

But I stare him down anyway. “She won’t bealone. She'll be with Myles,” I pause. “Myles is the best person to protect her.”

“You can't be serious,” he scoffs, scowling.

Leaning on the table, I grit my teeth. “He won't be useful out there. He's too hot headed, too reckless. But in here? With one thing to focus on? He'll do whatever it takes to keep her safe.”

“The same guy you pulled off her a week ago?” Zane growls, jumping to his feet and pacing as if movement might burn off the poison. “The one who was going to carve his name into her? Who treats her like shebelongsto him? She'snot‘safe’with him.”

I straighten, facing him across the table. “I’ve put him back in line,” my voice rumbles, a growl buried beneath layers of self-control. “I'm trying to keep her alive and I trust Myles will do the best job of that.”

Ivy isn't like us. She's gentle in a world that eats softness alive. She barely even raises her voice. How the hell am I even supposed to protect something that breakable?

Sure, she’s a defiant, silver-tongued little problem. Honestly, a formidable opponent mentally. But physically? She couldn’t win a fight with a rabbit. And her jibbing could get her in serious trouble with the wrong people.

I’ve seen what men are capable of. Zane’s seen it too. But where I had to bury the body of my ex, he was forced to participate in the capture and brutalising of women.

He opens his mouth, shuts it again. I can see the retort forming behind his clenched teeth.

His eyes narrow. “That's not why you picked him.”

“No?” I tilt my head. ‘’Enlighten me.”

“You're trying to atone.” His voice lowers, sharp and cold. “He was walking around like a kicked dog after you ‘puthim back in line’. You took what wasn't yours and pretended it was for their benefit. Like she was yours to claim and him too. As if we're not all breathing the same damn air around her. All of us walking a tightrope.”

Looking back down at the map, I press the pen into paper until it almost snaps. Zane sees fucking everything.

I tried to stay away from her. I really did. But I’m completely obsessed, and I can’t deny it any longer.

“Maybe,” I admit, meeting his death stare. “But I had to stop Myles’s destructive spiral. He’s trying now… and he needs a chance to prove himself.”

“So it’s for his sake now? Charity? Rehabilitation?” He takes a step towards me and for a minute I think we might end up fighting it out, like when he first joined us. But then he turns and starts pacing again.

“I trust him. We both know Myles would tear his own throat out before letting anyone hurt her,” I grind out, my chest squeezing at the thought of something happening to her. She's part of our group now. But she's the weakest link.