Page 77 of Wicked Lord

Gage, on the other hand, wasn’t buying my bullshit. “Micah said his attacker was fairly large, like a pro athlete or something.”

A string of curses raced through my mind, and I stood, averting my gaze to the dark hardwoods.

“That would explain the ass-kicking he got. The guy must have been strong. Micah’s not a little wimp.” I snatched my phone off my desk and hurried to the door. “I’m off to get a snack before I lose my cool again. Later, boys.”

I darted down the hall like fire nipped at my heels. Gage was too damn perceptive for his own good. Killian would have noticed my crap too if he wasn’t so obsessed with Lexi.

Instead of going to the kitchen, I made a detour to the second floor and took a few turns deeper into the massive house, stopping at a familiar door. As I knocked, it creaked open, revealing Micah’s demolished room. Thanks to yours truly.

He cursed as he bent to pick up books I’d tossed off the shelf.

“I’ll get them.” I hurried in, guilt swirling in my gut. “I heard you got mugged. Damn, someone trashed your room, too? Did you break a mirror or something?” I gave a dry chuckle.

Micah held his ribs and breathed through gritted teeth. “You can drop the bullshit, Ax.”

Dread tightened my throat as I positioned the books on the shelf. “What are you talking about?”

Shit.Did he figure out I was the psycho in the mask?

He limped to the door and closed it before spinning on me.

“Another Lord kicked my ass and destroyed my room.” Micah yanked his glasses off, a wire-rimmed pair instead of the black ones I broke, and pinched the bridge of his nose. “You toldme Vaughn was having me followed. Apparently, he decided to scare me and steal Susanna’s wallet.”

“These are not people you want to fuck with.” I plucked another few books from the ground and slid them back on the shelf. “So, I guess you’re done with this whole investigation thing.”

He eased onto his bed, wincing. “I can’t give this up, Axel.”

“You can’t be serious. If you don’t heed their warning, the next step is going to be a bullet in your head.” And Vaughn would probably force me to do it.

“What kind of a friend would I be if I just let this go?”

“One still with a heartbeat.” I marched over and sat on his bed, Susanna’s wallet burning a hole in my pocket. “What’s the endgame for you, Preston? If you find out the society killed this girl, then what? You can’t go to the cops. Plenty of Ascended pepper the judicial system, and you would be the only one to suffer any consequences.”

Micah slumped over and dragged his hand through his short blond hair.

“Maybe just knowing the truth will be enough.” As he turned to me, the deep purple and blue bruises around one of his hazel eyes punched me in the chest. “Wouldn’t you want to know if it was your friend?”

Was it possible to feel even worse for this guy? “This organization is dangerous, Micah. You never should have gotten involved.”

“Yeah, well, it’s too late.”

Could Micah really drop this thing if he simply knew the truth? Would it satisfy his obsession and allow him to stop putting himself in harm’s way?

After leaving Micah’s room, I hurried down the stairs and used the secret entrance in the hallway to the catacombs. Obviously, I’d lost my mind because the next thing I knew, I wasin the archives, searching for Susanna Michaels’ file in one of the many slick black cabinets.

There were enough skeletons in this room to ruin the wealthiest men. If the wrong person stumbled on these secrets, the ripple effects would probably cause this whole damn country to crumble. The brotherhood only stored this treacherous intel on its members to hold over our heads in case we stepped out of line.

So here I was, sticking my neck out there to save Micah’s ass.

Instead of getting Gage involved to shut off the cameras, I pretended to simply return the wallet while attempting to glean some pertinent information that I could pass to Micah to satisfy his deadly curiosity.

Unfortunately, everything was in the smallest fucking print ever, and I couldn’t read shit sideways.

The slamming of a door echoed, and my pulse shot through the roof.

Son of a bitch!

Someone was down here.