Page 71 of Intolerable Bishop

He walked across the room, and it felt strange to be in here alone with him when we hadn’t been alone…ever. I glanced at the door, but he grabbed my arm and pushed me back until I was up against the wall.

“What do you want?”

I couldn’t tell if he wanted to hurt me or fuck me or both. He gave off similar confusing signals as Nash. His eyes were intense, but other than that, his face gave nothing away.

“You want Theo to be part of your line-up of men, sure. You want me to fuck you with him, sure. But I’m only going to say this once. If you try to take him from me, it won’t be your famously dangerous family you’ll have to worry about.”

A bead of sweat trickled down my back. “I wouldn’t do that to you and Theo.”

“Maybe. You don’t seem the type and I’m good at reading people. But I wanted there to be no miscommunication where I stand.” Liam leaned in close and whispered in my ear. “I’ll make you scream if Theo wants me to, but make no mistake…Theo. Is. Mine. Understand?”

I had no idea that Liam could be as terrifying as Nash, maybe more. It was whiplash from the quiet guy who hung around the group and made the odd joke or even the guy who had saved my life.

“Yes, I understand.”

“Good, then we’ll get along fine.” He pushed back and crossed his arms just as Myles opened the door.

“What’s going on,” Myles asked, his tone suspicious as he eyed us.

“Just having a chat with Ren. She was speaking to Fiona, who confirmed that her mother married an Ivankov.”

He really had heard everything. Liam was far deadlier than I’d ever imagined. It was like he fucking materialized in here. I hadn’t seen or heard the door move, and there was a squeaky floorboard just inside the room that he avoided. Myles looked to me for confirmation, and this was another one of those moments where I needed to tread carefully.

“Yeah, she also found out that my grandfather is terrifying. He almost makes Lawrence sound like a pussy cat.” I held up my finger before either of them could say anything. “I said almost.”

“Is that all that was going on,” Myles asked, stepping into the room.

“Liam and I needed to chat about….” I bit my lip. “Him and Theo and how this is going to work if we go forward,” I said, and Myles’s face relaxed.

“Oh. Aye, I guess that should be a conversation.” He rubbed the back of his neck.

“I’m good. I said all I need to.” Liam clamped his hand on Myles’s shoulder and smiled at him. “I don’t plan on having you in the room when I make her scream,” he said and then ducked as Myles playfully swung at him. If I hadn’t just seen a very sinister side to Liam, I would’ve said he was as easygoing as Myles. Did they even realize that they all wore masks and hid who they really were so much?

Myles wrapped his arm around my waist and kissed the top of my head. “You ready to kick Theo’s arse.”

“Better believe I am.”

An hour later, everyone else had given up but me and Theo as we argued every single question until we were blue in the face.

Theo drew the next card and sighed. “Oh, come on. This is too easy.”

“Just give me the question, and stop trying to find the hardest. We’ll get to them.”

“Fine. Hockey and blank make up the two national sports of Canada?”

“Okay, you’re right, that’s too easy.” I looked at Myles sitting on the couch. “Lacrosse.”

“Correct.”

“My turn.” I grabbed the box from him and pulled out a random card. “Oh, this is a good one. In what year did Canadian Fredrick Banting and his team succeed in purifying insulin for diabetes treatment?”

“Please, everyone knows that. Nineteen-twenty-one.”

“Hold up. A Canadian invented insulin,” Blake asked, and Theo and I nodded together. “Shit, the things you learn playing…no, I take that back, listening to a trivia game.”

“We’ve exhausted almost the whole box.” Theo held up the box that only had a few dozen cards left and then chose one. “In what province and city is the largest provincial legislative building,” Theo asked.

“That would be Regina, Saskatchewan.” I smiled at Theo, who rolled his eyes.