Page 41 of Vicious Luna
He frowns in disapproval. “Why didn’t you follow protocol and bring backup?”
“I made a judgment call,” I state calmly. “I did what I thought was best at the time, and it was the right play. The situation was contained.”
“You’re damn lucky it was,” he grumbles.
“Well we could use a little luck right about now, couldn’t we?” I ask, arching a brow. “Where are those reinforcements we were promised, anyways?”
Dad’s frown deepens as he drags his feet off the top of the desk, his boots landing on the floor with a thud. “They’ll be here by the end of the week. Then we’ll get everything in order for our next move, brief the troops, and send the Luna home.”
I clench my jaw, my gut twisting as I begin drumming my fingers against the armrest of my chair.
‘Sending her home’ isn’t nearly as innocuous as it sounds. Whenever The Guild ‘sends a captive home’, it’s to deliver a message. A taunt to draw out their pack, pinned to their corpse.
His gaze flickers down to my hand, then back up to meet mine. “Something wrong with that?” my father questions, holding eye contact and arching a dark brow.
I cease the movement of my fingers on the armrest, lifting my hand to press them to my temple as my headache sharply intensifies, the beast of my anger rattling the mental cage I built for it. “No, I figured as much,” I mutter, massaging my temple with one hand and picking at a stray thread on the hem of my t-shirt with the other. “Just didn’t realize we were already at that point. You haven’t exactly been keeping me well-briefed lately on our strategy.”
“You haven’t been around much.”
“I’m always here,” I fire back, my tone laced with irritation as my composure starts to slip. “You’ve had plenty of opportunities to bring me up to speed.”
He stares into my eyes intently. “Not when you were sober.”
I stare back at him, grinding my molars. Speaking of being sober, it’s a good thing I came into this meeting that way, or I wouldn't be nearly as calm as I am right now. Or at least as calm as I appear. Internally, I’m raging, and if my inhibitionswere lowered by alcohol, I’d pop off and prove his point right about now.
Dad pushes back in his chair with a sigh. “This has always been the plan, Cameron. We’ll go over it in further detail when our backup arrives, but don’t act surprised that your little pet is being put down.”
“That’s not what this is about,” I grumble, staring at my lap as I curl and uncurl my fist.
“Then whatisit about?” he implores.
I look back up at him sharply. “Don’t think I haven't noticed that you’ve been hiding things lately.”
He blows out a slow breath, shaking his head. “Like I said, we’ll go over the full plan when all the pieces are in place. I don’t want to get ahead of ourselves, so for now, I’m keeping it close to my chest. Just trust me that what I’m working on is big play, and one that’ll solve our problems in this region once and for all.”
I watch him for a long moment, chewing on his words. He’s all but admitted that he’s hiding key information from me, but Jonathan Knox isn’t one to change his mind once he sets it on something. Despite the fact that none of this sits right with me, I give him a jerky nod, begrudgingly agreeing to let the subject drop.
Dad breathes out a relieved sigh, his expression softening. “It’s good to see you sober,” he remarks.
“Will you knock that shit off?” I mutter, rolling my eyes and turning to glance out the window at the thick forest beyond.
“I’m trying to tell you I’m proud of you, son,” he says, his voice so sincere that it entices me to swing my gaze around to meet his again. “I know things have been a little...strainedbetween us lately, but emotions have run high since we lost our men. Once we can leave this area and put it all behind us, things will go back to normal again, you’ll see.”
As normal as they can be without Ben.
“But for your part, I need you to find out what kind of numbers we’re up against with the Luna’s pack,” he continues. “It’s the only way to adequately prepare so we don’t repeat our past mistakes.”
He gives me a pointed look and I swallow thickly, nodding. “I’ll get it done.”
Dad pushes up from his chair, signaling the end of our meeting, and I barely spare him another glance before leaving the office and heading to my room. It’s dark when I enter, the curtains drawn tight like usual, and even though I eye the vodka bottle resting atop Ben’s old dresser, I don’t pick it up.
Instead, I flop down on my bed and power up my laptop, settling in to watch my beastie for a while on the new and improved camera feed. And as I watch her go through the motions of her morning workout routine, I can’t help but wonder how many days of watching her I’ve actually got left.
The restof the day passes in an uneventful blur. I go down to the cells to deliver Luna’s meals, but I don’t stick around to chat, even though I know I need to press her for information. I’m just not in the mood to speed along her demise, I guess. Deep down, I always knew things would end this way, but I guess I never considered how twisted up I might feel about it. I never spent any time around our other prisoners. Never got to know them, as I have her. And now I have no cluehowto feel.
Well, that’s not completely true. I know how I’msupposedto feel. As a soldier, I’m supposed to be ruthlessly focused on the objective, but as a human being, it just feels wrong. It shouldn’t. I shouldwantrevenge for Ben. But it fuckingdoes.
Rather than my usual half bottle of whiskey, I only indulge in a few beers as I watch Luna pace her cell from thesurveillance feed. In fact, I’ve been slowing down on the booze for the past several nights now. Guess I’ve traded one vice for another. Rather than poisoning my body with whiskey each night, I’m poisoning my mind withher.