Goliath closed the case, but his hand remained on top of it.
"I think he could be."
"That is not the same thing."
"No," Goliath agreed. "It is not."
Kamal searched his face, and because he had stood too near Goliath for too many years, he did not soften his words merely because the matter had become intimate.
"He wants the place more than he wants the bond."
Goliath's gaze turned to him slowly.
Many men would have dropped their eyes.
Kamal did not.
"You really dislike him," Goliath said.
"Yes."
A faint smile touched Goliath's mouth, but it did not last.
Kamal stepped closer, enough that his voice no longer needed to cross the room. "He was angry."
"He was disappointed."
"No," Kamal said. "He was angry."
Goliath's expression cooled.
Kamal bowed his head slightly, not in submission, but in acknowledgment that he was walking into dangerous ground and intended to continue anyway.
