“Jealous?” He chuckles, covering his mouth with a fist – what could he possibly be jealous about? “I’m just cautious.” Jealousy is for losers, who don’t know the first thing about control. Jealousy means uncertainty, and Mason isn’t prone to it. He tends to know. For example, he knows that Margot loves him, no matter what she might say or do. He knows that Lecter has something to do with her sudden outburst of maternal instincts. He knows, yet he does nothing, questioning, observing.
If Mason Verger cared about consequences, none of the twins would ever feel the need to go into therapy. But he doesn’t. He smiles and laughs and rolls a knife in his hand, carelessly ignorant. Crumbling innocence in the pits of his blue eyes won’t fool anyone, definitely not Hannibal. The Vergers are far from innocent.
“I don’t trust Will Graham. He might have proven himself not guilty of all those crimes, but, well,” he shrugs, gesturing vaguely. “I care about Margot.”
“You are many things, Mason, but you are not cautious.” Hannibal’s fingers itched with phantom motions, to slice and feel skin part like butter beneath his knife, and yet his hands remained utterly still. Because Hannibal was cautious, and nothing if not level-headed.
He adjusted himself in his chair. Folded his itching hands in his lap. Before him, he visualized the arterial spray of blood gushing from Mason’s neck as it would if Hannibal had his way. For someone who had begun looking like such a promising source of entertainment, Mason Verger had made himself quite the irritant.
Hannibal wondered what Will would do if Hannibal stepped back and allowed him to be his own first line of defense against Verger, instead of Hannibal. He tipped his head neatly to the side.
“You don’t care about Margot,” Hannibal enunciated clearly, carefully. “Not really. You bare no real love for you, though I do suspect you thrive off of your boundless control, do you not? I imagine it must feel much the same as love to you. It triggers the same surge of dopamine. When she is threatened, you feel just as defensive as any other brother, except it is not for fear of her safety, but fear of your loss of control.”
