My nod feels numb, and I lean into Kit as he wraps his arm around my shoulder, and turns me away from the sight of him, kneeling on the floor.
“Will they do it… there?” I ask Kit in a whisper as he leads me into the kitchen. He hesitates, his eyes on my face.
“No. There is a place, not far from here. He won’t be found.”
Slowly, I nod. The adrenaline is draining away, leaving exhaustion in its wake, and I sit heavily on a stool as Kit opens a cupboard and pours me a glass of something dark.
“Drink this,” he says gently. He wraps my fingers around the glass, squeezing before he lets go. “It will help.”
I take a large gulp, and then cough as fire races through my veins. “Jesus.”
I wave Kit off when he reaches for the glass, taking another deep swig. And another, until the glass is clear. I hold it out to him silently, and he refills it for me.
“Rafe knew,” he says quietly, and I glance up at him. “That something was wrong. Laz had been gone too long, and he picked up on it. He ran, and we followed.”
I flex my wrist out, testing the sore muscle. “He did tell me not to leave the bedroom. I should have listened.”
Kit reaches for my wrist, his eyes flicking to me in silent request. When I nod, he carefully takes it in his hand, pressing gently against the bone. “It’s not broken.”
His fingers slide down to my hand, gripping it. I let him, let him hold onto me.
My voice is small when I speak again. “I didn’t… I didn’t think anyone would come. In time.”
“Stasi,” Kit says roughly when my voice cracks. “Come here.”
I slide from my stool as he opens his arms, unashamedly nestling into them, breathing him in.
“I told you,” he murmurs into my hair. “You’re not on your own anymore. I’m just sorry that we didn’t get there in time to stop him from touching you.”
I glance up at his tone. His eyes aren’t on me. They’re on the kitchen door, and his face is edged with the promise of violence.
“So,” I whisper, wanting to distract him. “Guns, huh?”
It works. He stiffens beneath me. Clears his throat. “Our work is… complicated.”
“Illegal,” I test.
His lips twist.
“Complicated. Most of what we do is completely legal. But…,”
He sighs. “There is always a dark side where money is involved. People will do almost anything to get it. To take it from you. So we do what we must, when we need to.”
I mull it over as his fingers tighten on my back.
“We protect what’s ours,” he says quietly. “Including you.”
His words shouldn’t make me feel warm. Silas and Rafe are outside in the dark, ending a man’slifebecause he tried to hurt me. And yet I can’t bring myself to feel the slightest bit of upset over it.
It feels nice to be protected.
When they walk in, I’m sat on Kit’s lap with an ice pack held over my cheek. Rafe stalks in first. The sleeves of his shirt are pushed up, filthy at the ends with mud and something darker. There’s a streak of scarlet across his cheek.
His eyes immediately find mine, and Kit relinquishes me to his twin as Rafe draws me close, his hands reaching up to examine the bruising. “I want to kill him again. Are you...,”
“I’m fine,” I promise him. It’s not far from the truth. My limbs have stopped shaking, the cold chased away by Kit’s embrace. “I swear, Rafe.”
His hands tighten on my face. “I promised you that you weresafehere.”
