Theo’s head tipped to the side, no question he picked up on the agitation, too. “You okay?”
“Yup,” was all I gave him. I sure as hell wasn’t about to dish about Daisy. Not when I didn’t have the first clue how I was going to handle the situation.
He gave a slight shrug, clearly not expecting anything else.
I turned to Kane, who was rising from the desk. “Let’s get this over with, yeah?”
He scuffed a hand through his light brown hair, face full of an overbearing smile. “Someone’s in a hurry. What, is it too much to hang out with your brothers for a little bit?”
There was no anger to it. Just a razzing, which I got about every time I got in their space.
“He’s just saving me from having to look at your ugly mug for that long,” Otto cracked as he crossed the room.
“You wish, asshole,” Kane tossed back. “Only reason you don’t want to be staring at me is because you get sad when you have to look at yourself in the mirror. Because this right here is one handsome motherfucker. Just ask my Em-Girl.”
Kane roughed a hand over his jaw that showed a day’s worth of stubble.
“Keep dreaming, man, keep dreaming. It’s my Moonflower who gets the treat every time she looks at me. Of course, the real treat is when I’mtouchingher.” Otto widened his blue eyes, laying it on thick.
River sent a warning grunt at him. Otto never stopped rubbing it in that he’d hooked up with Raven, played it up every fucking chance he got.
Way I saw it was he just couldn’t help himself from talking about the woman. He’d been obsessed his entire damned life, and it was a wonder they hadn’t gotten together earlier than they had.
They got married last fall and had a baby girl, Luna, just two months ago.
More proof that this family—this crew—was growing in ways that I didn’t know how to handle. The threat we lived amplified the farther we got away from the commitment we originally made to fly solo.
Couldn’t stop the flash of Daisy and her children’s faces that sailed through my mind.
I itched to get back. To make sure they were whole. To dig in and find the motherfucker who’d inscribed that fear in her expression.
I couldn’t wait to bleed him and do it slowly.
But I couldn’t focus on that right then. Silas was there and watching over them. He swore an oath to keep their presence on the down-low since I wasn’t ready to confess to anyone that I hadcompany. Last thing I needed were my brothers getting wind of it.
More than that was the oath he swore to protect them with his life, not that there was a chance that anyone could get through my cabin that might as well have been a castle, anyway.
I trusted him, the same as he trusted me to get his sister out.
“Cut the shit and let’s get downstairs,” I rumbled. “Have something we need to address, and we need to do it quickly.”
In an instant, their demeanors shifted. Each of my brothers hardened to steel.
Their bodies vibrating weapons.
Kane moved to the floor-to-ceiling bookshelves that lined the left wall, and he shifted some books around to get to the hidden keypad.
He tapped in the code, and a section of the bookshelf gave, opening to a stairwell concealed behind it. A dim light glowed from the depths.
He angled his head toward the narrow opening. “Then let’s get this party started.”
Otto ambled by. “Let’s do it.” He ducked through the opening, and River made a low sound as he followed.
Theo edged around me where I stood stock-still in the middle of the room, dude casting me an inquisitive glance as he passed. Kane waved his hand behind Theo. “Your turn, brother.”
My feet felt heavy as I took to the steps, laden with dread, and I wound down the narrow staircase to the dingy basement buried far below.
The cramped room was made of raw bricks and the floor was concrete, a long-forgotten hideaway that served as the perfect meeting spot for our secret society.
