At that same moment, the kitchen door swung open again and a big Breed male stepped out, scowling as he dried his hands on a red-gingham dish towel.
Razor locked eyes with his Hunter brother. “Hey, Knox.”
He looked different from the last time Razor had seen him, and not only because the former assassin and general badass was currently wearing a white kitchen apron over his dark jeans and untucked flannel shirt.
Knox’s dark brown hair, which he’d always shorn close to his skull now fell tousled and loose around his face and neck. His cheeks and square jaw were covered in a thick, short beard that gave him a wolfish quality, made all the more pronounced by the dark slashes of his lowered brows and the laser-bright hue of his grayish blue eyes.
“Sorry for the unannounced arrival,” Razor offered.
Without replying, Knox tore off the apron and tossed it onto the counter between them. Then he glanced at Willow and his expression took on a grimmer look.
Razor’s brother had been aware of the fact that he’d been keeping an eye on a certain mountain cabin in Colorado for the past several months. Knox had even busted his ass a time or ten about Razor’s increasing long-distance obsession with the gorgeous brunette subject of his observation.
What he didn’t know—much like Razor himself—was that the woman he was supposed to be watching for Theo Collier and the one Razor had actually been seeing during his months of drone surveillance was her twin sister.
He felt a sudden jolt of dread that Knox might say something stupid about that covert assignment before Razor had a chance to explain himself to Willow on his own time.
Awkwardly, he cleared his throat. “This is Willow Valcourt. Willow, meet my brother, Knox, and his mate, Leni.”
“Hello,” she murmured to the couple.
“Hi, Willow.” Leni smiled, sliding easily under the shelter of her mate’s muscled arm.
Knox gave Willow a curt nod of greeting, but his gaze immediately swung back to Razor. “I’m going to guess this isn’t a social call.”
As always, his brother cut right to the chase. “I didn’t have anywhere else to go, or I would have.”
Another tight nod, then Knox shot a glance toward the diner’s front door and the lock clicked into place on his mental command. “We shouldn’t talk here in the open. The house is around back. Follow me.”
Razor helped Willow off the counter stool, then they stepped into the kitchen behind Knox and Leni. The diner lights went dark along the way, Knox using the power of his mind to lock the back door once they’d all exited to the rear of the place.
The white, two-story hip-roofed farmhouse stood a short walk behind the diner. The house was likely close to a couple centuries old but had been lovingly cared for, judging by the tidy exterior and the well-tended landscaping that framed the wraparound, covered porch. Hanging flower baskets were overflowing with cheery blooms on either side of the front door.
Razor never would have guessed Knox for the white picket fence type, but the home he and his mate shared was the epitome of cozy, small-town charm. He wouldn’t have figured Knox to be helping out in the diner’s kitchen either, yet somehow the life he’d made with Leni seemed to fit the big male now.
They entered the house, walking behind Knox and Leni down a short central hallway and into a cozy little kitchen in back. His brother turned on a large pendant light that hung over the center of a small breakfast table, then indicated the chairs situated around it.
They all sat down, Knox taking the chair directly across from Razor and eyeing him with suspicion under the spotlight overhead. Fitting, since this brotherly reunion was likely to turn into an interrogation.
“Never expected to see you this far north, Raze. What kind of trouble are you in?”
“It’s serious,” Razor admitted. “Bunch of assholes tried to ash me with ultraviolet bullets earlier tonight in Quebec City. I figured it was a good idea to get the hell out of there.”
Knox’s grim expression went even darker. “UV? Fuck. I know you can be a prick, but what’d you do to piss someone off that bad?”
Razor chuckled at the brotherly jab. He understood his brother wasn’t pleased with the situation, but hearing him defuse the gravity of it with dark humor went a long way toward reassuring him that his brother would be on his side no matter what. At least, he hoped so.
“Razor didn’t do anything to these people,” Willow interjected. “They tried to kill him because they’re after me now.”
Knox’s scrutinizing stare slid to her. “After you for what?”
“Willow’s sister was murdered a few days ago,” Razor said. “Her twin sister . . . in Colorado.”
He’d been hoping to pull that laser-focused wolf’s gaze back onto him and it worked. Knox frowned. “Her twin sister.”
Knox didn’t frame it as a question, but there were a hundred of them firing off in the male’s shrewd stare.
“Yeah,” Razor said. “Willow and Laurel were identical twins. Breedmates.”
