“I can help you get to Sterling,” he murmurs, voice low, rough. “But we do it my way. You can still cut his balls off. I honestly don’t give a fuck about that, but I’m not letting you get into danger again.”
My heartbeat pounds. “Why do you care?” The words come out quiet. “You don’t even know me.”
His fingers brush under my chin, his thumb tilts my face toward his; the mask is so close my lips nearly brush the fabric.
“You’re doing this for your cousin,” He breathes out, his breath is warm, then he pauses for a second. “And as for—” He cuts himself off, and steps back before finishing the rest of the sentence, turns and walks toward the door.
“As for what?” I call after him, taking a step forward, heat flushing up my neck. “What?”
He stops but doesn’t turn, just tilts his head slightly.
“As for why I need to protect you… why I’d kill anyone who touches you…” His shoulders drop. “I don’t know, Tamsin. There’s just something in your darkness that completes mine.”
The door clicks shut behind him.
And I’m left standing here, heart pounding, breath stuck halfway up my throat.
I don’t know what to say.
I don’t even know what to feel.
Chapter Nine
This fucking balaclava is going to kill me.
I rip it off and drag in a breath as if I’ve been suffocating, the cold air slamming into my skin and doing nothing. Nothing to cool the burn crawling under it.
“You okay, Eiden?” Beau steps into the hallway, watching me as though he’s trying to read me.
“Yeah.” The word grinds out of me as I shake my head, jaw tight, trying to get a grip. “Tamsin… she just—” I rub a hand over my face, scrubbing at the heat that’s settled behind my eyes, as if I can erase it.
Beau doesn’t fill the silence, he just waits.
“You really like her, don’t you?”
His voice is quiet, no teasing, no smirk, but it still hits harder than I want it to. Caleb appears behind him, carrying a plate of food and a bottle of water. For her.
Fuck.
“I…” My back hits the wall and I let my head fall forward, as though gravity’s got the answer I don’t. “I don’t fucking know. She’s addictive. I’m obsessed with her. With her darkness. With how unhinged she is. Her taste…” My teeth grit. “It’s insane, I know it is. But I’d go to war over the way she moans. Over the blood she spills. Over the fact she doesn’t flinch when I get violent.”
Caleb’s voice cuts through, calm but edged. “So what now?”
“Now…” I lift my head, locking eyes with both of them. “Now we help her finish her hunt.”
“And after?” Beau asks, gaze unblinking. “When she goes back home? Back to her aunt, cousin, and her old life?”
“She won’t.” I push off the wall, each step forward heavy. “She’ll never leave this place.” My voice drops lower, certain. “She’ll never leave me.”
“Fuck, Eiden,” Beau mutters, a short, low laugh following him as Caleb moves to knock on her door.
“Be careful,” I call after him. “She bites. And wear your mask.”
I head for the office. My boots drag a heavy rhythm over the hardwood until I drop into my chair, and the screens flare to life. Sterling’s entire file blooms across them—maps, names, movement logs, weak points. Tonight, it’s not Tamsin hunting him, it’s us.
“She hit him with the plate,” Beau says from the doorway, grinning.
I turn just enough to catch him, biting back the smirk that tries to pull at my mouth. Of course she did.
