Her eyes narrow. “All your parents died, or are you brothers?”
“We’re not blood brothers. Been friends since high school,” Beau replies.
I cut in. “We killed them. They killed our brother. We returned the favor.”
Her lips part slightly. “My parents were trash too,” she says softly. “I get it.”
Caleb pours more coffee. “Yeah, they killed him because his parents refused to scam the poor. After that…” He gestures around the kitchen.
Her eyes return to me. “And Eidolon?”
“It means ghost,” I tell her. “He’s why we hunt. We kill the kind of people who took him from us. Every job, every death… keeps him with us.”
She holds my stare a beat too long, not just on me but on the others too, and I catch the flicker. Her jaw tightens, her shoulders lock. She isn’t just listening—she’s slipping. Like she’s already pulling away, already deciding she doesn’t belong in what we’ve built.
Something shifts in her eyes, and she whispers, “I’m sorry,” before bolting.
“Tamsin.” The name tears from me, but she doesn’t stop.
I run her down in two strides and catch her before the hall swallows her. My hand clamps around her arm, pivoting her into the wall, my chest pinning her in place until the air between us is gone.
“What’s wrong?”
Her gaze darts away. “You—” She swallows the rest.
I grip her chin, force her eyes back to mine. “Me. What?”
“You really want me? This—” her hands twitch in the space between us, toward the closed doors and the sound of the others’ voices. “You already have each other. You’re a family. I don’t belong in it.” The words scrape raw out of her throat.
My jaw locks. “Oh, hellcat…”
I catch both her wrists in one hand and pin them above her head, her pulse racing against my fingers. My other hand slides under the shirt draped over her, down her stomach, shoving her panties aside. With no warning I thrust two fingers into her, curling deep until her gasp breaks against my mouth.
“This—” another thrust, slow and claiming, “—is mine. Only mine. No one else touches it. No one else tastes it. Mine.”
Her back arches against the wall, a tremor racing through her. “But what if—”
“I never had anyone belong soperfectly in this fucked up family.” I crush her mouth with mine before she can finish, my tongue shoving deep, matching the pace of my hand until she’s straining against me, wrists trapped, body caught between my weight and the wall at her back. I break the kiss just enough to speak against her lips.
“No what ifs. Even if you tried to leave, I wouldn’t let you. You’re mine, and I’m yours to take. You belong here. You belong to me.”
Her orgasm tears through her fast, hot around my fingers. I cover her mouth with my palm, muffling the moan that shakes out of her, holding her pinned until the shudders fade.
“No one hears you come but me,” I tell her, my hand firm on her jaw, my chest still pressed hard to hers. I’m not letting her go. Not now. Not ever.
Felix isn’t like the others, he’s more guarded, smarter and connected enough to make every trace disappear.
“I tracked him for a year, it’s impossible to get to him,” Tamsin says, sitting in the chair in our tech room.
Beau smirks at her from across the table. He likes herhere, says she calms me down. Truth is, if I’m not balls deep in her, I’m thinking about it. Every fucking second.
“Well,” I grunt, “he still has one weak spot.” I slide a file across to her. Page after page of glossy prints of blonde women with innocent smiles.
She frowns, flipping through. “Who are they?”
“His victims,” Caleb says, leaning against the wall, arms crossed, eyes locked on her. He’s studying every flicker in her face.
“See what they all have in common?” I watch her hands slow as she turns another page and freezes. It’s Daisy. The one photo Beau was supposed to remove from the file. My glare cuts across the room sharp enough to take his head off.
