“Blonde hair. Blue eyes,” she whispers. Her fingertip rests on Daisy’s picture and her voice shakes, but there’s fire rising behind her eyes.
No one speaks. I reach for her hand, and she exhales, the tension in her shoulders dropping just enough to calm my edge. I press a kiss to the top of her head. “I’m sorry.”
Her gaze lifts, steady now. “So what’s the plan?”
“There’s an event,” Beau says, pulling up images of a riverfront mansion on the monitors. “High-stakes poker. Caleb will be at the table, and he’ll put downsomething Felix can’t walk away from.”
“And what’s that?” she asks, the corner of her mouth curling.
“You.”
Her smile vanishes. “Excuse me?” She stands, and I catch the flick of Beau’s eyes to her leg, where she usually hides her blade.
“She’s unarmed, Beau,” I grunt before he can open his mouth.
“Caleb will bet you,” Beau goes on, still staring at her hands as if a knife might magically appear. “He’ll lose. Felix loves breaking women. Having you against your will, and against Caleb, will be the only thing he can’t refuse.” He slides a bag toward her.
She pulls out a high-end blonde wig, blue contact lenses, tanning cream, and a short black-and-red dress with matching heels.
“Oh, this is—” she starts, turning to me. “Why is Caleb going instead of you?”
Before I can speak, Caleb grins. “Because if Felix so much as touches you, he’d be dead before anyone could blink, and there will be a room full of millionaires watching.”
Her eyes glint, and the look she gives me is pure pride. The shine in her eyes tells me she knows I’d slaughter a man for her, and she fucking loves it.
“Okay,” she says, slipping the wig on to check her reflection in the monitor. “So what happens after he wins me?”
“Caleb will tell him he’s got a yacht on the river,” Beau explains. “Felix will think he’s fucking you there. He won’t make it that far—”
I rip the wig off her head, my fist clenching around it hard enough to make the synthetic strands pull. “He’s not touching you,” I growl.
Her brows lift, that dangerous little smile tugging at her lips. It’s like my fury makes her happy, even horny.
I’m fucked.
I toss the wig to Beau without looking away from her. “We’ll be waiting. While I handle him inside, Caleb and a friend will deal with his security, and if he gets one inch closer than I want…” My fingers curl under her chin, forcing her eyes to mine. “…I’ll paint that mansion with him.”
I pull her into my chest, locking her here. “We’ll protect you, hellcat. I’ll make sure you walk out of it safe.”
She smirks. “I’ve killed two men all by myself before. I can handle it.”
I pull her tighter, my hand locking at the small of her back. “Not anymore. Now you’re mine, and don’t forget, I was already watching when you killed your first.”
Her smirk deepens, the kind that makes my hands itch to drag her across the room and fuck her against the wall until she forgets her own name.
“We’ve got three days to get ready,” Beau says, already sketching out Caleb’s new backstory: old money, spoiled, reckless gambler with a beautiful fiancée. The perfect lure for Felix’s appetite.
“Three days,” she repeats. “Mind if I visit my family, just in case—” Her words stall when she catches how all three of us go still.
“Of course, hellcat.” My tone softens for her, and I brush her hair back, slow enough to make her lean into it. “But you’ll come back, right?”
She hooks a hand in my shirt, pulling me down until her lips graze mine. “Always, my masked man.”
The kiss burns slow and deep. My arms wrap her up as if I could weld her into me.
“For fuck’s sake, get a room,” Beau mutters when we finally pull apart.
I grab the bike keys and stalk out, my boots heavy against the floor. Outside, the air is cool and wet with the smell of rain on asphalt. I swing a leg over the black beast, fire her up, and settle into the hum of restrained violence.
