At least Jasper wasn’t here. He’d find a million ways to torture you about this until you died of old age.
“They congratulated me on completing our mating before they left,” Murphy stated casually, returning his attention to his task.
Walking up beside him, she placed her kettle on a free burner before turning it on. “Were you shirtless when they did that?”
“No. I had a sweater on.”
“So they didn’tseethe bite mark.” And he’d already said her scent wouldn’t transfer to him when they mated.
So they’d just heard her screaming for him to claim her while in the throes of passion.
Nessa groaned in despair.
Murphy chuckled, his shoulders shaking as he stacked a finished pancake onto a plate already filled with nearly a dozen more.
Crossing her arms in outrage, Nessa narrowed her eyes at him. “What’s so funny?”
“It’s cute that you’re embarrassed by this. Shifters don’t care if they notice acts of sex, loud or otherwise. And I’m happy that you’re officially a claimed female.Myfemale.”
Nessa softened at the affection in his tone. “You’re a claimed man, too.”
“Yes. Yes, I am,” he answered smugly.
She couldn’t help but grin in return. “So what’s on the agenda today? Are you coming with me to work?”
“Only for a bit. Jasper is going to meet me there this morning and stay with you while I do some work at my place.”
She raised a brow. “He’s on babysitting duty?”
Murphy nodded, gathering the plate of pancakes and bringing them to the breakfast nook. “Until we know for sure whether Angelo is actually here, I don’t want you alone. I know you can handle yourself if you need to, but I won’t let it come to that.”
“That’s fine.” She wouldn’t mind the extra protection, especially since she couldn’t fully convince herself that what she’d seen had only been a figment of her imagination.
Helping Murphy bring a bowl of scrambled eggs, silverware and their drinks to the table, she sat down across from him, ready to dig in.
“I need to ask you something,” Murphy said, staring at her intently. “Colter, along with being one of my enforcers, often runs background checks on humans we handle business with and looks into various people for me as needed. I think it’s best, especially after yesterday, that he looks into your ex-fiancé and your brother. Just to make sure they’re still in Chicago and completely unaware of your location.”
Anxiety hit Nessa like a ton of bricks, and she forced herself to swallow past the bile rising in her throat. She didn’t want Murphy involved with Tony in any capacity. “Tony’s got connections all over the city, Murphy. What if someone gets wind of what Colter is doing and tells him he’s being monitored?”
Then he’d do his own digging, and if he looked deep enough, he’d find her.
“Colter works exclusively with other shifters, so no humans would be involved to divulge anything to Tony. Aside from that, most of his other skills involve hacking into databases, networks and surveillance systems. He’s done this for years, and he’s always discreet.” Murphy reached under the table, squeezing her knee in reassurance. “I wouldn’t ask you this unless I was completely sure it wouldn’t get traced back to you.”
“And it’s only to make sure they’re not still looking for me?” Nessa studied her mate closely. “You’re not planning to go to Chicago and …” She trailed off.
“Rip that piece of shit to shreds with my bare hands?” Murphy finished point-blank.
“Bare hands orbearhands?” she joked faintly.
Murphy grunted. “I’d love nothing more than to rid the world of him. Your brother, too, if I’m being completely honest. But I don’t know if you’d look at me differently if I hunted down the people that hurt you and killed them without a flicker of remorse.”
“I don’t think I would …”
“But you’re not sure.” Murphy’s thumb rubbed soothingly over her jeans.
It was a difficult question to answer. Had she fantasized about shooting Tony? Absolutely. A thousand times. But she wasn’t a killer, and she didn’t want Murphy to be one either. It was different if he took a life in self-defense or to protect his clan and family.
But to purposely hunt down and murder someone …?
