“You know you want her.”
No shit. I didn’t say anything, and he inhaled into her neck and exhaled.
She groaned, stretching her neck to the side, as if she were asking for more. I clamped my hands together.
He shivered and rose, hand cupping the front of his jeans.
“I don’t think I’ve ever been this hard,” he muttered.
“Checks out.” I didn’t elaborate. I didn’t need to. We both knew what she was to us. Our greatest temptation and weakness rolled into a pain-in-the-ass bundle. The way she looked at us, with barely restrained rage, did something to me. I could tell she wanted to unleash her anger, but her survival instinct kept her malleable. “Who shot her?” I couldn’t help muse.
“None of our business,” Sinclair warned, giving me a look. “We just have to get her out of the country and out of our lives.”
I didn’t bother retorting. Between the two of us, I had more of a handle on myself than he did, than either of them. Especially Sinclair, who tended to be rash and illogical.
“In the meantime, I’m going to smell her as much as I want.” He smirked. “Get her out of my bloody system.”
Even that seemed a risk. But since she was already with us, and it was temporary . . .
There were many ways this could go wrong. I combed my fingers through my hair. How could they not see how utterly fucked we were?
We were making excuses already.
Sinclair reached up to check the IV he’d hooked up to her.
The door swung open, and I tensed, even though the only one it could possibly be was Elias. No one else was allowed up to our loft.
“We have the blood,” he said, carrying a cooler inside. Loren, one of the dancers, was doing her residency at a hospital. Elias thumped the cooler on Sinclair’s lap, and he was quick to rifle through it.
“Who knew me getting beaten up all the time would come in handy?”
I eyed Sin. He was never one to mention where we’d come from; further than that, he never spoke aboutthattime.
Elias met my gaze. After two seconds, I returned to Briar. To every exposed line of her body. From the top of her messy hair, down the curve of her breast, to the jutting ribs.
“Why is she so malnourished?”
Sinclair settled into switching out the IV with universal blood.
His mouth thinned. “That’s why she should have an Alpha to look after her.” He tensed as if he hadn’t meant to speak the words.
“It could have been us,” Sinclair said, sighing and shaking his head in a mocking way. “Just like Kyan’s dead stick-up-his-ass heart wanted.”
“Keep it up,” I warned, “and I’ll lock your bank card.”
His eyes narrowed. “You do that, and I’ll pissonyou.”
“Enough, you two,” Elias bit out, high-strung. Opposite to his usual unflappable demeanor.
I eyed the unconscious female.
The risk of having an Omega would magnify our erraticism tenfold.
We couldn’t afford to have a woman permanently.
But one thing I could do for her was get her out of the States, just as she asked.
I ran my hand over my nape. “I’ll contact Phantom about getting forgeries.” I pried myself off the seat. Sitting here, watching her, would only mess with my head.
