“You,” Frankie said. “I should’ve known with you. Your whole hot darkness thing. That…swagger. You’re like atextbookmafia guy. Like something out of a movie.”
Devin laughed, and he didn’t shut up when I shot him a warning glare. If anything, it made him laugh harder.
“And you’re about as sneaky as a wrecking ball,” Frankie said, turning her guns to him now.
“Hey,” Devin protested, offended. “I’m subtle.”
“No, you’re not!”
Alex snorted under his breath.
Frankie groaned aloud. ”And Alex has organized crime written all over him, too. I just hoped…I don’t know. Evil CEO.”
“A decent guess,” Alex agreed wryly.
“God, how could I let myself believe anything else?” Her voice cracked and something inside me did, too.
“Sweetheart—” I tried to break in, surprising myself with the gentleness of my voice, but she shook her head took a quick step back.
“No. No, I don’t want this. I don’t wantanyof this. I just want my life back. My job. My boring routine. My ownbed. I can’t believe?—”
“Your own bed?” Devin broke in, voicing what we all were thinking. “What, is our bed not satisfying you enough, angel?” He was smirking now. Like fucking always. His smirk turned to Alex, then to me, full of a scheming energy he used often in our line of work. “Maybe we should try a little harder, guys.”
Frankie’s entire face turned bright red.
My mouth curved before I could stop it. She wore that blush like a blanket, soft and warm, like she didn’t have any idea how tempting she was. How badly the three of us wanted to devour her right here, right now. The idea of trying harder to show her our bed was where she belonged…yeah, that sent a tingle of anticipation crawling through my blood.
Frankie sputtered, “I—I didn’t mean—not like that?—”
Alex murmured, “Mm. Sounds like she did.”
She groaned miserably into her hands.
I stepped close enough that she had to look at me. “Frankie,” I said quietly, firmly. “Listen.”
She lifted her chin, furious and embarrassed and still trembling.
“You can be angry at us. You can hate that we didn’t tell you, and that we pulled you into this world, though I think you were in it long before your father forced you to the auction, you just didn’t know it yet. But what you don’t get to do is pretend nothing’s happening. You don’t get to go back to your normal routine now. It’s too late for that.”
She bristled instantly. “Excuse me?”
“You heard him.” Devin moved behind her and resting a hand on her hip.
Alex rose from the sofa, his voice low. “It’s not safe. And you know it now.”
I cupped her jaw, tilting her face gently toward mine. “You stay with us. You listen to us. You don’t take risks. That’s how this goes now.”
Her lips parted, breath shaky. “Jonathan…you can’t just?—”
“Yes.” My voice drops into command. “I can. And I will.”
Because there was no universe where I let her walk back into danger. Not when someone out there was watching. Not when history told me that note was just a warning shot. And not when she meant what she meant to me.
Frankie swallowed. Her anger flickered, her body betraying her even as her mind rebelled. The tension between us pulled tighter, hotter, unavoidable.
“I hate this,” she whispered. “I hate being told what to do.”
“You don’t hate it when we’re the ones doing the telling,” Devin murmured against her ear.
