“She didn’t want to leave the shop,” Maxen said simply.
“You good?” Drake asked.
“I have never felt alive in my own life,” Maxen said. A part of him had awakened from the dead. “Until her.” So yes, he was good. More than good.
“She ours to protect now,frère, which brings us to the matter ofbusiness for the night. Do we ship him off?”
Him as in Peregrine.
Their newfound brother.
“Far.” Serpent said with a scowl. “Anywhere with a great deal of water between him and us.”
“No,” Maxen said. That arse had been right. He’d said they could never win against him because he was family. He was right. He’d never harm a brother. Had he found his brother before their uncle had, things might be different. “He’s family, whether we like it or not.”
Drake’s lip curled. “I don’t like it.”
All his brothers concurred.
“He kidnapped your woman,” Knight said.
“Don’t bloody remind me.” Maxen scowled. “And he got his arse beaten for it.”
“What is he actually after? Blood? Or revenge?” Dagger asked.
“Perhaps family,” Saint suggested.
That was Maxen’s guess, too.
“Lovely,” Reaper drawled. “Let’s knit him a blanket and send him on his way.”
The memory of Deveraux Peregrine’s smile didn’t sit well with him. “We can’t let him out of our sight.”
“So we keep him with us,” Drake concluded.
“It could be a trap,” Knight said. “To integrate into our family and ruin us from the inside.”
Dagger tapped the counter. “Savage.”
“Trap or not,” Serpent said, “we are fools if we forget the spider who spun it.”
“Sirius Faiththorne,” Saint announced the name no one wished to utter, and the name went through them like a cold draft.
Drake’s jaw ticked, the only sign of the fury.
Reaper’s usually upturned lips turned down.
Serpent muttered, “Poison wears his face.”
Knight’s voice was blunt: “He should’ve stayed gone.”
Dagger scowled.
So did Maxen. They could no longer deny his existence. “He’ll want revenge for us shipping him off.”
“He’ll want revenge for many things,” Drake muttered.
“He’ll want Brighton,” Knight said.
