One by one, he’d found them. Hunted them down. Claimed them. The duke thought them weak. And alone, they were, but together, they would always be stronger. Stronger than any opposition. At first, it had only been a mission. A purpose. But then, as he collected his brothers, came the first shared drink. The first fight. The first laugh. And suddenly,theywere his. His bloody, scarred, ill-temperedbrothers.
His world.
Hisfamily.
The similarity was bloody hard to deny, so he wouldn’t deny it any longer.
She washis.
“This is driving me insane,” he bit out, glancing at Drake, who’d finally showed his face, jogging up beside him. They’d split up to cover more ground, but now they’d completed the circle. People had never vanished this fast from his turf. Not without a damn witness in sight. Someone had to have seen something.
“We’ve gone over this area twice,” his brother said. “Nothing.”
“The boys?”
Drake shook his head. “Not even a whiff of the little bird’s shadow.”
Maxen growled low in his throat. The wind lashed at his face as they stalked down another winding lane. Brighton’s darkened corners had never felt so vast. So empty. So bloody useless. “She couldn’t have vanished like this. She’s not trained for it.”
“She’s clever,” Drake replied. “We both know that.”
That word again. He wanted to curse that blasted word. Calliope Turner was clever. Clever enough to know to choose his brother, to get him tied up, to even elude Maxen that very first night. Nothing had ever driven him this damn crazy before.
He stopped abruptly and braced a palm against the nearest stone wall. “Bloody hell.”
“You’re not used to this,” Drake said evenly.
“What?” Maxen pushed from the wall with a scowl. Feeling crazy?
“Losing people.”
He shot him a glare, but Drake didn’t flinch. His brother never did.
“I’ve lost plenty,” Maxen said.
“Not a woman.”
He couldn’t hold his brother’s gaze and snapped it away. Lost a woman. No, he hadn’t. His mother didn’t count. She was his mother. Calliope was just... his. And now she’d vanished, and he was left clutching her blasted slipper like some lovesick fool.
“Keep your trap shut and keep moving.”
“I’m not the one who stopped.”
His brother had more nerve than anyone alive. They searched the rest of the Lanes with no result. Prince would’ve been easy to track if anyone had spotted them, but they had no such luck.
Maxen paused as they arrived on East Street. “She couldn’t have come this far on foot without someone noticing.”
“You think she found a carriage?” Drake asked, gaze sweeping the street.
“Either she’s cleverer than we gave her credit for, or she has more luck than Prinny himself.”
“Which way do you think she went? North for the coaches, or south for the Steine?”
Either way, the direction would be a guess. “How much time has passed?” Maxen asked.
“Few hours.”
They spotted Knight approaching, damp locks falling over his brow, lips pressed in a hard line.
