Adelaide has frozen beside me.
“Luca?”
“Shh.”
I turn slowly, keeping her slightly behind me without making a show of it, and I walk forward toward the living room. When I reach the arch into the main open-plan space, I stop dead.
There are six strangers standing in our house. The storm is dimming what little light is coming through the glass. The lamps are dark, but there’s enough light to clearly see them.
A woman is standing in the center, maybe late forties, early fifties, with silver-streaked dark hair pulled off her face, wearing wire-rimmed glasses and a knitted charcoal sweater.
Beside her, a man. Tall, easily six-two, broad enough. Dark hair cut sharp at the sides and longer on top, a curtain of it falling across his right eye. Cleanly shaven, charcoal trousers,a darker shirt unbuttoned once at the throat, a long black coat over it. Everything about him screamsexpensiveandarrogant. The face of a man who gets away with everything.
Behind him, in a loose formation near the back of the living room, are four men.
All of them huge, in dark clothing, and clearly the muscle here so that prick gets his way. Except, I know two of those fucking faces.
They’re the chief’s men from The Breakers.
The chief promised North he’d pull back, so what the fuck?
Without taking my eyes off the intruders, I shift my wrist and reach over to thumb the tiny recessed button set into the edge of my watch, subtle enough that nobody watching would work it out. North designed them for the three of us years ago, back when getting caught in deep shit was more of an occupational hazard. Hit the silent alarm, and the other two get an instant alert with one message built into it: I’m in trouble, and here’s exactly where to find me.
Adelaide has gone very still behind me. I feel her fingers close on the back of my shirt.
I push her farther behind me without taking my eyes off those in front.
“Who thefuckare you?” I bark, and my voice has fallen low and flat.
The man in the coat grins. “Which one are you? Ace, Luca, North?” The bastard has done his research, so he’s here for us?
I’ve never heard his voice before, and I already hate it enough to kill him for it.
A small, stifled “Oh” comes from Adelaide now close at my side, shaking. “Daniel? How’d you find me?”
“I told you, Adelaide. No one leaves unless I decide they do.” Daniel’s voice is calm, which irritates the hell out of me.
The air goes cold all over my body.Thatis Daniel Nixon. Fury boils through my veins as I see red when I stare in his direction.
This is the man who threatened her, made her run. I’m going to take him apart with my bare hands. I have to make a choice in the next two seconds about whether to keep Adelaide behind me or move her further, then distract them enough for her to escape.
I keep my weight loose and my hands visible.North. Ace. Hurry the fuck up, right now.Sure, I can take three of these men before they drop me. But all four, I’m not so sure, not to mention weapons are down in the basement. Goddamm shitty timing.
“Daniel,” I spit out.
He studies me like he’s deciding what kind of problem I am. One hand in his coat pocket, the other loose by his side. Too comfortable, while Adelaide is beside me, close enough that I can feel the tremor running through her every time thunder cracks above us.
“So,” he says softly, “she did tell you about me.”
I shift half a step, enough to block more of her from his view.
His eyes drop to that movement.Come back to my face.“She told me enough.”
His mouth twists. “Then she left out the part where none of this concerns you.”
Behind him, four men stand spread out, while the woman moves into the shadows.
“You should send her to me,” Daniel commands. “Now. Before this gets uglier than it needs to for you.”
