You can hear a pin drop. “Damn.” Kenji wipes his blade clean on Ivan’s shirt. “Just like butter.”
He walks to the front of his desk and sits on it, glaring at me. “What are you doing? What’s going on?” he asks Devlin.
“I um...” I watch him swallow. “I’m not here for the statue. I just came to rescue him.”
Kenji thinks for a moment, watching me. It’s unnerving. His black hair is tied back in a small ponytail. What does Koda have to do with this? His eyes lift to Tagar and Dominic. “Take them all back.”
Alarm hits my chest. “What are you?—”
Everything goes black.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
SAWYER
My head is throbbing.I open my eyes and everything spins. What’s going on? I look up and the room starts to take focus.
“Whatcha doing?”
I blink, hearing the voice.
Noah?
My brain swims, my eyes focusing.
I watch his legs swing as he sits on the edge of a desk. The man with the eyepatch and scar running down his face tries his best to stay focused on whatever he’s writing. What was his name? Tag something. Noah cocks his head at him. The man looks up at Noah.
“Work.”
“What kind of work?” His legs keep swinging.
“Noah, get off his desk!” Jamie grits.
“It’s fine, he doesn’t mind.” Noah smiles.
“I mind,” Tagar says.
“Stop it.” Noah playfully swipes the air. “You don’t mean that.”
“Noah!” Jamie hisses.
“Relax. I’ve read mafia romances, I know how these things go down. They’re never as mean as they look.” Noah boops his nose. Actually fucking boops his nose. “Oh my god!” Noah grabs the book on his desk.
“Noah!” Hunter snaps.
“Have you read this yet?!” The man looks uncomfortably at the other guard standing by the door. He was in the room with Ivan. Dominic, I think. Wait, is this his room? Where are we? This doesn’t look like the dusty farmhouse. I look at Hunter. Why is Hunter here? Why are they all here!?
“What’s going on?” My voice sounds like sandpaper.
“I don’t know,” Hunter says. “I just woke up. They knocked us out with something.”
“Ugh,” Noah says. “I was thinking of putting off reading it until the next one because book three doesn’t come out for another six months. Book onedestroyedme!”
“Noah, baby, please?—”
“Jamie, don’t you remember?Paradise Lost?” He holds up the book, ignoring his boyfriend’s concerns. “The one with Reed, Becca, and Dante. The fake-dating one where they all?—”
“Noah, please stop and leave him alo—wait, the one with the pool-house scene?”
