So I said the one thing they’d understand. That Shade had said when carrying in an unconscious Everly. That Arran told the crew about Genevieve. That Cassie had declared to anyone who’d listen about Riordan.
“Mine. Dixie is mine.”
A beat passed.
Three faces stared at me, my friends processing the consequences of my words. Then Cassie swore and left the room, the door bouncing off the wall in her wake.
Arran and Shade swapped a glance.
Shade spoke first. “Ye emptied her flat?”
Stiff, I rolled my shoulders. “I did. After Lovelyn and Kane went there. I knew Cassie had paid the rent for another month, but the landlord is a piece of shit who let himself in.”
Which I knew because I’d had a camera and motion sensors on the place.
The leader of the skeleton crew leaned forward, his eyebrows slanted in. “But you didn’t know where she was?”
At least in that I could be honest. “No, I didn’t.”
His phone rang, and Arran swore then picked it up, raising a finger to pause us. I sensed the weight of Shade’s stare. The curiosity mixed with concern in his eyes.
“You’re okay?” Shade asked.
I shrugged. “Were ye after Everly?”
“Fuck no. I was a mess.”
I made a no-shit expression. He’d been a madman. Even more deadly, which said a lot.
Shade tugged at the skeleton crew bandanna at his throat, revealing more of his extensive ink. “God help any traffickers who cross your path. If ye can drag yourself away from your lass’s side.”
I couldn’t. Even this was killing me. She was a few floors away, and the pull to her was like nothing I’d ever felt.
Arran’s short call ended with Cassie’s return to the room.
Some of the hostility had left her, and she’d sheathed her blade. “Dixie confirmed it. She said ye agreed to her plan. I knew she liked ye, I just never expected… Fuck. Why didn’t ye tell anyone? Why let us suffer?”
“She only came back to me a few days ago. Any decisions since then have been ours to make, and no one else gets to question them.”
Understanding rippled across the men in the room. The fact that they would defend the same for their women.
Cassie was the outlier. “And the beach? That was ye?”
I was done explaining. “No more. I’ve made my claim. For as long as she wants me, I’ll guard everything about her, including her story. You’ll respect that.”
It was the best I could do, and until Dixie filled in the gaps or contradicted me, I hoped it would hold. To my great relief, oneby one, each of the crew leadership nodded understanding, even Cassie.
The pint-sized killer heaved a deep breath. “I have her bags upstairs. I’ll give them to her.”
“No, ye don’t,” I corrected.
Her gaze turned from quizzical to outraged again. “What the actual fuck? How? Ye broke into my apartment?”
Well, shite. I’d been so close to getting away with this. Then again, I deserved to be run through for all I’d done.
I opened my mouth.
Shade beat me to it. “It was me. Riot let me in, and I took advantage. I knew exactly where they were so no snooping required. I apologise.”
