Page 122 of Hell’s Half Acre

“Yes, Envee?”

“Would you mind locking the door? We took a vote and we like being in here.”

“I don’t!”

“You were outvoted. Shut up!”

Sorcha laughed as the demons began their usual fights.

“Sure. Tell Helly she can teleport out whenever she’s ready.”

“Thank you, dominus!” She slammed the door closed. “Yay! We’re back!”

Luke let out a long sigh. “If we’re a family, does that make them our firstborn?”

She scowled at his question. “What?”

“You know, the first kid is always screwed up because the parents have no idea what they’re doing?”

The smile on her face set him on fire. “I think of them more as the siblings you can’t put on a speakerphone or let around any friend you want to keep being friends with.”

“Or you do let them around the friend you want to leave.”

“Exactly.”

Luke sat back as she ate her food and felt a peculiar peace the likes of which he’d never known before.

One he hated to admit he liked.

I will protect you, Sorcha. Not because of a random promise made to her mother.

No. Because I love her.

Damn.

There was no way this could end well. And deep inside, he suspected this would be the end of him.

Chapter

Twenty-Four

Four weeks later

“So you’re the new flavor.”

Sorcha blinked at the woman who’d just entered her office without knocking. Tall, skinny, and gorgeous, the woman held a poise seldom seen anywhere outside of vintage ads. Her curvaceous body was wrapped in a tight red suit. Sorcha had never used the word chignon before, but that was the only description for the elegantly styled black hair that looked like it should be on the cover of a bridal magazine.

But none of that excused the woman’s accusation.

“I beg your pardon?”

The woman crossed her arms over her ample chest. “Luke? Your partner. He has a…how do you say? Unnatural appetite for things. Especially women. I was wondering who had his eye this week. Or was it only for a couple of hours?”

Unsure if she should be offended or not, Sorcha had no idea how to respond to the bitch.

“She’s evil, Sorcha!”

“Run!”