Page 52 of Hide Little Traitor

Kingston glares at the two of them, and I step into his line of sight. As annoying as he is, Ronan cares for Chloe. He was willing to betray his family to save her, and I respect him for it.

Even if I do find his face very punchable.

When I stepped into this life, I was content with spending it alone. Allowing anyone to get close to me was an invitation for someone to hurt them.

It wasn’t until Chloe that that became a problem.

As shitty as it sounds, distancing myself from my family was easy. They were better off without me, even before I started killing people for a living, and they were never the same after my sister died. I was just a reminder of the worst time in their lives.

I hear from them exactly twice per year. My birthday and Christmas, and even then our conversations are short and surface level.

For a long time, Kingston was the only person I considered so much as a friend, but right now I’d put a bullet in his head and not lose a wink of sleep over it.

What he’s done to Chloe the last week is cruel. Stealing her away when she was already vulnerable, not letting anyone speak to her to ensure she was okay, and then whatever the fuck it was that we walked in on.

You know what?

My fist connects with his cheek with a loud crack as pain bursts through my fingers. But it’s the good kind of pain, the kind I crave. The kind that has been far too absent since I started guarding my sweet siren.

“You’re a son of a bitch, you know that?” I snap.

Kingston holds his cheek, dark eyes staring back at me with disdain. “You were meant to keep your hands off her. You were never meant to touch what never belonged to you.”

I roll my eyes. “You honestly thought you could send me to guard her and I wouldn’t get attached?”

“You’ve never gotten attached before,” he reminds me.

“Chloe’s different, and you know it. Why else would there be four men that literally cannot stand one another in this room right now? For her?”

I glance over my shoulder to find Ronan holding Chloe’s head in place, making sure she’s not forced to watch as I throw another punch, this time connecting with his jaw.

“That’s enough,” he growls.

Movement out of the corner of my eye catches my attention, but it’s not the altar being set up close to the house that my eyes lock on.

It’s the four men moving across the yard with guns raised toward the house.

“Get her away from the windows,” I bark at Ronan.

“What’s going on?” Kingston asks as I shove him away from the window. “Were you followed?”

I glare at him. “Who do you think you’re talking to right now?”

He and I both know part of being one of the best trackers in the country is always knowing when someone thinks they can get the jump on me.

Half the time it’s what makes my job easy. They think because they were able to kill before that they can take me out, but it just brings them into my trap, exactly where I want them.

Ronan ushers Chloe to the other side of the island, holding her close to his body to shield her from view.

His brother reaches for her, and to my surprise, she goes willingly, her panicked eyes darting around to each of us.

She cares for the four of us, likely more than she’d be willing to admit, but Chloe hasn’t been able to keep a single one of her emotions a secret since the day we met.

The two of them move toward the doorway, their bodies shielding hers.

“We can’t leave them,” she says as Kingston pulls a gun from beneath the sink and I tug mine from its holster.

The people he has building what is likely Chloe’s dream wedding are blissfully unaware of the threat moving closer with each second that ticks by.