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6

Bianaca

The silence was unnaturally tense when we convened in the shed a few hours later, the moonlight splicing through the cracked window and bathing the distressed wood in shades of yellow and white.

Aiden chewed on his lip ring, pacing the small expanse of flooring, while Tanner stood beside me, a silent and protective sentry. A part of me wanted to lean into his embrace, seek comfort from his strong arms, but I didn’t. I couldn’t. I needed to remain levelheaded, and being with Tanner made me anything but.

Still, that didn’t stop me from inhaling his unique, spicy scent and tilting my body so that my hip brushed his. His hand lowered, his pinkie touching mine before he pulled it away and crossed his arms over his chest. Ripples of fire danced along my body as my mind replayed our lovemaking from a few hours earlier. The way his sweat soaked skin brushed against mine. His cock filling me so completely. His bruising kisses.

Fuck. This wasnotthe time to get horny.

“Where the fuck are they?” Aiden murmured, his eyes flashing to the closed door of the shed.

“They’ll be here,” I replied immediately, though I didn’t know if that was true or not.

So far, only the three of us had arrived at the shed.

No Kace. No Beau. No Heath.

No Kelly.

I chewed down on my nail as worry warred with fear inside of me. What the hell was taking them so long? Did they get caught?

I had the sudden, vivid image of the reapers feeding them to the monster in the basement—the monster that, according to Heath, symbolized death. An icy chill that had nothing to do with the weather crept down my spine, chasing away the heat from before, and I took a step even closer to Tanner until my arm was able to brush his.

“They’ll be here,” I repeated. They had to.

Aiden spun towards me, his eyes wild, before cursing and brushing a hand through his tangled black hair. “Fuck, I’m not so sure.”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” Tanner asked suspiciously.

“Kace has been…” Aiden trailed off when the sound of approaching footsteps reached our ears. Immediately, both men moved to stand in front of me, their large bodies blocking me from view. As one, they relaxed, the stiff muscles in their backs and shoulders loosening.

Kace and Beau appeared at the entrance of the shed, backpacks over each of their shoulders.

“Sorry,” Kace murmured, dropping his gaze to his shoes in a subservient way. His normal ebullience was nowhere to be seen. “We had to take the long way around.”

“It’s fine.” Aiden dismissed his words with a wave of his hand, but I could see the relief in his eyes. I had no idea what Aiden had been about to say concerning Kace, but I could assume it had something to do with the way the redheaded man had been behaving. “But we need to get going.”

“Heath was behind us—” Kace began.

“Heath is right here,” the man in question declared, pushing past them to enter the tiny shed. For the first time since I’d met him, his hair wasn’t immaculately groomed but disheveled instead, and he wore a pair of gray sweatpants that did wonders to my overactive libido. He flashed a bright smile, his glacial eyes sweeping over the men present, before his gaze settled on me. “And I see you invited more than just your harem.”

“Harem?” Aiden scoffed at the same time Tanner asked me, “Who did you invite?”

I barely got a chance to open my mouth before the shed door opened once more and Kelly stepped inside.

Along with four somewhat familiar guys.

Guys I’d never thought I would see in this context.

Guys I’d last seen tormenting her while she cowered.

Her bullies.

“What the fuck?” Aiden hissed as Kelly stepped inside, the men surrounding her. It made the tiny shed seem even more cramped than ever before. He spun his glare around to fix on me, his eyes spewing vitriol like a caustic acid. “What the fuck did you do, Bianaca?”

I straightened my spine, owning my decision, even as my stomach muscles tightened into thousands of intricate knots. I refused to cower beneath his pitch-black stare, refused to show how much he affected me. He both scared and entranced me, though I would never let him see either.