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My footsteps are unsteady on the way to the kitchen. It’s still early morning and I hold the edge of the counter as I make coffee. Muscles aching and head light. This is the kind of thing a man can get used to. The perfect way to start the morning.

Aiden walks into the room with a yawn and his arms stretched overhead. “She’s in the shower. And I texted Tase.”

“Yeah?”

“He’s on his way. Gilli’s stalker threat is the kind of thing we need to discuss between us.”

He quirks a smile in a way he knows pisses me off, but the thought of having a tête-à-tête this early doesn’t even bother me. Not really.

“She wants him too, you know,” Aiden tells me. Like it’s the news of the century.

I jerk my head in acknowledgment. “I got it, yeah. It was impossible to miss the moon eyes the other night.”

“Our girl is greedy in all the right ways.”

It’s quiet and peaceful as we wait for the coffee machine to work its magic. And only about ten minutes laterthe crunch of rubber on gravel announces Tase’s arrival. He must have dragged himself straight out of bed and into the car.

“He sure sped his ass over here,” I mutter. “Probably shoulda gotten a ticket.”

Gilli might be defiant and assures herself she’s got it covered, but I have my doubts. The more I think about it, the more the fear digs deeper into my mind. It’s impossible to miss the worry in her eyes and the blatant unhappiness when she thinks we’re not watching.

It isn’t her fault some fuckheads decided to target her. She’s lucky she made it to the cabin in the first place.

I’m not sure when my hatred dissolved, when it shifted from an always present sensation sharing my mind to this distant thread of feeling, like something that never belonged to me.

Or maybe I’ve found a more deserving outlet for it—those fuckheads hunting her.

I’ve got no doubt she’s telling the truth now. There are some pretty sick people out there and the anonymity of the internet emboldens them.

She was scared enough to leave everything behind to escape. I’ve never seen a person willing to leave their cell phone. And now it makes sense why she has refused to leave here. It wasn’t stubbornness like I originally thought.

It was survival.

Aiden answers the knock at the door, and Tase stands on the other side bundled in a leather jacket. His gaze narrows on me. “You said it was an emergency.” He sounds accusatory.

“And you know you don’t have to knock,” Aiden chides. “Come in.”

“Yeah, well, I didn’t want to interrupt anything.” Tase draws in a deep breath. “Smells like sex in here.”

Aiden bursts out laughing and my scowl deepens. “Which is why she’s in the shower right now,” I say. “Washing away our cum.”

Tase grimaces. “Sure, blame it on Gilli. Got any coffee?” He shucks off the coat, moving to the couch and sprawling out with his arms over the back. His head drops. “What’s the rush, Sor? What’s the big emergency?”

I head into the kitchen for the coffee pot and pour out three mugs.

The water is still running in the shower. Gilli won’t be able to hear us.

“Yesterday she told us what’s going on,” I reply as I hand one mug to Tase and the other to Aiden. We’re gonna need it. “Some asshole threatened her during a live video, then men came to her apartment. She thinks she’s being followed.”

Tase sits up straighter. “Followed?”

Ah, there we go. The darkness in his eyes turns to flint.

“Apparently the dude who made the threats has done this kind of shit before. Cops are too busy with their donuts to pay her any mind,” Aiden fills in. He shakes his head. “She called the police when she got here.”

“Did she tell you what kind of threat?” Tase pushes. He leans forward, his fingers white against the coffee mug. “What did they say?”

“Not sure. But it spooked her enough to send her running,” I pace the floor.