Page 101

“Sick!” the boys exclaimed.

Paxton grinned and tipped his head back to look at Roman. “That’s even cooler than what you can do!”

“Watch it,” Roman warned, though a smile flirted with his lips, deepening the scar by the one corner. Shay had to try really damn hard not to stare at that smile for too long. The mouth she’d had the pleasure of kissing. “You killed Trey?” he asked her.

“No, but I made him piss himself,” she replied.

Roman’s brows flicked up.

“He’s passed out somewhere over there.” She pointed. Unless he’d already woken up and fled, which would align with the kind of luck they’d been having.

Roman mussed up Pax’s hair. “You sure you’re okay, kid? Look at your face.” He gently skimmed the tip of Paxton’s scraped nose with a knuckle.

“I’m fine.”

Sayagul squawked out her disagreement.‘He needs bandages,’she said.‘And a bath.’She blew a puff of smoke through her nose.

Paxton laughed. “Do I stink?” He lifted his arm?—

“Eugene?”called a husky voice—choked with concern. Kylar Lavin was hurrying down the narrow passage between the boxes and pallets. He stumbled when he saw them—saw his brother.

And then he picked up speed, sweeping Eugene into a hug that lifted the kid’s sneakered feet off the ground. “Holy shit, termite—you’re alive!” He set him down and rubbed his knuckles vigorously across the top of Eugene’s head, making the kid growl and push his hand away.

“Dad’s supposed to be here any minute,” Paxton said, his short-lived joy already fading. “Simon called him.”

“Shit, we gotta go, then,” Roman said. “Let’s go—get moving.” He beckoned the kids into motion. Sayaguldisappeared into Roman’s shadow with sparkling wingbeats. “Where’s your jacket?”

“I lost it,” Pax said.

“Here—wear mine.” Roman stripped his off, leaving him in a grey long-sleeve shirt with a short row of buttons in the center of the neckline, the trim fit drawing attention to his sculpted body. The man was a work of art.

Shay cursed him for taking that damn jacket off.

Paxton shrugged it on, his beanpole physique drowning in the fabric.

Together, they navigated the warehouse. On the way, the kids filled them in on what happened. How they had ended up at Archie’s Arcade.

When Donovan and his men had raided Roman’s house, Dominic and Blue escaped with the kids. They’d made the decision to hide in a park down the road, and when they heard gunshots Dominic and Blue had left the kids at the park and gone back to check on Arthur.

“And then this monster started chasing us,” Paxton said. Every word was breathless with adrenaline and excitement. “So we ran, and we hid in this random guy’s truck?—”

“And then the truck started moving,” Eugene chimed in, “and we got too scared to jump out until we got to the school. There were other students there. The teachers were planning an evacuation, so we thought we’d be safe?—”

“But then Blaine and Larina showed up,” Paxton interrupted, desperately clawing for his brother’s attention. “So we ran to Archie’s before they could see us, but Zac, Ty, and Brendon followed us and we got into a fight?—”

“And Pax punched Zac right in the face!” Eugene exclaimed.

Paxton scowled. “Hey, I wanted to tell him!”

But Eugene was too excited to reel his emotions in. “Awe man, you guys should’ve seen it! Zac was likebam—”He punched the air. “But Pax was likeBAM?—”

The building shook.

Light bulbs popped in sprays of glass.

The boys cried out in alarm. Everyone covered their heads.

The intensity grew to an unholy magnitude, making it difficult to stay standing, tothink.Shay half-crouched half-fell to the ground and seized hold of a stretch of chainlink that was leaned up against stacks of pallets, the others doing the same. There was nothing to hide under, so the older brothers were shielding the younger ones with their bodies as dust fell and debris and boxes clattered around them.