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Lucia lounged gracefully in one of the chairs and I’d never hated her more than I did at this moment. She’d put her hands on Benjamin. No one was allowed to touch him but me. Possessive much? Absolutely, but he was mine to protect.

“What do you want?” I said sharply as I sat behind my desk. My skin started to crawl the longer I looked at her. She’d never been this much of a problem before. But then again, I’d never had Benjamin before.

“Who was that boy, Damyr?” she asked with a pout.

“No one you need to concern yourself about.”

“But he’s so pretty.” She trailed a finger over her ruby red lips. “Can I have a turn?”

“No,” I said, my expression taut.

She leant closer, pushing her cleavage towards me. “Does he taste as sweet as he looks?”

“Lucia,” I growled but she just laughed.

“You always were so easy to wind up. Keep your toy, Damyr, I’m sure you’ll get bored of him soon.”

That wasn’t going to be likely, but she didn’t need to know that. The less she thought of him, the better.

“Is it money you want, or are you in trouble?”

She flopped back into the chair. “Straight to business, then? I don’t need money, Damyr. I earn enough keeping criminals like yourself out of prison. I may have found myself in somewhat of a tense situation with the Lavaeux clan.”

“What kind of situation?”

“I may have fucked Marcelle’s brother.”

“What?” Rage flushed my body. How could she be so fucking stupid? We didn’t piss in our own back yards, and fucking Remy Lavaeux was the epitome of that.

“It was a stupid mistake, but someone saw us, and he started to get handsy with me. I tried to get rid of him, but Remy jumped to my defence, and you know what wolves are like near the full moon.”

Oh, yes. They were aggressive, impulsive and highly volatile. Throw in someone trying to encroach on a shifter’s lover and it was a sure-fire way to start a massacre.

Lucia sighed deeply. “Now they’re dead and—”

“Dead? You killed him? Please tell me it wasn’t someone important.” Save me from fucking incompetence.

“No!” she snapped. At least she had the grace to look sheepish. “At least I don’t think so. He didn’t have any ID on him, but he didn’t look familiar.”

Well, at least that was somewhat of a bonus. Lucia tended to know everyone who was anyone so if she didn’t recognise him, he probably was a nobody.

“Okay, I suppose that’s a good th—”

There was a sudden knock at the door and Vlad stepped into the room, his stride determined. “There’s something you need to see, Boss.”

He dropped a manilla envelope on my desk and flicked a glance at Lucia.

The word ‘ENJOY’ was written in an elegant script across the front and someone had drawn two ‘x’s’ in blood beneath it.

“What is this?” I asked.

“It’s not the only thing to arrive,” Vlad said ominously.

“Where’s Benjamin?” I had to know. Was he safe? I ignored the curious look from Lucia and turned to Vlad.

His brows were drawn down in a disapproving frown. “He’s in the library with his cat.”