Page 136 of The Silent Note

“Don’t tease me right now unless you want me to screw you while I’m angry.”

A challenge flares in her eyes and oh, I want her to do it.

I want her to test me. To push me. Part those pretty lips for me and see how I fill them.

My expression shifts when I hear the line connect and Grey instantly snaps her mouth shut.

“You better be dead or dying,” Dutch bites out, breathing hard. In the background, my sister-in-law is panting like a dog in need of water.

“I’m calling a band meeting. Now.”

“The hell you are.”

“Get off my sister-in-law and meet me in the conference room.”

“Zane, you better?—”

“Hall called out my wife today. Grey went to meet him. She told Cadence, who went to check on them. Alone.”

There’s a frigid silence on Dutch’s end of the line.

Grey smacks her forehead.

Finally, Dutch says, “Give us thirty minutes.”

Before the line goes dead, I hear my twin warn his wife,“Tonight’s reward just turned into a punishment, Cadey…”

“My gosh, Zane. You’re totally overreacting.” Grey slaps my arm down and stomps away from me, smoke blowing out of her ears.

I start to follow her when the bathroom door slams shut. The lock clicks loudly, punctuating the silence.

My steps crawl to a halt.

I see my wifedoesknow how to protect herself from monsters.

She just can’t tell which monsters are loyal to her and which are out for blood.

Chapter Thirty-Four

GREY

“I didn’t mean to drag you into this,” I tell Cadence. She looks up from where she’d been watching a video of someone sleeping. It looks like the kind of feed you’d get from a baby monitor.

We’re sitting in the hotel’s conference room. It’s the middle of the night, but the Cross brothers managed to showcase, once again, that they are boys with power.

In exactly the time that Zane demanded, the hotel staff got the conference room fitted with tables, chairs, and a tray of tea, coffee, donuts, and fruit.

My perusal moves from the extravagant room to Cadence’s cheeks. The air conditioning is blasting, but I doubt that’s the reason for the flush on her face. She’s wearing Dutch’s T-shirt over a pair of jeans. Her hair looks like she hastily threw it into a ponytail.

I know my hair doesn’t look any better. My curls refused to be tamed with the water I splashed from the hotel’s sink. Unfortunately, a place this ritzy doesnothave the creams and gels needed to control natural, coily hair.

“It’s okay. I don’t blame you,” Cadence whispers.

I have no idea why we’re whispering when we’re in the conference room alone, but I whisper right back to her.

“I wish you would. I got the impression we,” I clear my throat, “interrupted your night.”

It’s awkward to talk about my students’ sex lives. I didn’t encourage this topic even inside the hallways of Redwood. But I’m also aware that Cadence and Dutch are married.