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Chapter Twenty-Four

Sutton

Checking the time, I slid on my dress. Poe would be here to pick me up in fifteen minutes. Jagger would arrive shortly as well so he could follow us.

I hadn’t seen him all day, well, not up close.

Jack had called this morning while I was still in Jagger’s bed, still sore and content and sated after what we’d done.

There’d been a fire, with multiple casualties, and I’d been needed at the clinic.

We weren’t equipped for situations like that, not yet and we were always short-staffed.

Which meant Jagger and I hadn’t had time to talk, after spending the night together, not properly. There had been food deliveries from him, though, three times during the day, while I’d been working.

He’d also sent messages. The first one, he’d told me he missed me, that he couldn’t wait to have me in his den again.

But that would have to wait until after tonight. The hounds, the knights, and Rune and his demons were currently mobilizing, preparing for whatever happened.

I’d left Boo with Fern. I hated leaving him alone so much, but I wanted to make sure he was somewhere safe, with people who loved him if things went wrong tonight.

I opened the bathroom door and walked into my room—and stopped in my tracks.

Jagger stood at my apartment door, leaning against the frame.

“Hey,” I said, feeling shy all of a sudden, but it was hard not to. Every time I’d closed my eyes today, I’d heard myself and the things I’d said to him while I’d tried to force him inside me. My face flushed now.

His gaze swept down my body, then back up, and his jaw tensed.

“Are you okay?” I asked, but it was obvious he wasn’t.

“I want to touch you, really fucking badly, but if Poe gets even a whiff of my scent, this whole thing is fucked.”

I hadn’t thought of that. He curled and uncurled his fingers and shifted from foot to foot in those big boots. Antsy as hell. “It’s going to be okay, Charming.”

His green eyes flashed bright. “Your only job tonight is getting the fuck out of there in one piece, understand me?”

Bossy, blunt Jagger was back, but only because he was worried. “We have a plan. Everything will be fine.”

“I know it will, because when the fighting starts or if shit goes wrong, you will run, you hear me? I don’t give a fuck about anyone else, not what Rune wants, or Lucifer, none of that shit. You run.”

My belly fluttered, and whatever I was going to say fell away when I took in the strain lining his face. “Jagger?—”

“What are you going to do when the fighting starts, Sutton?”

“Run,” I rasped.

“That’s right.”

I slid on my shoes. “Poe will be here in a few minutes.”

He dragged in a rough breath and his green irises flashed red. “If that fucker somehow manages to survive tonight, I’m going to personally drag him into the pits of Hell. I’ll be the one to chain him to the burning stone and make sure he knows nothing but suffering for the rest of eternity.”

“Okay,” I said, trying to keep him calm.

Poe would be knocking on my door any moment, and Jagger was struggling to let me out of his sight, let alone descend into the sewers with a demon who’d made it clear he wanted to make me his—to sit in a room full of powerful demons who had a taste for human flesh.

Scooping up my mask, I walked toward him.

“Not any closer,” he said huskily. “You come closer, I won’t be able to stop myself from touching you. I won’t let you leave.”

I stopped.

“Every part of this, letting you walk into danger tonight, letting you put yourself in danger all these weeks, goes against everything in me. I gave you time because I fucked up and you needed it, but when we finish this tonight, we’ve got shit to talk about,” he said roughly.

My heart thumped in my chest. “We do.”

“No more being apart, Sutton. I’m done with that.”

“Okay,” I said, because so was I. I forced a bright smile, shoving all the fear down deep, trying to ease Jagger’s as well.

He shook his head. “Don’t do that, don’t hide from me. You never need to hide any part of yourself from me, baby, and you sure as fuck don’t need to try and protect me.”

He saw right through me so easily. Jagger saw all of me, and he still wanted me. I’d been waiting for that my whole life.

Someone pounded on the door downstairs.

“I have to go.”

He growled, nostrils flaring. “You fucking come back to me, sunshine,” he said, then he stepped back, letting me pass.

I nodded, then rushed down the stairs before everything I was feeling welled up inside me, before I ran and wrapped my arms around him and let him take me away from here.

My stomach churned when I opened the door and looked up at the twisted demon there to take me to their horror show.

His gaze sliced down my body and his lips thinned. “You’re wearing the same dress.”

“Sorry, I’ve been busy at work. I didn’t have time to go shopping for something different.” He wasn’t happy, not at all, and fear coiled through me.

“You trying to embarrass me?” he said coldly.

“No, of course not.” No one had actually seen this dress?—

He grabbed the back of my neck and shoved me toward the car. “Get the fuck in.” I didn’t know what was going on, but his mood was freaking me out.

Lars sat in the driver’s seat and glanced at me in the rearview as I scrambled into the back seat. He was enjoying my humiliation. Either that or he’d already blown my cover and I was being driven to my death.

“Go through East Claymore,” Poe said to Lars as he got in, then pulled out his phone and started texting.

We drove for only a short time, when Poe told him to stop. He pointed to a shop, a woman’s clothing shop. “Knock on the door, they’ll have something for me,” he said to Lars.

Lars nodded and rushed to do what he was told. A terrified-looking female opened the door, demon by the looks, and shoved something at him before disappearing back inside.

Lars strode to the car and handed it to Poe, who then tossed it at me. “Put it on.”

A dress. It was flimsy, silky, and there wasn’t much of it. “I’m okay how I am.”

His hand shot out and he jabbed me in the side, knocking the air from my lungs. “Put it on,” he said in a now eerily calm voice.

Was he testing me? I had no choice but to do as he said.

I worked my dress up over my hips and pulled it off.

I felt Poe’s eyes on my body, and I desperately tried to cover myself, while I flipped the new dress, trying to get it the right way around.

I looked up and Lars was leering at me in the mirror.

“Eyes forward, asshole,” I fired at him.

I may not hold any power in this situation, but I wasn’t going to just sit here in my fucking underwear and let that asshole creep on me.

Poe said nothing, watching intently, taking in every scar on my body as if he liked the way they looked, as if he wanted very much to add to them.

I shoved the dress over my head and yanked it past my hips.

He reached out and ran the backs of his fingers over the silky blue fabric at my side, right over the spot where he’d struck me, pressing on it and making me wince.

“You don’t order Lars around, ever, understand? I do. If I want him to look at you, dressed or otherwise, that’s my decision. If I want him to do more than look, that’s my decision as well.” He gripped my throat and shoved my head against the seat, leaning over me. “Say you understand?”

My hand was against his chest, and my power pooled in my palm, reaching out, finding the weak spots in his skeleton, the organs that were the most vulnerable.

I wanted to push so badly. I wanted to release all the anger inside me on the fragile parts inside him and crush him from the inside out.

“I understand,” I said through gritted teeth.

My power continued to explore, and I saw every injury and how they happened, his vulnerabilities, mental and otherwise.

I saw it all. No, combat magic didn’t come easy to me, but this did. I could hurt him this way.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” he said, the anger in his eyes flaring.

“Like what?”

“I don’t know…” He held my eyes, searching them. “But I don’t like it. I want you, Sutton, and I will make you mine, but I won’t put up with disobedience. You betray me, and I will make you suffer.”

Poe’s grip on me was bruising. I wanted to shove him off. I wanted to force every bit of power I possessed into him and break every one of his bones.

But right then, he was the only thing between me and all the other masked freaks in the sewer.

Jagger’s just outside.

I reminded myself of that fact for the hundredth time since we’d walked in here. I searched the room now, and found Lars. His gaze was wide behind his mask, darting around the room. The demon was nervous, and if he didn’t calm down, he’d give himself—and me—away.

Rune had kept him overnight. I had no idea what he’d said or done to Poe’s bestie, but now he was in the same situation as me—a spy.

I’d voiced my concerns to Rune about him talking, but Rune had assured me Lars wouldn’t say a thing.

He’d had a terrifying look in his eyes when he said it, so I chose to believe him.

I sat silently beside Poe as the auction began. The air buzzed with anticipation and lifted the hair on my arms.

“Excited?” Poe asked, squeezing my hip too hard.

“I’m not sure what’s about to happen. You said it’s an auction?”

He pressed his mouth to my ear. “Yes, and nights like tonight took us a long time to accomplish.” Hatred filled his eyes. “The knights and the hounds have had their boots on our fucking necks for far too long.”

“With their laws?” I tried to keep him talking while I scanned the room.