Page 70 of Bleed the Shadows

I nodded.

“Honestly, I’m not sure. It just does.”

“Don’t they get jealous?” I’d never been more glad for both the cavernous great room and the booming voices of the Butchers as they talked about some new car that had just been released.

Hopefully they couldn’t hear me asking for tips from Lilah. I wasn’t even sure if they wanted an actual relationship with me, and it remained to be seen whether that was even possible with Bram.

She laughed. “Insanely, but not in that annoying insecure boyfriend way.” She blushed. “They just… compete for me in away, but they’re also happy to… share?” Her cheeks turned a deeper shade of red. “Sorry, that’s probably TMI.”

“Not at all.” I pulled some beers out of the fridge. “I actually appreciate it. I didn’t know how to ask.”

“Is that how it is with you and the Butch— ” She shook her head. “With you and the guys?”

“It’s okay," I said. “I know what everyone calls them. And we’re not there yet. I’ve just been wondering how it would work.”

“I completely get it.” She leaned on the kitchen island. “My mom’s super religious, so it was pretty out of my comfort zone at first.”

“Oh wow, what does she think about the whole thing?” I asked.

She frowned. “We don’t really talk.”

“I’m sorry. That must be hard.” I couldn’t imagine not talking to my parents, but I was also lucky enough to know that they would love and support me no matter what I did, even if deep down they thought it was unhinged.

At least I hoped so.

“I’m kind of used to it,” she said. “Our relationship has always been difficult.”

“Good for you for making yourself happy.” I took a charcuterie board I’d prepared earlier out of the fridge. “Want to carry this while I get the beers?”

She laughed. “Now you’re just making me look bad.”

“From the way Rafe looks at you, I’m pretty sure that would be impossible.”

Rafe’s gaze landed on Lilah as we headed into the living room. The love on his face was obvious.

“Want to sit down?” Poe asked Rafe and Lilah.

“Sure.” Rafe took the beer I passed him and looked at the charcuterie. “Wow, that looks amazing.”

“Don’t get your hopes up,” Lilah said. “I’ll never be this good in the kitchen.”

He grinned. “The kitchen isn’t the room I think of when I think about you.”

She rolled her eyes with a smile.

“But maybe we can get Jude or Nolan to make us one of those sometime,” he said.

She stood on tiptoe to give him a quick kiss on the lips. “Now you’re talking.”

We got settled around the table and Rafe opened his laptop. “I’ll send this file to you, but I wanted to point some things out first.”

He pulled up an aerial view of a house and two smaller structures nestled in a thick stand of trees and I knew immediately it was the house purchased by Ethan Todd. I hadn’t seen it up close when I’d done my drive-by, but I’d looked at the real estate listing enough times to recognize the massive main house with big windows, the outdoor complex out back, including a pool, hot tub, and sauna, and the two smaller buildings, which had been described as guesthouses in the listing.

“Let’s go over the house and property first,” Rafe said. “Then we’ll go again and talk about security and see if we can ID your man.”

He hit play on the video and it started over, this time over a wide swath of trees, the Blackwell River winding like a ribbon of glistening silk far below.

Then, a long stretch of gray nestled between stands of trees.