Page 131 of Haunted

Sadie meets my gaze directly for the first time tonight, and what I see there makes everything click into place. She’s not compliant—she’s complicit. The careful posture, the measured responses, and the way she defers to Landon while subtly asserting her own capabilities.

She’s not broken. She’s evolved.

“Fascinating,” I murmur, genuinely impressed despite myself. “And here I thought Landon was the strategist in this relationship.”

“Oh, he is,” Sadie says, her hand covering Landon’s where it rests on her neck. “But every good strategist needs quality intelligence. I provide perspective he can’t access alone.”

The restaurant’s ambient noise fades as the implications settle over our table. My brother hasn’t merely claimed a brilliant hacker—he’s created a partner.

“Remember when we used to discuss business over dinner?” Knox asks, refilling his wine glass. “Now we’re analyzing relationship dynamics like we’re in some twisted therapy session.”

Vane snorts. “You say that like it’s a bad thing. When’s the last time you actually relaxed at one of these dinners?”

Knox considers this, stroking Bianca’s shoulder. “Fair point. Usually, I’m calculating who might stab me in the back before dessert.”

“Metaphorically or literally?” Bianca asks.

“Both,” all four brothers answer simultaneously, making the women laugh.

Lia shakes her head in amusement. “Do you realize you synchronized? That’s either terrifying or endearing.”

“Definitely terrifying,” Mira mutters against my ear, making me chuckle.

“Says the woman who organized my sock drawer last week,” I counter, and she blushes beautifully.

“It was chaos in there,” she defends. “How were you finding anything?”

Landon smirks. “Xavier’s always been organizationally challenged. Remember when we found those contracts stuffed in his gym bag?”

“That was one time,” I protest.

“It was twelve contracts worth forty million dollars,” Vane adds gleefully.

“In a gym bag that you’d been using for three weeks,” Knox finishes.

Mira stares at me in horror. “Please tell me you’ve improved since then.”

“I have competent people handling my organization now,” I say smoothly.

“Knox made me catalog his weapons collection. Apparently, I have an eye fordetail,” Bianca says.

“You color-coded my ammunition,” Knox says with obvious pride. “By caliber AND manufacturer.”

“It was meditative,” Bianca admits.

Sadie speaks up. “I’ve been working on a digital asset management system for all of you. Cross-referenced by date, value, and risk assessment.”

“See?” Landon says, kissing her temple. “Brilliant.”

Lia raises her glass. “To the prey—apparently, we’re all enablers now.”

“To the prey,” we echo, and the synchronization doesn’t feel strange. It feels right.

This result is what I never expected from the Hunt. Actual partners sitting at our table, laughing at our worst habits and somehow making them better.

The winter night air carries a bite as we walk from Meridian toward my building, Mira’s hand tucked into the crook of my arm. She’s traded her heels for the flats she keeps in her purse—a practical habit that somehow endears me more than it should.

“Your brothers seemed relaxed tonight,” she observes, pulling my jacket tighter around her shoulders. “Happier, maybe?”