Page 194 of Nothing More

“What sort of place is it?” she asked.

His grin turned a bit wry. “A club. A rather posh one. Set up to look like an art gallery.”

“Good God,” she muttered. “Deliver us from bloody art galleries.”

Tenny frowned, and his gaze darted to Reese, a brief moment of remembrance, of vulnerability, before he was back to business. “There’s another problem,” he said. “He wants to meet tomorrow: same day as the auction we’re supposed to go to.”

Maverick shook his head. “No. We’re bailing on that.” Stern look. “I know Ghost explained that to you already.”

Tenny’s frown went mulish. “Yeah, and like I explained to him: Ilya and his two idiots don’t know we” – gesture to Reese – “are Dogs.”

“That you know of. Toly thought Misha was helping him.”

“Toly’s a stupid tit who was getting all weepy and nostalgic about the good old days bashing heads in Moscow.”

“Hey,” Maverick and Raven said in unison.

“Get off it, he was,” Tenny insisted. “I know what I’m doing, and I could tell there’s a rift in the bratva. Those young ones aren’t happy with Misha and the job he’s doing. They won’t have told their Pakhan what they’re up to, business-wise. They don’t suspect us, and this is a chance to take some prisoners of our own.”

Maverick started to protest, then subsided, considering. “I dunno. I don’t like it. We’ll probably need you guys on the main op.”

A knock sounded at the door, and Raven jumped.

“That’ll be Ian,” Tenny said, and went to answer it.

“Ian?”

“I called him,” he explained, in passing. A moment later, she heard his familiar, cultured tones from down the hallway, and couldn’t say she wasn’t relieved. Not that he could do anything, but being surrounded by the people she trusted most – and what a wild thing that was to think about her present company – was a comfort. She was holding things together, yes, still energized and ready for action…but she couldn’t stop pacing, and that meant she was very much not okay underneath it all.

Ian swept into the room all in black and subtle gold touches, on a cloud of expensive cologne. “Darling,” he said, and came right to her, arms open.

The hug felt good, and certainly wasn’t anything she could request from her blood family. But her attention was snagged by the person who, while equally elegant, was a little less-flashily appointed.

“Alec!” she blurted out in surprise.

He hugged her after Ian. “Hello. I’m back early.”

“It’s good to see you.” And it was.

But when he pulled back, he made an apologetic face; Ian, she noticed, looked as though he was trying not to smirk. “I wasn’t alone on the plane, I’m afraid.”

She knew, then, with a wild leap of the sort of hope she hadn’t allowed herself to feel this whole time, with a jolt and a tingle up her back, a frisson of sudden confidence, who he’d brought.

And then Fox stepped around the corner, leaned against the wall, and crossed one boot over the other, unlit cigarette already dangling off his lip while he fished the lighter from his pocket.

Sourly, Tenny said, “We have it covered, thanks very much.”

“Sure you do,” Fox said, and got the smoke lit. He scanned the room. His gaze landed on Devin, and he said, “Knocked anyone up yet?”

Devin said, “I thought I’d save that for the celebrations afterward.”

Raven ducked between Ian and Alec and all but launched herself at her brother. He was good and braced, she noticed, when she landed against him, arms around his neck; he even took the cigarette out of his mouth to hug her back – surprisingly firm.

“Yeah,” he murmured, quietly, just for her. A quietI know, and anit’s okay, I’ll fix itwrapped up in that one, solemn word.

All of her brothers were fucked up in their own special ways, infuriating in turns. Shane was the softest, Miles the sweetest, Phil and King the best of them, really. She was coming to love Ten, in an unexpected way.

But Charlie was, secretly, her favorite.