Page 23

E vie rubbed her hands over her arms. Kyler had told her the whole thing while they waited for Jace to return. If it wasn’t so serious, she would’ve laughed.

She rolled her eyes. “I know you guys are shifters, but does he have to go all Big Bad Wolf? Besides, you’re a cat.”

Jace’s mouth twitched. Score a point for Evie. She had a feeling Jace didn’t smile much. She liked that she could make him laugh, if only inside.

Then he replied, “Actually, he is a wolf,” and she gulped.

Because she’d only been joking to hide her fear, and now it was creepy. How long had the other man been outside? And what if he’d gone after Kyler?

Her brother folded his arms. “Fuck this wolf-and-cat thing. Is it true?”

“ Kyler ,” she hissed, but Jace calmly met his eyes.

“What happens between me and your sister is our business. But I would never hurt her. He was just trying to pull your chain.”

“So where’s the wolf-man now?”

“I don’t know.” Jace jerked his head at the woman wrapped in the towel. “We’ll talk when the alpha gets here.”

Evie nodded. The woman hadn’t moved from her slumped position, but of course, she could hear every word.

Evie didn’t know exactly what had happened, but it was clear the woman and the missing man had attacked Jace.

That was why she’d let Jace back in her house, and allowed him to hold the woman until his alpha arrived—but that was as far as it went.

What the hell was going on? Evie fingered the quartz in her pocket. She’d been so damn worried. Each minute with Jace gone had seemed like an eternity. She’d hated that the only thing she could do was to call Adric and then wait for him to drive the fifty minutes up from Baltimore.

Jace trained his gaze on his prisoner. He appeared relaxed, long legs stretched before him and an elbow resting on the chair back, but it was the coiled energy of an animal prepared to spring.

The woman slid a look at Evie. Her pale blue eyes were flat. Not angry or cold, just flat, as if Evie were too insignificant to worry about.

Evie wasn’t sure if that was good or bad. “Well,” she said, “I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m hungry.” She’d been too busy to grab more than a snack tonight.

Kyler brightened. “Works for me.”

She rolled her eyes. “Why aren’t I surprised?”

“Hey, I’m a growing boy.”

But the tension in the room dropped several notches.

Evie got out sandwich fixings and went to work. A few minutes later, she had four thick tuna sandwiches topped with slabs of melted cheddar. Jace inhaled appreciatively as she handed him a plate. “Tuna. Great.”

“I figured you’d like it.”

“Why?”

She smirked. “You’re a cat, aren’t you?”

His mouth twitched again. “A jaguar, not a house cat.”

“Here.” She handed him a plate for the red-headed woman, who was eyeing Jace’s sandwich hungrily. “I made one for her, too.”

He shook his head, but passed it on to her. When the Baltimore alpha arrived, he found the four of them eating tuna melts.

Evie opened the door at Jace’s request and Adric strode in as if he owned the place. He nodded hello to Evie and Kyler and then eyed the woman, who straightened up and set her plate on the table behind her.

“This is her?”

“Yep.” Jace rose to his feet. “Name’s Nika.”

A small woman with a shaved head slipped in after Adric, Jace’s clothes under her arm, and Adric jerked his chin in her direction without taking his eyes off Nika. “This is one of my lieutenants,” he said.

The newcomer set the clothes on an empty chair and stuck out a hand. “Marjani. I’m also his sister—and you must be Evie.”

“That’s me.” Evie shook her hand. Marjani was a female version of Adric—a lithe cat of a woman with smooth butterscotch skin, large dark eyes and a perfect oval face. But her body was scarecrow-thin and her eyes had hollows beneath them so that Evie wondered if she’d been sick.

“You’re the humans who saved Jace’s life.” Marjani looked from Evie to Kyler. “Thank you. He’s like a brother to me.”

Evie moved a shoulder. “We didn’t do much.”

Marjani touched Evie’s arm, and then moved to where Adric and Jace were staring down at Nika. The redhead moistened her lips and kept her gaze on the alpha. Adric and Marjani stepped closer, and Nika shrank into herself.

Evie’s stomach tightened. She could almost see the teeth and claws come out, two predators homing in on their prey.

She swallowed and glanced at Jace, who had stepped back, allowing Adric to take over.

He gave a slight shake of his head, and she forced herself to remain silent. This was between the fada.

“So. Nika.” Adric set a hand on the back of her chair. “You’re new around here, aren’t you?”

She jerked her head in assent.

“I thought so. But we’re going to get to know each other, won’t we, love?”

Nika’s throat worked. Her gaze darted from him to Marjani and then back to the floor.

“She’s not from around here,” Jace said. “I think she’s from Russia or Eastern Europe.”

“And you say she was with Corban?”

“Yeah.”

Adric shook his head. “You’re bullet bait to him,” he told her. “Someone he can throw at me to save his own ass.”

She raised her chin. “He says you lie. That you can do it without harming yourself.”

“Do you scent a lie?”

Her nostrils flared. Then she shook her head. “No,” she admitted. “But maybe I would not.”

“Corban is the one who plays with the truth. And the man’s a fucking coward, too. Look how he left you behind to take the heat.”

Nika pressed her lips together.

“You know the rules,” Adric said. “You come into my territory without permission, you’re mine. I could slit your throat right here and no one would say a word.”

Kyler moved uneasily, but Adric sliced him a look, and he kept his mouth shut.

Nika merely nodded. “As you say.”

The alpha turned toward Evie. “Can I trouble you for some clothes for Nika here?”

“Yes, of course.” She hurried from the room. The redhead was several sizes larger than her, but she found an oversized T-shirt and a pair of yoga pants that she thought would work. When she returned to the kitchen, Jace had taken the opportunity to get dressed in his own clothes as well.

Nika shed her towel and pulled on the shirt and pants, unconcerned with her audience. Evie elbowed Kyler, who had his gaze locked on the woman’s full breasts. He reddened and dropped his eyes.

Adric was holding the paper towel with Nika’s quartz.

Her eyes went to it, but she didn’t say anything.

The alpha unwrapped it without touching it.

He cocked his head, and Evie had the odd impression he was listening to it.

He gave a nod and then wrapped it up again before tucking it into his pocket.

“We’ll take care of her,” he told Jace. “You two”—he nodded at Evie and Kyler—“go with Jace.”

The two men exchanged a look.

“What do you mean?” Evie asked.

“Jace will explain. But my cousin is a coldhearted SOB. If he thinks he can hurt me through you, he will.”

She passed a hand over her face. None of this made sense. “Why would hurting me hurt you?”

“Jace is one of my top men—a lieutenant. And it’s clear he’s interested in you, or else he wouldn’t have been here.”

Jace was a lieutenant? But it fit; he had that air of calm, confident power.

“Come on.” Jace set a hand on her back. “We can talk upstairs. You too, Kyler.”

As they moved into the hall, Adric said to Nika, “I’ll ask you one time. Where’s Corban?”

Silence .

Evie glanced back to see the alpha dangling his quartz in front of Nika’s face. Then Jace moved to block her sight and hustled her toward the stairs.

She dug in her heels. Yes, Nika had helped attack Jace, but Evie couldn’t help feeling a little sorry for her. “What’s he going to do?” she demanded.

He propelled her forward. “Don’t worry,” he said in an undertone. “He won’t hurt her. She’ll tell him what he needs to know.”

“But—”

“Upstairs. The less she knows, the better.”

Evie nodded and led the way to the front bedroom—her mom’s.

Evie still didn’t think of it as hers. The walls were still the same deep plum her mom had chosen, and she had her mom’s colorful orange, blue, and purple Boho quilt on the bed.

Even the sturdy fruitwood dresser had been passed down through her mom’s family.

The only furniture Evie had added was an inexpensive table which held her printer and a stack of books and papers.

Jace closed the door and turned to face her and Kyler. “I’d like you to come to Baltimore with me for a few days—hide in my den until we track down Corban.”

“But why? What’s going on?”

He scraped a hand over his short black hair. “We’re not sure,” he admitted. “But we’re afraid Corban is behind the attack on me last week, which means he’s working with the night fae. And that’s twice now my trail has led right to your door. Until we know what’s happening, you’re not safe here.”

Evie sank down on her bed. “This is insane. I have work. And Kyler—”

“Is out of school for the summer,” her brother inserted. “Maybe we should listen to the man.”

“You want to go?” An hour ago, he’d been ready to punch Jace out, and now he was all for leaving with him.

He moved a shoulder. “You didn’t see this Corban. I did. He’s one scary motherfucker.”

Jace crouched before Evie, his hands on the mattress on either side of her.

The claw marks on his face were healing rapidly, but they’d come dangerously close to his eye.

“I’m sorry, Evie. Corban knows I was with you, and he scented you on me.

He doesn’t play by the rules—and he likes to hurt women.

Do you want to take a chance he won’t come back? ”

She grimaced. “No, of course not.”

“It’s Saturday night,” Kyler said. “You don’t have to be at work until Monday evening. We could go for a couple of days at least.”

Evie stared at the marks on Jace’s face and went cold as she realized that both Corban and Nika must have been out there, watching Kyler come home from Ben’s. They could’ve grabbed him, torn him to pieces…and she’d never have known why.

“Please,” Jace said. “I promise, you can leave whenever you want. But this house is too hard to protect. He could come at you from either side.” He jerked his chin at the windows overlooking the street. “Even climb in through the windows. Climbing up here would be nothing for a fada.”

Evie glanced at Kyler and made up her mind. “All right.”

Because she trusted Jace. If he’d wanted, he could’ve hurt her and Kyler ten times over by now; but instead, he’d been outside the house, guarding them.

He’d lost sleep to make sure they were okay, and damn it, she was touched.

Yeah, she was tough, independent—and proud of it—but she wasn’t stupid enough to think she could take on a fada.

If Jace believed they were in danger, then they probably were.

“Thank you,” Jace said as if she were doing him a favor and not the other way around. He stood up. “I’ll wait in the hall while you pack. Make sure you bring enough for a few nights.”

Kyler followed Jace into the hall. “I can send my friend Ben a text, right? Tell him we’re going to be in Baltimore with friends?”

“Sure. Just don’t give him any details.”

Evie took out her own phone. She’d taken the biology final last Tuesday, and her summer class didn’t start for another week.

The only people she needed to contact were her bosses at the restaurant and the coffee shop.

She’d been so busy the last few years that she’d lost touch with her friends from high school.

Her only uncle lived in Canada, and she hadn’t seen him since her mom’s funeral.

Evie could disappear for a month and no one would notice except Kyler and her boss and maybe Mrs. Linney.

Lord, that was sad.

It was rare for her to have a Sunday off, so she’d been planning to surprise Kyler with a trip to the beach two hours away in Delaware.

But Monday she was due to work the evening shift at the restaurant and then Tuesday morning at the coffee shop.

She texted her boss at the restaurant saying she might not make it in on Monday, but decided not to contact the coffee shop yet.

Surely they’d be back home by Tuesday—because she really couldn’t afford to lose more than a day or two of work.

She pocketed her phone and went to her dresser.