Page 23

Chapter twenty-three

Raegan

Kellan’s mood doesn’t improve by the end of his training.

Within seconds of him calling it to an end, he grabs and throws me over his shoulder like a fucking brute, then slams the door open to the mini cafeteria that has the snack and shake bar.

“What the hell, Kellan?” I demand, punching and slapping his back.

“I’m not a sack of po—Oh!” He flips me back on my feet, his hands slamming on the counter behind me.

“What else did Rafe say to you? I need to know if I’m killing him or ruining his goddamn life.”

Rafe, huh?

I realize now that I never did get their names.

Cowards.

I release an annoyed huff, pushing against his chest for more room, then frowning when he refuses to budge.

“It was just stupid words. I’m fine.”

“He threatened you.” There’s a ripple of something along his arms, but it’s so quick that I can’t tell if I’d just imagined seeing it.

The muscles in his arms jump, his damned shirt seeming to stretch tighter as he works his jaw like he’s grinding words between his teeth.

His blue-green eyes darken behind dilated pupils that nearly consume his eyes.

“Kell? What’s gotten into you? What’s going on?” I grab one of his arms, and it feels solid and smooth beneath my fingertips.

Further inspection reveals golden scales, and my breath catches.

Did he get injured during training?

No, he didn’t have any when we came in here.

“You’re supposed to be safe here. I should have gutted him right there. Snapped a knee at least,” he continues, his deep timbre darkening with more heat.

More scales appear on his left arm, then the sides of his neck.

I peek beneath his shirt and see them already there as well.

I hum distractedly, my mind marveling at his gift activating without an injury for once, while I also try to figure out what to say to calm him down without him losing it, either.

“Mm…well, I’m not too worried about some fighters. They can say whatever they want, so long as they’re still useful in fighting GE.”

He growls, but it’s even more animalistic than his usual sound.

Wilder. Rougher. It reverberates in his chest and then settles in his throat.

“We’re not having people like that watch our backs.”

“Then don’t give them that particular job. But we can’t be picky. We need fighters.”

Kellan grabs my wrist when he realizes I’m touching his belt and was trying to sneak a peek down his pants…

to check for his gift, of course.

“What. Did. He. Say.”

“Enough!” I shout, twisting my wrist to get it back from him, but it’s like being in iron shackles.

There’s no breaking free from him when his gift is active.

Well, fine then.

I fill my body with my gift, spreading it through every inch of me like a warm buzz of electricity coating my skin.

I can feel it dance along Kellan’s grip, pushing and testing the impenetrable skin there to find an opening it can crack apart.

He releases me, holding his hand in front of him while he rubs his thumb and fingers together.

Pressing my hand to his chest may not hurt him, but it grabs his attention, nonetheless.

“Does it look like I can’t handle some cage fighter with a bad attitude?”

His dark eyes flare, then heat with a feral-ness that sets my heart racing into overdrive.

“No.” He collars my nape and yanks me against him, gift be damned, then rumbles in my ear, “But that’s my job, beautiful. To take out the trash for you.”

He slams his mouth against mine, the prickle of our gifts interacting like tiny fireworks against our lips.

I moan into the kiss, the way his tongue ravishes mine and makes my core turn molten.

Everywhere we touch erupts in tingles that are part-sting, part-pleasure, and have my toes curling with desire.

Lust addles my brain in those first few seconds as I give in to the kiss, my body melting against his.

Then I remember what he said.

Kellan would be one of the first to shove me behind him if we’re in danger, but I’m not about that.

I want to be right up front, protecting them or standing beside them at the very least.

I’m not some princess to be locked away or hidden from sight .

I shove away from him, putting a bit of my gift into it, and duck under his arm to step away.

“I can handle myself, Kellan,” I reiterate, a hand fisted at my chest as I catch my breath.

He turns, his teeth bared in a wild grin that looks more deadly than friendly.

He’s watching me like a wolf eyeing his next meal.

I take an involuntary step back.

“Are you running from me, beautiful?”

My breathing falters.

“No, I’m trying to have a serious—Fuck!”

He lunges for me, and I bolt, leaping around chairs and tables.

Kell doesn’t bother moving around anything and bulldozes straight through it to me.

The furniture flies and crashes with a mere swipe of his hands, clearing his path in a second.

His hand sinks into my hair, fisting it hard enough to make me cry out in alarm before he drags me back against him.

Heat fizzles between us, and the front of his shirt disintegrates.

Whoops.

His teeth scrape over the hammering pulse in my neck.

“Giving up so easily, beautiful?” he taunts on a cruel chuckle.

“Is this how you handle yourself?”

Oh.

Game on.

I swing my foot up to nail him in the balls.

It won’t hurt him, but his gut reaction to block it is enough of a distraction that I dive out of his grasp and fall onto a table.

It cracks and disappears beneath me.

My body thuds to the ground unexpectedly, and I grunt, glaring at the table particles now dusting the floor .

Ow.

I could turn off my gift, but it’s the only thing giving me the slightest chance against him while his gift is active.

He grabs my ankles and flips me onto my back, parting my legs.

Kellan buries his face between my thighs, nibbling through the fabric of my workout pants and underwear to reach my clit.

Gasping, I grab his hair with the intention of pushing him away, but he switches to a hard suck, and my fingers clench automatically, holding him more firmly against my core with a soft groan riding my lips.

“Ahhh, fuck!”

His teeth rake across my clit and entrance at once, snapping together at the middle.

My pussy throbs with need, paralyzing me through a shudder of pleasure.

I feel something at my waist and find his hands hooked in my workout pants and my shoes already removed.

Fuck.

I reach behind me and grab the legs of a chair, repeating to myself that I don’t want to disintegrate it.

When it remains solid in my grip, I swing it over my head and into his back.

One of the chair legs breaks off in my hand as the rest of the chair tumbles to the floor.

Or not.

I flip to my front, scrambling out from under him, even if that means I’m helping him remove my pants.

As soon as I’m free from them, I rush to my feet and run, cursing at the tables and chairs that slow me down without having the same effect on him.

I can feel him behind me by the hairs rising along the back of my neck.

The sound of metal scraping on the floor or hard plastic crashing together.

Sorry, Aiden .

I stop trying to avoid the furniture and touch it instead, my gift obliterating it to clear my path.

A hand wraps around my neck from behind, then pushes me against the nearest wall.

“Caught you, rabbit,” Kellan mocks, his beard tickling the back of my ear.

His hand dips inside my panties.

He gives a hard tug, holding me in place by my neck, and then tears them off.

“You won’t be needing these,” he growls.

He grips my ass, then kneads it in a slow circle.

He smacks it once, short and sweet, and inhales sharply.

My skin tingles and burns where he struck, the effect of our gifts entangling there in that instant, skyrocketing the intensity before fading to an insistent tingle that demands the area be touched again.

I grind my ass against him, seeking that relief and finding the hard length of him bulging in his pants.

He chuckles, the jingle and slide of his belt so loud to me that it’s all I can focus on.

The hard clank when it falls to the floor.

The soft pop of his jeans unbuttoning.

“Should I take you like this? Fuck you against the wall?” I’m panting hard, the adrenaline pumping through my veins and drowning out anything but him and the wild beating of my heart.

He rips the rest of his shirt free, dropping it to the pile of his clothes on the floor and kicking it aside.

He rocks his dick into my lower back, slowly grinding it against me as heat spreads and pools between my thighs.

Kell curses, dropping his head and biting my shoulder.

“I love the feel of your gift on my dick. I wonder how much more I’ll feel when I’m inside you. ”

“Kell,” I breathe, craning my head as far to the side as I can.

I draw my lips in, wetting them and shooting him a heated look.

Kiss me , it demands.

His lips close in on mine, no actual words needed between us as he drives his tongue against mine.

He grips my chin, holding me in place as he takes my mouth with a savagery that makes my knees weak.

I try to reach him, to touch him, but struggle against his unrelenting grip.

Leaning into my gift, I strengthen it at my neck.

Kellan startles. I worry for a second that I somehow hurt him, but he only looks surprised when he checks his hand.

The moment his eyes and hands are off me, I escape.

I run for the counter, diving over it and hoping I’ll slide to the other side, when a hand clamps down on my thigh, stopping me while my upper half is dangling.

He pulls me back a few inches, then pushes my thighs together around his dick.

He thrusts between them, rubbing between my folds and gathering my arousal until the top of his cock is slick.

“That’s right, beautiful. You’re mine,” he says fiercely, his breathing harsh.

“I’m never letting you go.”

My body clenches at his words, aching at the emptiness that’s desperate to be filled and knowing how close the cure is.

I moan loudly, unable to stop myself when it feels so fucking good.

His dick glides more easily now down my center, making me wetter for him.

Blood rushes to my head, making me dizzy and almost ready to give in.

He spreads my cheeks, his cock sliding back and notching against my entrance.

“One of these days, I’ll remember to put goddamn lube in my pocket so I can start training your sexy ass.”

I squirm in his grip, but it’s hard to say if I’m trying to get away or sink onto him.

The rush is getting stronger now, filling my head and making it harder to think about anything other than the feel of him right where I want him.

How close I am to the ecstasy I want.

One tiny nudge to breach my core, and yet he holds there, letting the need grow and expand until I’m quivering with it.

“Tell me you’re mine. Say it,” he commands roughly.

I almost do it. Almost give in to his demands because I’m on the verge of passing out and losing my mind from the tease, when he prods my core with the head of his cock, and I remember that he wants this as desperately as I do.

I still have some fight left in me.

“Bite me,” I growl, reaching for anything on this side of the counter.

I grip the handle of a blender and throw it back.

I don’t have time to see if I got him or what effect it had on him other than his hands releasing me.

I fall to the floor, catching myself with my hands before I faceplant, and take a few gasping, blinking breaths while my blood begins to drain.

Kellan chuckles. “Whatever my girl wants, she gets.”

Forcing my feet under me, I shakily rise and stumble through the mini kitchen for the snack and shake bar.

I cast a quick glance back, where Kellan places a hand on the counter and clears it in a single jump.

Shit.

The small area ends with another counter and row of refrigerators along the back wall.

I turn, my hands finding the edge of the narrow counter on instinct and then dropping when that collapses beneath my gift, the contents spilling to the floor.

Aiden’s going to be pissed.

It’s something I’ll have to worry about later, though, because in a few short strides, Kellan is already closing in.

I run around the other side of the center prep table, hoping to make it back to the front counter and bar, but he pivots and slides over it, blocking my exit.

His large frame towers over mine, gold scales catching and glinting in the overhead lights.

Kellan’s eyes are dark and wild, the flash of his teeth against his beard sharp.

“Going somewhere?” he drawls.

Fisting my hands, I go for it.

I swing at his jaw, hitting him with the strength of my gift and catching him off guard.

His neck snaps to the side, but his body doesn’t budge.

I keep the punches flying, striking his torso, his head, a kick to his knee.

Anything to bring him down long enough that I can slip past him.

None of it makes a difference.

Kellan bends and lifts me by my thighs, then plops me on the prep table.

I focus on not destroying this one because the fall from it would hurt like a bitch.

While I’m preoccupied, he flips my legs up, and I fall on my back with a hard thud.

His teeth sink into my thigh, and I gasp.

I kick my legs and fight to pull away from him, but he laughs and drags me back to his mouth, his arms locked around my thighs where they’re slung over his shoulders.

He starts on one side, teasing the length of my inner thigh with kisses and love bites, branding the path to my cunt with marks that’ll last for days.

I’m still wrestling for control, bucking and clawing at him after pushing myself upright as he suckles and claims my other thigh, biting me hard if I get too riled.

I grab his hair, fighting to move his head and merely pulling out the tie that holds half his hair up.

He snatches one wrist and then the other, grinning wickedly at me from between my legs.

“Remember, you asked for this, beautiful. If you’re good, I may even let you come.”

Kellan slips his tongue between my folds, finding my clit in a single slow stroke and then flicking it.

My body convulses, pleasure wracking my limbs like an electric shock.

The prickle of our gifts adds a whole new experience to his mouth on me there, and I’m fucking here for it.

His lips suction around it, sucking and licking and eating me alive so thoroughly, so overwhelmingly, that I collapse like a rag doll on the table as I lose all control of my body.

I’m nothing but need.

A molten, desperate thing that aches.

Aches for release.

Pleasure coils and tightens within me, building to an almost unbearable level.

I tremble in his grip, straining to pull free from his hands while he only holds me closer.

Harder. Forcing the pleasure that zings through me and threatens to detonate with only a little bit more.

I grind my hips, seeking out that extra friction that will be my undoing as I push against him as hard as I can.

I’m right there, about to crest the hill, when his mouth shifts.

He leaves that spot , and I come tumbling down that hill instead of over it, my climax slipping from my grip.

No, no, no!

“Kell! Wait!”

He chuckles, adding another bite to my inner thigh, which makes my over-sensitized body jump.

“Did you think it would be that easy?” He plants a kiss on my pelvis, his beard tickling and scratching my shaved skin.

“Did you think I’d let you get away with that?” Kellan gives me a feral grin as he stands, pulling me upright and releasing my hands.

He pumps his cock, then swipes the bead of pre-cum with his thumb and holds it out to me.

I open my mouth, leaning forward to wrap my lips around his thumb and suck it clean.

I add circling tongue, trying to sweeten him to reconsidering.

His eyes shutter, and he groans.

Kellan hooks his thumb down, grabbing my teeth and chin.

“I think I know how you’re going to make it up to me.” His grip directs my face and eyes downward, where his other hand strokes his hard length.

“What do you say, beautiful?”

I nod, his hold allowing me that much movement.

He releases me, and I slide from the table and sink to my knees.

He grabs the edge of the table with his hands like he needs something to hold on to.

I don’t bother with light or slow teasing.

I’m horny as fuck, and the sight of his dick has me salivating.

I wrap my lips around his crown, tasting him with a swirl of my tongue and moaning at the salty taste.

There’s a crunch of metal and a curse, and I realize then he’s using the table to keep himself from overdoing it if he were to touch me.

How much has he had to hold himself back to keep from hurting me while his gift is active?

Just how strong is he?

I suck him down as far as I can, hollowing my cheeks and pulling myself down his shaft until he hits the back of my throat.

Remembering to breathe through my nose, I grip the rest of him with my hand, twisting and giving him short pumps.

I draw back, tongue working at the tip and then sucking him down again.

I work him over and over, sucking and licking, moaning and pumping, my head bobbing at a steady pace as drool begins to slide from the corner of my lips.

I ignore the sound of metal groaning, snapping.

His curses and praises rain down on me like fuel to encourage me faster.

Harder. I even slip my teeth out at one point, raking them down his shaft while I tug and play with his balls, and Kellan’s hips jerk forward, his hand holding the back of my head from moving.

He slams his cock to the back of my throat so hard I choke.

“Fuck!” He tries to withdraw, but I grab his thighs and keep going.

I’m ready to flip the tables on him.

Bring him to the edge of ruination and then cut him off, just like he did to me.

Even though my throat now has a bit of an ache, it’s not too bad.

I try to dig my nails into his thighs but meet the cold scales or thick protective layer wherever I go.

He shudders as if feeling something still.

I wonder if it’s more than a tickle of my gift against his.

If he feels the same pins and needles that both sting and feel good at once wherever we touch.

It’s like my mouth is numb and electrified at the same time, and my body is throbbing with the need to feel it in my cunt.

Kellan’s hips twitch, his balls tightening, and I pop my lips off him in a rush, nearly falling over myself to get to my feet and run again.

He snarls, and I have a second of sweet satisfaction at his frustration before I remember I still have to escape him to win.

“Not so fast.” He grabs me by the shirt that I’m still wearing, which I destroy with a thought and keep going.

Kellan laughs and shackles my ankle, dragging me between his legs so he’s straddling me.

I scramble forward and kick at his face, but he grabs my foot and then flips me to my back, dragging my ass and hips off the floor so he can lock my legs against him.

Kellan uses his hips to line himself up as I try to twist or angle away, convinced I can still win this, but his hold is too secure, his determination greater than mine when he drives his cock inside me.

I come immediately, stars bursting behind my eyes at the tingling, hot slide of his dick as our gifts collide inside of me.

Holy fuck .

Kellan’s moan is loud and long, his body hunched and shuddering as he absorbs so much at once.

“Fuckkk, that’s…fuck.” He slowly drags himself out to the tip, then rolls his hips when he pushes back inside.

My inner walls tremble at the feeling as I’m still coming down from my orgasm.

He keeps doing it, agonizingly slow and steady, so the warm buzz liquefies my muscles.

He must sense that the fight’s completely left me because he lowers my legs and leans forward, his hand finding my throat while his other arm still cradles one of my legs to keep me open for him.

“I know you can fight and fuck and everything in between. But it’s my goddamn pleasure to do some of it for you. Do you understand?”

His hips keep working their magic, like a wave that rolls in and out, my own hips working to meet his and ride that wave rather than fight it.

Every stroke sends a burst of pleasure through me.

Makes my body quiver and ache.

Kellan’s grip on my throat tightens, and my pussy clenches deliciously on his cock, holding it in place at his slow pace.

He pushes through it, picking up speed, and my eyes roll back in my head.

“Answer me,” he growls.

“Yes!” I groan, both answering him and in response to the faster pace that feels so fucking good.

He slams into me, fucking me in a frenzy.

My core is on fire, burning and throbbing and gripping the air in my lungs.

Or maybe his hand has cut off my air because I can’t breathe, can’t think as he pounds pure and devastating pleasure into me.

I think my body is lifted from the ground, or he’s fucking me so hard I’m going airborne, but I’m so blinded with the need to come that I can’t focus on anything other than that spot he keeps hitting until my orgasm explodes through me.

Kellan roars as he comes too, my cunt clamping down on him and wringing him dry as my body locks and floods with ecstasy.

I’d probably scream if I had any oxygen, but as it is, I can’t see, can’t breathe, can barely feel anything other than the lingering high that consumes me.

I surrender completely to that bliss.

I wake up in Kellan’s arms, his back against some cabinets and knees bent on either side of me.

My ear is pressed to his chest, where I can feel the steady thump of his heart and hear the slow inhale and exhale of his breath.

His arms are locked around my arm and leg as if he’d pulled me sideways against him with warm bands of steel .

I feel warm.

Safe.

I hum under my breath, content.

“You awake then, beautiful?”

“Mm.”

It’s quiet for a moment before he says, “You’re not running away.”

I open my eyes, a soft smile curling my lips at that realization—when I used to bolt the second I had a chance, too afraid to make that emotional connection with anyone.

Too scared to let anyone in past my barriers.

“Not anymore.” I shift and his arms loosen enough that I can turn on my knees to face him.

His blue-green eyes are glued to me, open and waiting for whatever I’m about to say.

I reach for the stiff bristles of his beard, stroking my hand over them and then grazing my thumb along his cheekbone.

“I’m right where I’m supposed to be,” I whisper, my chest ready to explode with the overwhelming emotions swirling and twisting there.

Kellan kisses me then.

Raw and desperate. Languid, yet demanding.

He kisses me like it’s the first and the last time bundled as one, and my heart detonates as it’s stripped bare, all the emotions releasing and flooding my veins at once.

I’d spent two years dreaming of a place I could call home.

Then the three years after telling myself it was better not to have one, fooling myself into believing that a place like that didn’t exist for someone like me.

Now that I’m with them, I realize that home for me isn’t a place.

It’s them .

I was never going to feel whole or complete without them.

Kell tears himself away, his face pinched and serious for a change.

“I’m sorry for everything that happened in the past. If I hadn’t—”

I cover his lips with my fingers to stop him.

“I don’t blame you—any of you—for that. Not anymore,” I add, because I had before.

I’d blamed them for what Gordon did to me.

For letting that man control me and do what he pleased.

I thought it would help me to move on from them if I blamed Gordon’s actions on them.

If I hated Aiden, most of all, when I thought he had left me on the island.

It wasn’t until I was with Gordon the last time that I realized…

none of us were responsible for Gordon’s actions.

He was the one to blame.

For all of it. Not them.

And not myself. “We were stupid kids then. How were any of us going to understand what Gordon was capable of?”

“We still should have fought for you,” he argues.

“I killed one of us. Of course, you weren’t going to jump to my rescue.”

Kellan releases a frustrated growl.

“You’re giving us too much leeway that we don’t deserve.” He cups my face, and I lean into it.

“But I’ll take it anyway. Anything, if it means we get to keep you. Because I won’t make the same mistake again. I won’t let you go.” He slips his hand into my hair, wrapping the back of my head and drawing me close.

He presses a featherlight kiss to my temple.

“Let me be your armor.” My cheek.

“Your shield.” Kell crooks a finger under my chin and lifts it, adding another kiss under my jaw.

The side of my neck.

“I was always meant to be that, for you.” His lips find mine, coaxing them apart with excruciating slowness.

His languorous tongue caresses mine, spreading warmth through my limbs.

“I love you, Raegan LaRoux, or Laivins, or whatever last name you want.”

“I love you, too,” I confess.

He looks surprised, either by my admission or how quickly I said it.

“I’m not just saying it. I think…I always have. Even when I tried to forget you, or when you all hated me…I could never let you go. There’s no one else for me but the four of you.”

“Fuck, beautiful,” he breathes, kissing me again like he can never get enough.

A voice clears above us.

I jerk back, suddenly remembering that I’m wearing nothing but a bra and socks, and Kellan’s completely naked, where we’re wrapped up in each other.

“I would ask if you were attacked based on the state of this room, but unless it was a clothing thief, I’m forced to assume you’re the culprits behind this mess?” Aiden inquires smoothly, a single brow raised in a silent demand for an explanation.

He’s standing on this side of the counter, deftly undoing the buttons on his suit jacket and sliding it free.

Stepping closer, he fans it out behind me and settles it over my shoulders.

Fabric plops to the floor beside him.

My pants and shoes. I glance up, finding Jackson smiling at me from where he’s crouched on top of the counter.

Kellan’s pants, boxer briefs, and shoes drop next on the other side of him.

“When people heard crashing sounds coming from here, they thought we were under attack. You’re lucky Jackson heard it first and blocked the door from anyone trying to come check it out.” Dane’s voice carries from behind the counter and out of my view.

I hurriedly stand and tug my pants and shoes on, giving Kell room to do the same.

I look around the room and cringe at what I see.

Half the tables and chairs are gone, mere piles of dust on the floor.

The rest of them, well, the ones that aren’t bent out of shape or missing legs, are strewn about.

The mini kitchen has the worst of it.

Missing chunks of counter.

Food and supplies cover the floor.

The prep table is warped and dented so far that it’ll be a miracle if the cabinet doors on that side manage to open.

Tucking my arms into Aiden’s jacket, I wrap it more tightly around my upper half so I’m covered.

His thumb traces something on my neck, an angry crease furrowing his brow.

Aiden glares at Kellan, who stands but hasn’t bothered with his clothes.

“Was it necessary for you to mar her whole body with your mouth?”

Kell laughs, his smile as wide and bright as can be.

“Just marking what’s mine,” he responds, a challenge flashing in his eyes as he holds Aiden’s stare.

Fucking shit stirrer.

I’m close enough to Aiden that I can feel his body tense.

Fuck.

I need to figure out how to deal with Aiden’s possessive and jealous nature, and fast. Calling him out in an open challenge like Kellan’s doing isn’t the way to do it.

“Don’t be a prick, Kell,” I cut in, trying to stop that shit before it goes downhill .

“And get dressed already,” Dane throws in.

“That should be rule number one in this relationship. When you’re not actively using it, put it away. I think I’ve seen your dick more in the last month than I’ve seen our girl naked. There’s something wrong with those numbers.”

Kellan howls with laughter, throwing his head back and slapping the countertop.

His head drops down, and he looks prepared to say something else, but thankfully Aiden intervenes.

“Yes, get some clothes on. And then I expect an explanation for why you chose to destroy the Guild’s snack and shake bar.”

I duck my head, heat creeping up my neck.

Aiden turns to me, his dark gaze sweeping me from head to toe.

“I’ll call Cassandra to heal the bruising from Kellan. Are you injured anywhere else?”

“What? No, of course not. Why would you think he—” I stop short when Aiden’s eyes trail to the disfigured metal.

The destroyed cabinets and counters.

“Oh. No, I’m fine. His gift was active, and mine, which is what caused the mess.” Ah!

Which reminds me…“Kell!” I grab his arm as he’s buckling his pants.

“Your gift. How did you turn it on without getting hurt?”

He lifts his arm and looks at it with a concentrated gaze.

“I don’t know. One minute, I was raging mad at Rafe, and the next, it was there. I didn’t do it on purpose.”

“Why were you mad at Rafe?” Aiden asks.

Kellan’s expression darkens, his jaw tensing.

“That piece of shit threatened her,” he growls, hands fisting as his anger resurges.

I jump to the counter to grab Jackson’s boot when he stands.

“ Wait!” He looks at me, a cruel smile twisting his lips and a knife suddenly in his grip.

“He already left. He thought I was the GE spy and was trying to get me to leave. He was a dick, sure, but he doesn’t deserve to die for that.”

“Where is he now?” Aiden demands, his attention on Kellan.

“He and Snyder took off after I threatened them. I don’t know yet if they left the Tower for good or are just lying low.”

“They sure as fuck aren’t staying here anymore,” Dane adds, fisting his hand.

But I’m still focused on Jack, who doesn’t look the least bit dissuaded by my plea for their lives.

I switch tactics. “Don’t kill them,” I say this time, my voice firm.

“Being assholes isn’t a death sentence.”

“It is if it’s to you,” he counters, dipping back to a squat so he can reach me.

He curls my hair behind my ear, then draws the ends of them to his lips.

I stand my ground even as pleasurable goosebumps break out where he touches me and spread down my neck and arms. “No killing them.”

Jackson’s smile sharpens, a light huff passing through his nose.

“No killing,” he finally promises, and I breathe a sigh of relief.

“Kell, come with me to check their temporary apartment and escort them out if they haven’t left already. The rest of you, get to the Loft. We need to finish preparing for Harvey’s meeting with Charles,” Aiden directs, ending the conversation.

I take Jack’s hand, wondering if he’ll fight Aiden on wanting to be the one to handle Rafe and his buddy, but he jumps to the floor at my side .

Hm. I could pretend that means he’s accepted whatever Aiden and Kell plan to do or accept that he’ll likely go out overnight to deliver his own version of justice.

I’ve already done my part to keep them alive.

Whatever comes next is on them.