Page 20 of Taming the Beasts

I laughed. I’d never seen Bennett so playful before.

Yes, Kebe’s concerns were valid. But what if all five men still chose to be with me? We’d be living a perfect life without any fear. And that was worth the risk. Especially if it made all of them happy.

Bennett set me down on my feet in front of my door.

I took a deep breath and pulled out my key. Maybe I had nothing to worry about. Maybe I did. But I wasn’t going to withhold the cure from them. Kebe had messed with my head in the moment, but I was thinking clearly now. My boyfriends wanted the cure. I’d gotten it for them. End of story.

I unlocked the door and was greeted by light snoring. I stared at Emma, fast asleep in a chair.

Shit.I thought she was keeping an eye on Kebe?

I walked over to Emma. She was still fully dressed in her leathers and had tons of blankets piled on top of her. Why did she have so many blankets? It wasn’t even cold in here. And she clearly wasn’t that cold, because there was a sheen of sweat on her forehead. “Emma.” I shook her awake.

She sat up with a start. “Did I fall asleep?” She wiped off her forehead and seemed confused about why she was so sweaty.

“Where’s Kebe?” I whispered.

She looked at the clock on the wall and her eyes grew round. “You said twenty minutes! It’s been almost an hour!” She pushed off the blankets piled on top of her and ran toward the stairs.

“What’s wrong with her?” Otto asked.

“Nothing,” I said. “I’ll be right back.” I ran after her up the stairs. “Where are you going…” my voice trailed off as Emma threw open Kebe’s door.

“Kebe?” Emma said as she stepped inside and turned around in a circle. “Fuck.” She looked at me. “Kebe’s gone.”

“What do you mean she’s gone?” I walked around the bed and opened the closet door, as if she’d be hiding in there. But the closet was empty. And all her things were gone, including her suitcase.

“I must have fallen asleep.” Emma put her hand on her forehead. “She probably snuck right past me.”

“Please tell me you convinced her to give you the coin back?”

Emma shook her head before I even finished the sentence.

I felt my shoulders slump. How could we have let this happen?

“No, she refused to give me the coin. I knew something was off about her. I knew it. God, what were we thinking listening to her?”

I know. Shit!

“We had the cure right in our grasp, Zoey. What are we going to do now?”

Actually, I knew exactly what to do. I had a client that had hacked all the security cameras in my house. Hell, probably all the cameras in town. And he just so happened to be really good at finding out everything about people. “I’ll talk to Grudge. You go distract my boyfriends for a minute.”

“What? How?”

“I don’t know. Figure it out!” I pushed her out of the room as I called Grudge. Kebe couldn’t have gotten far. And I was going to find her.

Chapter 6

Thursday

Zoey

“Hey, hot stuff,” Grudge said. “No video call? I’m used to seeing your tits when we talk.”

“I don’t have time for that.” Also, I’d given up camming for my new boyfriends, but this seemed like a bad time to let Grudge know that. “And we both know you can see me anyway.”

He laughed. “True. Speaking of which, I don’t know what kind of security they have in your town, but usually when people rob stuff where I am, they wind up in prison. Not getting railed against the vaults they stole from.”