Page 67 of The Chaos She Brings

My release hits me, blacking out my vision as I groan into her thighs.

She climbs off me once she’s sucked me dry. Her body flopping down into a starfish position next to me, completely spent. Tess’s chest rises and falls in rapid succession and her eyelids are half lidded.

“I don’t have the energy for sex,” she huffs.

A small breathless laugh leaves me before I force myself up. I hold out my hand to her. “Come one, let’s get ready for bed.”

She eyes me for a moment before placing her hand in mine and letting me drag her limp body up and into the bathroom.

The two of us get ready together, brushing our teeth side by side and it’s so domestic it’s easy to forget that we’re in a safehouse because she has the Russian Mafia after her.

I check my phone quickly.

Enzo:Still no sign of Petrov. He’s in the wind. Looking like it will be a couple more weeks.

On the few times I’ve spoken to him since we got here he’s not had much by way of updates. He should have found something by now. That alone terrifies me.

The reminder of the danger we’re in—she’sin—is enough to snap me back to reality.

By the time I get into bed, Tess’s small body curled up next to mine, I'm a nervous wreck. I can’t stop obsessing over the worst possible scenarios.

Tess falls asleep quickly, which is no surprise after the wine she’s drunk. Me? I lie awake for hours unable to shut my brain off.

I check my phone.

It’s now three in the morning and I still can’t sleep.

Rolling out of bed, I yank on some shorts and headdownstairs, planning to burn off some steam with a run around the grounds. Nico showed me how to disable the alarm system so I can slip out without needing one of them to hover. For once, his cocky attitude comes in handy—not that I’d admit it to his face. If I didn’t hate the guy so much for flirting with Tess, we might even get along.

I’m just about to step outside when I stop cold.

A voice drifts through the crack in the door, the sound low and hurried. At first, I brush it off—someone’s always on patrol—but something in the tone makes me pause. The way they’re talking doesn’t sit right.

“She doesn’t know anything,” a voice mutters. Not just any voice, Matteo—one of the guards that drove us here. The one Tess has nicknamed Grumpy.

There’s a beat of silence then, “Yeah, I’ll be able to let you in if you show up. She’s drunk so it’s the perfect time.” They must be on the phone because it sounds like a one-sided conversation.

My stomach knots. Who the hell are they talking about?

Then comes a dark laugh, one that sends a chill down my spine. “Massimo will lose his mind when he finds out his daughter’s been taken—fromone of his own houses,no less.”

The blood in my veins turns to ice.

“What’ll you do with her once you’ve got her? Kill her?”

The man laughs again at the response from whoever he’s on the phone to, a sick, twisted sound. Then, with a groan: “Christ, let me in on that action.”

Every muscle in my body tightens with fury. My fists clench at my sides as my breathing sharpens, ragged with the effort of keeping myself from charging out there and ripping them apart.

A traitor. One of Enzo’s men is a fucking traitor.

And from the sound of it, the Russians already know where we are.

I move quietly back into the house, slipping up the stairs soundlessly. My movements are unhurried, but my mind is racing.

“Tess!” I whisper aggressively when I get back into the bedroom.

Her head lifts up and she blinks groggily into the darkness. “What?”