Page 116 of Thorns of Deceit

I blinked. “She said that?”

“Oh, yes,” Kyran said, nodding grimly. “And that she loves when you wear a holster and she hopes one day you’ll wear it naked. Then she pointed finger guns at me. It was fucking disturbing.”

Tyran was wheezing now, halfway folded over the edge of the table.

“I’m sorry, but this is the best thing I’ve heard all week. Show me again how she pointed her fingers at you, Kyran.”

He ignored him. “I think she’s trying to establish psychological dominance through sex or some shit. Or she’s lost her ever-loving mind for your criminal ass.”

“Well,” I muttered, rubbing the back of my neck, “she’s not wrong. I’m pretty sexy in jeans.”

“Oh my God, he agrees.” Tyran laughed, practically crying now. “Next thing you know, he’s gonna be handing out headshots with his mug shot on the back.”

“Shut up,” I said, but I couldn’t stop smirking.

“Seriously,” Kyran said. “You two are gross. It’s like watching two emotionally constipated humans.”

I exhaled through my nose, shaking my head. “I can’t wait until you get married.”

There was a pause, and then Kyran added with a small shrug, “You’ll be waiting a long time. Until then, for the love of God, tell your wife you love her.”

I looked at the hallway she’d disappeared down, registering the faint sound of her washing a dish.

“After we get her mom out safely,” I said.

Tyran clapped me on the back. “That’s the spirit. Nothing says romance like surviving an attack on her father and coming out with trauma.”

“Exactly.” Kyran nodded. “A story for the grandkids. Assuming you live long enough to have any. Or, you know, admit your feelings like normal humans.”

“Coming from you?” I raised an eyebrow.

“I’m deeply emotionally unavailable,” Kyran replied. “But I don’t make finger guns at people when I’m into them.”

Tyran made apew pewsound and winked. “You sure? It’s kind of sexy.”

“I hate both of you,” Kyran muttered.

FORTY-FOUR

RAVEN

The journey had been fairly uneventful, aside from the Callahan twins cracking off-color jokes and Aiden hovering around me like an overcaffeinated bodyguard, checking my holster and the knife at least a dozen times.

His protectiveness went overboard, but I appreciated it. It showed he cared.

However, everything shifted the moment we stepped off the boat and onto solid ground, where three men awaited us. Men who looked as though they’d just walked straight out of a warzone, and the look in their eyes confirmed that they’d seen battle and more. They were men who’d seen too much and carried those stories behind their gazes that nobody dared to ask about.

But that didn’t take away from how striking they were—handsome in a dangerous, rugged way with an air of mystery that made it impossible to look away.

“Hello, River,” Aiden greeted him, extending his hand, and the two men shook hands. Then he turned to the other two men. “Astor, Darius. This is my wife, Raven.”

“Callahan. Mrs. Callahan,” the three acknowledged, the title making me feel old and… well, married. Then they looked at the twins.

“You two won’t be playing cowboys, I hope,” Darius stated, making it seem as if he’d seen them do some dumb shit in the past.

Kyran grinned. “We don’t play, Darius. You should have learned that by now.”

“After all, we leveled the enemy last time,” Tyran said.