Page 25 of Unmask (Crew of Elmwood Public #2)

“Or anything to do with her life?” Fynn added, pinning Kreed with his unrelenting green eyes.

“You never had that privilege to begin with,” Micah said.

They were ganging up on him, and I wasn’t supposed to care, but the way Kreed stood, unmoved and enduring it like he thought he deserved it, itched under my skin.

Kreed’s tone didn’t change. “If I don’t, who will? None of you was here. I know what my father did was fucked up, but I’m not him.”

Brock gave a slow nod of understanding despite his eyes narrowing. If anyone got the I-want-to-be-different-from-the-people-who-raised-me thing, it was my cousin. “Still, you have your own reputation. Your own crew. And that comes with risk.”

Kreed glanced around the room, gaze hard as stone. “They’ll do whatever it takes to make sure she doesn’t get hurt.”

My cousin angled his head. “Believe it or not, I think you mean that. Physically, I think you’d protect her, but what I worry about is what happens after. The emotional shrapnel you leave behind.”

“Brock,” I hissed under my breath. “Could you not act like I’m invisible?”

Kreed leaned against the doorway. “If I have to choose between hurting her feelings and protecting her life, I’ll hurt her feelings every damn time.”

Josie broke the silence. “Does that mean you still think she’s in danger?”

Kreed nodded. “Yeah. I do.”

That single sentence changed the air. Tension dropped into something heavier, more grounded. “Care to tell me what happened last night? I got a notification from the security system,” Brock said.

Kreed’s jaw ticked. “Someone tripped the alarm, but by the time I got outside, they were gone.”

Fynn frowned. “How do we know you didn’t plan it? That it wasn’t one of your crew or your brothers who set it off?”

I’d seen Kreed’s face when the security system sounded. He’d been genuinely alarmed, his protective instincts kicking in in a way that was ingrained. He hadn’t faked it. I was certain, but I understood why my cousin had doubts. Kreed had already proved to be a skilled liar.

“Check your cameras,” Kreed countered. His arms stayed loose at his sides, posture casual, almost bored.

“We did,” Brock replied evenly, tapping his mug against the granite. “They wore a mask.”

Kreed and I shared a glance as a creeping dread curled down my spine like smoke.

“They weren’t behind it,” I said before I could stop myself, again defending Kreed for reasons that escaped me.

I’d clearly lost my fucking mind. This was my opportunity to get him out of the house…

out of my life, and yet…I couldn’t make myself take that step.

“He could be trying to scare you into moving back in with him,” Micah theorized, and it was possible, a reasonable doubt. I wouldn’t put anything past the Corvos. Donovan especially.

“Believe it or not,” Kreed said almost thoughtfully, “I’ve been weighing the pros and cons. There’s no perfect fix. We could send her out of state, make her disappear, but if they want her badly enough…they’ll find her. For now, I think it would be better if she stayed here.”

I blinked. Unable to believe what I was hearing. “You do?”

Mads’s brows lifted. “What changed your mind?”

Kreed’s eyes darkened, haunted. “Last night. Whoever tripped that alarm wasn’t just testing the perimeter.

They were sending a message. The traitor in her father’s crew, the one responsible for his murder, knows she’s a threat.

She’s the only link left, a loose string.

They won’t stop until she’s eliminated.”

The room stilled.

Josie leaned forward on the stool, her hand touching Brock’s shoulder. “And you’ve been trying to uncover who it is?” she asked Kreed.

He nodded once. “There are some parts of my father’s business we don’t even have access to. But I’m digging.”

Brock’s expression shifted, something brewing behind his eyes. “I might be able to help with that.” His focus turned to me. “But until we identify the bastard stupid enough to cross your father’s legacy, you don’t stay anywhere alone. Understood?”

“I’m staying,” Kreed said firmly, shifting his weight so he leaned close to me, a hand propped on the door frame above my head, claiming his spot beside me.

Brock laughed once, humorless. “In my house? Not a fucking chance, mini boss.”

A smile curved on Kreed’s lips. “I’ll be wherever Kaylor is.”

Micah ran his thumb over the top of the butter knife. “You really don’t give up, do you?”

My cousin leaned back slowly in his chair, studying the middle Corvo. “I don’t know whether to be impressed or annoyed.”

Fynn dragged a chair out, dropped into it with a heavy sigh. “Something tells me that even if we beat the shit out of you that you still wouldn’t leave.”

“Brock,” I protested, not in the mood to clean blood off the floors this damn early.

My cousin didn’t spare me a glance, his focus solely on Kreed. “You’d welcome the pain, wouldn’t you? Because you think you deserve it. I understand that too well.”

A beat passed.

Brock just nodded once, like something unspoken had passed between them. A mutual understanding of the kind of damage men like them carried. He turned back to his coffee.

The tension didn’t exactly vanish… It just redistributed. The rest of the room loosened slightly, the crew giving in to the fact that Kreed wasn’t going anywhere. Not today.

And me? I stood in the eye of the storm, pulse pounding, mind spinning.

What the actual fuck just happened?

The pop-in visit from the Elite threw me off. When the front gate called about a car coming to pick me up, I’d completely forgotten Raine had sent it and that we were most likely going to be very late for school.

Josie, Ainsley, Mads, and Kenna had quietly gathered a few outfits they thought would fit me, laying them out like it wasn’t a big deal, but it was. They had thought about me. Gone out of their way when I hadn’t asked. When I hadn’t even known I needed it.

The thought of wearing Brock’s oversized sweats for another day hadn’t exactly been torture, but the fabric swallowed me whole, reminding me with every step that nothing I had actually belonged to me.

Slipping into something that didn’t hang off my frame would be nice.

Necessary, even. Kreed offered to have Mason and Maddox get what clothes they could from the house and drop them off after school.

Look at us working together. A sight I hadn’t thought possible this morning.

Given that we only had a few minutes, I dashed upstairs to change and brush my teeth and hair before rushing out the door with Kreed still in his clothes from yesterday.

Evan waited beside the black town car parked outside.

He opened the door for us as we approached, Kreed nodding at him.

“I brought a change of clothes for you,” he said to Kreed before shutting the door like this wasn’t the first time he’d picked him up early in the morning after being gone all night.

The soft hum of the car was the only sound between us as Evan drove, the morning light cutting angles through the tinted windows.

I kept my gaze fixed on the blurred landscape, refusing to look as Kreed peeled off his shirt beside me.

The quiet rustle of cotton sliding over skin was an all-too-vivid reminder of this morning.

I didn’t need to see his abs to recall the way they rippled under my fingers.

Didn’t need a visual when the memory was scorched into my brain.

God help me.

I pressed my cheek to the cool glass, trying to drown the rising warmth in my chest. Why was it suddenly so awkward to be alone with him?

When I finally glanced back, he was tugging a clean black tee over his head, muscles flexing beneath the fabric. The bastard was smirking at me.

I rolled my eyes hard enough to see stars. “You could at least pretend you’re not proud of yourself.”

“You could’ve snuck a peek, little raven. I wouldn’t have minded. And it’s not like we haven’t seen each other naked.”

“Let’s get one thing straight,” I snapped, sitting up straighter, pretending my pulse wasn’t a damn drumline. “This morning shouldn’t have happened. You caught me with my defenses down. That won’t happen again.”

His smirk deepened as if I’d issued a challenge instead of a boundary. “So no more sleepovers?”

I shot him a glare.

His grin faltered for a fraction of a second. “What happens when you have another nightmare?”

“I’ll deal with it.” I paused, eyes narrowing. “Just keep your lips and hands to yourself.”

He leaned in slightly, not enough for Evan to notice but just enough to rattle me. “But I do my best work with these lips and hands.”

Did he ever.

I turned away, biting the inside of my cheek until I tasted copper, trying not to give him the satisfaction of a blush.

Outside, the school gates loomed closer.

Inside, I was already unraveling.

You hate him. You hate him. You hate him.

It was getting harder and harder to hold on to that feeling.

Wait. Wasn’t I supposed to be seeking revenge, going for the jugular? This was the perfect opportunity to crush Kreed, to rip his heart out, but sneaking a peek at him, I didn’t know if I had it in me to be so coldhearted, not when my own feelings were a knotted mess.

I had to get it together, straighten out my head, or I’d end up another of Kreed’s victims.

The town car rolled to a smooth stop at the edge of the student lot, the low purr of the engine fading as Evan stepped out and opened our door. Kreed climbed out first, already tugging on his backpack, and I followed, tucking a stray piece of hair behind my ear as I slid into step beside him.

We moved in unspoken sync across the lot, the steady crunch of gravel under our shoes oddly grounding, but the second we crossed into the courtyard, peace evaporated.

“Look who finally decided to grace us with his presence.” Mason’s smug voice rang out.