Page 93 of Hide Little Traitor

“A flare can look different depending on what brought it on. In this case it’s probably stress, but it could also be all the sex she’s been having,” Ronan explains, and I can’t help but giggle when the tips of Damon’s ears turn pink at the topic.

“It could be that,” Ryker agrees. “Before that night in the parking lot, she hadn’t been with anyone since you.”

Ronan’s eyes flick up to meet mine, and I give him a sad smile.

“Either way, we’ll just have to take Chloe’s symptoms as they come. Pain relief and a hot water bottle or something similar will always help make her more comfortable. But sometimes she’ll be extra tired, or she’ll be off food for a couple of days. It just depends.”

Ryker nods, writing something in his phone before riffling through the cupboard for pain pills. “Do you think Amazon delivers out here? I’ve seen electric heating pads advertised, and at least they stay warm.”

“We are not having a stranger come to the cabin to deliver anything,” Damon rumbles, proving he’s been listening to every word they’ve said since they stepped into the kitchen.

“And they don’t work for her anyway. They don’t get hot enough for them to make any difference to her pain,” Ronan adds.

Ryker glares at Damon. “You will not tell me what I can and cannot do when it comes to taking care of my girl. If she needed a heating pad, I’d be getting her one in whichever way gets it to her the quickest.”

“Getting her killed is one way to take care of her pain, I guess,” Damon quips as he strides out of the kitchen, but instead of heading into his bedroom the way he has every other time they’ve argued, he drops down into the armchair Kingston was in last night, staring directly at me.

“I’m starting to think you want to end up on the wrong side of his knife collection, bro,” Ronan sighs as he pours boiling water into the hot water bottle and swipes a towel from the bottom drawer to wrap it in.

Ryker brings two painkillers and a bottle of water to the couch, proceeding to slip them between my lips and feeding me slow sips of water.

By the time I’ve swallowed the pills, Ronan carefully places the hot water bottle over my lower abdomen, his hand pressing against it softly to hold it in place.

After so many years of taking care of everyone else and having no one to return to favor, tears gather at the way these two brutal men fawn over me like I’m the most precious thing in their world.

And I’m starting to believe that I am.

But that’s the thing about hope. Sometimes it’s the thing that destroys you.

CHAPTER FIFTY-EIGHT

KINGSTON

NOW

“What do you mean you’re no closer to finding out who’s hunting us?” I snap.

The team at Hawk Security are highly trained, and you could never accuse them of being bad at their jobs, but it’s never been Chloe who’s been in danger before, and that makes this a whole lot more personal than any case we’ve ever taken on.

“The guys you killed at the house? Ghosts. Their fingerprints weren’t in the system, their faces didn’t match any government ID issued anywhere in the world, and by the time we picked them up, their devices had been wiped,” Corbin tells me.

I don’t need to see him to know he’s running his hand through his curly brown hair right now. He may be a ruthless killer, but he’s one of the shyest men I’ve ever met, and as much as he loves being out in the field with his brothers, he prefers being behind the computer screen making sure they can do their jobs safely.

The guys came to work for me a few years ago when they decided dealing with their own contracts was too much of a hassle, and I like to think working for Hawk has given them more direction than when they were out on their own.

I pinch the bridge of my nose and glance toward the house. Between the little show the three of them put on last night and the fact she was in the shower when I left my room this morning, I’m more frustrated than normal, and I shouldn’t take that out on Corbin.

“What about traffic cameras? Did they catch anything?”

“Negative. The men arrived in two unmarked vans, no windows, and the drivers were wearing masks. I had the guys look for the vehicles during cleanup, but they were gone.”

“Someone came to get them,” I provide.

“That’s how it looks.”

Whoever is after us is highly organized, which narrows down the possibilities significantly. There are few people on this planet that can pull off an operation like this so seamlessly.

The problem is, narrowing it down any further is going to be next to impossible because they, like the men we killed, are ghosts.