Page 137 of A Vicious Love

I stepped closer and hugged her. Emmie held me too tightly.

“You deserve a beautiful night,” she whispered.

When I pulled back, Amara came to stand beside me.

“We’ll look after her,” she told Emmie gently.

Lucille nodded from near the car. “Promise.”

Emmie looked at both women with an expression I did not understand.

“I know you will,” she said. “Have a good time, Sienna.”

I smiled, though it hurt.

“I will.”

I hoped I would. Weston offered his hand. I hesitated for only a second before taking it. His fingers closed around mine gently as he helped me into the car.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

JAMISON

My mouth was a fucking traitor around her. Why did I continue to say the wrong thing, repeatedly. My spiral affected work. Because, all I wanted was to work on things with her. Yet— when I’m around her I make every situation worse.

I stayed awake all night watching beach cameras.

The St. Cross beach house sat along Harlan’s southern coastline. Weston’s family used it during summer events, regatta weekends, and whatever polished coastal rubbish St. Cross Crows called relaxing. The exterior cameras belonged to Harlan security infrastructure.

Which meant they belonged to me.

Technically.

I told myself that mattered.

I was checking the perimeter because Weston had taken Sienna from an event tied to my region, and Sienna remained adjacent to a Crow contract until Damius finished dismantling my life for entertainment.

Security.

That was all.

A security review. At two in the morning…from my private casino office. With a bottle of whiskey beside me and six screens showing the same stretch of sand from different angles.

Perfectly reasonable.

Sienna appeared on the eastern camera at 12:37 a.m. I knew the time because I had watched the timestamp change for twenty-nine minutes before she came into frame. She followed Lucille and Amara toward the beach steps.

Weston was behind her.

Laughing at something Elias said while keeping himself close enough to Sienna that any normal person would think he was being protective.

I knew better.

Crows did not drift by accident, crows positioned.

Weston positioned himself half a step behind her and to the left. Where he could look attentive without looking possessive.

The bastard had always known how to make a cage look like manners. I leaned back in my chair and watched Sienna reach the sand.