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Should have let Tori set me up with that firefighter.

Tori had been trying for years to get Hanna into something resembling the dating scene, throwing firefighters and hot doctors her way every chance she got. But the prospect of getting all dressed up to talk about the number of siblings she had—how much trauma went with the salad course—and the latest scores for the latest games, had turned Hanna off dating completely. Yes, she worked too much. No, the answer wasn’t another mediocre Italian dinner with a bottle of wine she would have preferred to drink at home alone in the bathtub.

“Leone, any chance you could remove your claws from my arm?”

Nicco’s voice was low, and almost amused. In the short time since The Princes had arrived, she’d come to understand his subtleties, the fine line work to the bold, brash strokes that made up her and Ash. Well, her. Ash was often the artistic equivalent of dumping a bucket of paint on a canvas just to see what would happen.

“Sorry,” she whispered, pulling her arm back. Nicco grabbed her wrist with his other hand, his large fingers so effortlessly covering her that it made Hanna feel small and delicate in a way few other men ever did. Nicco might have looked thinner and more drawn than he had the last time they had met, but there was no denying that he was all man, and right now he was a man who was brushing the sensitive skin on the inside of her wrist with one rough thumb, and Hanna was doing everything in her power not to lean into the sensation.

“You don’t have to go anywhere.” His voice was low. “But I have a strict rule that if someone is going to lay their claws in me, I have to earn it.”

Hanna swallowed. Maybe it was because she was already running high on the adrenaline of her fight with Ash. Maybe it was because she seemed to be circling the drain of anxiety and panic at any given moment. Or maybe it was simply because Nicco was a man who couldn’t be denied.

She looked up at him, and it was rare she ever had to look up at a date, especially in her heels. “And what do you have to do to earn…claw marks?”

A dangerous question, but Hanna found she couldn’t seem to help herself. She liked to push, to see what was below the surface. Ash rose to the bait each and every time, whether she had meant to lay it or had simply stumbled into another argument, but Nicco, Nicco was something else altogether, and she found herself deeply curious about what made him tick.

He chucked, and the sound was like the cigarette that always seemed to be hanging from his mouth, a light in the darkness, but dangerous to be sure. Because it went straight to that long-ignored place in her belly, warm and full of need, and it made Hanna want to step out on the rickety, cracking rope bridge, just to see what would be waiting for her on the other side. “Usually, I save the answer to that question for the second date.” He dropped his voice even lower, then, rich and smoky and enticing as sin. “But since you asked so nicely…”

Before he got the chance to answer, however, they found themselves at the front of the line, and all at once the world came back into focus for Hanna, the sounds of partygoers, the music spilling out from Iverson’s offices, the large man standing at a roped-off door, looking at them expectantly.

“Invitation?” He said the word as if repeating himself, which, given Hanna’s recent distraction was all too likely.

“Of course.” Hanna smiled sweetly, but her mind was already in overdrive. They hadn’t even gotten into the party yet, and she was already halfway to pushing Nicco into the nearest supply closet, just to see how far down his tattoos went.

Instead, she pulled out the invitation and handed it to the bouncer. He scanned the back with a black light and made a soft sound of approval before handing the invitation back to her. “Enjoy the party.”

Once they were out of the man’s earshot, Hanna leaned closer to Nicco.

“Did Jinx know about the blacklight?”

Nicco gave her an amused smile. “Jinx knows everything. He can fake anything. If we had to get into a dinner at the White House, he could pull it off…”

Hanna narrowed her eyes. “But like…would you want to?”

Nicco just chuckled. “Come on, Leone. We have work to do.”

Hanna squared her shoulders and lifted her head. Niccolo was right. It didn’t matter how confusing her feelings were at seeing Ash again, or how surprisingly drawn to his motorcycle club captain she found herself. The most important thing, the only important thing, was to find Grace.

Second to dismantling Magnus Ralston III’s enterprise from the inside out, but that was a marathon, not a sprint.

“Okay, according to Gray and Xander, the smart key is in Iverson’s office, which is down the hall.”

Hanna glanced toward the office and swore under her breath. “And guarded by three very large men.”

Nicco bit his lip. It seemed vastly unfair to Hanna that he should have such full, pouty lips. “That might be a later problem. For now, if we can get close to Iverson, we can clone his phone.”

Nicco guided her across the room, and Hanna tried to focus on the task at hand. She greeted the people she knew from town, but many of the faces were unfamiliar to her, Iverson’s friends and acquaintances from worlds bigger than Bitterroot. But she played the part, introducing Niccolo as her date with just enough innuendo to leave the older ladies blushing and just enough vagueness to leave no opening for questions. She sipped at a flute of champagne and tried not to think about Niccolo’s hand at the small of her back, his strong fingers making soothing circles on her skin, how he didn’t even seem to realize what he was doing.

Hanna noticed. She most definitely noticed.

“Would you excuse me?” she said to the older man she and Nicco had been speaking with, not caring that she had interrupted him mid-sentence. “I’m feeling a little…warm. I just need to take some air.”

Nicco glanced at her, and she saw a hint of real concern in his eyes. Hanna didn’t know how to answer it without giving away the strange, undeniable connection she felt to him, the need to see what truly was behind his sad, longing stare, to know what had happened to him in the year since they had met, to become an essential part of Nicco’s circle, just as Ash was.

Instead, Hanna just shook her head. “I’ll only be a moment, please, finish your conversation.”

And with that, she slipped away from his touch, feeling at once lost without it, and able to breathe freely for the first time the whole night.