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“Thierry,” Simone chided him.

“Oh, right. I had a point, didn’t I?” Thierry sighed theatrically, then his gaze swung back to Brent. “Well, if you truly did come to help Derek, I suppose we’re technically on the same side.” He gave Brent a once-over. “Pity. I’m taken, of course, but I’m certain there would have been plenty of us who’d be willing to play with you rather rough.”

Sadie narrowed her eyes at Brent. “Some of us still are. Regardless of your intentions here, my understanding is that you have blood on your hands.”

Brent’s eyes widened at that and he gulped, looking to Derek for help. “Who are these people?”

Derek didn’t answer him, but his expression had gone oddly soft as he was gazing at Brent.

It occurred to me suddenly that Brent was his ex-boyfriend, who he hadn’t seen in five years, and who technically saved his life. More than once.

Alarm surged through me. What the hell did that softness mean?

Did he still—did he still have feelings for Brent?

I studied him, feeling dismayed. If Derek did still have feelings for Brent, it would make sense, wouldn’t it? And Brent was objectively cute. Much softer-looking than me, with his wide blue eyes and sweet face.

I caught Bryan watching me. The entire time, he’d seemed less interested in the proceedings, even though we had a literal kidnapping victim in the conference room. Instead, he was way more focused on me. Tobias was, too.

“Darling, please don’t mistake this for me having any interest whatsoever in what you have to say, at least as a general rule,” Thierry said to Sadie. “But you’ve just accused this poor boy of having blood on his hands—not that any of us have clean hands, truly—but how on earth do you figure?”

“If he knew what his family was and did not make their doings known to the authorities, every single one of their victims is partially his doing,” Sadie hissed, taking a threatening step toward Brent. “He is complicit.”

Derek stepped forward. “They would have killed him. He saved my life, Sadie. He risked his own life to come here. For me.” His gaze slid to Brent and he gave him a warm smile. “Thank you.”

Brent nodded, giving Derek a hesitant smile in return. “You were supposed to call me.” Then Brent’s gaze landed on me—my fingers were interlaced with Derek’s—and he lost his smile. “I guess I understand why you didn’t, though.”

Derek grimaced, dropping his gaze with a little half-shrug.

A hot flash of jealousy surged through me.

Derek did still have feelings for him, didn’t he?

But feeling any envy whatsoever… that was completely insane, wasn’t it?

I was his mate—we both knew and accepted that.

It was normal that he and Brent would be… warm… toward each other. Especially if it was true and Brent really had risked his safety to not only tell Derek to get away, to let him know that he was in immediate danger, but also to physically come here and help him run from Brent’s own family.

Unless, of course, Brent had come here so they could run away together.

“This is all very touching, but we have members of the mafia to kill,” Thierry said.

Brent blanched visibly and his jaw dropped open. “What?”

“No killing,” Derek said immediately. “Jail. Or hypnotism. Make them forget their own names.” His gaze slid to Brent and then back to the vampires. “But don’t kill them. We’re better than that.”

“Hypnotism?” Brent asked, baffled. “What does that mean?”

No one answered him.

“Agreed,” Simone said, frowning at Thierry. “We all know that, including you. We do not kill. Not unless we have no other alternative.”

Thierry sniffed. “If they’re killers themselves, it evens out in the wash, doesn’t it?”

“Don’t even try to play like you’re the big bad,” Tobias told him with a snort. “We all know you’re the biggest softie of us all.”

Thierry glared daggers at him, but when Tobias grinned back at him, Thierry rolled his eyes and there was even a ghost of a smile on his lips.