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He sounds so sincere, and I swallow hard, not sure how to respond to that. The feeling is mutual, but that’s beyond dangerous. Ransom is a package deal with his brothers, and all of them are hazardous to my mind, heart, and sanity.
His fingers are rough and calloused when he uses them to tilt my chin up, and as I look at him, I feel like I could drown in the oceans of his eyes. He looks a bit softer this morning, more approachable with bed head and small creases on the side of his face from his pillow. I thought he looked more human and less god-like the night he took me to that diner, but this is so much more than that.
“I’ve never done this before,” I whisper, the admission falling from my lips unbidden. “Slept over at a guy’s place.”
The curve of his lips becomes more pronounced as his smile widens. “Well, you’re doing great so far, angel. I’m glad I get to be your first.”
My stomach flutters. I open my mouth to say something else, but before I can, the bedroom door swings wide. Malice stands in the doorway, his gaze landing on me and Ransom. He takes in the way we’re standing, the proximity between us and the intimacy of our postures, and the already grim look on his face turns even darker.
“If you’re not too busy,” he growls, “we got a match on who went after Carl asking questions.”
29
MALICE
My jaw clenches,and irritation buzzes under my skin like a hive of pissed off bees.
Seeing Willow and Ransom gazing at each other like that, their bodies so close together, her face tilted up toward his, makes me want to hit something. Ransom has always been the most easy-going of the three of us, and it figures that he’s charmed his way right into Willow’s heart. I should probably be glad about that, since it will make her more willing to stay here like we need her to—but instead, it rankles something deep inside me, making me think of all the times she’s looked at me with fear or loathing.
“Let’s go.” I jerk my head down the hallway. “You need to see what Vic found.”
Ransom’s expression turned serious the moment I mentioned Carl, and he nods. “Coming.”
He grips Willow’s shoulder lightly, as if he’s about to steer her out the bedroom door and bring her with us, but I fold my arms, stopping them both with my glare. That hot, prickling feeling of jealousy fills my stomach again, and I shake my head decisively. Maybe I’m being an asshole and lashing out unfairly, but at the moment, I don’t fucking care.
“You stay right where you are,” I grit out, jerking my chin at Willow. “You’re not our fucking roommate. You’re not one of us, and you don’t get to sit in on our meetings.”
Her eyes flash with surprise and hurt, and she glares at me like she hates me. Her mouth presses into a thin line, and I’m filled with the overwhelming and irrational desire to kiss that goddamned frown off her face. To toss her down on Ransom’s bed and make her scream my name until she can’t pretend to hate me anymore.
She’s under my skin somehow, and I don’t want her there. I fucking hate it.
“It’s alright,” Ransom reassures her. “Like I said last night, there are some things it’s probably safer for you not to know. We’ll handle this. Just make yourself at home, okay? I’ll be back.”
He gestures around his room, and I clench my hands into fists as I catch the grateful look she shoots him. The only time she’s ever looked at me like that is after I helped her get that money back from her cunt of an adoptive mother—and of course, I immediately fucked it up by lashing out at her.
Fuck it. It’s better this way. The more she hates me, the easier it will be to keep telling myself I hate her too.
With a noise that’s barely more than a grunt, I jerk my chin at Ransom. He follows me out of the room, leaving Willow staring after both of us. I can feel him shooting a sidelong glance at me as we walk, but I ignore it. He probably knows what’s got me in such a pissy mood, and if he doesn’t, there’s no way in fucking hell I’m going to tell him.
Vic is waiting for us when we step into his room, parked in his usual spot in front of the bank of screens on his desk, deep in hacker mode.
A lot of the time, he’s pretty detached and withdrawn, but he comes alive in a different way when he’s dealing with this stuff. It’s the only time he’s more animated, and some of his tics and little habits fall away when he’s on the computer. As if translating his thoughts into ones and zeros helps him relax.
Ransom and I take our usual places behind him, flanking his chair on each side, and Vic glances over his shoulder.
“I was able to get a picture of the guy who’s been poking into Nikolai’s death,” he says. “A newly installed security camera at the laundromat across the street picked him up when he went to Sapphire to see Carl, so we have a face now.”
“Just a face?” Ransom asks.
Vic presses a few buttons on his keyboard and brings the picture up. Ransom and I both peer at it, but I can already tell it’s not someone we know. The guy looks brutal and menacing, definitely not one of the bottom feeder criminals who fuck around in Detroit. This is someone a lot more powerful than that.
“I don’t know who he is,” my twin admits. “I’ve run him through a few databases I hacked into, but there are no matches.”
I blow out a breath through my nose, stepping away from the desk a little. “So we’ve got half a lead.”
“Better than nothing,” Ransom murmurs. “We still need to figure out who the fuck this guy is, but at least we have a face.”
“And Carl was the last living person who knew that Willow was at the brothel that night,” Victor points out. “Which means that whoever this man is, his lead just dried up. That buys us some time to get more information. I’ll do whatever digging I can.”
