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The sound of Alexei’s dress shirt ripping startled her into action. As much as she would love to see his wings, this wasn’t howshe had pictured it.
She got between them and raised her voice. “I said, enough.”
Eddie stopped, but Alexei didn’t. No, he seemed to grow taller and broader. Her body went hot, and her heart thundered at the sight. Gods, the man was gorgeous. And outraged. She needed to concentrate on the last.
“Stop it.” She poked her finger into his chest—his broad chest of muscles and dark hair and tanned skin. Fury replaced the lust, or maybe the latter helped fuel her wrath. “You don’t get to come in here and question what you think you might have seen. Eddie and I are friends. If you don’t like that, that’syourproblem.” She jabbed at him again for emphasis. “You don’t want me, but you don’t want me to be with anyone else. That’s alsoyourproblem. Not mine. Not his. No one but yours.”
He settled his hands on her waist, and she wondered briefly if she could ask him for a hug with wings, if he had a tail, if he would let her imagine she hadn’t witnessed that little scene with Yulia begging to be his demon bride. But no, he picked her up and set her aside as though she’d merely been in his way before resuming his attack on Eddie.The nerve of that…
She hadn’t finished her thought before the two of them hurtled toward each other with grunts, growls, and an honest-to-gods roar. The smack of skin on skin had her hurrying out of the room, eager to get away from the drama. After going to the training room for some peace and pseudo-quiet, trouble had followed her there.
Running along the walkway, she froze when a dark-haired guard came her way—one she didn’t recognize but who wore gear matching those of the Maronovs. He was the man who’d taken the cuffs from Alexei earlier. “Ma’am, have you seen the prince?”
The deference in his tone soothed a tiny bit of her anxiety. “He’s in the training room.” She didn’t add that he was locked in what appeared to be a death match with his friend. “Has Kyle arrived?” The sooner she could talk to him, the sooner she could get out of here without feeling as though she’d left the one person she might actually be able to help.
The guard shook his head. “He has been kidnapped. The same bastards who took his mom sent him proof of life with a message to meet them.”
“The Order?” Panic flooded her. He couldn’t go to them. Noxx would kill him.
“Yes. He left a note, but by the time we tracked him down, another envelope arrived. This time addressed to the prince with a photo of Kyle strapped to a table.”
They wouldn’t have written if they didn’t want something. “What’d they ask for?”
“They want the prince to swap places with him.” He frowned, deep worry lines pulling his scarred brows into a jagged slash. “Fucking terrorists have to know he’d give anything for his people.”
No. Alexei couldn’t. They would kill him.
“Ma’am, you should be with your guard. I need to tell the prince.”
“You can’t let him go. They won’t give him Kyle. It’s not how they work.”
From the guard’s somber expression, he agreed with her. “Not my call, ma’am.” With that, he dipped his head and strode away.
Alexei couldn’t go to the Order. He would walk into the same trap of love and loyalty that they’d used to kill so many others. She had to stop this. But how?
Booted footsteps along with atat-tatof high heels echoed from the main floor.
“Get in, Tai,” Yulia said. “We’re leaving.” The rev of engines followed along with the creak of the massive warehouse door opening.
The woman hated her, but she might be the answer to her problem. Joelle sprinted along the walkway to the stairs, ignoring the hard slap of her bare feet and the doubt telling her to slow down and think. She didn’t have time for planning, not if she had any hopes of saving Kyle and Alexei. In her own way, she’d brought Noxx and the Order here with her escape. Perhaps she could make this right…if she didn’t worry about sacrificing her own safety.
“Wait,” she called and pushed to go faster. “Please.”
Yulia flicked a nasty gaze over her as if she’d crawled out of the sludge from a hell dimension—a particularly foul-smelling one. “What do you want?” Her accent had gotten thicker, her words more clipped than when she’d been asking Alexei to offer her a political marriage.
“The Order has Kyle. They plan to use him to trap Alexei.”
“And this concerns me how?”
“They’ll kill them both, but maybe I can save them with your help.”
The woman waved at a guard to close Tai inside the SUV. When the door had closed with a heavy thunk, she said, “I’m listening.”
“Kyle drank a locator spell. My brother’s witch girlfriend can scry to track where they’re holding him, but we’ll need to move fast before Alexei offers himself in a swap.”
“Why don’t you tell him that? Why come to me?”
“Because Alexei might try to stop me from trading myself instead.”
