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He chuckles as if he can read every thought in my head, then drops his hand and turns to Maddoc. “Back me up, Madd. This shit is a great opportunity all around, right?”
Maddoc is watching the two of us with slightly narrowed eyes, almost like it bothers him to see the easy, casual way Dante touches me, but at his friend’s words, he nods. “It is. If we play this right, we’ll all get what we want.”
“But it’s—”
“Dangerous?” He cuts me off with a grim smile. “Yeah, it probably will be. But McKenna is gonna send her either way, and like Dante said, this is our best chance of getting her out unscathed. It’s worth the risk.”
“Then I’m going too,” I say immediately.
Maddoc raises one eyebrow. “Going where?”
Dante grins. “Where the fuck do you think, Madd? She doesn’t even know what the plan is, but she’s down for it. Rushing head first into danger for her sister. Our girl knows loyalty, yeah?”
“She’s not ours,” Maddoc says sharply, scowling at him.
Something in the tone of his voice makes me wonder if he has some idea of what happened between me and Dante. I can’t tell if he’s jealous or just pissed that Dante didn’t follow his rules about not fucking me, but either way, I don’t have the mental bandwidth to worry about it right now.
“I can be useful,” I insist. “I’ll do whatever you tell me to, and I can help keep Chloe calm. She’s going to be freaked the fuck out, and she’ll have no reason to trust you over West Point unless I’m there.”
Maddoc scrubs a hand over his jaw, looking like it pains him to admit that I have a point. But he finally nods. “All right. You can come. Butonlyif you do exactly what we say.”
My heart leaps, and I straighten up a bit. “So what’s the plan?”
He fixes me with a quelling look. “There isn’t one yet. We just found out about the drop. We need to do more research before we know exactly what we’re dealing with. Logan?”
“I’ll start looking into it,” Logan says.
Maddoc nods sharply. “Once you’ve finished your recon, we’ll make a solid plan and find a way to use this deal with Capside to our advantage.”
“To extract Chloe,” I say, wanting that to be clear. It’s all well and good for Dante to talk about a win-win, but I need to make sure one of those wins is for me.
I’m not naive. The only advantage I can see for the Reapers when it comes to helping me rescue Chloe is that it will fuck with West Point, but that also means that fucking with West Point will be their main priority, not Chloe’s safety.
Maddoc nods, holding my gaze. Something passes through his enigmatic gray eyes, reminding me of the way he looked at me that day in his office when I showed him pictures of Chloe and me, allowing him a glimpse into the most vulnerable, intimate parts of my life.
“To extract Chloe,” he repeats softly, and I can hear the promise in his voice.
“Good.” I say. Then I clear my throat and add, “Thank you.”
“Of course.”
He doesn’t look away from me, and I wish like hell I could read his thoughts right now. I wish I could know if the warmth I see in his eyes is real.
But I have to believe his promise. He’s probably right that this is the best chance to get Chloe out, so it’s a risk I need to take.
“I’m going to get started on research,” Logan says coolly, stepping away from the little group we’ve formed.
“Can I help?” I ask, eager to get this part over with so that we can move on to actuallydoingsomething to free Chloe.
He freezes, his ice-blue eyes cutting toward me as if he’s surprised by my offer. He hesitates, his Adam’s apple bobbing as he swallows, then he shakes his head. “No. I… I work better alone.”
“Okay.”
Disappointment fills me, but I nod. I’m not sure how I could’ve helped anyway, and the idea of being alone with Logan is both thrilling and terrifying—like passing your hand through a flame and seeing if you’ll get burned. It probably isn’t something I should be adding to my already fucked up emotional state.
Logan’s gaze lingers on me for a second longer, then he heads for the stairs and disappears up them. Maddoc strides toward the office near the back of the house a moment later, but Dante stays by my side.
“You good, princess?” he asks once we’re alone in the living room.
