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“No. It’s a safe house he’s got in a residential neighborhood, away from typical gang activity.” He hesitates, then adds, “It’s where he used to meet up with Sienna.”
I almost ask if he means “meet up with” when the bitch was cheating on him, but of course he does. The flat look in his eyes tells me so.
For a split second, I wonder if he still cares for her… and I hate her a little bit for that. Loyalty iseverythingto Maddoc. But then I decide she’s not worth it, and since Maddoc seems to shake off the memory just as fast, his eyes warming for me again as he goes on with his explanation, I figure he feels the same.
“I figured it would be stupid of him to still use the place.” His lips quirk up a little. “Which just made it all the more likely he might have her stashed there. So I thought I’d go check.”
“On your own? In the middle of the night?” I ask, turning my face a little to press my cheek into his palm. “You should have woken one of us. Hell, all of us, Maddoc. You got shot.”
He runs his thumb over my lips, his eyes following the motion before lifting back up to mine. “Not the first time.”
“But why would you take a risk like that?” I whisper.
Maddoc goes still, looking at me in silence. Something passes between us that makes my stomach flutter.
“I didn’t like seeing you hurt,” he finally tells me, making my heart squeeze.
It’s too simple, and yet it’s true.
He means it.
I lean forward and kiss him, losing myself in it in a way that has nothing to do with wanting his cock again. I do, but not now. That’s not what this is about. And the way he holds me so carefully, making me feel treasured, tells me more than any words that things have changed between us. And the way he came through for me with Chloe—
“I need to check in with my sister,” I say, pulling away from him before the way his touch is heating me up leads to something more.
He nods, and I place a final kiss, butterfly-soft, against his jaw, his early morning stubble deliciously rough against my lips.
“Thank you for getting her back.”
He gets out of bed when I do, his eyes raking over me appreciatively, and it’s harder than it should be to leave his room. Until I refocus on Chloe.
I go to her room—myroom—and get a lump in my throat, the hot prick of tears stinging the back of my eyes, when I see her lying there safely.
“Oh god,” I say, covering my mouth to hold in a sob. Or maybe a laugh? Then I realize I don’t have to hold in anything at all, and I rush to her side and gently wake her.
“Riley?” she asks, blinking at me blearily for a moment before she shakes off the grogginess of sleep and the aftereffects of whatever those fuckers drugged her with, bolting upright and coming alert all at once.
Street instincts.
She looks around, tucking a lock of dyed-blonde hair behind her ears.
“You’re safe,” I reassure her, hugging her hard. “Are you okay?”
I brush her hair back and kiss her forehead, and she nods. “I think so, yeah.” She melts against me. “Riley.”
This time, it’s not a question. It’s pure relief.
I murmur nonsense to her just like I did when she was small, content for a moment to justexistin the moment. In this perfect one, where we’re together again and, for now at least, totally safe.
But then Chloe stiffens, pulling out of my embrace and looking around the room until a spark of recognition appears in her eyes. “Is this the… the Reapers’ house? Oh god, I thought I remembered them from last night.Shit, Ri. When you didn’t come after me, I didn’t know what to think. They… they caught you?”
“No, it’s fine. We’re safe here.”
“How? You said they were going to betray you! You told me to run!”
“Yeah.” I bite my lip. “Things have changed.”
“How?Why?” she asks, looking up at me with big eyes that remind me that, for all that she kept herself alive out there and has had to grow up way the fuck faster than I wish she had, she’s still my baby sister. She still looks to me, trusts me, to reassure her that everything will be okay.
