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“Riley?”
I glare at him.
It has no effect.
“Why did you scream?”
My cheeks flush with heat, and I hate him harder than I ever have before. He stares back at me like he fucking gets off on it, the intensity of his gaze slowly going from concern to something… hotter.
“Fuck you,” I mutter. “It was just a nightmare.”
The asshole smirks. “Was it?”
“Yes,” I snap, my whole body thrumming with tension as something builds between us.
Then he sighs and the tension breaks. “Since you’re up, we need you downstairs,” he says, jerking his chin toward the door. “Come on. We’re working on a search plan for the day.”
“I’ll be right down,” I say stiffly, clutching the covers to my chest as I realize they’re pooled at my waist, exposing me to him.
“Hurry,” he says with a curt nod, his face shuttered and cold again.
He turns and leaves, and I shower quickly, keeping the water as cold as I can stand. I have to. I refuse to think about the fact that I just had a sex dream about not just Maddoc, but Logan and Dante being there too.
It only happened because I’m so stressed out. Obviously, I needed the fucking release, and they were just what my brain conveniently pulled up to get me there.
It’s the story I stick with as I quickly wash up and dress, and by the time I head downstairs, I’ve pushed it out of my head completely. In fact, I feel almost…good.
The guys are all in the kitchen, and I don’t let myself think about what happened here—not in real life, and not last night in my dream—when I sit down where Logan directs me and let him feed me another one of his home-cooked breakfasts.
Just like every other time he’s fed me, it’s fucking amazing, and I have to bite my tongue not to say so. I’m definitely hungry, though… and dammit, even though I don’t admit how good it is, I can’t help noticing the ghost of a smile he gets as he watches me enjoy it.
Thankfully, Maddoc gets down to business, and my priorities click back into place.
“You guys really haven’t found any sign of her?” I ask, worried more than I care to admit if that’s true. Now that I’ve agreed to help them and know what’s at stake, Chloe staying under the radar has gone from reassuring to frightening the fuck out of me.
Chloedoesn’t know what’s at stake, and she’s been gone for a few days now. I honestly have no idea where she might have gone. Worse, it’s all too easy to imagine her accidentally reaching out to the wrong person and walking right back into a trap.
Dante drums his fingers over the map they’ve laid out on the counter. “Who would she turn to for help, princess?”
“I don’t know. Frank fucked her over, and we don’t have any family.”
“Friends?” Maddoc asks.
I shake my head. “She has them, but…” I shrug helplessly.
Can I list off some names for them? Sure, a few. But Chloe is too much like me. She doesn’t trust easily, and even the few people she was closer with wouldn’t be anyone she’d trust while she’s on the run like this.
“She’ll try to make it on her own,” Logan states, staring at me in that eerie way he has. “She won’t want to rely on anyone else. Not until she can reconnect with you.”
“That’s right,” I whisper, my throat tightening up. I don’t have time for that shit though, so I clear it and straighten up on the stool, leaning forward. I push my plate aside and look at the map. “She won’t risk coming back here, but she knows I’ll… that I would have… that I’d do whatever it takes to get away from you and find her.”
“Of course,” Dante murmurs, something too warm for comfort glowing in his green eyes when I glance up at him.
I look back at the map, tapping a spot a few miles away from the Reapers house. “This plaza, the one with the fountain? We used to go there sometimes. She wouldn’t hang around there for long. It’s too public. But she’ll probably check in there periodically to see if I show up.”
“That’s on the edge of West Point’s territory,” Maddoc says, frowning. “We’ve got eyes there, but I’ll make sure they’re around the clock. Where else?”
I point out a few more places that she might expect to meet up with me, then a couple of others where I could see her trying to hole up and stay out of sight. And every fucking one of them ends up being somewhere that Maddoc’s already had someone check.
