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“Alive,” Logan says flatly.
It’s what I meant, but it’s not reassuring. I already know Austin McKenna is a sadist, and given his history with Maddoc and the fact that Troy was technically still “alive” when West Point got done with him too, the idea that the West Point leader might try to find a way to have his cake and eat it too unnerves me.
“Is he going to retaliate for what happened today? Would he use my sister to send you another… message?”
Three sets of grim eyes meet mine, and my heart leaps up into my throat when, instead of an answer, a rapid, staccato knock sounds at the front door.
I jump, and all three men reach for the weapons they keep on themselves, swinging around to face the front of the house.
“Logan, Dante,” Maddoc says, exchanging loaded looks with his seconds. They all nod as if they’ve actually just had an entire conversation, and Dante takes my arm as Logan flanks me on the other side, all of us moving toward the door.
All three men keep their bodies angled in front of mine, and while none of them have actually drawn their weapons, it’s clear that they’re just as on edge as I am… and that for some reason, they’re acting protective of me.
Maddoc answers the door. A man I’ve never seen before waits on the other side, but apparently I’m the only one who doesn’t know who he is, because the tension in the room ratchets all the way up to the red zone.
The man doesn’t smile. “Mr. Gray,” he says, inclining his head slightly to Maddoc. “They sent me with a message for you.”
“West Point?” I blurt, even though this man isn’t wearing one of those gaudy gang rings and looks nothing like the goons Austin McKenna brought to my apartment when they took Chloe. This man looks more… polished.
He tilts his head to the side, looking me over with an assessing gaze. “And you are?”
“No one,” Maddoc growls as all three of the Reapers close ranks around me, their big bodies crowding me back so quickly that I almost feel claustrophobic. “Come inside. If you’ve got a message from The Six, it doesn’t need to be broadcast to the whole fucking neighborhood.”
“No,” the visitor says in a bland tone that still feels loaded with layers that I don’t understand. “It doesn’t. You know how little they care for public attention.”
The Six. I’ve heard the name referenced before, but I’ve got no idea who they are. All three Reapers obviously do, and the energy between them gets so strained when the man drops that comment that I’m surprised no one snaps.
They usher him inside without another word, and as soon as the door closes behind him, he gets down to business.
“The Six know what happened today.”
“The shootout,” Maddoc says grimly.
It’s not a question, but the man nods anyway. “It was very—”
“Messy,” Dante throws in.
The man blinks, his expression not changing in the face of the apologetic grin Dante throws in.
“Public,” he says after a moment. “It drew attention, and The Six aren’t happy about that.”
The way all three Reapers go unnaturally still at that makes me think it’s a threat, and I bristle.
My go-to response to being pissed off or scared is to snap someone’s fucking head off, but before I can, Logan and Dante both press their bodies against mine, sandwiching me between them, almost as if they could somehow tell I was about to let loose with a snarky reminder that obviously no one ishappyabout what happened today.
I take a breath and force myself to relax. Whatever’s going on here, it isn’t my fight. I’m not a Reaper, and obviously I’ve got no right—or any reason—to feel protective of the men who betrayed me.
No matter what my heart tries to tell me.
“There will be a meeting,” the guy representing The Six says, giving a time and a place. Tomorrow, somewhere I’ve never heard of downtown.
“Just us?” Maddoc asks, no emotion in his voice at all.
“West Point is being summoned as well.”
Maddoc nods. “We’ll be there.”
“Of course you will,” the visitor says with a cold smile, then he turns and lets himself out, and the tension snaps—along with any pretense of Maddoc being unaffected—with the string of low, vicious curses that Maddoc lets loose with as soon as the door closes behind him.
