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Karli slides me another measuring look. “Well, I want you to meet Tom because I know you think I made him up.” She pulls Katie towards her, frowning at me when I don’t let go, but she’s all smiles a second later.
“Tom, this is my best friend, Kate. I know you’ve been dying to meet her.”
I sigh. How long do I have to endure this? I look past the girls expecting another muscle-head like Owen and stop short. Tom is tall and built like a brick house, with a buzz cut and tattoos that blanket his neck. My back prickles when he assesses me, and I’d swear I’ve seen those black-as-night eyes before. Then he lifts his hand to shake Katie’s and I see it. An elaborate scroll tattooed on his hand, between his thumb and forefinger. A scroll bearing a stylized number. The prickles down my back turn to ice. I don’t even need to see the number, the symbol itself tells me this guy is a solider, but not in any government institution. This man belongs to the Blood Knights.
They might be well-connected and well-organized but they’re still criminals.
How did Tom happen to show up here tonight, with Katie’s so-called best friend?
I don’t believe in coincidences.
My breath squeezes inside my lungs as Tom’s hand engulfs Katie’s and Karli finally manages to break my grip, pulling Katie into a hug with the man my entire body is warning me about.
Tom has blood on his hands.
And I’m afraid he came here tonight for Katie’s.
2
Katie
“Come dance with us!” Karli squeals, pulling me in for a hug where I’m suddenly sandwiched between her and her new boyfriend. Tom’s hand is still attached to mine and somehow ends up squashed against my boobs as I stumble into them. My shoes are wobbly and hurt my feet and I never should have put them on, but Karli told me tonight was the perfect time to wear them.
“Sorry,” Tom’s deep voice growls in my ear but he doesn’t move his hand, managing to cop a feel, his thumb grazing my nipple. A shiver runs through me at his rough touch, but it isn’t one of pleasure. What a weird night this is turning out to be. I try to squirm away, but Tom latches his other arm around my waist, guiding both me and Karli to the dance floor.
“Catch you later, mate,” he calls over his shoulder.
Seconds later, Tom’s arm is forcibly removed from my body. Hiro takes my hand, standing by my side. “I don’t think so, mate,” he sneers.
Tom bristles, his dark eyes flashing dangerously. “Both ladies are staying with me.”
Karli tugs on his arm. “Don’t worry about it, Tom. He’s a friend of Kate’s brother. I’m sure he’s just delivering gifts or something.” She wiggles her fingers at Katie. “See what he wants, then come find us to dance.”
Tom’s shoulders straighten when Karli mentions Hiro is a friend of my brother’s. Is it possible Karli has told Tom who my brother is? I keep my family name a secret for a reason. People treat me differently when they find out Henry Black is my brother. As one of the world’s richest men, there’s a lot of scrutiny on him, and consequently on the rest us, especially since Dad died. My throat closes and I swallow hard, sniffling. The drinks, the Christmas music, and the stifling crowd all of a sudden making me melancholy. I wouldn’t have told Karli anything about my family, except that I lost it this year on the anniversary of Dad’s death, the full force of grief catching up with me when I thought about the fact that he wouldn’t be here to watch me walk across the stage next spring. In my lowest moment, I confessed what my real name was and who my family was.
She told me she’d wondered why I never seemed to worry about money the way our friends did and assumed I was a secret sex-worker. She swore she’d never tell anyone.
I take a couple of steps back, bumping into Hiro’s hard, warm body. He huffs out a sigh of impatience and I roll my eyes. Hiro has always been stiff, controlling and about as much fun as a corpse at Christmas. He’s only thirty but he acts like he’s fifty. He’s always been so over-protective and over-bearing. I still remember the time he broke up a little party I was having in Henry’s Manhattan apartment. And yes, I was only sixteen, and yes, Henry was in London at the time, but it’s not really stealing a plane if it’s your family’s private jet, right?
I mean forty people isn’t that big. And it was totally not my fault that Mrs. Albrecht got an eyeful of my friend Jonas’, um, appendage which is now famous thanks to his raw performance in last year’s Oscar-winning movie.
It’s such a shame because Hiro is drop-dead gorgeous, with his dark hair, dark eyes and lean, muscular body. He doesn’t even seem to notice the way he turns heads, that or he doesn’t care. He’s so straightlaced, sex is probably too messy for him.
That might just be sour grapes on my part. He’s turned down every flirtatious smile I ever threw him, and I’ve never caught his eyes lingering on me, even when I wore a bikini that nearly gave my brother a heart attack. Hiro treats me like an annoyance.
And I’ve never gotten the message because when he put his hand over my shoe and I met his gaze, I would swear I saw desire in his eyes. It must be the tequila playing tricks on me.
Hiro’s hands slide up my bare arms, leaving little trails of heat in their wake. I shake my head to clear it. Karli is tugging on Tom, who doesn’t look like her type at all, and doesn’t seem interested in dancing or even being here at all. I blink as Tom takes a step towards me, earning me a glare from Karli. I nearly groan. We’re just getting past the Owen thing. I can’t deal with her suspecting this new guy is interested in me too, just because he looked at me more than once. I’m certain Tom checked out everything with boobs in here tonight. Maybe he’s chivalrous and is worried about the way Hiro is manhandling me towards the door.
Hiro deftly guides me through the club and soon an icy blast of winter wind is hitting my bare skin. I shiver and Hiro whips off his jacket, covering my shoulders. “Did you bring a jacket?” he asks jiggling a set of keys in his hand, an SUV flashing its lights in the parking lot when he presses a button.
“No, but you could have asked before you dragged me out of the party. What are you doing here anyway?”
A sudden jolt from behind knocks me to my knees and I cry out at the sharp bite of pain. I turn to look over my shoulder to see Tom grappling with Hiro. What the actual fuck is happening? I squint into the semi-darkness, just in time to see Tom slash at Hiro with a wicked looking blade, and Hiro responding with a kick that looks like something out of an action movie. Tom stumbles, but isn’t down, a roar erupting from his throat as he launches at Hiro again. Hiro catches him, just as I see campus security running across the parking lot and presses his wrist against Tom’s neck, the tendons bulging before he slides to his knees. Hiro ignores the shouts from the guards as he lifts me into his arms and strides to the SUV, buckling me in like a child, before rounding to the driver’s side and pulling away smoothly as if he hadn’t just left a pile of chaos behind him.
He presses a button on the steering wheel. “Mr. Abbott.” The woman’s voice startles me.
“Madeleine. I need you to take care of something for me.” He rattles off the address for the campus bar where the Christmas party is. “Please have the security feeds pulled as well. I’m going to want to see who was at that party.”
