“Don’t,” Ronin interrupted tersely. “I don’t want to talk about it.” Without waiting for a response, he opened the passenger door and unfolded his tall frame from the car.
“Guess that settles that,” Dagan muttered. Ronin might be the most level of the four of them, but he could be a real hardhead when he wanted to be.
He slid out of the driver’s seat, hit the door lock, and fell into step beside Ronin while they walked the half block to Lina’s apartment. All the while, fear built up within Dagan… What if she still wasn’t there? At this point, he’d honestly be surprised if she was.
Something was up with Lina, and a part of him was scared as hell that something bad had happened to her. They didn’t know all that much about her, which meant it was perfectly conceivable that she could disappear and they’d never hear another word as to how or why.
Please, just let her be okay.
They slipped past the still-busted lock on the door and took the stairs up to Lina’s apartment. Even though Ronin gave off a vibe like some of his anger had disappeared, he didn’t say a word to Dagan. Yeah, he was still pissed, but he was just more worried for Lina at the moment. And Dagan couldn’t blame him.
They’d just opened the stairwell door for the fourth floor when Ronin stiffened with a frown. “Do you feel that?”
Dagan gaze him a puzzled look, but five more steps was all it took to feel what his brother had felt. The essence of a demon. Due to Ronin’s angel half, he was more hypersensitive to demons.
“Who could that be?” But even as he asked, Dagan felt the niggling sensation he’d sensed that particular essence before. He practically raced down the length of the hall to Lina’s doorway. As he’d feared, her door was ajar. When he slid past it, he saw her empty living room. But the unease only increased.
“What is going on?” Ronin whispered as he stepped in beside him.
Nothing good.
He crossed the length of the room without responding and came to a stop in front of the door to Lina’s bedroom. When he shoved it open, a familiar blond-haired demon looked up from his spot in front of a worn dresser, his eyes momentarily going wide with surprise.
“You,” Dagan growled. He knew he’d sensed the aura before. It was Lina’s ex, and if he wasn’t mistaken, the son of a bitch was rummaging through her dresser. He looked down and saw the demon held a backpack, into which scraps of cloth and underwear had been hastily jammed.
Lina’s clothes.
“Where is she?” he growled. He was in front of the demon before he even processed he was moving, his hands wrapped around the asshole’s shirt.
Though he dropped the backpack, the dick-face had the nerve to laugh at him. “A little overprotective, aren’t you?”
“Fuck you.” Before he could think twice about it, his fist connected with the demon’s face. What the hell had Lina said his name was? Tim? No, Thorne. “Tell me where she is.”
The other demon scowled and shoved back, trying and failing to overpower him. His right fist swung up, but Dagan effortlessly blocked his hit.
“Wait, who is this guy?” Ronin sounded out from somewhere behind him.
If Thorne was here, grabbing her stuff, then clearly he knew where she was. And everything Lina had said about him made it clear she wouldn’t go off with him willingly, whether they’d once been bonded or not.
“If you don’t tell me where she is, I swear—”
“Chill,” Thorne said, finally succeeding in dislodging himself from Dagan’s grip. He took several steps back and tugged his shirt back into place. “I’ll tell you where she is. In fact, you were my next stop. You saved me a trip.”
Though he sensed Ronin stepping up beside him, Dagan kept his eyes glued on the other demon. He didn’t trust him. The ass was clearly up to something.
“So spill,” he barked.
“Dagan, who is this?” Ronin repeated impatiently.
Thorne’s gaze moved from him to Ronin. He gave him a quick once-over before saying, “You must be her brother. She’d always wondered what happened to you.”
Ronin stilled, and unease oozed from his pores, blanketing the room in an intangible film. “Who are you?”
Thorne shifted, having enough sense to appear moderately nervous about the animosity emanating from Ronin. Dagan read the calculation in his eyes a moment before he said, “I’m Lina’s husband.”
“Ex-husband,” Dagan shot back without thinking. He stiffened when he realized what he’d just done. Fuck.
The unease Ronin emitted morphed into full-out fury, automatically sparking a chord of angry song in Dagan’s head. His big brother turned the full force of his anger on him.