“You did good back there,” he murmured.
One corner of her mouth ticked up. “Nothing I haven’t faced before.”
Considering she worked as a mercenary, that was no doubt true, and the knowledge of that hit him like a kick to the groin. She willingly placed her life in danger every day. Even though he had no claim to her whatsoever, the thought of that drove him crazy.
“Why do you work as a mercenary?” he found himself asking.
Her grin died. “Why do you work as a bounty hunter?”
Touché. He couldn’t exactly condone her choice of career when he put himself in just as much danger as she did on a daily basis.
“Ronin worries about you,” he found himself saying.
I worry about you.
She swiveled on her stool so she fully faced him, barely missing his groin with her knee. He fought the impulse to back away from the danger it posed. She would see that as a weakness.
Her leg stayed there, inches from his body. Torturing him with its proximity.
“There’s nothing to worry about,” she said, her voice low. Almost teasing. “I’m a big girl. I can take care of myself.”
A world of hidden meaning rested behind those words.
“Indeed,” he murmured, his heart speeding up at the innuendo. To the untrained, she might be flirting. But he knew better. She was simply being truthful.
As if she sensed the excitement growing within him, she shifted slightly, her knee grazing his thigh. The weight of the air changed around them, growing thicker and more intense. It made him all too aware of the heat pulsing off her body. Made him lose all focus.
Obeying some base instinct, he moved in closer.
“Dagan.” Her voice held a note of warning.
“What?” he whispered.
Something crossed her expression, something almost like…regret?
“We should go tell Ronin what happened.”
Her mention of his brother’s name broke him out of his trance. Shaking his head, he pulled back. “You’re right.”
What had just gone down was big. They needed to tell his brothers right away.
…
Dagan sighed and leaned his forehead against one of the floor-to-ceiling windows lining his oldest brother Keegan’s expansive living room. Keegan lived in the penthouse of the Upper East Side building where Dagan also resided. Four floors down, his and Ronin’s apartment was less than half the size of this one, the view not nearly as grand. Usually he took the time to admire the stunning sight of New York City through these windows, but tonight they provided nothing more than a momentary distraction.
He turned to face Keegan, Ronin, and Lina. Taeg and his fiancé Maya would be here too if they weren’t out of the country, tracking the demons who had murdered her family years before. They’d gotten a solid lead that the two maliki demons were in Europe, and they were currently hot on their trail.
“You’re sure Sam is working for the dark fae?” Keegan asked from the bar in one corner of the room, where he’d gone to pour himself a generous drink after hearing that Dagan and Lina had been attacked.
“Yes,” Lina responded. She paced back and forth in the living room, absently twirling the stiletto knife in her hand. Her long, blond hair flowed behind her as if carried on a silent breeze, and the curves of her firm ass flexed with her movement. He shouldn’t be noticing that right now, but not noticing Lina was impossible. Whenever she entered a room, all the air sucked right out of it. The woman was stunning.
She’d also suffered a harsh blow tonight. Dried blood stained her pink top underneath her leather jacket. While the wound wouldn’t have been serious enough to kill her, she would still be in pain if not for her angelic ability to heal.
The thought of that wrenched Dagan’s stomach. The last thing he wanted to see was Lina in any kind of pain.
Out of the corner of his eye, he caught Ronin frowning at him, and turned his gaze back to Keegan. When Dagan had first met Lina, he’d been unable to hide his interest, but Ronin had told him in no uncertain terms that he didn’t want him anywhere near his adopted sister. Ronin wasn’t too keen on her being defiled by his man-whore of a little brother, and who could blame him? A woman like Lina was meant to be treasured and adored, not used and cast off.
And what else am I good for, if not for that?
“I mean, Sam didn’t flat-out admit he was working for the fae,” Lina continued, “but it seemed pretty clear.”
“Yeah, the bastard disappeared right out from under me.” His jaw tight, Dagan crossed over to the bar and poured a drink for himself.
“Must have been a spell.” Ronin leaned forward on the leather sectional, resting his elbows on his thighs and clasping his hands together. “Sam probably activated it when he crushed that ball in his hand.”