Page 36 of Sawyer

“And it appears you need one.” Bryn closes the front door and looks around the cottage. “Or two.”

“Two,” Rumor answers. “One phone call, I step outside for one call to cover our tracks, and I come in to find him locked inside Sawyer, whom we are supposed to protect.”

I grunt at that.

“Care to chime in?” Bryn asks. “With the truth this time?”

“Nope, I’m sure they have that covered,” I reply absentmindedly, because I’m busy looking for a coffee maker.

One I’m not finding. What heathen doesn’t own a coffee maker?

“Bryn.” Sin crosses his arms and leans his naked ass against the couch. I can’t tell if I never want to sit there again or if I want to bury my nose in that spot, and that’s a problem for me. “Are you going to play nice?”

“That depends on what you’ve stumbled into.” Bryn walks over to where I am in the kitchen and reaches up to a shelf above the fridge, where Sin has a coffee maker stashed. “And why do you think Sawyer needs protection?” He sets the little one-cup machine on the counter for me, then proceeds to get Sin’s coffee, which is hidden in the freezer.

I have so many questions.

“How do you know where all my stuff is?” Sin asks, mirroring my own thoughts.

Bryn ignores him and tells me, “You might want to wash that out first.”

“Right.” Feeling like I’m living in the twilight zone, I set to clean the coffee maker while the three men chat.

The entire situation feels surreal.

“Five gammas turned up dead on the west side of the Oak Mountains yesterday,” Rumor explains, setting the atmosphere for the entire room. I look over at him. He’s leaning against the hallway wall with his eyes on me. He looks sexy as hell in just a pair of jeans with one button popped open. “I got the call early this morning from the delta force mage. They were all experimented on.”

“Experimented how?” Bryn doesn’t hesitate to follow along with the conversation, even as he sets a jug of water on the counter with sugar and milk.

I turn away, focusing on keeping my hands busy as fear slithers up my spine. I’m not ready to know all the details of how Jenny or the other women died, but I need to know.

It could have been me.

“Their reproductive organs were all missing,” Rumor answers.

“Say that again.” Sin’s voice darkens, reminding me that even though he is primarily a wannabe rockstar with homicidal tendencies, he is also an alpha.

“You heard me the first time,” Rumor says before continuing. “Their breasts…” His voice becomes strained. “They cut the mammary ducts out as well as all their scent glands.”

“By the fates,” Bryn mutters, and I feel like that’s as close as he will ever come to cursing.

“All but one,” Rumor continues. “This gamma had the same incisions, however, all her glands and organs were in place.”

“Why make the cuts?” Sin asks, his voice full of menace.

“The mage healer I spoke to could only hypothesize. She ran a designation workup on her.” Rumor’s voice dips as though he’s unsure just how to say this next bit. “Her markers were still gamma, but there were some for omega as well.”

My hands pause in scrubbing the coffee pot, dripping suds over my knuckles as I look at Rumor. His eyes are still on me, but his expression is conflicted. The entire room fills with tension as no one speaks.

“Sawyer was the first journalist on the scene. She is the only gamma reporter,” Rumor says.

“You believe that they might take her because she won’t stop until she knows the truth,” Bryn concludes, “and while I can see where you are going with that, Sawyer is too high profile. No one in their right mind would ever take her.” Bryn holds up a hand. “I’m not saying that she doesn’t need protection though. I’m just not sure who she needs protection from.” He glares at Sin, who shrugs without a hint of shame.

Hell, he’s having this entire conversation naked.

I rinse the coffee pot and set it on the counter. My only intent right now is to get that damn thing rumbling.

“What did Tomi say?” I ask, determined to see this conversation through.

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