Page 53 of Indecent Villain

“I have a meeting.” I lean in and put my mouth to her ear. “We’ll be close when we sleep in my bed tonight.” I press a kiss to her cheek and smirk at her flushed face.

“Do I need to protect her from you?” Jock asks. It’s difficult to decide whether he is serious.

Narrowing my eyes, I say, “What goes on between Kinsley and me is private.”

“Besides,” Kinsley says, “Tiberius is probably going to need protecting from me. I can’t get enough of him.” She wiggles her brows.

I grin at my teasing girl.

Salem says to Jock, “Glad you caught the boss in a good mood, because it would take all fucking day to clean your blood from the car.”

Kinsley winces. “Will you tell me more about the Edge family?”

“Hmm,” I sigh. “Where to start. Cannon is my age. We used to be friends a long time ago.”

“What happened?”

“Your mother happened.”

“Oh! So you were friends until my mother got pregnant and fled to Jude?”

“Yes.” I squeeze her hand. “I always thought Cannon would go in a different direction, but what happened with Anna screwed him up. Xavier is the youngest, at twenty-eight. He doesn’t want to be in the family business, but he doesn’t really have a choice. Then there is Cleo. All I can say about her is that you should not trust her. Do not let her get you alone. She was always a daddy’s girl. If anyone wants vengeance more than Cannon, it’s his sister.”

“Heck, they sound like a wonderful family. What about their mother?”

“Maia Edge is alive and well. She’s a recluse. I have invited her to the dinner; however, I doubt she will come. You won’t be alone with them. I won’t allow that to happen, Kinsley.”

She nods.

As we pull onto the gravel driveway leading to the Lake House, Kinsley unclips her seat belt and climbs into my lap. Her arms wrap around my neck as her face nuzzles into it.

“I wish we could go away. Someplace no one can find us.”

I wrap her up in my arms and hold on while a sick feeling of dread fills my stomach. I close my eyes and bury my nose in her hair, filling my senses with her unique scent.

One thingabout Xavier is that he likes to run, which makes it easier to catch him alone. I still take precautions to keep us both safe from prying eyes.

Sweaty and out of breath, Xavier appears around the bend. I hand him a bottle of water and wait for him to catch a breath and take a drink.

“You want to know what Cannon has planned for Kinsley’s birthday, don’t you?” he says. “Well, I wish I could tell you, but I don’t know. My brother isn’t talking about it. Once or twice, I thought he seemed genuinely excited to meet her, but that isn’t like my brother. Something odd is going on with him.”

“What about Cleo?”

Xavier winces. “Oh, she has made her feelings clear. She has no desire to meet Kinsley. She would like to see her bleed, though.”

My body goes rigid with anger.

“Don’t worry. Cannon has told her he will kill her if she so much as harms a hair on Kinsley’s head.”

“He probably wants that privilege for himself,” I say.

“I wouldn’t be so sure. He’s different, which worries me.” Xavier glances around. “I heard about the other night. That was something Cannon ranted about. He didn’t do it, if that’s where your head is at. He was pissed as fuck, shouting that if Kinsley had been there, he would have hunted down every last man who lived and killed them himself.” He winces. “I haven’t seen him so worked up in a very long time.”

“So, where is the threat coming from?”

“I don’t know. Cannon called Rossi and basically told him what he’d do to him if he found out he was responsible. Rossi hung up on him.”

“Well, fuck!”

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