Page 10 of Kill Me Sweetly

“Does he have superhuman strength?” I cocked my head at the mess.

“Probably.” Shep’s nonchalant answer wasn’t reassuring.

“Do you think he left?” I whispered but athumpon the second floor was all I needed to know that he was in fact still here.

“Stay with Four. Hit him with your tree if he moves.” Shep handed him to me, and I took his hand in my free one.

“Be careful.” I watched as Shep ascended the stairs. Four was so still, I wondered if he was even breathing.

Abangmade me jump, but Four didn’t even flinch. It was as if he were turned off.

A moment later, Shep was descending the stairs with Maxwell. The man was struggling, but he was no match for Shep. When he saw Four, he tried to run again but Shep held tight.

“No, you don’t. You’re going nowhere until we’ve talked. Let’s go to your kitchen and have that coffee you promised.” Hedragged Maxwell into the other room while Four allowed me to guide him.

Shep plopped Maxwell into a chair, and I brought Four to another one that was on the other end, far from Maxwell.

“Now, Max, how about you tell us why Four here wants to kill you and what the hell the Alabastrine Consortium is?” Shep grinned and leaned on the kitchen island.

“I…” Maxwell’s eyes darted from Shep to Four. “I’m not allowed to talk about the consortium.”

Shep tutted. “We’re all friends here. Well, Four doesn’t like you, but JJ and I, um, we can maybe be friends with you.”

That wasn’t happening, and I was sure everyone in this house knew that.

“They’ll kill me if I talk.”

A laugh busted out of me. “Seriously? Did you miss the part where they clearly already want you dead?” I gestured dramatically to Four.

“I need to run. Once they’ve enacted a judgment and punishment, there’s no escaping it.”

“You lost me. What are they, like gods or something?” Shep sniggered. “No offense, but that shit isn’t real.”

“You make jokes, but you have no idea.”

Shep pushed off the island and crossed his arms over his chest. “You’re right, I don’t, so maybe you enlighten us and maybe we help you.”

“Help me?” Maxwell chuckled darkly. “You can’t help me. You can’t fight them.”

Shep took three steps and he was next to Maxwell. He crouched, his face mere inches from the other man’s.

“You have no idea who I am or what I’m capable of. I’ve taken down giants that everyone said were impossible to crush. My whole life has been about righting wrongs and not giving a shit about the trail of despair I leave behind me. So, maybe startworrying about the danger in your kitchen right now instead of the monsters outside.”

Holy shit, my man was hot.

“All I can say is, they are powerful and they handle things for people, but at a cost. If you don’t make good on your debt, they judge you. But they said I had another week. I don’t know why he’s here. No one told me about a second judgment.”

“That tells us pretty much nothing. How’d you find them?” This was some next-level weird, and I needed to know a lot more.

“They sort of find you.” He scrunched his nose. “I was desperate, and the next thing I knew, a man came to my door. The offer was too good to be true, but like I said, I was desperate.”

I surveyed the kitchen. The house was beautiful and it was obvious from the Mercedes in the driveway that he wasn’t hurting financially.

“What were you so desperate about?”

He sighed, flicking his eyes to Four and settling on me. “My daughter disappeared six months ago. I began getting ransom demands and I paid them, but she wasn’t returned. I couldn’t call the police—they said they’d kill her. I didn’t know what to do.”

“And suddenly, out of nowhere, your fairy godfather comes to your door and tells you he can make your dreams come true?” Shep lifted a brow.

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