Page 43 of Under His Control

“The Hound and Tea?” Tessa guessed, referencing her old workplace where she waitressed at the steakhouse on the first floor of the building.

“Yes.”

I winced, uneasy with this news. Suddenly being asked to go to safety wasn’t something new. I’d experienced these out-of-the-blue calls for alarm when enemies attacked.

But at the Hound and Tea building? That was where Dante had taken Liam today, to show him around before he officially began as a Constella recruit.

Please, please be safe. Even if he wouldn’t reciprocate the feelings I couldn’t turn off for him, I had to hope he would be unharmed.

15

LIAM

Ishushed Liv, offering her another cool teether from the fridge.

At this rate, Dante would boot us out of the house for a moment of quiet.

“Teething is theworst,” Danicia said as she grabbed another ice pack for a soldier she was helping next door. She shook her head, pouting at my daughter fussing and crying in my arms.

“Nothing helps.”

She huffed a weak laugh at my reply. “Sometimes, nothing will. Until she’s done cutting through her gums…” She shrugged.

“Is everything okay?” I asked as I struggled with Olivia. I emphasized my question with a glance at the ice packs in her hands.

“Yeah. Yeah, it’ll be cool. Franco brought a guard back home after he was hit.”

I raised my brows. “Hit?” I didn’t tell Dante that I’d work for him expecting an easy job free of dangers. I knew threats were out there, but they’d never come close to home.

“Attacks at the gambling rooms.” She nodded at my phone that buzzed on the counter. “You should’ve gotten the message to stay in by now.”

I frowned, picking up the device I hadn’t been paying much attention to. Olivia wailed louder, proving the point that I was distracted. “Oh, thanks for the heads up.” I didn’t have any plans but to calm Liv down—if it were even possible.

As she headed off to help the guards who were brought next door, I winced at Liv’s cries and skimmed over the text Franco had sent to the group thread of everyone currently staying at the house.

Franco:Attacks at the H&T. Stay in the house until further notice.

I supposed it was a lockdown alarm, and I’d abide by it. But I wasn’t a fan of hiding. I preferred to be a man of action, on the frontline and doing all I could to ensure everyone around me was safe.

I hadn’t started yet, though. Dante wanted me to wait at least a week to settle in further.

As I headed up the stairs, I crossed paths with Eva. She’d been busy since I yelled at her, and now that we would both be expected to stay inside for the night, I had no opportunity to avoid her.

“Hey,” I said as she hurried along the hall.

“Is she okay?” Her eyes were open wide with concern as she looked at Olivia in my arms.

“Yeah.” I blew out a big breath at my door. “Teething. She’s just fussy and no matter what I do, she’s unhappy.”

“Oh.” She pressed her hand to her chest and sighed in relief. “With the lockdown alert, I got nervous.”

I tipped my head toward my room, indicating for her to follow me. “Why would you be nervous?”

“Well, if something happened or something scared her.”

I knew she cared about Liv. I saw it in her eyes when she smiled at her and watched her.

“But wouldn’t you have faith in the guards patrolling the property?”

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