Page 191 of Burn Like An Angel

Someone stops behind me, breathing hard. I feel arms wrap around me, a firm chest pressing into my back. Spearmint washes over me, a refreshing comfort in all the stale air.

“Didn’t like that one?” Xander whispers.

“No. Not anymore.”

His lips press into the side of my head, cool and dry. Every clenched muscle relaxes at the feel of Xander holding me. Pulling me back to the present, where that man can no longer dictate my life.

“My chest hurts again,” he murmurs. “I think I love you.”

Laughter spills out of me.

“Fuck. Hell of a way to declare it, Xan.”

“Want me to take it back?”

Pulling his wrists, I turn in his arms so I can see him. My swollen eye is still a badly bruised mess, but I don’t need twenty-twenty vision to recognise the jagged angles and alabaster skin I’ve memorised.

“No,” I whisper.

His mouth is drawn to mine, landing softer than I expected. The kiss is everything Xander isn’t. Gentle. Tentative. Exploratory. All the traits I couldn’t possibly ascribe to the man who thinks it’s perfectly acceptable to gift me a tracking device.

I don’t give a fuck, though.

Xander is perfect the way he is.

I’m so wrapped up in his lips, it takes Lennox shouting our names several times for us to separate. There’s an odd ringing emanating throughout the apartment. Taking Xander’s hand, I walk over to the front door.

The security system that Theo had his men install is demanding my attention. Next to the door, a small screen has been installed, offering me a view of the outside pavement and our floor.

“Someone pressed the buzzer.” I study the image. “Do you think it was a mistake?”

Xander leans closer to study the four men standing outside the apartment building, all carrying shopping bags. His finger hovers over one—tall, raven-haired and radiating danger.

“That’s Hudson Knight. He was in HQ when we first went. I saw him in the corridor afterwards.”

“The Blackwood inmate?” Raine asks behind us.

“Wait, I recognise him too.” My attention narrows on the guy wearing a pressed shirt and glasses, his pearly-blonde hair slicked back. “He was on those tapes that got leaked.”

“Kade Knight,” Lennox supplies. “Brothers, I believe.”

“What are they doing here? Who are the other two?”

Jabbing his finger on the intercom, Xander offers a friendly greeting. “This isn’t Blackwood. Fuck off.”

“Smooth,” Raine mutters.

The preppy-looking one, Kade, steps up to answer. “Uh, hello. This is a bit weird, but I kinda swiped this address from Theo’s computer while he was busy.”

My eyebrows feel like they’ve met my damn hairline.

“We just want to chat,” he rushes to add. “Nothing sinister. This is my brother, Hudson, and our friends, Eli and Phoenix. We’re unarmed and come in peace.”

“What the fuck?” Lennox whispers. “Is this a joke?”

“He seems genuine.”

“I don’t trust genuine,” Xander replies, hitting the speak button again. “Why are you here?”

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