Page 67 of Claimed By Rage

Rage wouldn’t give it up for just anybody. I doubt he’d even give it to Celia. No, he was probably grinning up at her while she tried to strangle him to death.

Key word beingtry.

If itwasher, there’s no way she finished the job. She’s too green right now, inexperienced in the art of death.

I can’t wait to paint her in deep shades of red.

“I’m coming to get you.” I’m already halfway across the room by the time Rebel replies.

“Wait! I’ll let Liara in. She can handle it.”

“Rage doesn’t like other people in the apartment.”

“Does it look like he’s gonna care who I let in the apartment? Go get him, Ruin!” He hangs up the phone and I jump to my feet, already dialing Rage’s number again. I’m out the door without saying goodbye to Mrs. Morell, but I doubt I’ll ever see her again. If she’s smart, she’ll leave town after tonight.

There aren’t any defining features in the picture to clue me in on Rage’s location, and we don’t have tracking devices on each other in case one of us gets kidnapped. We’ve made a pact: brothers first, then ourselves. We don’t want to lead our enemies to the rest of us, even inadvertently. When the phone rings and rings, I hang up and call Thanatos. He picks up on the first ring.

“Ruin,” he greets, unable to hide the surprise from his voice. We aren’t very close on account of being nearly fifteen years apart in age. “What is it?”

“Rage is missing.” I jump into my SUV and start the engine. “Someone strangled him.”

There’s a beat of silence. “Is he dead?”

“Not likely.” Although he was pale and unconscious, he didn’t lookdead.

Thanatos makes a sound that I can’t decipher over the phone. “He was with Celia an hour ago. Shit, maybe two. Or more.” He huffs into the receiver, making rustling sounds as he moves. “They left the safe house inThe Backyardtogether.”

The safe house? “What were they doing there?”

“Fucking,” Than grunts, then adds, “and ruining my good sheets.”

My cock swells, but I ignore it and pull out onto the street. I bet Rage has been on cloud nine all day, while Rebel’s been miserable with jealousy overbreakfast. When he finds out they had sex, he’s going to explode. I saw the group text—Celia wasn’t clear on who she wanted to see, but that means they both should have gone.

If they had gone to see her together, Rage wouldn’t be lying on the asphalt right now.

“Which way did they go?” I ask.

Thanatos grumbles. “I don’t know. I wasn’t with them. We got into a—” something slams in the background—“an argument.”

I’ll have to ask about that later. “I’m on my way there. Text us when you find him. I’ll tell Rebel we’re going toThe Backyard.”

“Call Wren. Is he still practicing?”

“He’s still living.” That’ll have to be close enough.

I’m about to end the call when Thanatos stops me. “Ruin, wait.” He exhales harshly, crackling the line. “Do you know why I’m back in the city?”

I haven’t guessed, and no one has told me. I answer honestly. “No.”

He clicks his tongue against his teeth. “I tracked him here.”

There’s only onehimthat Thanatos would follow past city lines—it’s the reason he left five years ago. To find him. Capture him.Kill him.

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, I’m sure.”

Nerves spread down my arms, tingling every dead and broken cell in my body. I’m not scared of anything, especially if it’s something I can kill. But dormant emotions don’t follow the rules. They crack through the layer of rock around my heart and break free one small sliver at a time, infecting the present with the past.

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