Page 51 of His Reluctant Savior

That was strangely sentimental of Easton.

“Why do you care?” I asked, genuinely curious.

“Luca.”

I tilted my head and scrutinized the young man. His admission surprised me. “What does Luca have to do with this?”

Luca was a young man a couple of years older than Easton. He’d been trafficked as a little boy and kept young and ignorant by his owners because they liked boys. Dante, one of our infiltrators, found him on assignment, and instead of killing him, he took him in. Now, Luca was a part of our family, not as a killer, but he helped around the office.

“It’s his stuffed rabbit. I told him he needed to grow up and put it away. At the time, I hadn’t understood that the rabbit had saved his life while he’d been a sex slave, and it kept the diamonds he stole hidden from his owner, allowing him to hire Dante. He’s very attached to it because I think it brings him comfort. I understandthat when I want something, I won’t let it go. If this house does that for you, then you should keep it.”

I huffed a laugh and wrapped my arm around his shoulder. “Thanks, East.”

He pulled away and looked at me. “Three weeks, Sid. If not, I’m going to hunt you down and drag you back.”

“Deal.”

I was heating a jar of tomato basil soup as I made grilled cheese sandwiches for dinner. It was one of Owen’s favorites, and since I missed him fiercely, I wanted to make it for dinner as I waited for Sid to come back—that and to distract me from worry.

He was taking too damn long.

He shouldn’t have been gone longer than five hours, even with buying a used car in cash. It was close to six at night. Sid should’ve been back threehours ago, at least.

As if by magic, the door handle turned, but as a precaution, I pulled out my gun tucked into the holster at my back and aimed it at the door.

“It’s me,” Sid said as the door cracked open.

I unchambered the bullet and put the safety back on before putting it back in my holster.

“Took you long enough,” I complained.

He cracked an arrogant smile. Asshole. “Aw, were you worried about me?”

“Nope, not one bit. I don’t even like you.”

He chuckled and pulled me into a hug before nibbling on my throat. “I think you’re lying.”

I scoffed and pulled away to remove the sandwiches from the pan and plate them before we got carried away.

“Why were you gone so long?”

“Fuck, I’m going to miss myBronco. I headed up north, about an hour away, to hit a car dealer and hopefully throw off anyone tracking us. So, driving back took about two hours instead of one.”

I ladled the soup into bowls and brought our food to the table. Sid sat down and took a large bite of his sandwich. “So, uhm, I’ve been made by my apprentice. He was at the house,” he said with his mouth full.

I sputtered and choked on my soup. “What?” He patted my back, and I slapped him away. “What the hell, Sid!”

He just shrugged, his flippancy always irritating the shit out of me. “I’ve trained him well.”

“Still…”

“He just followed the trail of dead bodies we left in our wake based on a hunch. It was a coincidence that I returned, and he was there.”

That was when I noticed the red line covered in dried blood across his throat. My hand fisted tightly on my spoon, hard enough to bend it. “Did he fucking do that to you?”

Sid’s fingers instinctively touched his wound. “He, ah… caught me unaware.”

I rested my head on the palm of my hand. “Jesus, Sid. See, this is what I meant when I said we’re distracted.”

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