Page 16 of The Devil's Dream

“Sweet dreams, Kitten,” I murmured against her ear. “Think about what we discussed.”

She tipped her head back to look at me. “Are you not staying here tonight?”

My eyes raked over her face, noting her downturned lips. As much as I wanted to tell her fuck yes, you'll never sleep without me again, I knew that wasn't what she needed right now. Instead, I dropped a kiss onto her lips and did the less selfish thing. “No. You need your own space right now. But we'll see you first thing tomorrow, yeah?”

She nodded, her small body trembling against mine.

When I released her, Haze stepped forward, his large hand cupping her cheek.

“Baby,” he rumbled, then pressed a gentle kiss to her forehead before stepping back.

“Go on inside now.”

Haze and I watched until she was safely inside before climbing back into the car. Pulling through the gates, I was pleased that the evening had gone better than we'd hoped.

“Perfect,” Haze said from beside me.

I nodded. I couldn't agree more.

She was fucking perfect.

Now we just had to show her that she belonged with us.

Chapter Five

Haze

Sleep was impossible.

Every time I closed my eyes, I saw one of two things: Nova in that black dress that had my hands itching to touch her, or flashes of the attack outside of the flower shop.

The memories blurred together. Nova's beautiful smile mixed with the sharp pain of boots connecting with my ribs. Her sweet smile kept morphing into shadowed figures emerging from the darkness.

It was fucking with me.

Something about the attack kept nagging at me. There was a detail just out of reach.

Rolling out of bed, I paced the length of my room. I glanced at the clock on my nightstand, noting it was three AM.

Fuck.

Looked like it was going to be another early one, thanks to my mind that wouldn't shut off.

Between Nova and working with Dragon to try and figure out who attacked me, peace was hard to find when the world went quiet.

Dragon had been digging through security footage, trying to identify my attackers.

So far, there’d been nothing concrete. Just shadows and a whole lot of unprovable speculation that it was the Fed who’d been fucking with us.

My thoughts jumped to Nova, and I grunted.

She was small. Delicate. Everything in me screamed that it was my job to protect her, to keep her safe.

Mine.

The caveman thoughts weren't new.

I'd been fighting it since the day Banner and I walked into Sophia's shop. The Prez had become obsessed with his old lady from the moment he put eyes on her photo, and we’d become frequent flyers at her shop ever since.

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