Page 105 of Beware of Dog

While she floundered upright, breath hitching, he withdrew his gun from under the pillow and racked the slide.

“Wait.” Cass grabbed at his arm. “Wait, don’t—”

He eased out of her grip and swung his feet down to the floor. “Stay here.”

“Shep.” She sounded terrified.

He stood, and reached back to smooth her hair off her face. “It’s okay.Stay here.”

She drew the covers up over her chest and stared at him, big-eyed, and young, and worried for him.

There was a pair of his sweats hanging over the closet doorknob, and he stepped into them fast. If he was about to have to shoot somebody, he didn’t want to do it with his dick out. Then he moved silently to the door on the balls of his feet and listened a moment. Silence.

He sent Cass one last look. In the glow of the streetlight, he could see the glimmer of her ring where she had her hands fisted in the blankets. She nodded.

He lifted his gun, opened the door, and slid out into the dark hallway.

The lights were on in the living room and kitchen. A figure stepped into the mouth of the hallway, tall and narrow. “You going to shoot me?” a British-accented voice drawled.

Tennyson Fox.

Shep’s finger twitched, wanting to pull the trigger. “Fucking maybe!” he snarled. “What the fuck are you doing? How are you here? What the fuck’s with the B & E in the middle of the night, asshole?” He lowered his gun and stalked into the main area of the apartment.

Tenny was eating corn chips out of the bag that Shep had just bought that afternoon; yesterday; whatever. His better half was poking around in the kitchen, filling a glass with water.

Reese lifted his free hand and said, “Did we wake you?”

“Yeah.You did.” Shep looked between them, incredulous. “And again: how the fuck did you get in here?”

“It’s the club flat,” Tenny said, with an impliedduh. “There’s a spare key in the mailbox downstairs.”

He’d…forgotten that. Pongo always stayed with Dixon, and Topino stayed God knew where; Toly lived with Raven. None of the city-bound Dogs ever swung by anymore, and he’d come to think of it as his and Cass’s place, theirhome, and not a club hub.

“You couldn’t call?” he demanded, still pissed. “Fucking knock? It’s goddamn one in the morning.”

“Wrong, it’s four in the morning,” Tenny said, digging back into the chip bag. “And I thought it best to catch you in the act.”

Aw, shit. “Act of what?”

Tenny’s face remained otherwise lax, but his eyes sharpened, suddenly. They were the exact shape and color as Cass’s eyes, but the look in them was wholly different, and wholly terrifying. Shep wasn’tscared. But. Still. “Corrupting my little sister.”

“Shut your hole,” Cass’s voice said from behind him, and Shep turned.

Cass stood in the mouth of the hallway, swallowed up in the dark gray Lean Dogs hoodie he’d had on yesterday, arms folded. Her mussed hair and her bare legs, tiny little black-painted toenails on the carpet ruined the authoritative vibe she was aiming for, with her head cocked and her jaw set.

“See,” Tenny said, pointing with a chip, only half-joking. “Corrupted.”

She adored her brothers. Shep had known that from the start. It bordered on hero worship. But the scowl she aimed at Tenny now was one he hoped never to be on the receiving end of. “I saidshut your hole,” she repeated, voice going boardingschool formal. “You don’t get to barge into our home and say awful shit to my fiancé, you wanker.”

Shep grinned.

When he looked, he had the gratification of seeing Tenny gape for a split second before he schooled his features. “You used to like me. You used to be sweet, before this—”

“No,” Cass snapped, and charged forward, one arm peeling away from her chest so she could stab a finger through the air at Tenny. “I see you, what, once a year? I love you, but I love him, too, and you don’t get to come in here and act like he’s done something terrible to me when he’s the one who’s been here!”

Tenny looked at her, and then at Shep, and then at her again. “Well,” he said, rather stupidly.

But Cass was just getting revved up. She lifted her left hand, flashed her ring. “Do you see this? He gave me this. He’s going to marry me. You don’t get to waltz in at four in the morning and threaten him!”

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