That stopped me cold. “It shouldn’t have been.” I never left doors unlocked, never. It was a basic security measure that had been drilled into me since I was old enough to understand the dangers lurking right outside my doorstep. Hell, sometimes the danger was within the walls of the home meant to keep you safe. “I distinctly remember locking it.”
“That’s ayouproblem, not a me problem,” he replied with infuriating logic.
“Mad…” I sighed, dragging a hand down my face in frustration. Behind me, Kaylor slid off from the counter, her feet hitting the floor with a soft thud.
“Fine,” he said, waving a dismissive hand toward the hallway like he was doing us some great favor. “I’ll check the perimeter since you were obviously too distracted to do it yourself, but you can take your lips and hands off her for two minutes and check the rest of the house.” He turned and disappeared down the hall before I could say anything else.
I faced Kaylor, my eyes devouring her, all tousled, flushed, and embarrassed. She never looked hotter except when shecame. That was by far my favorite look. “Well, that was a mood killer,” I muttered.
She let out a soft, breathless laugh, and my dick hardened. “Little bit. Probably for the best.” But even as she said it, her hands came up to rest on my chest again, and I saw in her eyes that she didn’t really mean it. That she was as reluctant as I was to let this moment end.
“I disagree.” I didn’t miss the way her eyes clung to me, drinking in every detail of my face as if she knew something I didn’t. Her gaze lingered on my mouth, then traveled up to meet my eyes with an intensity that made me ache.
I was seconds from grabbing her, shoving her against the counter, when the door opened again with a soft swoosh of displaced air. “I swear to fucking?—”
Mason strolled in first, his crooked grin already plastered on his face like he’d been waiting outside just long enough to make an entrance. He gave an exaggerated once-over of the kitchen, taking in the forgotten breakfast plates and the general state of dishevelment we’d left in our wake.
Raine followed behind, his movements more measured as his dark eyes scanned the evident situation, and the idiot grinned. “Are we interrupting something?”
Kaylor leaned her hip against the granite counter with fluid grace. Her arms folded across her chest, the movement drawing my attention to the way my shirt hung on her frame, still wrinkled from sleep and our other…activities. Her head tilted slightly. “All four Corvo boys under one roof with me,” she mused, half to herself. “Not sure if that’s a treat or a punishment.”
Mason’s smirk widened, eyes glinting with mischief as he leaned against the door frame, a joker card flipping between his fingers. “Depends on the night.”
Maddox circled back into the kitchen. Without asking permission, he reached over and grabbed a half-eaten strip of bacon off Kaylor’s abandoned plate, biting into it with a satisfying crunch. “It’s a punishment,” he said around the food. “For us.”
Kaylor snorted. “Fair.”
I turned to face Raine fully, squaring my shoulders. “Does Dad know what we’re up to?”
He didn’t blink, but I caught the slight twitching around his eyes. “He knows.”
“Knows what, exactly?” I pressed, the kitchen suddenly smaller with all of us in it.
Raine ran a hand through his perfectly styled hair, the gesture leaving it slightly mussed, a rare crack in his usually immaculate facade. His sigh was heavy, laced with exhaustion that came from carrying family secrets. “That we’ve been using Crew resources to chase this down. The safehouses. The contacts. The intel channels. All of it.”
My jaw clenched. “And he hasn’t put an end to it?”
“We’re on borrowed time,” he said flatly. “He’s letting it play out, for now, but that leash is getting shorter every day.”
Kaylor’s head swiveled between us, her frown deepening with each exchange as the wheels turned in her mind, trying to piece together the politics she’d never fully understood. “Why wouldn’t he want to help? He has the power. The reach. You guys clearly have access to things no one else does.”
“Because helping you,” Maddox cut in as he leaned back against the counter, “doesn’t benefit him. Not unless he can twist it into something that gives him leverage.”
“Like using Kenny’s rescue to pull you back under his thumb,” Mason added, his tone losing all traces of humor. When Mason got serious, it meant the situation was worse than anyone wanted to admit.
I nodded grimly, dread settling in my stomach. “That’s the more likely play. He lets us find her, makes himself look like the hero who allowed his sons to save the day. Suddenly, you owe him everything. He’s got you again, and this time, he won’t let go so easily.”
Kaylor’s face paled except for two spots of color high on her cheekbones. “I’m not going back,” she snapped. “I don’t care what he does. I’d rather burn before I let him use me again.”
“You might not get a choice,” Raine retorted. “Not unless we move faster than he can.”
We were walking a tightrope with no net. One wrong move could send everything we’d worked for crashing down.
I looked at each of them in turn—my brothers, all brilliant in their own broken way, all carrying scars from the same man who’d shaped us into weapons. We weren’t always on the same page, but right now, we were all aimed at the same target. “This means no more distractions. We keep our eyes on the objective. No second-guessing. No slipups. If Dad’s circling like a vulture, we’re not just racing the kidnapper, we’re racing him too.”
Mason gave a lazy shrug. “Good thing we’re smarter.”
“Debatable,” Maddox muttered under his breath, earning himself a frown from his twin.