Page 40 of To Keep

He wasn’t cruel. His voice was soft and she listened to him as he spoke to her soothingly. He stroked her cheek, and then kissed her again.

“I know you’re worried and you’re scared, but there’s no reason to be. Viko is playing a game. It’s what he always does. I’ll know what to do when he finally makes a decision. I’m not keeping you safe from him. I’m keeping you safe from your ex-boss. That’s what I’m doing.”

“You’re lying to me, trying to make me feel better.”

“Is it working?”

“No. I know you’re hiding me from Petrov, but you’re also keeping me safe from your boss, and I don’t want you to get into any trouble. He doesn’t look like the type you want to cross.”

His finger went to her lips. “The only kind of trouble I’ll be in, is the kind I love looking for.”

She didn’t know how he could be so calm when she was struggling not to freak out. There was no way she couldn’t panic. The man she loved had to keep thinking one step ahead of the enemy. How could life be so cruel to her?

She wanted to scream at the unfairness of it all, but instead, she took a deep breath and kissed him back. There would be plenty of time to panic. For now, she had to make the most of what they had together.

“That’s it, relax,” he said in his deep, soothing baritone.

She reached out to circle her arms around his neck, when suddenly, the sound of an alarm rang out through the room.

Chapter Ten

The alarm echoed through the house.

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” Galen cursed. He’d just gotten his woman calmed down and now she was going to have a fit. He remembered how she reacted when the alarm went off at his other place and didn’t want her feeling that way again.

She yanked the blankets up to her neck. “What’s going on? They found us already, didn’t they? Not even a week of peace.”

“No,” he said firmly. “No, Skye. Just stay here while I deal with this. It’s just an alarm, okay?”

She nodded but he knew she was already terrified. There weren’t many false alarms way out here, so he had to proceed with caution.

He slipped from the bed and pulled on his pants before grabbing a loaded handgun from his dresser drawer. There were weapons in just about every room of his safe house. Although there didn’t seem to be any safe place for them anymore.

After closing the door behind him, he kept his weapon in an outstretched arm as he slowly crept down the short hallway toward the staircase. Step by step, he made his way down to the main level. The alarm grated on his nerves, and he itched to shut it off. He wouldn’t even be able to hear a gun cock with all the noise. As he neared the bottom step, he had a bad, gut feeling.

This wasn’t going to be a stray cat. Someone had tripped his security.

He did a sweep of the area before moving to the kitchen at the back of the house. It faced the water and had a lot of oversized windows. That’s when he saw the asshole sitting at his breakfast island.

He lowered his weapon. Galen turned to the control panel to his right and turned off the alarm system.

Slash was eating some mixed nuts, looking quite relaxed despite the break-and-enter. The refrigerator door closed, revealing Kensington.

“You have nothing to eat,” he complained.

Galen scowled. “I haven’t been here in years. Those nuts have been sitting there this whole time.”

Slash shrugged, tossing a few more in his mouth.

“Am I going to have to kill both of you?”

These were Viko’s men, supposed brothers in the Circle of Monsters. But no man was truly loyal in this game. Why were they here exactly? To send a message? To kill Skye or maybe both of them? They could fucking try.

“Not yet,” said Slash. “In fact, we’re here to save your asses.”

“From what? The bogeyman?”

Kensington leaned over the island, watching the waves beyond the window. “You’re going to have company soon. Seems Viko doesn’t want his investment to bite the dust.”

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