Page 99 of The Piece You Stole

And he’ll be coming for Saige.

We have to be ready.

And one day, in the not-too-distant future, my ‘friends’ are going to come knocking with a demand for all the nice expensive information they dug out for us. Information that was worth whatever they demand because it gave us back something priceless.

But for now…

Another yawn slips out. I tug Saige even closer so I can breathe in the scent of her and know she’s here, that she’s safe, letting myself relax enough to sleep.

CHAPTER 25

SAIGE

I’m not always in the same place when I sleep, or even with the same person.

Sometimes my eyelids flutter open because curiosity has me stirring, and I want to see where I am. Only, the moment they have, I’m so exhausted again that once I’ve seen who I have my arms wrapped around, and who has their arms wrapped around me, sleep is once again dragging me under.

Most of the time, it’s Kade. There’s a gentleness in his touch that’s slightly too loose. As if he’s holding himself back. I squeeze him tighter, even though my palms throb because I don’t want gentle from him. I want him to hold me so tight I don’t care if I can’t breathe. It makes me feel like no one can hurt me.

It makes me feel safe.

But before I can part my lips to say a word, sleep snatches me away again, and then I’m in a softer bed with white sheets instead of black. That’s when I know I’m with Aden.

Aden likes to stroke his hands up and down my back with the barest tips of his fingers. It doesn’t just feel like a tickle and a caress, it makes me want to purr.

I feel myself smile in my sleep and move closer. I know Aden likes it when I do that because he lowers his mouth to my hair, and sometimes he will murmur, “When you’re better, I’ll give you more.”

I fall asleep with his soft promise filling my head, warming my body, but making me feel like I’m wrapped up in a different kind of protection. One that I crave just as much as Kade’s touch.

The next time I stir, it’s because someone is watching me.

I’m alone in a room with pale lilac walls and purple sheets. The room I first woke with the certainty that if I crossed the hallway, I would find Kade there, and I needed to be with him.

My eyelids snap open, and my heart pounds in alarm because it doesn’t feel like Kade watching me. I know it can’t be Rylan because he would not be observing me from a distance. He would be dragging me back to hell. It can’t be Aden either because there’s a strange tension running through me, and Aden has always felt like a friend.

With heavy purple drapes covering the window, it’s fully dark in this room. From the silence filling the house, it must be the middle of the night as everyone sleeps.

My room is cloaked in shadows, but the man with a piercing emerald stare, standing motionless in the open doorway is impossible to miss.

Dariel.

He doesn’t move, just fixes those vivid green eyes on me.

How long has he been there watching me?

I realize I’m holding my breath, my palms throbbing as I grip the sheets covering me. A dull pain runs up and down my left arm, but I don’t dare even move.

Twice now he’s lunged at me as a wolf.

I wait, the increasing tempo of my heart filling my head, for it to happen for the third time.

For four nights now, I’ve bounced between Kade and Aden’s beds, mostly chased by nightmares filled with smoky fire, dead blue-gray eyes, and torn gaping throats that pump out so much blood I feel like it will drown me.

But I’ve never woken in Dariel’s bed. I haven’t seen him or even heard his voice.

Not until now.

I tell myself to call out for Kade. He’s just across the hallway and if I scream, he will come running.

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