Page 14 of The Mobster's Mate

“Jaguar shifter,” Quinten interrupted.

“Okay,” Liam said, drawing the word out. “A chained-up jaguar shifter in one of your warehouses wearing a magical collar, claims that he belongs to you somehow, even though you don’t know who he is, and that you should say goodbye?”

Something tickled at Quinten’s brain. “Actually, I think it said something about how I better not be a fan of long goodbyes.”

Liam made a surprised noise. “I guess that’s a little different. What condition is he in?”

“He’s still sleeping,” Quinten said, resisting the urge to go and check on him just like he had when he’d woken up. And when he finished getting dressed. And when he’d walked by the cracked-open door. “He was unconscious for hours yesterday and slept pretty much through the night. He was hurt, and the collar causes him pain too, I think, but he’s nowhere near the verge of death or anything.”

“That’s good.”

“I expect he’ll be up soon. I’m hoping he can at least write down answers to some questions, like what his name is and who exactly he’s supposed to be to me.”

Liam chuffed, and Quinten couldn’t help but smile, remembering the noise from when they were younger and his brother’s lion was just beneath the surface, annoyed or intrigued. He had a feeling he knew which one it was this time.

“Maybe I should come up there. You don’t know what you’re facing or who could be behind this.”

He smiled and said carefully, “Your place is with your pack now, not with me. I have plenty of people around to help me.”

Liam grumbled under his breath before saying, “I suppose Darius is going out of his mind.”

“What do you mean?”

“I recognized the pillowcase behind that guy’s head. You have him in your penthouse.” Liam sounded unimpressed. “Let me guess—Dare insisted on sleeping at your place too.”

Quinten pressed his lips together to suppress a laugh. His brother could be such a little shit sometimes. “He was not happy, no, but we had a little issue to deal with late last night, and he hasn’t gotten back yet.”

“He left you alone with an unknown shifter?” Liam snapped, a touch of his lion’s roar in his voice.

He didn’t blame him, but Liam hadn’t seen the way the cat had looked at Quinten last night or how easily he’d followed his order to return to bed.

Darius, for all his close-mouthed scowling, was the kind of overprotective only family could be. He wouldn’t have left Quinten alone if he’d thought he was in true danger. His and Dare’s trust and loyalty to one another came from the long-fought battles in the trenches as Quinten built his empire.

Other than his brother, there wasn’t a single person on the planet he trusted more with his life, with his business, with… anything.

“He’ll be back soon,” Quinten said, not really responding because he wasn’t sure how to explain the way they both just knew the jaguar wasn’t a threat.

“I’m here,” Darius said behind him, his voice barely more than a grunt, a to-go coffee cup in his hand.

“Everything settled?” he asked.

Darius nodded. “Yeah.”

“My brother was surprised you left last night.” Quinten couldn’t help but tease, a small smile breaking free at the way Darius rolled his eyes.

He set his to-go cup down and leaned back against one of the marble counters, crossing his arms over his chest. “He was a threat when he was being threatening. He watched me kill a man on your orders and then just went back to bed because you said so.”

Liam piped up from his phone. “You guys killed somebody last night?”

Quinten ignored him. “He could have been just pretending,” he said to Darius, just to play devil’s advocate.

He and his brother snorted at him.

Shifters. They trusted their senses too much, in his opinion.

Darius took a sip of his coffee. “No, that kid will be a member of our pack before too long. It’s instinct.”

“We don’t have a pack,” he said firmly.

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