Page 25 of Queen of Diamonds

That buried creature stirred, something relieved flipping my stomach.

They didn’t… hate me? But that was obviously not true, and I had bigger problems as Zed climbed into the truck, before dragging me behind him.

He was so close, and my pulse was racing. It was hard to think straight as Kyan ducked in after us.

“Wait, wait, wait!” I was trying to catch my breath, speaking through the mouthful of hair I couldn’t rid myself of. “Lucy… please, just let me get Lucy.” My voice was shaking but I had no room to be embarrassed. What if that hadn’t been all of them. What if they raided my room… My blood chilled at the thought.

Ace would take anything from me that he could.

“Who the fuck is Lucy?” Zed asked.

“Please… she’s in my place.” I hated begging but they’d leave her otherwise. I scrambled for a way to convince them. “She’s… she’s only two. I can’t?—”

“Two?” Knight sounded startled, turning in the driver’s seat to stare, eyes wide with shock.

“You have to let me get her. My room is under the club.”

“You’re lying so I un-cuff you?—”

“I’m not. I swear, I’ll do anything if you get her.” I could see the distrust on Zed’s face. Please let there be something of the Alpha I’d fallen for in there.

Please.

“Fine.”

“Thank you?—!”

But he was rooting in my purse for my keys. “You,” he snarled, “are not going back into that place.”

9

KYAN

We had our Omega back.

There was no way we were giving her up. I didn’t care what the others said.

A two-year-old was definitely unexpected, but I could pivot.

Really unexpected.

I was the one who’d found Glade. I thought I’d known the deal.

My instincts were at war as I took the outer stairs to the basement of the huge High Roller building, gun tucked into my belt at the back. On one hand, someone had fucked my mate, so… a hunt. On the other there was a two-year-old, so… Well. With a kid involved, that seemed a little fucked up.

Could I just catch him and put him in a cage somewhere? Just in case we needed bio-dad for some reason.

Unless he was a deadbeat. Then it would be fine to gut him—right? Even Zed would be on board for that.

She’d told me her room number was right next to a back basement exit. It was still a bit of a pain to slip past security to the backdoor—it was a damn good thing they were preoccupied with Forbes tonight.

The Brotherhood members seemed to have mostly cleared out. If any were lingering here, they weren’t watching the back entrance of Glade’s place.

Only, when I opened the door with Glade’s key, I didn’t see any immediate signs of a two-year-old at all.

I peered around her room. It was a nice space, if small, with a punching bag hanging from the ceiling. Looked a bit like a dorm room, which meant they probably shared a common space.

No sign of a nest though. I shoved that back, focusing.

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