Page 35 of Clash of Sin and Secret

I let the two of them walk me back inside, but glance back to check on Tucker. He nods as if everything is as it is meant to be and gives me a wink.

“If you’re being honest with me and true to yourself, nothing you decide will ever bother me, beautiful. I’m all in.”

Wow. Could this really be my life?

CHAPTER TEN

Zane

It feels like it takes forever for Huntley, Scottie, and I to navigate our way through the compound. But finally, we lock ourselves behind the doors of the Royal Residence. My body throbs, and Scottie was right. We smell like a tangled mixture of char, oil, and the melted fabric clinging to us like a second skin.

She drops her purse on the table inside the door and gestures into my suite with the flick of her hand. “Straight to the bathroom, boys.”

Huntley groans next to me, his blond hair matted and missing patches from where debris exploded around us. His chiseled features are darkened by soot, but there’s fire in his eyes, just as there always has been.

Scottie walks us to the washroom, her concern obvious in everything about her: her touch, her gaze, her sympathetic smile. It’s like I’m seeing my best friend again. After all this time and all these years, could the other half of my soul finally be within reach?

It seems like too much to hope for.

“Come on, you two. We need to get these rags off you before they’re healed into your knitting flesh.” She grips the lapel of my suit jacket and winces as she works it off my shoulders. “Damn, Z. You’re a mess.”

“Better a mess than the alternative.” Huntley’s voice is rough as he pegs me with a serious scowl. “And where would we have been then?”

The pain and loss in his gaze are poignant, but unnecessary. “I didn’t die. Dante did. I need to get cleaned up so I can pay my respects to Angelo.”

Scottie pauses as she undoes my cufflinks. “Link has already told Angelo. Give him time to process his loss. You can pay your respects tomorrow.”

I know she’s right, but I feel so fucking helpless. “When will this stop?”

Scottie finishes with my black diamond cufflinks and moves to stand before me to unbutton what’s left of my dress shirt. “Worry about that tomorrow. Tonight, let’s focus on getting the two of you cleaned up.”

She pulls the garbage out from under my bathroom vanity and drops my shirt into it. “Now your pants. That’s a nasty gash on your leg.”

She reaches for my belt, and I chuckle and meet Huntley’s gaze. “Of all the times I dreamed of her undressing me, this scenario never crossed my mind.”

“She’s always had a Florence Nightingale aura about her.”

“True.”

“And she always loved bossing us around.”

“Also true.”

Scottie scoffs as my pants are undone and after a few cringe moments where she has to tear the fabric from my flesh, sheeases them to the marble floor. “I was put in your lives to patch you both up when you’ve been too reckless for your own good?”

After she unties my shoes, she tugs them off and moves to help Huntley. “You’re next.”

He grins. “You know, if you wanted us naked, all you had to do was ask.”

She chuckles softly, then steps closer. “Come on, Viking. Let’s get those singed clothes off. You stink.”

He grumbles, but his objection is half-hearted at best.

She looks over at me. “Start the shower. We’ll be right behind you.”

I blink. “We? Will you be joining us?”

Huntley’s eyebrows rise so high, so fast it’s hilarious. “That is not how I expected tonight to go.”

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