Page 124 of Finlay

“Sure.” Chester turned to me. “Will you be okay here for a bit?”

“Aye. I’ve got to talk to Danny, so I’ll do that while you’re gone.” Something occurred to me and I turned to the demons with a frown. “They will be safe, right? I know there’s a high concentration of supes in this area.”

Cal nodded. “They will. All of them know Bailey is mated to Harlow.”

“And none of them have a death wish.” Harlow rocked back on his chair. “If there’s any problems, the bond will let me know instantly.”

“Okay.” I bit my lip and got to my feet opening my arms to Chester. “D’yer mind, m’eudail?”

He slid into my hold with practised ease. “I’ll never say no to a cuddle from you.”

“Technically that’s not what I’m doing,” I said, rubbing my cheek against his neck and up along his face. My hands went into his hair too, carding through it repeatedly until I was satisfied. “Although the cuddling is a very nice side effect.”

Chester had a bemused smile on his face as I let him go. “What was that?”

“I was scent marking you.” I rubbed the back of my neck, aware of all the eyes on us. “Now any supes you comeacross will know you’re…well, they’ll know you’re with me.”

Something unbearably soft crossed Chester’s face. “You’re always looking out for me.”

I thumbed at his chin. “Always, m’eudail.”

Iwaited until they’d left the club before turning back to the demons. “Okay, so you can’t kill Matt, but what’s to say I can’t?”

Cal and Harlow exchanged a look before the latter sighed. “Unfortunately, you can’t because you’ve told us about it. And because we can’t let physical harm come to him, we can’t let you.”

“Balls.” I slumped in my seat in annoyance. “I really want the fucker dead. Don’t get me wrong, what you guys have done is great, but I won’t be satisfied until he’s downstairs being tortured on a daily basis.”

“The trick with demonic deals,” Cal said lightly, “is to find the loophole.”

Harlow nodded rapidly. “Yes. Our mates love a loophole.”

I stared at them both, a plan starting to form. “Are you saying if you didn’t know?—”

“We’re not saying anything,” Cal said firmly, cutting me off. “And neither are you. Harlow and I cannot know that there areanyplans afoot that may lead to Matt’s untimely death.”

A wolfish grin crossed my face. “Understood.”

It seemed Calan would be travelling overseas in the near future.

Before long, Danny and Riley returned. Cal and Harlow said their goodbyes, leaving the three of us alone.

“Okay,” Danny said, his mouth set in a grim line. “Lay all the bad shit on me. We’ll get that out of the way and then I can rave some more about how happy I am for you and Chester.”

I sighed. “It’s a long story.”

I started with Evan’s attendance at the diplomatic conference thirteen years ago. Riley interrupted before I got more than a few sentences in. “Hasn’t Evan only just been promoted to the inner circle? Why didn’t one of you go?”

Danny tensed and I gave Riley a tight smile. “The Clarkson Clan were hosting. They’re the clan responsible for Sarah and Maria.”

The blood drained from Riley’s face. He moved his chair closer to his mate’s, lacing their fingers together. “Yep, I can see why none of you wanted to go. Even with the ones involved long dead, I’m sure there must be others there who knew about it.”

“Yes,” Danny said. “You can’t ever clean house completely, not without risking the innocents.”

Silence fell over the table, and I knew all of us were thinking of that incident last year. The one where the traitors in our clan had made themselves known, and Riley’s life had almost been lost in the process.

“So Evan went to the meeting,” Riley said eventually. “What happened then?”

I explained about Reid, the human child who’dfollowed Evan around like a puppy. The injuries on the last day. That he’d asked Evan to take him away.

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