Page 51 of Unmask
I’d seen Kreed’s face when the security system sounded. He’d been genuinely alarmed, his protective instincts kicking in in a way that was ingrained. He hadn’t faked it. I was certain, but I understood why my cousin had doubts. Kreed had already proved to be a skilled liar.
“Check your cameras,” Kreed countered. His arms stayed loose at his sides, posture casual, almost bored.
“We did,” Brock replied evenly, tapping his mug against the granite. “They wore a mask.”
Kreed and I shared a glance as a creeping dread curled down my spine like smoke. “They weren’t behind it,” I said before I could stop myself, again defending Kreed for reasons that escaped me. I’d clearly lost my fucking mind. This was my opportunity to get him out of the house…out of my life, and yet…I couldn’t make myself take that step.
“He could be trying to scare you into moving back in with him,” Micah theorized, and it was possible, a reasonable doubt. I wouldn’t put anything past the Corvos. Donovan especially.
“Believe it or not,” Kreed said almost thoughtfully, “I’ve been weighing the pros and cons. There’s no perfect fix. We could send her out of state, make her disappear, but if they want her badly enough…they’ll find her. For now, I think it would be better if she stayed here.”
I blinked. Unable to believe what I was hearing. “You do?”
Mads’s brows lifted. “What changed your mind?”
Kreed’s eyes darkened, haunted. “Last night. Whoever tripped that alarm wasn’t just testing the perimeter. They were sending a message. The traitor in her father’s crew, the one responsible for his murder, knows she’s a threat. She’s the only link left, a loose string. They won’t stop until she’s eliminated.”
The room stilled.
Josie leaned forward on the stool, her hand touching Brock’s shoulder. “And you’ve been trying to uncover who it is?” she asked Kreed.
He nodded once. “There are some parts of my father’s business we don’t even have access to. But I’m digging.”
Brock’s expression shifted, something brewing behind his eyes. “I might be able to help with that.” His focus turned to me. “But until we identify the bastard stupid enough to cross your father’s legacy, you don’t stay anywhere alone. Understood?”
“I’m staying,” Kreed said firmly, shifting his weight so he leaned close to me, a hand propped on the door frame above my head, claiming his spot beside me.
Brock laughed once, humorless. “In my house? Not a fucking chance, mini boss.”
A smile curved on Kreed’s lips. “I’ll be wherever Kaylor is.”
Micah ran his thumb over the top of the butter knife. “You really don’t give up, do you?”
My cousin leaned back slowly in his chair, studying the middle Corvo. “I don’t know whether to be impressed or annoyed.”
Fynn dragged a chair out, dropped into it with a heavy sigh. “Something tells me that even if we beat the shit out of you that you still wouldn’t leave.”
“Brock,” I protested, not in the mood to clean blood off the floors this damn early.
My cousin didn’t spare me a glance, his focus solely on Kreed. “You’d welcome the pain, wouldn’t you? Because you think you deserve it. I understand that too well.”
A beat passed.
Brock just nodded once, like something unspoken had passed between them. A mutual understanding of the kind of damage men like them carried. He turned back to his coffee.
The tension didn’t exactly vanish… It just redistributed. The rest of the room loosened slightly, the crew giving in to the fact that Kreed wasn’t going anywhere. Not today.
And me? I stood in the eye of the storm, pulse pounding, mind spinning.
What the actual fuck just happened?
The pop-in visitfrom the Elite threw me off. When the front gate called about a car coming to pick me up, I’d completely forgotten Raine had sent itandthat we were most likely going to be very late for school.
Josie, Ainsley, Mads, and Kenna had quietly gathered a few outfits they thought would fit me, laying them out like it wasn’t a big deal, but it was. They had thought about me. Gone out of their way when I hadn’t asked. When I hadn’t even known I needed it.
The thought of wearing Brock’s oversized sweats for another day hadn’t exactly been torture, but the fabric swallowed mewhole, reminding me with every step that nothing I had actually belonged to me. Slipping into something that didn’t hang off my frame would be nice. Necessary, even. Kreed offered to have Mason and Maddox get what clothes they could from the house and drop them off after school.
Look at us working together. A sight I hadn’t thought possible this morning.
