Page 12 of Twisted Empire

“Where can we go thatissafe?” Dexter asked, shooting me a worried look before focusing on Beckett. “Doom’s Seed is obviously still after you and out for blood, and the police are probably continuing to look for the three of us thanks to whatever tip he gave them.”

Beckett paused for long enough that my stomach started to sink. Then he shook his head sharply as if arguing with himself.

“I can take you to my main family home,” he said. “It’s not far, and Doom’s Seed wouldn’t dare attack us there. We have plenty of security if he wants to try.”

Slade’s mouth slanted at an uneasy angle. “Are you sure that’s a good idea?”

Beckett shrugged. “It’s the best place I can offer. I think our lives are so entangled at this point that it won’t make anything more difficult for any of us.”

“It’s fine,” Logan said. “Let’s just get there.”

Beckett pressed on the gas, and the engine revved louder. He reached to tap on his phone. “Everyone can head back to their previous positions now,” he said to whoever he’d contacted via speakerphone. “The situation we needed to tackle is resolved for the moment.”

Dexter scooted closer to me and tucked his hand around my elbow as he looked me over. It was a small physical gesture, but one that meant a lot from the normally awkward guy. His gaze lingered on my sore cheek for a moment. “Are you hurt anywhere else?”

I touched my stomach cautiously and found it was only a little tender from when Yvonne had slammed her head into my gut. “Nothing serious. It was just… kind of terrifying.”

Slade wrapped his arm around my back from my other side and tipped his head against mine. “No kidding. But you’re out now. We’re not lettinganyoneget their hands on you again.”

Logan was still staring back at us, looking like he wanted to climb right between the seats to join the group embrace. “I don’t care that she’s my mother,” he said with an air of menace I’d only heard him use when speaking to or about someone who’d hurt me. “She isn’t getting away with this.”

My head was spinning with everything I’d learned that I didn’t know how to explain, but I knew I had to tell them all one thing before they made any more plans. “She’s been working with Doom’s Seed. At least, I’m pretty sure it was him, from the things I overheard. That’s why she wanted to stop us from investigating.”

Logan’s forehead furrowed. “How the hell did she end up mixed up with him?”

Oh, God, how did I explainthatto him? All the pieces that intersected with his life in far too painful ways.

My mouth opened and closed, my throat drying up. “I—I don’t know all the details—”

“Hey,” Slade interrupted, squeezing me to his side. “Let’s give her a chance to recover before we start some kind of interrogation.”

Dexter peered at me with his sharp green eyes. “You didn’t find out anything that we’d need to deal with right away, did you?”

I shook my head. “No. None of it was urgent, except, well, the kidnapping. Doom’s Seed wanted to kill me.”

As I said the words, Beckett sucked a rough breath through his teeth. A chill swept through me, the knowledge sinking in even clearer than before of how close I’d come to dying in that apartment.

“That fucking bastard,” Logan muttered ominously, his hands flexing.

The van turned down a private driveway, and a heavy wrought-iron gate opened to admit us. “He won’t get anywhere near Maddie while she’s in here,” Beckett said firmly. “Welcome to my home.”

I turned to peek out the window, and then I could only stare. We drove through a carefully landscaped yard to a massive three-story house that really could only be called a mansion, Victorian-style in light gray brick with a darker gray trim. It had to be at least four times the size of the house I’d grown up in, surrounded by sweeping lawns and stately trees.

Slade let out a low whistle. “Well, I can’t claim that crime doesn’t pay.”

Beckett parked in a sprawling garage off to the side of the house. The second I eased out of the van, all four guys stepped close around me as if in an unspoken agreement to play bodyguards.

Beckett led the way through a door in the garage and into a hall that was all dark wood paneling and gilded wallpaper. Our feet padded across a thick rug that stretched the length of the space to an expansive staircase.

“We won’t want to disturb my father, but he mostly keeps to his favorite rooms,” Beckett said quietly as we headed up the stairs. “I have a few rooms devoted to my use—a sitting area, an office, and a bedroom—all connected kind of like an apartment within the house. There are a few guest bedrooms just down the hall from that as well, so you’ll all be able to crash for the night in comfort.”

“Comfort?” Slade murmured. “More like total luxury.” He stroked his hand up and down my side where he still had his arm around me.

Dexter’s grasp had slid from my elbow to my hand. His fingers twined with mine as we stepped through a doorway after Beckett and found ourselves in a room as big as their open concept living-dining room in their apartment, with two linen sofas and a few matching wing chairs in a broad semi-circle around a gas fireplace, an eight-seater mahogany table off to the side, and several bookcases with glass doors. At Beckett’s flick of a switch, light beamed down from a crystal chandelier overhead.

He turned toward me, his gaze searching mine. But even as he stepped to meet me with his hand rising as if to run over my hair, Logan pushed in first.

My stepbrother cupped my jaw and pulled me straight into a kiss, heedless of the other guys around us.

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