nna

s suffocating, thick with

by Beckett's signal. He was driving like a man p

ned dress shirt, hastily applying antiseptic to the angry purple welt on his shoulder. Even from h

the leather seat, painfully aware of

ut his dark, piercing gaze was locked entirely on me. A muscle feathered along his

me a tablet w

?" I asked, m

es, exposing the lean, scarred muscles of his back-the powerful build of a former enforcer on the

It was a dossier. Bank t

. The timestamp was three months ago. There were receipts from a pharmacy

at log between Ken

an't do it anymore. It's dist

s from her time interning in the team archives. We need to discredit her

up. The tablet slipped from my fi

I whispered. "Fr

calloused hand suddenly covered mine, pulling me gently from the edge of a panic a

urning through the shock. "And y

ating off his chest. "I didn't know the timing. If I had intervened sooner, they

g. My reputation is gone. My family will disow

g to a low, rough pitch that sent a sudden shiver

t my ribs. "What do you get out of this? You

ntensity. "Because my trust fund has a clause. I can't access the principal until I marry. I need tha

a strange sense of relief. I could understa

usiness," B

th a heavy, unspoken hunger, made the air between us crackle

eet. And the dark promise i

to look away from him.

ests. Just Silas standing witness outside

or the rings, I realiz

pocket. He pulled out a s

ordered, his tone soft

er. It was heavy, warm from his pocket. His large hand cradled

g the sensitive skin of my inner wrist. "It's the only thing in

It felt like a shackle, b

oice was low, rough, vibrating with a po

, take you,

tamped the

he clerk droned, bor

ry, his thumb brushing over my knuckles in a slow, deliberately provocative r

before pulling back and adjusting his gri