EOINThe second Aline saw me, I knew she was going to leave, so Iwasn’t even surprised when she grabbed her sister’s arm. What did surprise me, however, was when Freedom shook her head and started walking toward our table.Shit.Freedom had balls; I’d give her that.Except Freedom wasn’t the one I couldn’t take my eyes off of.“Fancy meeting you here,” Bruce said with a grin. He stood and grabbed two chairs from a nearby table. “Join us. First round’s on the newbie.”I glared at him. “I already bought a round.”“For us,” he pointed out. “You’re not going to refuse to buy these two lovely ladies some alcohol, are you?”“Is she even legal?” Dez asked. “We don’t want to get in trouble for corrupting someone who’s not old enough to drink yet.”Aline rolled her eyes. “I’m twenty-two, and for that comment, I think you should be the one to buy me a drink.”Cain laughed an

I stepped away but kept watching as he toed off his shoes and socks before stripping off his pants and underwear at the same time. If I hadn’t felt the non-denim fabric, I might’ve thought he’d gone without. I had a sudden vision ofwhat it would be like to straddle his lap as I had the other night, but this time, in a skirt or dress…with nothing underneath. A quick unzipping, and he’d be in me.I let out a shaky breath and told myself to focus. I’d save that particular fantasy for another time. Right now, I didn’t need to imagine anything because every inch of that gorgeous man was stretched out in front of me, all mine for the taking.I undressed before climbing on the bed, both to enjoy his gaze on me and because I didn’t want to have to stop for anything when I was ready for more. I started with his legs, the hair coarse under my palms as I moved over muscular calves.A change in the texture of skin on his right side made me pause, and I

ALINEI  probably  looked  as  stupid  as  I  felt  as  Eoin  walked  out  of  thebedroom without a look back, but I was still reeling from what’d happened. If I even understood any of it, to begin with.I’d been startled awake by a jarring ringtone that had left me confused for a moment, but when I’d heard Eoin talking, I’d started to relax. Then his tone had shifted, and he’d gotten out of bed. I’d been coherent enough to figure out that whatever it was, it was important, but he’d been speaking too quietly for me to hear even his side of the conversation. Curious, I’d resisted the urge to try to go back to sleep and waited to see if he wanted to talk.He hadn’t wanted to talk, especially to me, something that had become painfully clear by the way he’d answered my questions. When we’d been running – and hiding – for our lives, I’d understood why he’d been abrupt, even rude. I hadn’t made the wisest decisions then or presented

EOINWe’d  landed  on  Sunday  morning,  and  it  was  now  Mondayevening, but if anyone had asked how many hours we’d been in the country, I’d have no idea. Honestly, the only reason I even knew the day was because Bruce had announced it when he’d come out of the bathroom at the shithole hotel where we were staying.Bruce was a morning person.We’d landed on an out-of-the-way runway a friend of Cain’s had directed us to, paid a bribe to the man in charge there, and then took a piece of junk van that looked like something a serial killer would use to lure victims.The pilot stayed with the plane, both to keep an eye on it and in case we needed to take off fast. I didn’t know much about him other than he was a scary-looking son of a bitch, and Cain trusted him. That was good enough for me.All the intelligence that Cain had gotten said the kidnappers were in the area, but we’d still had to do some legwork. So

EOINI  had  no  idea  how  Mom  had  managed  it,  but  everyone  was  herefor Thanksgiving. Everyone. And it wasn’t like all of us were close by.Austin was just in San Jose, but as CEO of Carideo Tech – the company Austin’s father, Marcus, had created – he had the sort of obsession with work that made the rest of us look like slackers, which was saying a lot. He’d missed family events almost as often as I had over the years.Alec and Evanne had brought Lumen, which Mom had immediately taken to mean that their relationship was serious. I tended to agree, but I wasn’t going to bug them about it. I left it up to the others to bombard the happy couple with questions. Evanne had already made the rounds to all her aunts and uncles before heading off to the kitchen to ‘help’ with the cooking.The oldest of the cousins/siblings, Blaze, had flown in from Baltimore on Tuesday evening since his being a professor gave him extra