Summer Cursed

“And lastly, what are the passcodes to your phones,” Liam asked.

After they answered him, Liam and I left Philip alone with the men. I’d never see them again, and I wasn’t sad about it.

“Where are their phones?” I asked Liam on our walk back to the house.

“At my lab. One of my techs has been working on opening them.” He took my arm and pulled me against him, crushing his lips to mine.

“Where the hell did that come from?” I asked breathlessly.

“You were amazing in there. I should have let you at Charles sooner.”

“Don’t underestimate me again,” I said, nipping his bottom lip.

“Never.” He kissed me again, his hands lowering to my ass to press me against his erection.

“As tempting as this is—and after seeing you in there, it’s extremely tempting—we have some things to take care of,” I said.

He sighed. “Marcus.”

“Yes. I’d like to start with him, please.”

We made a detour to an enormous wall safe to retrieve a claymore-style sword.

“Nice,” I said running my hand over the blade, careful not to cut myself. “It’s almost as nice as mine. Well, as mine was.”

He smiled as he reached into the safe again. “Do you mean this one?”

“You found it?” I took it from him to examine it. It had been freshly polished and gleamed in the light.

“My investigator found it. He dropped it off this morning.”

I smiled at him. The sword was ancient, handed down through my family since the beginning of the Steeles. I hated my father, but I liked to believe my ancestors weren’t assholes like him.

We slid the swords into a special slot in his trunk and headed out to Marcus’ place. It took only ten minutes to pull up to a small house with a red sports car in the driveway. “Hmm, I guess we know where he got the money for that ridiculous vehicle,” I said.

The good thing about shifters is we live in secluded areas surrounded by trees. Even those who can’t afford their own private escape, live in shifter communities surrounded by preserves or forests far from human eyes. It also meant no nosy neighbors to see us carrying gigantic swords up to the house in broad daylight.

Liam handed me his sword and kicked in the door. He was gone in the blink of an eye. I strolled into the house and waited for him to bring Marcus to me. After a brief struggle, Liam dragged the man into the room.

“Marcus, I presume?” I asked.

His eyes widened when he saw me. Then he looked from one sword to the other. “It wasn’t me.”

“What wasn’t you?”

“I didn’t start the fire.”

“Oh? How’d you know we’re here about a fire?”

He growled, quickly accepting his fate. “Fuck you. If you don’t kill me, they will. Whoever the hell they are. Your car was in the driveway. You were supposed to be home.”

Hearing that, I dropped Liam’s sword and gripped mine with both hands. Marcus’ shoulders slumped as Liam let him go to move aside. I hadn’t planned to do the deed myself, but then he told me he had meant to burn me alive. That changed things for me pretty quickly.

“Thanks for destroying everything I own, dickface,” I said as I swung the sword through his neck. His head flew off, landing with an odd thunk as his body crumpled to the floor.

I started shaking so badly I had to drop the sword. Liam moved toward me, but I held out a hand to stop him. “This was your first?” he asked.

“Yeah,” I said, my voice unsteady.