Death Wish (Deception Duet 2)

Sparrow moves out of the way and lets Scout take his place. The tension in Scout’s body relaxes. He shoves the gun into his pocket before unlocking the door.

Is it Ty?

My heart does a happy leap at the prospect of seeing my friend. But, when the door flings open, it’s not Ty standing there.

This man is terrifying.

Dark hair, dark eyes, imposing stature. I’d liken him to a beast. Somehow more feral and dangerous than the triplets. Despite his seemingly calm nature, he still scares the hell out of me. I shiver in Sully’s arms.

The slight movement captures his attention. Like an animal tracking his prey, the man’s dark eyes slice over to me. I wither under the terrible expression on his face—a mixture of surprise, anger, and annoyance.

I don’t know this guy.

He’s not one of Dad’s men, yet he’s looking at me like he knows me. Like I’m a bother to him.

“Leo,” Scout says with an edge to the false cheer in his voice. “What a surprise, cuz. I didn’t even think you knew where we lived, much less cared enough to pop in for a visit.”

This is bad. It has to be. Scout says no one knows where we’re at but this is the second person to show up.

“Don’t act like we haven’t done business together before.” Leo frowns at Scout. “Of course I care.” His tone is dry. Almost sarcastic.

“No, you don’t. You dropped us as soon as you were done with us. We haven’t heard from you in months.”

“I moved on to other things. So did the three of you.”

“Yeah. Look at us now.” Scout grins, darkness in his expression betraying his effort to be jovial.

“Seriously,” Sparrow interjects. “How the hell did you find us?”

Leo eyes him up and down as if Sparrow’s not equally massive. “I have people everywhere in the city, and my father wasn’t very invested in keeping this place a secret. I don’t give a fuck what he does with his money. I do give a fuck if there are reports that my three renegade cousins kidnapped a woman and a child.

“She’s ours,” Scout barks out at the same time Sully says, “We didn’t kidnap her.”

With those words, Leo’s penetrating stare is back on me. He scrutinizes every detail about me from my messy hair and no makeup toSully’s hoodie, which I’m wearing over my leggings. There’s no way he can miss the way I cling to Sully.

“You’re the Croft girl,” Leo says, his tone gentler. “Alexander’s daughter.”

“Yes,” I whisper.

“And you’re here on your own free will?”

Talk about a complicated answer.

“Yes,” I say, darting my eyes over to Scout. “They saved me.”

At this, Leo’s brows shoot up. “These three?”

“We’re noble creatures,” Scout offers.

“For fuck’s sake.” Leo rolls his eyes. “You’re shameless criminals. The entire city knows it.”

“But, Leo,” Scout says in a dry tone, “we’ve been such good little boys lately.”

Leo ignores him and runs his fingers through his dark hair. Now that I know he’s not going to drag me back to my father, I allow the tension in my muscles to release some.

“The kid is here, too, right?” Leo asks. “I need to know what I’m dealing with.”

“No one asked you to deal with it,” Sparrow tells him, eyes narrowing. “You’re the one who showed up here. We were doing just fine on our own.”

“Just fine?” Leo’s stare sharpens. “You have two missing people in your apartment. One of them is a child. Both of them are members of Alexander Croft’s family. You three are members of mine. This won’t just blow over.” He curses under his breath. “Lucian needs to know about this, too.”

Scout’s features darken. “You don’t have to say shit to anyone.”

“How can I make this clear to you?” Leo snaps. “This situation has the potential to be a fucking catastrophe. The news will get out. Before it does, I need a plan in place to protect my siblings from any of Alexander Croft’s bullshit.”

“These guys haven’t done anything wrong,” I say when I find my voice. “They’re giving us a safe place to say. But you already know this, right? You have people watching, which means there’s probably footage of me and my sister walking into this building on our own free will.”

Question is, now that he’s received this information, why hasn’t he gone public with it? Because the triplets are family? I bite down on my bottom lip, keeping the tears at bay.

“So you’re buddies with our fucking doorman?” Sparrow huffs out. “And now that authorities are sniffing around, you’re trying to do damage control?”

“You didn’t invite just any woman and child into your apartment. Anyone else on the planet wouldn’t have been my problem” Leo says, scrubbing a palm over his face. “But you invited the daughters of Alexander Croft. You work for my father. You’re in my fucking family tree. That makes it my problem.”