31
Wren steps out of the attic bedroom, closing the door softly behind her.
“You look stunning,” I tell her, eyes raking over the length of her. She’s in a black silk dress with thin straps and a low neckline, the material teases her frame without being too tight and sits mid-thigh, giving me a good view of her creamy thighs. Her feet are strapped up in a pair of heels and she’s pulled all her hair to sit across one shoulder, the tresses wild with curls that bounce on the mounds of her breasts.
Her eyes meet mine before dropping to my lips and then the rest of me.
We needed to make it look completely normal for our meeting with Griffin. If we turned up ready for war people would cotton on to the fact that we have an outsider in our midst, so I’m dressed in a charcoal grey tailored suit, the white shirt is unbuttoned at the top and I’ve buttoned the jacket. My hands are buried in my pockets but my hands twitch to touch her skin, to feel her softness beneath my fingers.
I take her arm when we reach the bottom of the stairs and head out into the unseasonably chilly night. Clouds cover the darkened sky, the moon suffocated beneath the thick blanket and a wind disturbs the oaks that line the property. Wren slides into the back of the SUV and I follow, pulling her back to me when she tries to sit on the other side.
She shakes her head but settles into my side anyway.
The gravel in the drive crunches beneath the tires as we begin to make our way down the long road.
My hand lazily draws circles on her bare shoulder, “I want you to be careful tonight.” I tell her.
“I’ll be fine,” she sighs.
I can’t help but feel like that’s a lie. Not an intentional one but the sense of foreboding weighs on me heavily.
It’s a set up.
An ambush.
Now that I have Wren, I couldn’t bear to part with her. She was a drug and like all addicts I needed her more and more each day.
Was I selfish? Of course I was.
I knew keeping her with me was doing more harm than good, but the threat is there now, I can’t simply hand her back. Marcus Valentine wants her for something, and I know it isn’t to continue his fucked up legacy and the Syndicate have now made attempts on her life twice. Both times being when she was with me.
I was losing control.
I couldn’t let that happen.
Heading out tonight wasn’t only for informative purposes, it proves to all the fuckers baring down on us that we are resilient. We won’t be suppressed. We don’t fear them.
This has been my city for a long time and the Silver’s for longer than any of them have probably been alive. To get the key they’d have to pry it from my cold dead fingers.
“Little bird,” I tip up her chin, “I know you will be, but I mean it, nonetheless, do not leave my side.”
“As if you’d let me,” she scoffs with a tease.
I push my thumb between her lips, suppressing a groan when she wraps her plump lips around the digit and sucks. “This mouth will get you into trouble.” I warn.
She cocks a brow in challenge, “Will it getmeinto trouble, oryou?”
I laugh, oh that mouth could get me into a lot of trouble. Her teeth graze over the skin on my finger before she releases it and leans forward to kiss my throat. When she pulls back her brows are drawn low, her eyes searching my face as if she’s looking for answers to questions in her head.
“What is it?” I ask.
She shakes her head, glancing away, “nothing.”
She’s lying.
“Come, little bird,” I pull her back, “what is going inside that head?”
“We’re here,” the driver interrupts, giving Wren the perfect opportunity to slip from my grasp and head out the door being held open for her on the other side of the car. My guy stands close, using his body to shield hers as ordered.