Chapter Fourteen
Shit. Shit. Shit.
She’d slept with Matteo.
Twice.
Did that count as sleeping with the enemy when he took her against a wall? She rolled that thought around in her head.
And then what he and Sevastyan had done…
She dropped her head in her hands and groaned. Okay, new rule. From here on out legs closed and hands to herself.
What the hell had she gotten herself into? She knew better, but did she listen?
Hell no.
She couldn’t bring herself to look at her own reflection in the mirror.
She reached up and touched her cheek where he’d cupped her face in his hand. Everything from fear, shock, and surprise at how wonderful the tender gesture felt still coursed through her because he didn’t look like a man that did tender well.
She stared at her hands, unwilling or unable to accept the truth. Maybe a little of both, she conceded. From the second she walked into Haven, normal didn’t exist and she’d plunged herself into a horrific alternate reality.
The way her body hummed, drove her to distraction.
She fisted her hands and forced herself to meet her own gaze in the mirror. “You can’t afford to be stupid,” she growled.
She would keep her distance, gather the needed intel from her stunningly handsome bosses who would remain none the wiser until it was too late. With any luck, she would be out of there before any of them caught on. Hopefully sticking to it wouldn’t be as hard as she feared.
Her shoulders fell. Why did all the good ones have to be bad for her?
“Hey, Seraphina, you okay in there?” Maya banged on the bathroom door, the tinkling sound of her bangle bracelets like bells, her voice muffled through the wood paneling. “FYI, we can’t kick off margarita night without you. If we do, Indigo will down all the drinks when she gets here before you get a chance to snag one. Be warned I can’t hold her off long.”
Rhia pressed her palms against the bathroom counter and leaned forward until the brightly painted yellow walls faded and all she could see was the greenish-brown of her eyes. Visibly nothing had changed, but deep in the pit of her stomach, she could feel a coil of tension winding tight. Her time with Sevastyan and Matteo hadn’t helped any.
Had he seen her slip from his inner office? If so, why hadn’t he said anything?
For almost two days now she played over a thousand scenarios of how their encounter could have played out, yet the kings let her walk out the front door with her life—and job—intact.
Why?
A trill came from her phone, and she picked it off the bathroom counter with a long sigh. Knots tightened in her gut along with the already building tension weighing her down. What if her father was involved in whatever seedy crime she knew Volkov and his gorgeous goons were tied up in? How would he reveal that ugly truth to her family? Her brothers would never believe her.
She couldn’t think that way.
With a deep breath, she set aside shattered thoughts of forbidden romances with four beautiful men and hit the green button. “I see they sent the youngest of my brothers to do the dirty work.”
A harrumph carried over the line followed by an amused chuckle. “You say it like I had a choice. Our older brothers are bullies. Besides, count yourself lucky. I’m the more logical one that won’t demand you return at once and explain yourself.”
“As if.” She didn’t bother holding back her eye roll.
Older than her by a year and a half, the easier going of her three brothers grunted.
“So who put you up to calling the rogue sister this time?” Hip propped up against the bathroom counter, she lowered her voice.
“Again, you say it like they didn’t all gang up on me.”
“They’re all there, aren’t they?”