25
Mercy
It started at breakfast.Or rather, on my way to breakfast.
The second I stepped out of my room, Kaige was there, ambling down the hall as if he’d just happened to be coming my way at the exact same time. Which maybe he had been.
“I heard Anthea’s making bacon,” he said, slinging his arm around my waist. “Can’t be late for that!”
The other guys were already in the kitchen when we got there, along with Anthea, a sizzling pan, and a meaty smell in the air that made my mouth water. Wylder didn’t scowl or make any snarky remarks about my arrival, though. And I could have sworn some kind of look passed between all of the guys as if they were confirming something with each other.
Weird.
“Is something up?” I asked, and Kaige just laughed and guided me to the table. Then Gideon started showing me a major shopping website he’d hacked into for kicks a few months ago—“They still haven’t noticed,” he said, pointing out the little puke emoji icons he’d programmed into the product pages, with a gleeful chuckle I’d never heard from him before but found both disturbing and sexy—and I got distracted.
After we’d eaten, Anthea ushered me to her deck even though I’d been planning on working out—abs and legs only, of course, considering the wound on my shoulder. She kept me there for at least an hour, chatting about random things and topping up my glass of lemonade whenever it got slightly low.
Then all of a sudden Kaige was back, dressed in his work-out clothes and suddenly eager to join me in the mansion’s home gym. That was when I really started getting suspicious. It all felt weirdly coordinated.
We passed Ezra in the hall, and I thought his gaze lingered on me more intently than usual. Maybe he was just making sure my injury wasn’t noticeably slowing me down. But Kaige drew a little closer to me without a word, and that set warning bells jangling in my head too.
I waited to see if he’d tell me something once we were alone in the gym, but instead he challenged me to a crunch competition and then a kicking one. Once we were thoroughly sweaty, he escorted me all the way to the shower. By that point, I was surprised he didn’t follow me inside, though he probably would have if I’d invited him.
I washed and changed quickly and headed out only to notice Rowan meandering along several feet behind me. He appeared to be absorbed in whatever he was looking at on his phone, but when I went into one of the lounge rooms to watch some TV, he followed me, settling into a chair on the other side of the room.
I still didn’t know what to say to him after his confession the other day. He didn’t seem to want to talk to me anyway, staying focused on his phone. He’d just… happened to want to be in the same room?
No, there was definitely something more than that going on.
To test that theory, I got up again after just ten minutes and marched out. Rowan stayed where he was, but lo and behold, Wylder came around the staircase, looking as if he’d hustled to make it there, just as I reached the foyer. I pretended not to see him and headed for the front door, totally at random.
“Where are you going, Princess?” Wylder asked. Okay, so he hadn’t completely lost the snark.
“For a walk,” I replied. “That’s still allowed around here, right?”
Something flickered in his eyes. “The last time you went strolling on your own, it didn’t work out so well. I could use some fresh air.”
And then I’d have to endure his glowers and grumbles for the next hour? No, thank you.
I tapped my pocket and the bulge at the back of my jeans where I’d stuck my pistol. “I’m much better prepared this time. I don’t need babysitting.”
A crooked smile twisted his lips, one I’d used to find irritatingly gorgeous. And maybe still did, just a little. “What if I do? You can take care of me, Kitty Cat.”
The smile and the fonder nickname sent a flare of heat through me that only left me uneasy. What the hell was happening here?
“What are you going to do if I say forget it?” I asked. “Chase me down?”
I stalked outside, and Wylder didn’t follow. But I’d only made it to the edge of the Noble property when Gideon came trotting across the lawn with his tablet under his arm. He stopped and looked as if he was taking pictures of a couple of things near the wall, but as soon as I walked past it, he followed.
I spun on him. “What is going on with all of you today?”
Gideon blinked at me. His jaw ticked, and I knew for sure I was on to something.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said. “I happen to find that stretching my legs now and then is an excellent way to clear—”
“Bullshit,” I interrupted. “The only time I’ve seen you set foot outside the house before now is to go from the house straight to a car. What. Is. Going. On?”
He got a bit of a deer-in-the-headlights look, but his mouth clamped shut.