Dad was gone. He would never shut me away in there again, and neither would anyone else. No one in the Claws would use that kind of torture under my rule—or ever again, if I had my way.
I opened the urn’s lid and shook the gray dust of my father’s ashes into the base of the pit. Then I helped Jenner heave the tub closer. Together, we poured the cement into the hollow. The gray sludge swallowed up my father’s last remains and crept up the sides of the pit.
We had a little more than enough to fill it to the lip where the slab would sit. The other men shoved the slab back into place where it would bind with the new cement. Then Jenner sealed the edges with the last few dribbles from the tub. He smoothed the stuff out with a scraper, and just like that, the floor looked seamless, as if there’d never been anything cut out of it.
In the back of my mind, the distant echoes of a child screaming for help faded away. Both my father and the horrors of the past were truly buried.
“Thank you,” I said to Jenner and the other men, and turned my back on my worst memories.
* * *
As I drove into Paradise City, my eyes caught on the distant spire of the waterfront development. Construction had started up again a few weeks ago, and they’d been making quick progress with the new plans, approved of and invested in by Evan Anderson. From the moment he’d left the hospital, Rowan had gotten to work coordinating with the real estate guru, and more modern office complexes and condo buildings were in the works on Noble-owned property throughout Paradise Bend and where Ezra had started to expand throughout the state.
If the Storm was pissed off that we’d nabbed one of his business associates as well as his son, he hadn’t dared to complain.
Anderson wasn’t the only new alliance we’d formed. We’d heard from the Long Night a couple of times since the Storm’s departure, once to congratulate us and assure us of his continued support of our leadership, and once to connect us with a construction company looking for new contracts that he’d thought might be a good fit. I still wasn’t sure exactly how he took his cut of the profits we brought in, but I was resigned to not knowing.
As long as he didn’t mess with Paradise Bend, I could live and let live.
When I reached the Noble mansion, instead of pulling into the front drive, I parked the car a little way down the street and scaled the side wall. No one would have stopped me from walking in the front door, but arriving this way was more fun.
I sneaked between the trees to avoid detection, clambered up to the lowest level of the fire escape using a window ledge and a decorative ridge for help, and climbed the rest of the way up the metal structure to the room that was now my honorary guest bedroom in the house.
I slipped through the window to find I wasn’t alone.
“You’re late,” Kaige declared, getting up from where he’d been lounging on the massive bed.
I rolled my eyes. “I wasn’t supposed to be here in the first place.”
Kaige smiled impishly. “But I was hoping you’d show up tonight.” He hooked a finger around the loop of my jeans and pulled me closer. I put my arms around him and grinned.
The door opened, and Gideon came in, just putting his phone in his pocket. He tsked his tongue at me. “No matter how stealthy you get, that alarm is still going to go off.”
“Who says I want to avoid it?” I said, leaning over to invite a kiss from him. “It told you I was here, and that’s exactly what I wanted.”
Gideon caught my mouth with his in answer. The flick of his tongue and the cool pressure of his lip ring combined with Kaige’s solid arms around me had me wet in an instant.
“You’ve been busy,” Gideon said when he stepped back. “Still keeping everyone in line down in the Bend?”
“There’s always something going on, but I find ways of dealing with whatever comes up. And I can always squeeze in some time to drop in on my favorite boys.”
As if summoned by those words, Wylder and Rowan stepped into the room, Wylder locking the door behind them. My heart still fluttered seeing Rowan walking so steadily, the crutch he’d needed for a few weeks after his hospital stay long gone.
“Glad you stopped by,” Wylder said with a smirk. “I had to get in touch anyway. Rowan and I are just working out the details of a deal with Anderson. We’re having dinner with him tomorrow, and he wants you to be there too.”
I flopped down on the silky comforter draped across the bed. “I think I can fit that into my schedule. What are we building this time?”
“Some kind of entertainment center,” Rowan said. “Movies, games, the whole shebang. I think it’ll be really good for the county.”
I laughed. “The more we can keep people entertained with things that don’t involve guns or drugs, the better.”
“I absolutely agree,” Kaige put in.
Wylder came over, and the brawny guy let his boss tug me out of his embrace. Wylder brought one hand to my cheek and the other to my waist, dipping his head to capture my mouth.
He kissed me only at the edge of my lips, teasing me. Impatiently, I turned to face him fully and deepened the kiss. His tongue caressed my lips before coaxing its way inside.
I murmured encouragingly and slid my hands up his chest to loop them around his shoulders. Wylder pulled me over closer so our bodies were flush against each other. I could feel the others’ eyes on us as their boss devoured my mouth, but there was no jealousy in any of those gazes, only a growing heat.