Their regular pizza delivery boy is curled up in the trunk. Someone might think he was asleep—if it weren’t for the odd angle of his neck.
Poor kid. His only mistake was being on shift to deliver pizza to the Rhodes’s. He’d been a hilarious beta, full of jokes and always appreciative of the big tip.
That boy had a family. People who loved him. Someone waiting for him to come home tonight. People who will miss him. A future he’s lost.
And for what? Just to get to Nix?
His stomach twists, rage curling in his ribs like a fist. The kid had never even had a chance.
“What are you looking at?” Nix’s voice cuts through the tense quiet, the fall breeze carrying the scent of death his way. “Is it a bad pizza? Let me see.”
Grayson scrambles to hold him back, but Nix slips free—yet even before he gets close enough to see, the realization hits.
The putrid stench of decay barely masks the crisp scent of peppermint, young and bright and so heartbreakingly familiar. His breath catches.
He shakes his head, eyes wide with denial. “No. No. Please. Tell me that’s not a p—person. Oh, god.”
His sweet kitten, the one with the purest soul, is begging him to make it right.
“I’m so sorry.” He won’t add lying to his list of regrets today.
“No, no, no,” Nix cries as Grayson pulls him into his arms.
As always, his soulmate can’t be still when their bond is burning. “Hey,what’s going on?” Luca murmurs. “Ew. Gross. Is that you, Rowan? What did you eat?”
Leo shushes him, whispering in his ear. When Luca looks to his soulmate for confirmation, Gideon only nods.
“Oh, baby. You’re okay. It’s okay,” Luca croons, scrambling off Leo’s lap to join Grayson in holding Nix together.
Finn checks the young man’s vitals to be absolutely sure, even though there’s no escaping it. Gideon only hoped he hadn’t been frightened—that, instead, it had been instantaneous.
“Could this get any worse?” Rowan mutters, glancing toward the far end of the street.
Gideon barely has time to roll his eyes before headlights appear on the road. Big ones. A truck.
Jay must think it’s trouble, too, because he shuts the trunk with slow, deliberate care—like he’s closing a coffin.
“Everyone behind the gate—side door closed. Gideon and I will handle it. Go. Out of sight, please.”
Leo helps Grayson urge Nix and Luca through the side door, and neither complains. Whoever this is, they’re slowing as they approach, and Gideon agrees the others should be out of the way. Just in case this is Dill Pickle’s backup.
The large, black, nondescript S.W.A.T.-style truck rolls to a stop in front of the driveway. A lone woman, dressed head-to-toe in black, steps out—honey-blonde ponytail swinging.
Gideon wishes the gate’s infrared camera was still live. He’d love to know who else is inside.
“Evening! You must be Jay. I’m Cat from Sentinel. Logan told you we were coming?”
She’s holding a tablet, her no-nonsense attitude a perfect match for her employer.
“Of course,” Jay says with a nod. “He said you would have a password for me?”
“Frankenstein.”
She has to be wondering why they’re all standing out by the gate with a car emblazoned with a glowing pizza sign on top. She hasn’t clocked the car or the body yet—or at least, Gideon thinks she hasn’t. If Logan’s security team is as good as claimed, she should have noticed by now.
“We’re here for your install, but maybe there’s something else we can do for you instead.” She holds Jay’s gaze, unreadable. “I can get Logan on the phone, confirm you can trust us—if you agree.”
Just once, something should go their way tonight. But he’s not about to tempt the Fates by saying so out loud.
