I couldn’t do this here, so I opened the door and pushed him away.

Denver was lying on the sofa in a pair of sweats with a bowl of cereal on his chest while Jericho sat at the bar on the right, smoking a cigarette.

“Do either of you have a car?” I asked hopefully. “I need a lift.”

Jericho slid off the barstool, patted out the butt of his smoke, and flicked his eyes at Austin. “Come with me, honey. I’ll take you where you need to go.”

“She’s not leaving.” Austin’s voice made the hairs on my neck stand up.

“Do you want to go with me?” Jericho asked, his voice sincere. He walked up and I suddenly felt sandwiched between the Cole brothers.

“Yes.”

He looked up at Austin. “Free will, brother. You know it and I know it. She ain’t your bitch, so you—”

That was it.

Austin swung a hard fist right over my head and it cracked against Jericho’s face. Jericho spun around and hit the floor. Shocked, I stumbled forward and turned around. Austin glared at Jericho so hard he could have torched him with the fire in his eyes.

“Do not call Lexi a bitch, are we clear? Let that be the golden rule of this motherfucking pack. Spread the word.”

And just like that, Austin Cole stood up for me. Not because of pride, male territorial instinct, family obligation, or even jealousy. But because it was something that mattered… to me.

Austin kept his word and drove me home to my apartment. We had a brief argument in the car because he’d left Jericho bleeding on the floor without so much as an apology. He reassured me a Shifter heals when they shift back and forth from their animal to human form soon after injury, but Jericho was too proud and he would probably wear that shiner. I didn’t get the guy thing, and I especially didn’t understand the dynamic between brothers. My brother had never punched me for calling someone a name.

Naya must have heard me tromping up the stairs and swung open her door. Cotton balls were stuffed between her cherry-red toenails.

“Why is your bra hanging out of your pants?” She snatched it and dangled it in front of my face.

I yanked it away and she widened her gossip-loving grin.

“Your hair isn’t brushed, either!” she said excitedly. “Who were you with? I want all the juicy details.”

“Not now, Naya.” I fumbled with my keys.

“Someone was looking for you.”

My back straightened and I curved around, watching her blow on her fingernails.

“Who?”

“That cop from the other night. Are you in some kind of trouble? This time it wasn’t about the neighbor downstairs.”

“Uh…” My mind went blank. Maybe Beckett was trying to get me in trouble. I bent over the railing to see if my car had been stolen, but it was still there. “I don’t know. That’s weird. Are you sure it wasn’t about the neighbor? I’m not going to the station to file a complaint, if that’s what he wants.”

She hobbled toward her door, walking on her heels so her pedicure wouldn’t be ruined. “He’s either gay, has a thing for you, or you’re in trouble. But the man wanted nothing to do with me.”

“Did you tell him anything?”

Personal stuff is what I meant. I didn’t know who this guy was and the last thing I wanted to worry about was him tracking me down at work. Of course, he was a cop, and I’m sure he could have figured it out.

“Nope. You know me better than that. He asked where you might be staying and that was a stop sign for me. Cops don’t chase you all over town unless they have a warrant for your arrest, or want in your panties.”

“Don’t tell him where my mom lives,” I said. “If he comes around again, just tell him I moved to South America or something.”

“Will do, chickypoo.”

I tossed the keys on the bar and slammed the door. The red light on my answering machine blinked with sixteen messages.

The first was from April. “Alexia, where are you? It’s ten and you’re still not here. Hello?”

The next two were also from April, with the last one saying to give her a call because she was worried. We didn’t hang out together outside of work, but April was a likable girl and I knew she was genuinely concerned and not just bitter about having to run the store by herself.

The next eight were from Beckett. Two of the messages were apologies and on the rest he hung up, although one of them creeped me out because I could hear him breathing on the other end.

Two other messages were hang-up calls, and the number was blocked on my machine.

“Hi, I’m trying to reach Alexia Knight. This is Officer McNeal; I dropped in the other night for a disturbance. I need to speak with you on an unrelated case. It’s about your father. I’ll be stopping by this evening.”

He hung up and I hit pause and grabbed a pen, jotting down the number on the machine. When I resumed playback, I heard another familiar voice.

“Alexia, it’s Lorenzo Church. You tried selling me your car, but I was more intrigued by the driver. Sorry I missed you. I’ll give you my number and leave the ball in your court. I’m interested, and I’d like to take you out. Maybe lunch and conversation, so give me a call.”

He left his number and I scribbled it on a napkin. I wrote his name above it and doodled, making his O’s into smiley faces.

Then it was Maizy, and she sounded scared. “Lexi? Someone took Mommy.”

My heart stopped.

I don’t remember anything after that. With my keys in hand, I fled down the stairs, running across the grassy lawn so fast I stumbled and skinned my elbow on the dry grass. Adrenaline filled me up like rocket fuel and I scrambled to get up before racing to my car.

Out of nowhere, I was tackled by a strong pair of arms.

“What’s wrong?” Austin shouted, lifting me off the grass.

“Let me go! Let me go!” It was a feral scream, the kind no one wants to hear.

His grip tightened and I kicked him in the shin with my heel so hard that he shouted and my keys fell in the grass. When my teeth sank into his arm, he let go. I snatched my keys and took off again.

My heart was racing and I couldn’t get the key in the lock. “Dammit!” I screamed, my hand trembling.

Austin came up from behind and pressed his entire body against mine, pinning me against the car. His mouth moved against my ear as his right hand reached around, stroking my neck soothingly. “Tell me what’s wrong.” It was that commanding voice again. The one that meant business. I’m sure he could feel my pulse beneath his fingertips because it was out of control.

“My mom; something’s happened. I have to get home. Maizy—she called—I have to go!” I screamed. Austin lifted me off the ground by the waist and hauled me off.

“I’ll drive,” he insisted, walking swiftly to his car.

I didn’t fight.

He set me in the passenger seat and reached around to buckle me up. I rocked in my seat, covering my mouth with my hands. My God, if anything happened to either of them, I wouldn’t be able to hold myself together. I’d been the strong one when my parents fell apart after Wes’s death. When my dad left, I kept Mom from going into a state of depression and living in her bedroom. No one had ever been there to keep me going; I just had to fight through my own pain and focus on keeping my family together.

The engine roared to life like a mad dog and he turned the corners so sharply that I slammed against the door and threw my hands forward to keep from hitting the dash.

When I told him about the message from Maizy, he pulled out his phone.

“Denver, I want you to get a hold of Reno. Tell him it’s— … No, this can’t wait. Level fucking red, now deliver the message. I better have him on this phone in three minutes.”

Austin hung up and cursed. “He never carries his damn phone when I ask him to.”

“Hurry, hurry, hurry,” I started chanting as we approached a yellow light. It flipped to red, but Austin gunned it and we sailed through the intersection. Thank God a cop car wasn’t around, but Austin knew how to weave around cars like a stuntman. The way he handled that Challenger was heroic.

We came to a hard stop and I was out the door and running toward the house.

“Lexi, wait!” he yelled out, but I was already on the porch. Worst of all, I didn’t have the spare key with me. I tossed the mat and tipped over the flowerpot. I pounded on the door and desperately rang the doorbell.

“Maizy! Maizy! Open up, it’s Lexi,” I shouted. Locked from the inside was a good sign; it meant someone was home.

Austin’s boots crunched on the patio and I glanced up at him, shaking.

He backed up a step, eyed the door, and kicked it in. It took two solid kicks, but the flimsy door cracked and flew open. It was an old house, and thank God for that.

Austin held out his arm to keep me back. “Stay close,” he said. “Someone could still be inside the house. If something happens, take off and I’ll handle it.”

The sliding back door was left wide open, and the wind had lifted the curtains and pulled them onto the patio.

“Maizy hides,” I whispered. “Please find her, Austin.”

He did a quick scan of the rooms to make sure no one else was in the house. Then it was my turn. I looked in the closets, beneath the beds, and in her favorite hiding spot behind the pantry door. Austin walked around the perimeter of the yard.

Mom’s purse was still on her dresser, and nothing looked disturbed.

I went into the kitchen and stopped at the table. Maizy’s little juice glass with the frog on the side was half-filled with milk, and an uneaten cookie sat on a paper napkin beside it.