Page 195 of My Unhinged Alphas
Havoc stares at it. “This is getting creepy in a very organized way.”
I stand just inside the doorway, looking past them into a house clearly ready for us, and feel the back of my neck go cold.
Vale turns the second note over, but the back is blank.
Knox shuts the door behind us softly, and the sound of it closing feels more final than it should.
We check out all the rooms. The guys don’t stop till they’ve made sure that there’s no one inside waiting to ambush us. We’ve barely been inside ten minutes when Havoc’s voice carries down the hall. “You two need to see this.”
There’s something in the tone that makes all of us look up at once.
Knox is first out of the room he was checking. Vale comes a second later from farther down the hall, slower because of the bruising, but alert immediately. I follow them up the corridor, half expecting a body, a trap, another note, something awful waiting behind the next door.
Instead we find Havoc standing in a doorway, one shoulder against the frame, grinning.
He doesn’t say a word this time. He just hooks his thumb behind him toward the bathroom.
I step past him and stop. “Oh.”
The word comes out before I can help it.
The bathroom is ridiculous.
Marble floor. Double sinks big enough to wash dogs in. Mirrors everywhere. A bathtub I could probably sleep in. And a shower built like a glass room in its own right, with enough space for a small meeting and, judging by the number of showerheads, enough water pressure to drown every bad decision I’ve made in the last forty-eight hours.
Havoc laughs softly behind me. “See?”
I turn and look at him. “Who lives like this?”
“People with money or bad instincts,” he says. “Sometimes both.”
Knox’s eyes move over the room once, quick and practical. Towels. Cabinet. Possible exits. He doesn’t let himself be impressed for even a second.
Vale leans against the doorframe and says, “At least there’s hot water.”
That gets my attention more than the marble does.
I look down at myself. I still smell like smoke under everything else. Sweat. Ash. The motel. Them. The whole past day clinging to my skin in layers. For one second, just one, the thought of stripping all that off feels so good it almost hurts.
I say, “I’m taking the shower.”
Havoc’s mouth curves. “Bold.”
“I will drown in that giant bathtub.”
“Promising start.”
Knox goes to the cabinet and opens it. Fresh towels. New toothbrushes. Wrapped soap. Everything lined up like someone knew exactly what state we’d arrive in.
That should bother me more than it does. Instead all I can think about is hot water.
I step fully into the bathroom and turn back to find all three of them still standing there. “You can leave,” I tell them.
Nobody moves. Vale’s one good eye drifts over me, then the shower, then back again. “Can we?”
That’s a terrible question. Mostly because I know exactly how he means it.
I hear myself say, “Or not.”
