Eric gave her a quick rundown of what had happened. And he didn’t blush once. I think that Kinkly noticed the change in him too. Her eyes drifted over him and Suzy sitting hip to hip, his arm across her shoulders.

I drew a slow breath and looked at Crash. “Would you mind giving us a few minutes? The information I need to share with my team is for them alone.”

Again, I thought he’d be pissed, but he just stood. “I’ll go check on Robert and make my apologies.” He stood and left the room. As soon as the front door shut, I leaned forward.

“The job I took was with a goblin named Grimm. What do you know about goblins, Kink? Aren’t they fae?”

She fluttered above the table. “The goblins are Unseelie. But they have their own leader who considers himself a king. For the most part, they keep to the west of the city and I don’t bother with them. No one from the Seelie court does. They are aggressive on a good day, so it works out better for them to stay in their own territory. That one of them was in downtown Savannah is interesting to say the least, although it’s not unheard of. Sometimes they get booted out for one reason or another.”

I kept my voice down and they all leaned in close to listen while I spoke. “While we were there, he gave me something to protect. He said it was a family heirloom someone else was trying to steal. After he handed it over, Feish, Robert, and I slipped through his window, and then Davin, Roderick, and Bruce busted into his room and trashed it. They had another goblin with them earlier, all dapper-like but I didn’t hear another voice during the break-in. No idea where Grimm went. Only that he wasn’t with them when they cornered me later.”

I gave them all the rundown on what had happened next, from sending Robert and Feish away to finding the ghosts hiding in that room and . . . “Vampire. That’s the word the Silver Lady mouthed to me.”

Eric blew out a low whistle. “That is not a good sign, not for this town.”

Kinkly nodded. “I agree. I think you should hide whatever it was that Grimm gave you.”

“It’s basically a family tree,” I said, remembering what Grimm had said. “But I don’t think that’s the important part. There’s a silver coin. It matches the etchings on the box upstairs.”

Eric groaned and we all looked at him. He pulled Suzy under his arm and held her tightly. “That’s the family crest of the current king of the goblins. I recognized it after we opened the box.” I nodded, motioning for him to hurry up, and he went on. “It means you’re on their hit list. Maybe because you’re helping Grimm.”

My palms went clammy, and I was suddenly doubly glad that Crash wasn’t there holding my hand. “What has that got to do with a vampire, though? That part doesn’t make sense.”

“What’s so important about those pages? Or is it that the coin is important?” Kinkly asked.

I rubbed a finger around the lip of my teacup. “It could be either. I didn’t find the silver coin until we were in that room below Grimm’s. The ghost found us soon after that.”

Kinkly frowned. “I could pay a visit to the goblins’ leader, see if he’ll talk to me. If one of his goblins is acting up, he might help. I could say that I’m there on Karissa’s behalf. He’s always trying to cozy up to her.”

“No, that would tell them we know they’re gunning for Bree,” Suzy said softly. “I say we take extra precautions. I’ll need to work with these new abilities, but the truth is we are stronger now with me like this. I’ll be able to manipulate water in all forms, and I should be able to shift to a new form once I get my strength back. And my ability to charm people will be seriously amplified.” She was frowning as she spoke even though the abilities sounded like an amazing addition. “I mean, if you want me to stay.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. You’re part of the team. Taking more precautions is a good idea. We’ll stick together in pairs, at the least, and figure the rest out tomorrow.” I lifted my teacup, Kinkly scooped up a thimble we’d set out for her and grabbed some tea, and we all clinked our glasses together.

I stood with a quiet groan, my muscles seizing hard, and went to the front door. I opened it to find Crash sitting on the top step. “We’re all done.”

He turned just his head. “Do you want me to leave?”

The way he asked it made it clear he didn’t just mean for the night. I didn’t like it for so many reasons. But the vulnerability in him was what tugged at me. How many people had turned him away over the years? Too many, even if no one else saw it.

“No. I want you to stay. But my team and their safety have priority.”

He smiled as he turned and held out his hand to me again. I took it and let him lead me into the main living room.

We pushed all the furniture to the sides, threw couch cushions onto the floor, pulled blankets and pillows into the living room, and made a big plush bed. There was just enough room for us all to sleep with our heads clustered together in the center of the room and our feet sticking out like a giant pinwheel.

Suzy was to my left, and Crash to my right.

I looked over at Crash. “This is not how I saw our first night together.”

He burst out laughing. “Nor did I.”

Suzy giggled. “I don’t know, I might have imagined a giant orgy or two.”

A ripple of laughter flowed through the room, contagious in the way it always was for the overtired. I laughed until tears tracked down my cheeks, and kept laughing until those tears dried and I finally managed to rein it in.

Next to me, Crash offered me an arm, and I rolled into his hold, using his bicep as a pillow. He pulled a blanket up and over us, and his warmth sunk through me, my nose pressed to his chest, close enough to smell the fire and smoke that was so uniquely Crash.

“Sleep. You’ve more than earned it,” he whispered into my ear. “I’ll keep watch over you tonight.” I didn’t think he meant over just me either.

I yawned and snuggled against him, not caring if this was real or not. Not caring if he was only attracted to me because I was a little bit fae. Of the two men in my orbit, Crash was the one I trusted more with my life, if not with my heart. If he said he’d keep me safe, I believed him.

Sometime later, when everyone was sleeping deeply, the shuffle of feet on the wooden floor tipped my head up. Robert stood in the big arched opening between the living room and the entryway. I lifted a hand, reminded that there was one other man who would keep me safe no matter what it cost him. “Thank you.”

He lifted a hand back. “Friend.”

I closed my eyes, knowing without a doubt that for at least a few hours we were all safe.

And that was all I needed to finally let myself sink fully into a sleep that dragged me down into oblivion.

*_*_*_*

I woke not with a start, but a lazy stretch that made every bone, joint, and muscle in my body tingle—and not in a good way. More like a hey-you-forgot-your-Advil-last-night kind of way.

“Sore?” Crash asked quietly.

“Everywhere,” I whispered back.

He sat up, taking the blanket with him. It pooled around his waist, reminding me of one of the first times I’d met him. He’d been draped in nothing but a sheet. I missed those ignorant days. Back then, I’d had no real idea what I was stepping into—what kind of life-or-death stakes I would be asked to accept, again and again.

The tattoo on his ribs made much more sense now, the flames roaring up the side of his abdomen. I mean, when I’d first seen them, I had suspected it was because he was a blacksmith. But maybe it had more to do with his magic, and the way his kisses set my body on fire.

“Like what you see?” He winked at me, catching me staring.

I winked right back. “Checking out that tattoo. Thinking about the first time I saw it.”

His smile was slow and deadly for my rapidly beating heart. “You mean when I was naked?”

I patted his cheek—the cheek on his face, I mean, I’m not quite that brassy. “You had a sheet on.”

A sudden pounding on the door rolled me to my feet, knives in my hands. I barely remembered reaching for them. Apparently, the training was finally catching up to my reflexes, or maybe it was the other way around?

The door burst open and Corb stood there, eyes wide, a gun in one hand and a knife in the other, his eyes finding me first. “Bree, are you okay?”

I tucked my own knives back into their sheaths. “A little late, man. You missed the party and the after party.”

Corb slowly lowered his weapons, and although I couldn’t see where he’d put them, or even where he could have put them, they disappeared. “Everyone’s okay?”

Crash brushed past me and headed for the kitchen. “I’ll make breakfast. And you talk in your sleep, Bree.”

Oh, that last shot was definitely for Corb, but he just breathed a sigh of what I could only assume was relief. “What happened?”

I turned as Suzy stood, her long hair braided back from her head in a bunch of braids that told me Kinkly had been at work while she was sleeping. I touched my own head and found the same look had been woven into my own hair.

“Someone set my powers loose,” Suzy said softly, totally not her usual self, but it wasn’t like she’d lost confidence. More like her own near-death experience had made her more mature overnight. “They did it so I would kill whoever I was with.” I noticed that she didn’t say it was about me, which I was grateful for.

We had to keep our cards close to our chests.

I turned back to Corb. “We figured you might be able to help her. Seeing as you brought her into the Hollows and all.”

Corb’s eyes were locked on Suzy. “How long did you have to fend off the urge? Twenty minutes?”

Suzy looked at me. “Four hours.”

Corb sucked in a sharp breath. “That’s impossible. You . . . Suzy, how did you survive?”

She didn’t look away from me. “It’s not my story to tell, not really. I just hung on, and Eric, Feish, and Bree, they threw me the lifeline that pulled me out.” She shrugged and then grinned. “I will say that they are all excellent kissers.”