He scowled. “I can guess. So, what? They sterilize all the girls they train?”
“No… they sterilize all the teens within the orphanages. The last thing the Guild wants is for us to form families of our own… our loyalty is to the Guild and no one else. Babies complicate things, so they’re simply not an option.” This information didn’t upset me, it just was what it was. But I could sense how distressing Kai seemed to find it, so I probed a bit deeper. “Is this going to be a deal breaker for you?”
His brows raised. “A deal breaker? That implies there’s a deal on the table, beautiful.” I said nothing, just waited him out. He was processing, but if he was that determined to reproduce, then it was better to make a clean break now. Before it hurt even more.
He was silent a while, then he reached up to stroke my hair away from my face. “Do you want kids, Siren?”
I shook my head. “No. I don’t. Despite the fact I wasn’t given a choice in the matter, I like my life. I enjoy my work as a mercenary. Sure, not every job, but for the most part, it’s exciting and challenging, and I get a tremendous sense of achievement with every successful contract. I have no desire to give that up and honestly couldn’t think of anything I’d like to do less than become a mother.”
Kai didn’t look upset by that, just thoughtful. His long fingers stroked a lock of my hair, playing with it while he considered his words carefully. “Do you think that would ever change?”
My gut instinct was to say no. But I was no psychic, and I sure as shit hadn’t ever predicted the heart situation I was currently in the middle of. So I shrugged. “To what end? The choice is gone, so there’s no sense in grieving over lost opportunities.”
He nodded slowly. “I can understand that.”
I studied his face but couldn’t read what was going on in his head. “Are you disappointed?”
His expression creased. “No. God no. I feel… horrified that the Guild does this to children. Disgusted that they treat you as a tool, or a weapon, not as a human being. I’m heartbroken for your lost childhood, Danny… I doubt I could ever be disappointed in you, though. Yes, part of me was hoping you’d fall pregnant… but only because I was so desperate to keep you.” He flashed a bitter smile. “See what I mean? I don’t make rational decisions when it comes to you.”
Oh man, my heart was doing the extra hard thumping thing that made my chest ache. He had a way with words when he wasn’t being ruled by his hot temper.
Suddenly uncomfortable, I shuffled to sit up and swept a hand through my hair. “Well, it’s not really as bad as it sounds. They don’t remove anything. It’s just tubal ligation to prevent pregnancy, and uterine ablation to stop periods. The second one was voluntary, though, because why the fuck would I want periods messing up my jobs?” I gave him a lopsided smile, climbing out of the big bed. “Anyway, we should go and discuss our plan of attack for Blanchet with Leon. Also…” I trailed off, realizing I hadn’t told Kai about the reason I’d been at Meow Lounge the night before.
“Also?” he prompted when I disappeared into my thoughts.
I grabbed some leggings and pulled them on—a physical barrier to stop me thinking with my pussy—and spun to face him with a renewed sense of purpose. “You and Leon need to talk. We—he—found some information about Remus that could help Mo’s plans.”
Kai got to his feet and stretched.
Fuck.
“…take care of that body, too,” he was saying when I snapped out of my little lust-induced trance. He crossed the gap between us and tilted my chin up with his fingers. “Are you… listening or drooling, Siren?”
“Um.” I flashed a grin. “The second one. Definitely the second one.”
His gaze heated and the air fucking crackled between us. Crap, what were we doing again?
“Coffee,” I muttered, sliding out of his orbit and hurrying my ass out the door. “Coffee before brain power.”
Kai’s teasing laugh followed me as he did, and we both made our way down to the kitchen where the delicious aroma of freshly ground coffee beans mixed sharply with bleach.
“Ugh, that stings the nostrils,” I groaned, covering my nose with my hand. Leon was in the kitchen, shirtless, mopping the floor with what smelled like straight bleach. Fair call, though, we’d only done the bare minimum in cleaning up the mess before we’d all gone to bed.
“Coffee’s ready,” Leon told us with a cool smile, nodding to the two tall glasses of perfectly made latte on the island. One had a heart drawn in the milk foam, and I smiled like a twit as I picked it up, meeting Leon’s intense gaze.
I took a sip, then licked my lips. “Thanks, Bunny.”
He murmured a quiet you’re welcome back, but his attention flicked to Kai in a glance so quick I almost missed it. But I didn’t. Acting on instinct, I reached over and smacked Kai’s coffee out of his hand before it reached his lips. The brown liquid splashed all over the island, and the glass smashed, but Leon just smirked.
“What the hell?” Kai asked, bewildered.
I just placed my own coffee down and gave Leon a hard accusing glare.
He rolled his eyes, going back to his mopping. “It wouldn’t have killed him,” he muttered under his breath, and I stifled an internal groan.
Kai was a bit slower to catch on, gasping a second later. “You tried to poison me? What the fuck?” His roar was incensed, and my eye twitched.
So much for ironing the elephant in the room. We’d be lucky to all survive the day, let alone survive the Guild.
40
It took some convincing, but eventually, reluctantly, Leon told Kai about our mini-mission in retracing Layla’s last steps. The fact that she had some top secret data cache on Project Remus was relevant to Kai and Mo’s involvement, and it wasn’t okay to keep withholding that information. If the three of us were going to work together—and certainly in the short term, it looked like we would—then we all needed to be on the same page.
When Sabine turned up on our doorstep just after dusk, wearing an oversized hoodie and looking nervous as all hell, I made a decision for the good of my own sanity.
“Out,” I ordered the guys. “Both of you. I need some time alone with Sabby, and you two are legitimately choking me with all this alpha male energy you’ve got going on.”
Sabine gave a strangled laugh, covering her mouth as she eyed Kai with utter fascination. For their part, both of my men looked like they thought I was joking. Nope, no jokes here.
Leon worked it out first, giving a nod. “I’ll go dispose of the trash,” he murmured, grabbing me in a possessive, earth-shaking kiss that went far longer than polite. I was helpless but to lean into him, too, considering he was talking about disposing of the body currently wrapped in plastic in his trunk. We’d needed to break the dude’s legs to squash him into the small space, but it’d worked.
He gave Sabine a nod and totally ignored Kai, then headed out to his car with a skip in his step.
“You too, Big Man,” I prompted when Kai stubbornly folded his arms over his chest and looked like he wanted to refuse to leave.
He scowled harder. “I’m not leaving you here alone, Siren. What if—”
Sabine cut him off with a scoff of insulted laughter. “Excuse me? She isn’t alone, Hercules.” To demonstrate her point, she pulled a slim knife from a hidden pocket and threw it. The point embedded into the wall right beside Kai’s head, and he gave it a surprised glance.
“I’m rusty, but I’m still probably more useful than you,” Sab muttered, and I grinned. Shit, I missed her. “Not to mention, I doubt you’ve ever needed to protect my girl. And if you think you have, then it’s because she let you, to make you feel like you’re useful.”
Kai frowned, then glanced at the knife again. “I guess… I’ll go find somewhere else to be.”
Sabine beamed. “Atta boy. Now you’re getting it.”
I snickered a laugh, unable to help myself, but Kai quickly shifted the mood by grabbing me around the waist and pinning me to a wall. My feet couldn’t even touch the ground as he savaged my mouth, his kisses stealing my sanity as I wrapped my legs around his waist and pulled him closer.
“Ahem,” Sab fake coughed, and I reluctantly pushed Kai away.
“I’ll be back soon,” he murmured against my lips, brushing soft kisses as he carefully set me back on my feet. “I love you, kaikohuru iti.”
He didn’t wait for my response—no doubt still not wanting to hear my weak, bullshit denials—and strode out of the house. A moment later, we heard his motorcycle kick over, and Sabine gave me a wide-eyed look, her hands on her hips.
“Danny DeLuna…” she teased, grinning with delight, “did he just say that he loves you?”