The frantic pounding of feet on the stairs interrupted them. A young scruffy-looking girl burst into the room. “Quinn, we need you down at checkpoint two.”
Quinn sighed, then rubbed his face with both hands. “Okay, I’m coming.” He looked at Ivy. “Why don’t you get cleaned up?” He glanced at Ronan’s bloody, wounded shoulder. “Take care of your guy here. And we’ll talk when I get back.” He headed for the stairs. “Bill, make sure they get some food, water and whatever else they need.”
“Quinn, this is important,” Ivy stated.
“So is keeping these people safe.” He put a foot up on the first step. “Our conversation will keep for a couple of hours, I’m sure.”
She watched him ascend the stairs, followed by almost everyone in the basement. Except for Gloria and the gunman named Bill.
Bill nodded to them. “Come with me and I’ll find you some quarters and some food.”
Ivy followed Bill up the stairs, Ronan right behind her.
Ronan watched Ivy as she paced the room they’d been placed in. He wasn’t ready to say imprisoned in, although there was someone stationed at their door available for anything they needed. Yeah, right, he thought. Available to keep them trapped inside was more like it.
“I hate waiting. It’s been two hours. Where the hell is he?”
Ronan finished the bowl of stew they’d been given and dropped the plastic spoon into the garbage can. “He’ll be here. He’s probably trying to figure out the best way to lie to us about the key.”
She stopped walking and frowned at him. “Do you think he’ll deny he has it?”
He nodded. “Oh, yeah. It’s why this town is under siege, I’m sure of it. So he’ll try to keep it under wraps for as long as he can. Even though he knows I’m right.”
She looked at him for a long moment. He could see she was struggling. It looked like she wanted to say something to him but was unsure how to put it. He had a notion of the thing she wanted to ask. Because he was asking himself the same question. Did it all start with him? Was he the reason that the demons had found out about Quinn and the key?
He decided to put her out of her misery. “The answer is, I don’t know.”
“What are you talking about?”
“The reason you’re staring at me that way. You want to know if I think this is because of the cabal asking me to find the key.”
“It’s a reasonable question.”
He nodded. “I know it is.” He scratched at his chin where stubble was coming in. “But I do know that the cabal wouldn’t want demons to have the key. So they didn’t send them here. The demons are here on someone else’s orders. Someone who knew that Quinn has the key and that he was here in Sumner.” He rolled his shoulder, which was still stiff from the bullet wound, but healing nicely. “We didn’t know that until fifteen hours ago. The demons have been here three days. They were here right around the time we first met.”
“It can’t be a coincidence.”
“I agree. There are no such things as coincidences.”
“What then?” She sighed, and he could see the fatigue lining her face.
“There’s another player around. Someone with a lot of power and knowledge.”
Ivy walked to the tiny cot in the corner and sank down onto it. She covered her face with her hands. “I hate this. I should be celebrating because I found my brother but all I have is a bad churning in my gut.”
“Maybe it was the stew. It kind of has a bad aftertaste.”
She lifted her head and half smiled at him. That’s what he wanted to see. He didn’t like seeing a defeated Ivy Strom. It almost scared him to see her like that. Like watching a steel bar bending under pressure.
“I’m sorry for the way Quinn treated you.”
He waved her apology away. “Don’t be. I expected it. I’m sure you did, as well.”
She nodded. “Yeah, I guess I’d forgotten what a hard-ass he was.”
“Just like another sibling I know.”
Ronan got up from the chair, crossed the room and sat down beside her on the cot. He put his arm around her shoulder and pulled her against him. She didn’t resist, but laid her head on his shoulder. He liked that she could lean on him. He wanted her to. He wanted to be the man she could count on in good times or bad. He wanted...her.
“Yeah, families can be a hassle.”
“Do you have a family? Brothers or sisters?” she asked. “I know virtually nothing about you.” She closed her eyes, her head still on his shoulder.
He shook his head. “I lost them a long time ago.”
“I’m sorry. How did it happen?”
He felt his throat tighten up. It was still so difficult to talk about it even after all these years. “It was the same night I became what I am.”
“Are they dead?”
“Yeah,” he sighed. He tried not to think about his mom and sister. They’d all been out for dinner together, in the wrong place at the wrong time, when he’d been attacked by the demons. They’d gotten in the way. He should’ve known his lifestyle would be the death of them eventually. He’d been drunk and stupid and they had paid the ultimate price for his mistakes.
“My mom and younger sister. They were with me at that restaurant and were walking with me through that alley to my car.”
She wrapped her hands around his arm and held on to him as he continued. Her warmth pressed against him gave him the strength to talk about it without the guilt and anger and regret pulsing through him.
“For about five years after, I drank myself into oblivion almost every night. I thought maybe I could pollute the demon blood out of my system. And numb the pain of their deaths. But neither worked all that well.”
“I tried that after my dad died,” she murmured.
He sighed. “Yeah, it doesn’t help, does it?”
“No, it doesn’t.” She lifted her head and stared him in the eyes. “I’m so sorry, Ronan, about what happened to you.”
He nodded, and then brought his hand up to rub his thumb down her cheek. He tilted her face a little and leaned toward her mouth. She lifted her lips to his and they kissed.
Ivy brought her hands up to his chest and gripped his shirt, pulling him closer. She tore at his mouth, nipping and tugging on his tongue and lips with a savage glee. He responded in kind until they were both panting.
His heart pounded hard, as did his groin. He wanted to take her right here and now, their circumstances be damned. He didn’t much care for anything, except Ivy. Kissing her, touching her, hearing her moan and feeling her writhe under his weight. But it was more than just the physical pulsing between them. He knew there was more than that. He knew she had feelings for him. As he harbored feelings for her. The question was, were they enough to get them through this together?
Unfortunately they didn’t get a chance to find out before the door opened and Quinn marched in.
“Holy crap,” he growled.
Ivy pulled away from Ronan and actually sprang to her feet.
“You have got to be kidding me.” He shook his head. “Ivy, seriously?”
“Oh, please, spare me your ethics lesson,” she growled back.
“Yeah, but him?” He gestured to Ronan. “He’s practically a hellspawn.”
That had Ronan on his feet. “You know if you want to solve this between us, I’m more than happy to take it to a more private venue.”
Quinn took a step forward, his hands fisted.
