East End: The Hear No Evil Trilogy, Book 1

on this. Because if it had been just solely for my father, I wouldn't have done it. I would have fought it tooth and nail. But it was too dark. Something was wrong with the lantern. And suddenly everyone's robes were black, no longer the dark red I was used to. Why were they black?

The images in my mind changed and everyone stood around a coffin. Masks came off. Drew, Ben, Bridge all standing, surrounding me. My mask was still on. But there was one coffin still shut. It was Toby's coffin. I glanced around at my mates. "Open the coffin. Open it. What are you doing?"

None of them answered me. None of them looked at me. And they were hoisting the coffin onto their shoulders. No. Not Toby. Please, God, not Toby.

I screamed. No. Not Toby.

I tripped awake, thrashing, and the hiss of pain hit me on the left side. "Fuck."

There was a female voice. Soft. Quiet. "Shh. You're going to hurt yourself."

"Nyla?"

"Who else?"

"Sorry. What are you—” Had I come home with her? The sheets smelled like my sheets. And the smell of fresh linen and vanilla or flowers. Had I brought her home? Smart on me. But why did I feel like I was blissed out?

I tugged her closer to me, and she was soft and naked. I frowned. No, not naked. She had knickers on. No way in hell would I have taken her to bed with me with knickers on. I slid my hands up her smooth, flat belly and palmed one of her breasts. She moaned. "East. You're supposed to be taking it easy."

"Who said?"

Despite the throbbing pain in my left rib, my dick was ready to go, happy to go, more than ready to say good morning to Nyla.

She shifted in my arms, onto her back from her side. And her gaze met mine. She blinked. It took me a moment to see the whiskey in her beautiful hazel eyes. "There you are. Good morning."

She shook her head. "It's not morning. It's about four o’clock."

I winced. "Four o’clock? What an ungodly hour."

"I know. I've been checking on you every hour or so. I didn't mean to wake you when I got back in the bed."

"Um, thank you."

"You were having a nightmare."

I sighed, wanting to go back to that moment where I was fondling her and she was filling my big palm. Overflowing even. Could I make love to her without pain?

What's a little pleasure without pain, right?

My cock twitched again, and I groaned. "Maybe we can talk about it later. Right now, I really want to suck on your tits."

She stroked a hand down my face, and I kissed the inside of her palm. "Welcome to my bed. Why don't I remember you coming in here?"

"Because the doctor gave you a massive pain pill. You should feel better."

I frowned. "Pain pill?" And then it came rushing back. The god-awful dinner. Leaving her at home because I knew that emotionally she was wrecked. I should have stayed. I should have picked her up and shagged her against the door, making her forget everything. But instead, I had come home and been jumped in my own flat. Bloody fantastic. And then she'd come to play my nursemaid. And fucking hell. I remembered the doctor, the poking and prodding. The assessment that I did not in fact have any broken ribs. They were just bruised and would hurt. And no internal bleeding. I would recover. I would be significantly less pretty for a while, though.

And then he'd given me something for the pain and left. He told Nyla to check on me every hour or two, to make sure I hadn't hit my head and gotten a concussion. Fabulous. That's why I felt so groggy. "I had hoped that you were in my bed naked for another reason."

"I have underwear on. And I had a T-shirt. I just got up to get some water and then spilled all over it. So I came back in without it."

"I am not complaining, I promise."

She rolled onto her other side so that she faced me. My eyes had adjusted to the darkness. And I could see the outline of her face better. Those gorgeous cheekbones. The curtains were open, so I could see the hints of dawn in the sky over a slumbering London. "Tell me what happened in your dream."

I didn't want to do this. But I'd been dreaming of Toby a lot lately. "You know how we talked about the Elite?"

Her voice was quiet and soft when she nodded and said, "Yes."

"We had a friend. Me, Ben, Bridge, Drew. You haven't met Drew yet, but you will. His name was Toby. Tobias."

"Okay. Is he in London?"

I shook my head. "He died on our initiation night."

She didn't move a muscle. No wilted brow, no sitting up, no nothing. But I could feel the tension slam into her shoulders. "What happened?"

"The official story ten years ago was that he had a massive heart attack. Which none of us believed. But it was so quick. We all emerged from our coffins, reborn so to speak. Except he did not. Ben clawed the damn thing open. And he was lying in there so still."

"Do you know what happened?"

"Not then. We were all so shell-shocked. The senior members who were doctors tried to revive him with CPR, and he was taken to a hospital, but they pronounced him dead on arrival, and then the ceremony had to go on. At least that's what they told us. They shuffled us through, and we went through the routines for our initiation. I was so dazed. Numb. I couldn't feel anything. For a long time I was convinced I would never feel anything again. And it was slow to come back, the sensation, any emotion. I was just completely clicked off, I guess."

"Makes sense. You lost a friend."

"And the thing is we all swallowed the lie. We didn't stop to think about why Toby would have