Page 107 of Hunted

“Check the others,” Van suggested, smirking. “They might make up for it.”

I grinned savagely. “Grand idea, professor.”

After fleecing the other three, I ended the evening with about eight thousand in cash—unbeknownst to the Academy, of course.

“I’m ready now,” I said, stalking past them to the elevator at the end of the hall. I just had to make it out of this building and then I could fall apart.

The doors dinged open, signalling that I was almost there. Almost done.

All four of us filed into the elevator and Beck jabbed the button for the ground floor. My fingers tapped relentlessly against my thighs, though I couldn’t even say for sure what song they might have been playing out.

Deklan noticed the pattering of my skirts first, sliding his hand beneath mine and interlocking our fingers with a gentle smile.

No, not yet, I sobbed internally, feeling the tears welling up already.

Van did the same on my left, cracking the floodgates open.

And if Beck hadn’t scooped me up, I’d have collapsed into a messy little Addie puddle, right there in elevator three. He tucked my head beneath his chin, murmuring quiet words of reassurance until the doors slid open again.

The other held them open while Beck strode out, down the hall, and passed several rooms on his way to the exit.

My gaze snagged on one room in particular and I all but scrambled out of his grip.

“Addie? What is it?” he asked, hand on pistol, alert and ready.

I backtracked several steps to the double doors on the left, shoving through into the dark, open space. And it was there that I finally fell apart.

Because the light from the hallway illuminated one thing—the thing I’d missed most while stuck inside an assassin academy.

A grand piano.

I whirled on Beck, knowing it was his permission I needed. “Please,” I begged, grabbing his arm.

His usually hardy exterior cracked, utter sadness spilling out. His warm hand cupped the side of my tear-covered cheek.

“Adelaide, you never have to beg me for anything. If I have the power to give it to you, it’s yours—and if I don’t, then I’ll find a way. Go play for as long as you need. Blackwing can wait.”

He leaned in to kiss my forehead, but I shifted at the last second so that our lips met instead.

Beck’s surprise lasted all of a second before he was kissing me back with all of the longing I’d felt for him for weeks—if not months.

I crashed into him with the crescendo of an orchestra reaching its peak, and he met me at every note along the way. His hands circled my waist, dragging me up to his height, and my legs did the best they could at wrapping around his hips beneath twenty layers of fabric.

But Beckett, knowing what I needed better than even I did, simply deposited me onto the bench seat in front of the piano with one final, telling kiss and a look that promised we’d continue this later.

“Play us a song, Ice.”

And I swore my heart swelled at his request.

Van and Dek perched on covered dining chairs next to him, silent but not unhappy.

I didn’t know how I’d managed it, but none of them seemed mad about my growing affections for all of them.

A discussion we’d have to have later.

If there was a later to be had.

Pushing that thought to the back of my head, I flipped the fallboard up, exposing such pristine ebonies and ivories that I almost lost it again at the mere sight of them. My fingertips drifted across their shiny tops, and then I couldn’t resist any longer.