Page 40 of Mayhem

I pushed myself off the couch before I could think too hard about why that pleased me.

Malakai heard me coming and turned his head, but I caught the front of his sweater before he had room to say anything. He came easily when I pulled him in, one knee landing between mine at the edge of the couch as my hand slid around the back of his neck. I kissed him hard enough to wipe the grin off his mouth for half a second, and then it was back against mine because he knew exactly what I was doing when I grabbed him like that. His hand closed around my jaw, tongue ring catching against my lip as he kissed me deeper, and the familiar weight of him settled into my space without either of us needing to adjust for it.

I looked past him at Echo to find her watching.

The textbook had lowered slightly in her lap, her attention fixed on us with none of the bored dismissal she’d been giving Malakai five minutes earlier. Her eyes looked darker from across the room. I knew irritation on her by now, or at least some versions of it. I’d watched her look at Hunter like she was calculating whether homicide would void their agreement. I’d watched her look at Malakai like she wanted to bite him simply because he’d opened his mouth. This wasn’t as easy to place.

Malakai shifted closer when I caught his lower lip between my teeth, and Echo’s gaze dropped to his hand where it settled against my neck.

Interesting.

I let the kiss run another few seconds before releasing him. Malakai stayed between my knees, smiling down at me while he rubbed his thumb across my mouth. “You jealous I found a new hobby?”

“No.” I kept my hand at his waist and glanced toward Echo again. She had already lifted the book, although she hadn’t turned a page. “Your hobby looks annoyed.”

Echo didn’t bother pretending she hadn’t heard us. “Your hobby is trying to finish a fucking assignment while this asshole steals everything within reach. I’ve threatened his throat, his tongue piercing, and several fingers today, and somehow he still thinks sitting on top of me is a reasonable use of his afternoon.”

Malakai twisted around in my grip and pointed at her with the highlighter he still had tucked behind his ear. “I think we’re past pretending I’m the problem.”

She closed the book over one finger and looked at him for a long moment. “Kai, I knew you were the problem the first time I met you.”

The name caught him. It caught me too, though I kept that to myself. Most people outside the three of us didn’t use it, and Echo had apparently decided she could because she’d heard Hunter and me do it often enough. Malakai’s grin widened slowly before he started to turn toward her again, and I tightened my hand on his waist to keep him where he was.

He’d mentioned putting her between us more than once now. Watching her look at him while he was still half in my lap did nothing to make the idea less appealing. I could picture it too easily, which was probably why I hadn’t shut him down the first time. Wanting her there was simple. Trusting her anywhere close to something that belonged to me was another matter entirely.

Hunter closed the folder on his desk hard enough to pull everyone’s attention toward him. “If you three are finished making this room fucking useless, I have work that actually needs doing.”

Echo’s book shut completely this time. Malakai finally moved off me, though he stole my drink on the way back toward her chair and dropped onto its arm like he had every intention of resuming his harassment the second Hunter stopped talking.

Hunter looked at Echo. “You want Nichlas, you work. Someone owes us information and has decided they don’t feel like paying what they promised. You’re going to remind them how this works.”

Echo set the textbook on the table beside her, interest replacing the irritation Malakai had spent the afternoon cultivating. “Fine. Where?”

“Ronan has the details. You leave in twenty minutes.”

Malakai straightened immediately. “I’m coming.”

Hunter didn’t even look at him. “No. You’re staying here.”

Malakai opened his mouth, already offended by the concept, but Hunter’s attention had moved back to his paperwork. Echo glanced from Malakai to me, then reached up and plucked her highlighter from behind his ear.

I watched her tuck it into her bag.

Twenty minutes with Echo away from Nichlas would tell me more than an afternoon in the lounge ever could. And for once, Malakai wouldn’t be there to make the answer harder to see.

Hunter gave me the name, the debt, and the part that mattered before Echo finished shoving her notebook into her bag.

The student was Callum Mercer, third-year finance, Quorum-connected through his mother’s family and stupid enough to think that made him harder to squeeze. Three weeks ago, he’d traded us access to a private alumni mailing list in exchange for cleaning up a problem involving one of his roommates. We handled our side. Callum had spent the last five days pretending he could no longer get what he promised because the list had been moved behind another set of permissions.

Hunter didn’t believe him. Neither did I.

Echo listened from the corner while Malakai continued sulking about being left behind, which mostly meant he kept interrupting with suggestions Hunter ignored. When Hunter finished, Echo asked two questions: whether Callum knew she was coming and whether we cared how she got the information as long as nobody outside the room had to clean up after her. Hunter told her Callum knew someone would collect, but not who, and gave her the same answer he gave the rest of us when method mattered less than outcome: keep it contained.

She seemed almost disappointed by how easy the rules were.

We left through the private hall twenty minutes later and crossed toward the older residential wing where Callum kept a room despite having enough family money to live anywhere else. Echo walked beside me with her hands shoved into the pockets of her leather jacket, quiet for the first few minutes while she turned the problem over. She’d asked Hunter for the original wording of the favor before we left and read it twice, which told me more than Malakai’s enthusiastic reports had. She wanted the terms before she wanted the target.

“What did his roommate do?” she asked once we cleared the main quad. “Hunter said you cleaned up a problem, but he didn’t say what kind.”