Page 35 of Lethal Salvation

“I was in a London gang before I joined Shadow.”

Gideon dragged his attention from Nadia, turning to face Titan, as he had a feeling the man didn’t give this kind of information away to just anyone, and there was a purpose for him doing it now.

“Yeah, I thought I detected an accent.”

“You heard of the Cobras?”

Gideon shook his head and then stopped. “I heard something on the news a few years back but can’t remember the details.”

Titan nodded and then looked back toward Bás and Nadia. “I was the leader, and I did things that fill me with shame and regret. I betrayed my oldest friend. I kidnapped his woman and child. It almost killed me, and I mean literally and figuratively.”

“Wow, that’s not pretty.”

Titan shook his head. “No, it’s not. I had my reasons, but they weren’t good enough to justify what I’d become.” Titan sighed. “What I’m trying to say is this team, these people, they take the ugly parts of you and shape them into something more. A man who barely knew me gave me a second chance to redeem myself and payback for what I did, instead of being locked away behind bars where I should have been. Duchess is a big part of the man I am now. She showed me who I could be, and what I could achieve.”

“Why are you telling me this?”

Titan turned and pinned him with a hard stare. “Because she’s family to me. A sister, and she has a whole group of men who are like brothers to her, and I wanted to warn you that if you get involved with her you need to mean it. She isn’t some cheap fuck, or a random hookup. She’s special and needs to be treated as such.”

“I would never treat her that way.” Gideon wanted to feel irritated at the implication, but he respected that Titan voiced his thoughts and that she had people like him at her back.

“Good because if you hurt her, they won’t find your body.”

Gideon smirked until he realised the man was deadly serious and then lifted his chin and met his eye. This man was being honest, and he would too. “I’ve never met anyone like her before. She’s smart, sexy, strong, but despite her sass and beauty, she has a vulnerability that she tries to hide. I want Nadia to show me that. I want to know her, who she is when the action stops, what her dreams are, what drives her to do this job, to fight for people she’ll never know. She’s special and I have a feeling if she asked me to lay my heart on a slab for her I’d do it and it’s terrifying. More so than any threat you could make to me. So, I appreciate the warning, but I can promise you, I have no intention of hurting her.”

Titan kept his eyes on him and then nodded. “That’s all we want for her. She’s a good person, one of the best, and she helped take a bunch of reprobates and shaped us into a team.”

“She’s amazing.”

Gideon’s gaze was pulled back to her as the door opened and Reaper and Lotus walked in with a haggard Damon behind them, a black cloth bag over his head.

Gideon leaned in towards Titan. “Honestly, I’m just glad the warning came from you and not Lotus. She scares the shit out of me.”

Titan let out a loud belly laugh, his wide smile splitting his face and drawing attention from across the room. He stood and slapped a hand on his shoulder before looking down. “Oh, my friend, if you think you got away with it, you’re sadly mistaken.”

Gideon groaned. “For fuck’s sake.”

Titan walked away and he stood to move toward his brother, who was now blinking furiously after being in the dark.

“They put a hood over my head.”

Gideon grinned despite the situation. “Count yourself lucky. They fucking knocked me out.”

“Man, I thought we got past that?” Hurricane slapped a big arm over his shoulder and grinned.

Gideon gave him a cold look. “It’ll take more than you letting me punch you to forgive that.”

Hurricane held up his finger. “I have just the thing. When we get back to base, I’m gonna make my candied bacon for you.” Hurricane made the chef’s kiss motion with his hands. “It will change your life. My cousin Ashanti gave me the recipe when I visited her last year.”

“Candied bacon?”

“Life changing.”

A loud clap had them all turning in Bás’ direction. “Enough with the cooking tips, this isn’t fucking Bake Off. We have work to do.”

“You watch Bake Off?”

Lotus seemed to zero in on what she thought was important information and totally ignored the scowl Bás aimed her way.