Page 111 of Unholy Masks

You need to find them before they decide to come for you. Kat whispered.

I had to find them. I couldn’t just sit here and wait for them to make a move. But if they did, I might die, but I wouldn’t be the only one. I’d drag them straight to hell with me.

I’d protect Ryden with everything I had. If one of us must live, it had to be him.

He was too good to die.

The world needed Ryden more than it needed me.

25

JUST YOU AND ME

YARA

If it were any other day, he’d be smiling, talking about everything that had happened, and I’d be telling him about the bodies on my autopsy table.

He was quiet today. Pensive. Ruminating.

“Do you need coffee?” I asked when he placed the brown envelope on the table… staring at it like he was wondering when it would explode.

“No.”

“Ryden…”

“I’m fine.”

“I know you’re not. I know this is frustrating.”

He walked into the kitchen. I followed him in, rubbing his shoulder as he heated milk.

“It is. I hate this. I hate that this bastard knows where you live.”

When I worried about him, he worried about me.

“I’ll survive. I have survived worse.”

“I don’t want you to.” He turned around, pressing a kiss to my head. “Go, get changed.”

“Hey, Ryden?”

“Yes?”

“We’ll find him.”

“I know.”

I walked out, quickly changing into a T-shirt and shorts.

When I went back, Ryden was on the couch, deep in thought. He looked up when I walked in, nodding toward the mug of hot chocolate.

“Just the way you love it, Ms. West,” he said with a wink that always got him exactly what he wanted. Always.

“That night, when you first came to my house, you were like a scared lamb, Sinclair, and it made me…” I smacked my lips. “Wanted to be a big, bad wolf.”

“I was protecting you,” he said, leaning closer to me, filling the air with everything that was Ryden Sinclair. “And then I realized if anyone needed protection, it was me.”

“From what?” I teased, sliding next to him.