Page 68 of Silk and Sirens

“She didn’t get that information from me,” I hissed, fighting to keep my voice steady.

Shit. Shit. Shit.

His gaze locked onto mine, hard and unforgiving. “So you’re telling me you don’t know the location?”

My stomach twisted, because I did know it. But I’d never shared it with Selene. That information had been locked inside a secret compartment back at Atlantis, a contingency plan, accessible only to me. It had taken me years to piece together the details, because it was a highly guarded secret.

So how the fuck had she gotten it?

“She didn’t get it from me,” I said again, calmer. “I swear.”

A muscle feathered in his jaw. “Fine, then tell me about Vivienne Blackwater.”

“Her information’s in the document I already gave you.”

“She keeps appearing at the same events. Even gave me her number.”

“Good for you. Text her. Go on a fucking date.” I pushed the loose strands of my hair behind my ears, frustration and fear brewing. “If that’s all, you need to leave. Now.”

“I don’t think so.”

I sucked in a sharp breath, trying to steady myself. “Caden …” My voice dropped in warning. “I don’t care what you think of me right now. But if you ever hurt my family, even look at any of them the wrong way, I swear on my life I will burn everything down. I will hand Selene every scrap of dirt I can find on you and watch as everything you’ve built crumbles to the ground. Do you understand me?”

His expression darkened. “So you do have the information.”

I lifted my chin, refusing to back down even as my heart hammered against my ribs. “I mean it, Caden. They’re off-limits. If you so much as make one of my nephews cry, I’ll make your death so slow and painful you’ll beg me to end it.”

Caden’s smile spread slowly, wide and dangerous, that infuriating dimple carving into his cheek. He leaned in until his lips brushed the shell of my ear, his breath hot against my skin as he said, “I’d like to see you try.”

“He’s cute,” Darya whispered, pursing her lips. “How long have you been keeping him a secret?”

I glanced over my shoulder. Caden had planted himself against the wall like he was trying to blend into the wallpaper. Brooke had him cornered now, giving him the full big-sister interrogation treatment. Annoyingly, he wasn’t radiating his usual fuck off energy. Instead, he stood there with his arms folded over his broad chest, listening to my sister with a calm, almost civil expression. He offered the occasional low word or nod, just enough to keep the conversation alive.

He was dressed down in dark jeans and a fitted black T-shirt that stretched across his broad shoulders and biceps. For the first time, I got a proper look at the tattoo I’d only ever caught teasing glimpses of before.

A turbulent sea swept down his entire right arm.

The ink started at his wrist and disappeared beneath the sleeve, layered with deep blues, stormy greys and sharp flashes of white to capture the movement of the sea mid-surge. The water seemed to move when he flexed his arm, so detailed it looked like they might crash right off his skin.

It was beautiful in the most dangerous way.

Just like him.

He looked up then, our eyes colliding across the room of screaming kids. My heart skipped a beat, unable to look away. His presence made the walls feel closer. The laughter louder. The air thinner, like he was stealing too much oxygen. Yet seeing him in this situation, at a kid’s birthday party surrounded by rainbow decorations and sugar-high children singing at the top of their lungs while my nephew blew out his candles, caused a strange, tight pressure to bloom behind my ribcage.

Something warm.

I hated it immediately.

Because Caden was far too dangerous to become part of this.

Chapter 30

Caden

I couldn’t take my eyes off her.

Across the room filled with excited children and bright balloons, Aeris looked … different. Her shoulders were no longer rigid with tension once she’d realised I wasn’t going to do anything. Her laugh came easy and light, genuine in a way I’d never heard before.