Vin kissed the top of her head. Kissed. What did that mean? Callie didn’t know but it left her heart racing a thousand miles an hour. She couldn’t dwell on this. He wasn’t a friend, he was her owner. And it mattered not how morbid it was, Callie found that the explosions helped distract her from obsessive thoughts. She had a job, and she fully intended to do it well. Callie didn’t stop to rest until all the women and children who had begged for Vin’s help had been loaded onto the trucks. And even as her own truck—the very last one of the rescuer’s trucks— headed for the temporary shelter in the Tomb’s underground den, Callie scanned the road, block to block for any signs of survivors. “How old are you?” Callie asked Chris, her bodyguard at the moment. He sat beside her near the mouth of the truck, his rifle carefully strapped to his body. The young soldier cleared his throat. With his blonde curly hair and the nervous curve of his mouth, he looked no older than eighteen. He must

Vin’s fingers closed around his gun before he could think about it. His blood boiled as he watched Callie scramble from the ground to run away. Ella was about to get a scolding about leaving the knife with Callie, but he’ll save that for later. Right now, he needed to get to his songbird. “Move out,” he ordered quietly, and like a well-oiled machine, his men got to work. Taking advantage of the chaos, Vin blended into the crowd, keeping the gun close to his chest. From the corner of his eye, he saw Callie’s guard, Chris, closing in as well. The screams and gunshots faded into the background as the mafia boss hurried to reach Callie. His vision darkened when Callie fell and the man in pursuit pushed her roughly on her back. Rage consumed him at the sight of Callie, on the ground, disoriented and confused. Her cheek was already bruised, and a shot of fear tore through his insides when the barrel of the rifle dug into her face. The man’s words barely registered to Vin, but he knew th

“I’m sorry, I missed that. Take this food, where? It was Raleigh’s turn to smirk. “To Vin, little birdie.” Callie ignored the nickname because one look at the two scheming devils told Callie that they were having too much fun to change their minds.Crap.“Okay,” the singer eventually accepted. “Which one is his?” she asked, gesturing to the row of private rooms where she and Ella came from.The boxer chuckled, exchanging looks with Ella. “No, you have to take it up to Vin’s private quarters—the penthouse.”Callie nodded slowly, working her head around the fact that Vin had a penthouse in this place. “T-The penthouse is Vin’s private…” She shook her head with a giggle of disbelief. “I should have expected that.”“Yep,” said Raleigh, popping the ‘p’, emphasizing how annoying he was being. “You might want to kiss up to him now. That’s better than sleeping down here with the rest of us unworthy humans. It was a joke but Callie’s face heated at the notion of spending the night with Vin.

She was drowning. Each touch of his hands and every lap of his tongue sent Callie deeper and deeper into bliss. Being with Vin like this made her forget herself. Vin, on the other hand, was hyperaware of Callie. Every sweet whimper that left her lips sent him into overdrive. He had been with countless women in his life, but none of them made him feel like she did. A pang of guilt shot through him as his ex-fiancé flitted across his mind, but one breathless gasp from Callie’s lips faded the memory instantly. Vin drank it all in. Drawing his fingers up her torso, he grazed her stomach and then further up, raising her shirt over her chest, but to his surprise, Callie flinched away from him. He stopped immediately and pulled away from her. “Are you alright?” he asked. “Did I hurt you?” Worry filled his eyes as he scanned Callie’s injuries. But the singer only shook her head and gave him a small smile. “I’m okay,” she whispered. But Vin could sense something was wrong, so he asked

The city looked like it came straight out of a movie. Debris littered the streets, charred and broken, a grim reminder of the lives that were lost to the fire. It was a ghost town, and the overcast weather wasn’t helping. Thunder roared in the distance, a warning of what was to come. Vin sent out word to the residents when the fire was put out. The Tomb was a refuge and the residents were free to take shelter there and food will be provided, but most of those affected preferred to stay in their homes. The mafia boss wasn’t very pleased with that. With his men already spread thin between hunting down Cullen Reich and protecting the Tomb, he had to put out extra security around the city as well. After everything that happened, he couldn’t leave his people vulnerable. The trip to the South didn’t take long, and about an hour of driving later, Vin pulled into a gated community. “Your friend lives here?” disbelief and amusement laced his voice. He slowed the car to a halt in front of a