I sighed because I agreed. The safest thing to do would be to send Cass back out on the job he'd been doing prior to saving Seph. But selfishly, I wanted to keep him close. Just for a little while longer.
Morning provided a little perspective in the sense that the Anarchy shut down was simply an inconvenience. Money, mostly. Depending on how long they planned to keep us closed, we might have to postpone the main-event fight night. It'd sting and piss off some sponsors, but... fuck it. There were always more fighters and more fight nights.
The troubling parts to take away from the whole mess were the obvious attempt to start publicizing the Timberwolves again—directly contradicting my whole business model when it came to running my criminal empire—and the accusation Agent Hanson had made before getting her throat cut. Or that's what the method of murder had sounded like, anyway.
"I need to talk with you," Seph announced, busting through my bedroom door without so much as knocking once. "Dare, get up. I need to talk to you about—" She cut herself off, clearly having just noticed Cass beside me in bed, face down and sleeping but barely covered by my sheet.
With a silent growl of frustration, I slid out of bed and tugged Cass's T-shirt on before shoving my sister out of the room. I closed the door softly behind me, but I knew Cass would have woken up the moment I got out of bed anyway.
"Seriously, Seph?" I hissed at her, storming down the hallway as I pulled my tangled hair up in a ponytail. "You couldn't have spared three seconds to knock before barging in? You're fucking lucky you didn't walk in on anything more explicit."
I flicked a glance at her over my shoulder. Her cheeks were burning with embarrassment, and I rolled my eyes. Fuck, she was clueless sometimes.
"What did you so urgently need to talk about?" I demanded, heading downstairs with her tight on my heels.
"Uh, I wanted to tell you I'm going back to school on Monday." She announced it with a slight waiver in her voice, like she'd intended it to come out as a strong demand but had lost her nerve halfway.
I continued into the kitchen, where I found Lucas at his usual spot with his textbooks all around and an empty coffee mug in front of him.
"Hey you," I greeted, dropping a kiss on his shoulder as I leaned in to pick up his mug. "Want another?"
He shot me a tired smile and nodded. "Thanks, babe."
"Dare," Seph snapped, posing with her hands on her hips. "Did you hear what I said?"
Ignoring my sister and her drama, I yawned and headed for the coffee machine to sort out mugs for both Lucas and I. Then, after a moment's indecision, I grabbed one for Seph, too.
"I heard you," I replied after an uncomfortably long pause, within which I could see her temper boiling hotter.
Her brows tightened together in a scowl as I continued making coffee. "And?"
I handed her coffee over to her, then delivered one to Lucas, which he accepted with a grateful kiss on my lips. A kiss that could have easily escalated if Seph hadn't made an irritated sound and started tapping her foot on the tile.
"Just give me a fucking second to wake up, Seph," I groaned. "I need a vacation so bad it hurts." Cupping my own coffee between my hands, I perched my butt on the stool beside Lucas and shivered when the cool seat met my bare ass. Seph hadn't exactly given me time to hunt out underwear.
"Look, this wasn't a discussion," Seph pushed, popping a hip out with so much attitude it made my teeth hurt. "I was just informing you so you could do... you know... whatever you do." She flapped her hand, clearly referring to my security measures. The fact that she thought it could be summed up with a hand flap said just how little she understood.
Cass slouched into the kitchen a moment later dressed in low-slung sweatpants and missing his shirt. Oh yeah, it was on me. He could have gone back to his own room opposite Lucas's to grab a new one, but I was more than okay with the shirtless look.
So was Seph, apparently, as her eyes just about bugged out of her head.
"What's going on?" he rumbled, heading for the fridge.
"Seph wants to go back to school," Lucas told him, sipping his coffee. A smudge of pink