Beneath the Dust (Force of Nature #4) - Amber Lynn Natusch Page 0,11

Liam is right about Faerie dying, that could be one hell of an ask when she comes around to cash in on your deal.”

“I know…that’s why I’m telling you.”

“Fuck!” he shouted, slamming his fist into the concrete wall. Dust flew through the air, and bits of cement fell to the ground.

“I didn’t know what else to do, Knox! You were dying, and I couldn’t let that happen.”

He rushed over and wrapped his arms around me. “I’m not mad at you, Piper. I just hate that bitch so much…”

“Watch it,” I said with a laugh, “you’re talking about my mother.”

His whole body tensed at my words. “She is no mother to you,” he said, his voice little more than a growl. “She may have conceived you—birthed you—but that’s where your connection to her stops. I don’t care if her blood is in your veins. It doesn’t matter. She is not your family.”

I took his face in my hands and pulled it to mine until our lips met. “I know that.”

“Hey, I hate to break this up and all,” Brunton called from the doorway, “but are you finished with him?” Knox nodded. “What do you want us to do, then?”

“Leave him there for now. We might need him later.”

I could see Brunton’s anger brewing beneath the surface, but he said nothing, just closed the door behind him as he obeyed Knox’s order.

“This isn’t going to be easy,” he said under his breath as he looked at the door.

“No, it isn’t, but we should be used to that by now.”

I smiled up at him and he took the bait. “I guess you’re right.”

“You guess? I’m always right, Knox. Best you learn that sooner than later.”

He bent down and kissed me until the sound of the stairway door opening rang through the hall. I pulled away to find Merc standing there, staring at the two of us.

“The meeting is set.”

He disappeared through the door he’d just come through without another word. My hands fell away from Knox, and though I could feel his stare boring through me, I couldn’t meet his eyes. Our situation was a difficult one to navigate to say the least, even when everyone in it had agreed upon the terms. It was moments like those that illustrated its shortcomings. If we didn’t get a handle on it sooner than later, I feared we’d implode.

Chapter Five

Finding neutral ground was far more difficult than I’d imagined. Merc went around and around with the various factions’ leaders until they found a place all would agree to. But even after all that work, he wasn’t convinced they’d show.

“Each leader is allowed only four escorts,” Merc said, looking at his brothers. “You’ll be coming, of course.”

“And me!” I stepped forward, not wanting to be left behind. Merc tried hard to school his features into an impassive expression but failed. “You already said I could, and if this all goes to shit, you’ll need me.”

“And me,” Knox said, rounding the corner, “because I’ll know if anyone there is lying, and I have zero intention of letting Piper go without me.”

Merc nodded at us both. “We leave in five.”

He ghosted away to God only knew where, leaving the rest of us behind.

“What are we supposed to do?” Brunton asked, looking around at Foust, Jagger, and the others. Grizz stepped up beside him and folded his arms across his chest to mimic the werewolf.

“You’ll stay here until we return,” Knox replied. Everything about his tone said there was no room for argument. Surprisingly, Brunton didn’t.

But Kat sure as hell did.

“I’ll stand in the back of the room and be quiet as a mouse,” she said, walking up beside me. “They won’t even know I’m there. Promise.”

“The terms of the meeting are pretty rigid, Kat,” I said. “Merc isn’t going to go for it.”

“Merc isn’t my king,” she replied with a notable amount of heat.

“But you live in his home under his protection,” Knox said. “Whether you answer to him or not isn’t the issue. You have to sit this one out, Kat.”

Her eyes narrowed. “We’ll see about that.”

She walked over to Grizz and led him away by the hand. She was up to something, that much was clear. And apparently, she planned to involve my guardian. What could possibly go wrong?

***

The warehouse where the meeting was set belonged to Mack. That fact alone made me uneasy, but Merc felt confident there would be no issues, especially given how he’d had his ass handed to him by Knox and