Royce felt something enter his side when Gren slammed into him.
Gren pushed Royce away and got to his feet. "You made it too easy for me, lone wolf. You really shouldn't leave your backdoor unlocked. There's no telling who may just walk in and decide to take whatever they want."
Royce felt the room begin to tilt at an alarming angle as he fell to his knees. Looking down, he pulled out the syringe that was still in his side. The plunger had been pushed in all the way. It fell from his fingers as his world started to fade. Fighting to stay conscious, Royce sat down on the floor and shook his head.
"Don't worry, I didn't poison you. You're just going to go to sleep for a while." Gren came to stand over him. "You left me no other choice."
Unable to fight whatever drug Gren had injected into his system, Royce slumped onto his side. His last thought before everything went black was that Billie was safe. That was all that mattered.
* * * *
The gym was pretty quiet when Billie arrived. There were only a dozen or so members working out on the gym floor. She saw that three of her brothers were already there. Eli met up with her as she headed for her desk.
"How was your day off, Billie? Did you spend all of it with Royce?"
"It was good, and yes, I did. Is Dad in?"
"Yeah, he's in his office. Why?"
"I just need to talk to him."
"About what?"
Billie put her purse in her desk drawer and slammed it shut with more force than was necessary. "Don't start, Eli. Where is Finn, by the way?"
Eli chuckled. "Finn got lucky last night at Wulf's Den. He managed to hook up with this really hot chick. So I don't imagine he'll be in until later. He's probably still recovering from a hot night of sex."
Rolling her eyes, Billie walked around Eli and headed for their father's office. "I really didn't need to know all that. I was just curious where Finn was since you two seem practically joined at the hip."
"We aren't that bad."
"Eli, you two live together. You couldn't even move out of the house and get separate places of your own."
"Hey, we only did that to save money. It's not as if we plan to live together for the rest of our lives," Eli said defensively.
Billie stopped and kissed Eli on the cheek. "See, not much fun to have a sibling put you through the third degree, is it? I know you and Finn have the whole twin thing going on."
Eli scowled at her. "Fine, you made your point. I'll back off. After what happened with Royce the other day, we're all a little worried about you."
"Don't be. Now get out of here and leave me alone so I can talk to Dad."
"You're still not going to tell me what you want to talk to him about, are you?" When she narrowed her gaze on him, Eli held up his hands and slowly started to back away. "I'm going, I'm going."
After a quick knock on the door, Billie walked into her father's office. He had been sitting slumped in his chair staring off into space, but when he saw her, he sat up and gave her a half smile. Billie noticed the dark circles under his eyes and how haggard he looked. Whatever was going on with him obviously kept him up at night.
Billie sat down in the chair in front of his desk. "Have to say, Dad, you look like crap. What's going on?"
"That's my girl, always to the point. I'm just not sleeping well these days." He then quickly changed the subject. "What can I do for you?"
Now that she was here, Billie didn't know where to start. She was beginning to wonder if maybe she should have taken Royce up on his offer to come along, but it was too late for second thoughts. With a deep breath, she jumped in feet first.
"Okay, first of all, I'm moving out of my apartment. So as my landlord, you've just received your notice. I'm moving in with Royce." When her father opened his mouth to interrupt, Billie shook her head. "Please, Dad, let me finish first, then you can say whatever it is you want." Once he sat back in his chair and nodded for her to continue, she pushed on. "I know you think this is all very sudden, but it really was meant to be.