Come Out Swinging (Reach for the Moon Book 2), Sam Hall [leveled readers .TXT] 📗

that didn’t lift until Angie came bustling over, paper in hand. Micah and I moved as one, hightailing it out of there.

“So how did it go?” Zack asked, striding across the living room floor as we walked into the alpha residence, while the rest of them jumped out of lounge chairs and emerged from the kitchen to swarm around us. They’d gone home when Micah and I went to Selma’s and had obviously been waiting on tenterhooks. I didn’t answer immediately, just needing the feel of them against my skin, something thrashing around inside me until I was swallowed up into a multi-armed embrace.

“Nancy,” was all Micah said, and by their reactions, the stiffening of bodies and the tightening of embraces, they knew everything he meant by that word.

I didn’t want to think about that, about her, Selma, Aidan, any of them right now. I just wanted this. I reached out blindly, feeling bristling beard and full lips colliding, sucking on my bottom lip, tongue tasting me. Declan, my brain supplied, even as I was pulled away.

A hard forehead rested against mine for a second, then slow, nipping kisses that teased my lips open, even as I wanted to spread them wide, taking his time, making the others growl. Zack.

Then it got messy and confusing, one set of lips slamming down on mine, biting deep before I was jerked free and another mouth crushed them. Lorcan and Micah, they duelled with each other, kissing me senseless before I went staggering into the other man’s arms, until finally, I pulled free, standing on my own two feet, even if I did waver a bit.

Mason stood apart from this, watching from afar with eyes that burned, his hands shoved deep into his pockets.

Dad always told me that knowing the right time and place for delivering information was key to good leadership, so a sneaky part of me liked that their blood was up and their critical faculties were down.

“I’m going out with Aidan to meet someone who might give us a lead. Selma’s taken several mates, and he’s got a contact that might help me find them,” I said, scanning the lot of them.

“Well, I’m coming,” Declan said.

“She’s not asking us along,” Zack said with a smirk. “She’s telling us how it’s gonna go.”

“I am. Micah’s right—Nancy’s at the centre of this, I just fucking know it. But…”

All the murderous fantasies I’d entertained became a lot less heated when I thought of a member of my own family perpetrating this. The anger rose and rose, making my teeth clamp tight, but alongside that was a million damn memories—of family holidays, of countless celebrations, of playing with my cousins as the adults sat to talk, of watching all of us kids grow towards adulthood. Even if a lot of what came from Nance was close-minded and critical, she was still there.

“I need to know what she’s done and why. Why would she kill Dad? What the fuck is she doing to Selma and…?”

That was the thing about having a harem. When I was a kid and I was breaking, I was torn between going to Declan or Mason. Did I need to be now? I walked toward them, they, everyone reaching out, running hands along my shoulders and back when my throat closed up and my words came out as croaks.

“I need to know what the fuck has happened. Who hit me? Who got the drugs and administered them to Dad? All of it. Aidan said it can only be me tonight.”

“And that doesn’t sound like a trap to you?” Lorcan snarled.

“He knots for her still.” Micah shook his head. “Wish I could say I couldn’t verify that, but I can.”

“So he’s a potential…” Mason said. He blinked, that cool beta façade rising and swallowing him down. “He’ll need time… We’ll need to…”

“Right now, all he’s doing is taking me to meet someone who might have information for me,” I said. “I’m not thinking beyond that, I can’t. Now, I dunno about you guys, but I’m bloody starving.”

That seemed to be the right thing to say, as everyone pulled back, nodding. And so we had a lazy meal spread out over the coffee table, Declan hauling me up into his lap to hand feed me personally.

“You know I learned to feed myself some time ago,” I grumbled. “And a lot tidier than this.”

My face was probably glistening with BBQ sauce and grease. The guys had ordered in a mass of ribs and wings, and he was feeding me mouthfuls of them.

“Yeah, but then I get to lick you clean afterwards,” he said, turning me in his lap and moving to do just that.

Chapter 11

“You’re going in prepared for a fight.”

I looked up to where Mason lounged in the doorway of my bedroom. I pulled on gloves and a jacket, then looked around for my studded belt. It was kinda high school, but something like that wrapped around your knuckles could give you an advantage if really needed.

He moved in, smiling slightly, but stopping from getting too close. He kept his distance, Mason did, even still. My eyes slid up, catching the stubble he’d let grow, all that tanned brown skin displayed in the neckline making my fingers twitch. He came into my personal space, but not for the reason I expected, instead bending down and pulling a knife from his boot, grabbing my hand and placing it on the palm, still warm from his skin.

“You’re taking a gun as well.”

“I intended to.”

“So should I bring Nancy in? We’ve got a secure room in the enforcers’ quarters. I’d be a whole lot more comfortable with her under lock and key.”

“Tell me under what pretext I can do that, and I’d be happy to sign off on it.” His eyes dropped to the knife in my hands, and he didn’t say a thing because we both knew we didn’t have enough to do so. Alphas couldn’t be petty tyrants, doing whatever they willed. They