Dox cleared his throat. “Hello, Sas. It’s been a long time.”

Her eyes widened and she put a hand to her throat in an elegant gesture that I never would have applied to an ogre. Then again, I’d never met a female ogre. To say she surprised the shit out of me was an understatement.

“Dox.” She breathed his name, and the triplets let out a collective groan. Dox smiled at her, but it was sad and wistful and full of a past I was pretty sure we didn’t have time to dig into.

“You two, break it up. We have a job to do, remember? Dox.” I breathed his name out like Sas had. His body shook and he shot a glare my way.

“Rylee, we have to wait until dark, you heard them.” He waved a hand at the triplets who were openly grinning now, their eyes darting from Dox to Sas and then to each other. An image of the five of them in bed together flashed through my mind, and I shook my head to clear it. Dox didn’t seem the type, then again … Liam spoke in a low whisper that I thought only I could hear.

“Fighting and f**king, that’s what you said, right?”

Dox at least had the grace to look chagrined. Apparently, he heard Liam too. “I can’t, Sas … .”

She sashayed to him and ran a hand over his well-muscled blue shoulder. “Dox, tell me you’re going to stay awhile. Please.” Her eyes brimmed with unshed tears. Shit, I would have had a hard time saying no to her. There was a compulsion in her words, and her voice tugged at me. That wasn’t magic; that was whatever chemistry she had going on. Liam put a hand on my lower back as if he knew.

Dox shook his head, disappointment etched into his face. “I can’t. I have to stay with my friends.”

Now I felt like a gods-be-damned ogre. What he said was the truth, but if the triplets were going to make us wait anyway, there was no reason to make Dox suffer. And suffer was the right word, he looked freaking miserable standing there, denying Sas.

With a laugh, Dev darted forward and scooped Sas up, taking her away from Dox, her long, bare legs dangling over his arms right under Dox’s nose. But he never looked away from her face, nor did she look away from his. Shit on a sharp stick. Why did things always have to get complicated?

“We meet back here in three hours time. You should be fine, no other ogres frequent around here, and if they do, just punch them in the balls,” Lop said, giving me a wink.

Dox stared after them, a longing in him that was plain as the three colors swirling in my eyes.

I was going to regret this. Damn it. “Go with them. You can make sure they keep to their word, and then we’ll meet you back here.” I pushed him after the brothers, and though he paused, he gave me a smile. Hell, Sas gave me a smile that made me blush with all it promised.

They welcomed him, arms slung over his shoulders, pulling him along with them. But more importantly, Sas welcomed him. She grabbed his face and kissed him long and hard and deep.

I gave a shiver, the pheromones they were throwing off suddenly making me horny. Not something I was terribly wanting in the middle of a salvage. Liam pressed himself up against my back as the ogres disappeared through one of the metal trivets that led to the gods only knew where.

Liam slid his arms around me and nipped the side of my neck, his body hard against mine. Fighting and f**king, the books weren’t kidding. Whatever the ogres had going on, it seemed to be contagious.

“Let’s go get something to eat—unless you want to follow their example?” Liam said, his voice softening even as he gripped me tighter.

I spared a glance for the bodies at our feet. Eat? No, not likely. Sex? Yeah, that’s what I wanted, the ache in my body a steady thrum.

“Yeah. Let’s get something to eat.” I stepped away from him and over a puddle of blood and dark grey matter I chose not to identify even though my own brain did a quick comparison.

We slid back through the veil over the metal trivet we’d come in by, and I crouched beside it to get a better look. Anything to distract me from what had just happened. The trivet was indeed not functioning, which was apparent by the sudden spout of water around us from all the other miniature spouts. Clever, very clever. No doubt the triplets were assigned this area to keep the humans from it, maybe even direct them back if they accidently stepped through. No, I knew that wouldn’t be what happened. If a human stepped through, either they’d be killed or sold into some sort of slavery. At least, that is what the books on ogres I’d found had called it. The description, though, had been less like slavery and more like bondage.

I shook it all off and headed toward the truck. There were a few humans wandering about now; the rain had slacked off and apparently that was enough to draw them out into the weather.

Back at the truck, we cleaned up, getting the worst of the blood and gore off—meaning it wasn’t obvious unless you looked really close. Liam brushed a strand of my hair back and tucked it behind my ear, his eyes lingering on my mouth as if he were hoping I’d change my mind. I shook my head ever so slowly. I wasn’t an ogre, and now that whatever pheromones had been floating around had eased off, I could think more clearly. I couldn’t go from fighting to sex in the space of a few heartbeats. “Do you smell coffee?”

His eyes widened. “You’re asking me if I smell coffee?”

Around the corner was indeed a small coffee shop, and within ten minutes I had a hot raspberry tea cupped in my hands. Liam had two sandwiches and a large coffee.

“You need to eat,” he said between sandwiches.

I glared at him and sipped my tea. “You don’t find this weird?”

He shrugged and took a bite out of his sandwich, answering around it. “You and weird are tight like a fat kid in spandex. I’m getting used to it.”

I burst out laughing, stunned at the unexpected joke. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. But even for me, going for tea after a fight like we just had is a bit much.”

He popped the last of the first sandwich into his mouth and leaned back. “I’m not the one to talk about normal, not anymore. Besides, there was another option.” His lips tipped upward and his golden eyes began to dilate. Heat flared between us and the lingering effects of whatever pheromones Sas had been throwing off reared up. He slid his hand under the table and up my thigh, massaging as he went.

I shook my head, took a deep breath, and pushed his hand back. Nope, not going there. At least, not today. “Ease up; after the salvage.”

The coffee shop was busy, humming with people, and I’m going to blame our stupidity on that. If you’d asked me, I would have told you that with that many humans around, another supernatural wouldn’t have shown up. Certainly not a supernatural we both hated. Not one that I had told on more than one occasion that I would be removing her head from her shoulders ASAP.

Milly slid into a chair at the table next to us, a drink in her hand. Frozen, that’s what I was, and Liam seemed about as stunned as me, his eyes widening and jaw dropping. Her brown locks flowed down over her shoulders, the bump on her belly the obvious show of her budding motherhood. Green eyes regarded me with no malice, but with a soft sorrow that ate at me; damn, she knew my weaknesses. Liam’s hands clutched the table, shaking it with the force of his fury. Not good, this was not good at all. Three seconds. That’s how long I was betting she had before he strangled her in front of all these humans.

“Liam, believe it or not, I am happy that Rylee brought you back. What I did, I did because I had no choice. But if I must, I will hold you down with a spell. Please don’t make me do that. It will scare the humans, and if you two are truly on a salvage, the last thing you need is human interference by way of a police tail. Or worse, your old boss showing up. I’ve heard that Agent Valley is hoping to keep tabs on you, perhaps trying to get you to work for him again.” Milly took a sip of her drink, and I just sat there and stared at her. Surely I’d drawn a smash to my head in the fight and this was some semi-conscious waking dream.

But no, the tremor in the table, the uncertainty in my gut, the smell of Milly’s rose perfume. Too real, this was happening whether I liked it or not. Liam held himself together, but the wolf was strong, and I could feel the rise of it along my skin like a forest fire gathering speed. We had to get out of here. I made a move to stand and Milly lifted her hand, palm out.

“Please, I know that you owe me nothing, but give me a moment to explain. Things have changed for me.”

“What are you doing here?” I managed to get out, lowering myself back into my seat. There had to be a good reason she was here, putting herself and her baby directly in harm’s way. With her, there was always a reason; the whole problem was just figuring out if the reason she gave would be the truth or another lie.

“I am trying to keep you safe. That has been my goal all along. Though you would be hard-pressed to see that, I suppose.” A tear slipped from her eye and trailed down her cheek, and I fought the twist of pity in my guts, seeing her cry. The pity was followed quickly by a spurt of anger I didn’t bother to repress.

“Enough of the fake waterworks.”

She nodded and wiped her tears away, her voice soft. “I have made a mess of things.”

“You can f**king well say that again.” I leaned back in my chair, to get a better look at her, but also to give me room to move. If she made one flinch toward Liam, I was going to tackle her. “Do you feel bad at all about killing Giselle, about almost killing Eve and Alex? About taking Liam captive and essentially trying to kill him by letting his wolf take over?”

“For all those things and more, yes, I grieve every waking moment. But I can change none of it; my soul was sold long ago, Rylee. Long before we ever met. There has been very little in my life that was because I decided it. Ethan was one of my few choices, and I loved him fiercely for that.” She lifted her eyes to mine, shimmering with intensity, as one hand dropped to cup her belly, Ethan’s child. I could see her desire to make me believe her one more time. But that wasn’t the worst of it.

I wanted to. I wanted so badly to have her back in my life, to believe that all she had done wasn’t really her. Yet I knew that for what it was—a childish wish for a time long gone.