A Whisper of Sin Read Online Free Page A

turned them palm-sides-up. “Healing okay.”
    â€œThe bastard is in a coma,” he muttered, cupping her hands so he could inspect the damage. The leopard hated seeing her marked up. So did the man. “You know a Psy we could chat up?”
    â€œWell,” she said when he forced himself to let her go, “my mother’s accountant is Psy but I don’t think Ms. Bhaskar is into interrogations.”
    â€œPity.”
    â€œSo, last night . . .”
    â€œCan you talk about it?” He paused to look down into her face. “If it’s too hard, we can delay it for a few days.”
    A hint of open irritation flared in her eyes. “What about making the streets safer for all daughters?”
    â€œIt’s important,” he admitted. “This gang, Vincent’s Crew, they’re taunting us. If we don’t get them out of the city soon, we lose the right to hold it.”
    â€œReally?” Lines marked her forehead. “Why?”
    â€œIt’s about power,” he told her. “A predatory changeling pack can only legitimately claim territory it can hold—and that means clearing it of all other predators. The Crew calls our authority into question. Another changeling group could decide that means we have no right to this area.”
    â€œAnd then blood would spill,” she said, voice solemn. “The SnowDancer wolves?”
    â€œDangerous,” he told her. “But they’re holding a massive amount of territory already. Our intel says they haven’t got the manpower to push us out.”
    â€œBut they’re not the only ones are they?” Sliding her hands into the pockets of her vivid red coat, Ria nodded left. “That’s the alley where he grabbed me. I was walking home after a night class. My last class actually.”
    â€œWhy were you alone?” he asked, a slight growl in his voice. “It was after dark.”
    â€œIt was barely eight.” Irritation sparked again—Emmett was starting to show the same overprotective tendencies as her parents. “And I’m an adult in case you haven’t noticed.”
    A slow blink. “Oh, I noticed.”

THREE
    H eat curled up from her stomach, spread through her limbs, threatened to color her face. “Then don’t patronize me.” Steeling her spine against the impact, she met those gorgeous eyes of his. “My decision was a solid one. There were a lot of people around, heading out to restaurants or coming home from work. That excuse for a human being took me during a split-second respite in the foot traffic.”
    â€œMeans he had to have been following you, just waiting for an opportunity.” Emmett stared into the dark maw of the alley, his eyes narrowed.
    She wondered if he’d even heard her first two sentences. “That’s what I thought. I’m always careful when I get off the skytrain, but it’s hard to pick up that sort of thing when so many people disembark at the stations.” Last night, the mass of humanity had spread out as soon as they hit the ground, but there’d been enough of a crowd going her way that she hadn’t really paid attention to anyone in particular.
    â€œUntil we neutralize the Crew,” Emmett murmured, still staring into the alley, “you don’t go anywhere alone.”
    Her mouth fell open.
“What?”
    â€œTo Death,” he said, turning to face her, “that’s their motto. They follow their quarry to death. They’ll come after you again and again. It’s a matter of ‘honor.’ ” He all but spat on the street. “What the fuck kind of honor is it to hurt a woman?”
    The unflinching conviction of his words reached straight through to the warm feminine core of her. But—“I can’t sit at home. I have to start interviewing for jobs for one.” Work was her ticket to freedom, a freedom she’d worked hard to gain. “And