tabby

Not after doing something so against my nature. I’d need my personal belongings around me in their appropriate places to keep me calm. And I really didn’t want to share a hotel room with one of them. That would just be an invitation for disaster.
“Of course.” Bae draped his arm over my shoulder while Arin relieved me of my tote. “We need to have a secure place without ties to FUC. A hotel is the perfect cover. In fact, we should have gone there today, but it was suggested”—his gaze lifted over my head toward Arin—“that it might be better to wait one night.”
“But wouldn’t today be the perfect time to trail us if Ed was suspicious?”
“Possibly, which is why Kasim is trailing him and I watched for a tail. But I think you calmed his suspicions. And I did drop the hint that you were living in the hotel but had prior plans for tonight.”
I remembered him telling Ed about the prior engagement at the end, so I couldn’t fault his logic. Still, the feeling that someone may have been watching me had my head on a swivel.
“Relax, blueberry. No one is here but us. And so you don’t panic, that’s why you are staying with us tonight.”
They pulled me along the path to the accommodation they’d been given. They called it The Den. Flanked by the two of them, I felt safer knowing they would protect me from anything bad. But even with the two of them, I missed Kasim, my dark knight. I always felt safer when he was near.

13
Kasim
The night shadows wrapped around me, pulling me deeper into the darkness as I stood outside Ed’s house, waiting for him to turn in for the night. I’d hoped that since he met with Tabitha just after lunch that the man wouldn’t stay until the club closed.
I was wrong.
And then the man stayed to do more work after the last dancer and bar staff left. All of it drove me nuts. Not having Tabitha close by set me on edge, triggering all my protective and predator instincts. But I knew she was safe and at my house with my teammates. I had to trust they could protect her when I couldn’t be there. Even if it meant she ended up in one of their beds. It couldn’t be helped. We needed to know more about Ed and his contacts. And after the things I’d heard him say about Tabitha after she left, by watching him, I was protecting her.
The lights in his house went off, and I breathed a sigh of relief. Finally, I could go home and watch the person I really wanted to.
I waited for another thirty minutes before I left, yawning as the sky deepened to its darkest just before dawn. All that time wasted. Ed hadn’t seen anyone that I hadn’t already checked. He didn’t go anywhere new. And even when he was in his club, from the various vantage points I’d found, he stayed in his office or out in the main part of the club, talking to the patrons. Other than confirming his routine, I’d learned nothing new.
The den was silent when I opened the door, but by the time I’d taken off my shoes and entered the kitchen to grab a quick drink before heading to bed, I heard a rustling from the living room. Curious about it, I walked in to discover Tabitha curled up on our couch with a blanket over her.
She yawned and rubbed her eyes. “You’re back. What time is it?”
I crouched beside the couch near her head. All my anxiety and tiredness wiped away the moment her sleepy smile graced her face. “I am, and it’s very late or really early, so you should go back to sleep.”
A few strands of her hair fell across her face, and I brushed them back, dragging my fingertips over her cheek and around her ear. She shivered under my touch, and her sleep-filled eyes darkened. “But I want to know what happened. Did you learn anything new? Did you”—she paused when a yawn cut her off mid-sentence—“see where he hides his stuff?”
“Shhhh.” I pressed my fingers to her lips. “Nothing I learned can’t be kept until we’re all awake.”
She nodded as she stretched and wiggled on the couch. I’d slept on it a few nights and knew it wasn’t comfortable. It had come with the accommodation and was well used with sagging cushions that had springs that poked through.
“Uncomfortable?”
“Uh-huh.”
I stood, slipping my arms under her body and lifting her bridal style into my arms.
“What are you doing?” she asked around her yawns.
“I’m taking you to bed. I have a large comfortable one, and you need a good night’s sleep. Do you trust me?”
She draped her arms around my neck as she snuggled her face deeper into my chest. “Of course I do. You’re my purring dark knight.”
Her words had my arms pulling her more securely to my chest. No one, outside of Bae and his family, had ever put their trust in me like that. Almost eight months after meeting Arin, and spending countless hours with him, he finally learned to fully trust me, and that was with Bae showing him every day how trustworthy I was.
I kicked the bedroom door shut behind me, crossed the floor, and placed her on my bed, pulling the covers down from beneath. When I’d lifted her from the couch, I discovered she slept in pants, which couldn’t be comfortable. “Tabitha, sweetie, I’m going to take off your pants to make you comfortable, okay?”
She mumbled something that sounded like a yes, but when her hands went to her waist and began to fumble with the button, I took over, brushing her hands away. Within seconds, her pants were removed and I stared at her shapely legs. Like the rest of her, they were smooth and full of strength, which she hid under layers of clothes.
I stripped out of my own