Free Soul Avenged (Sons of Wrath, #1) by Keri Lake

counter.
    Fuck
you, Ayden mouthed.
    Zeke winked,
his lips forming the word, Anytime .
    Scalding
coffee sloshed onto Ayden’s fingertips as she carried it to the
dining room, where a hand-carved cherry wood table took up most of
the room.
    Gavin sat at
the end of it, sipping his coffee with a newspaper in hand.
    Ayden sat down
next to him, licked the coffee off her skin and set her feet up on
the table.
    He peeked over
the paper with a disapproving expression then disappeared behind it
again.
    “You know,
they have computers now,” she said to him. “And hand held devices
so you don’t have to hold the paper and get ink all over your
fingers.”
    “Guess I’m old
fashioned. I remember when the printing presses first came out.
Shame they’re all on the verge of extinction.”
    “So what are
your plans for the day?” She blew on the hot coffee and took a
sip.
    “Return my
female once she wakes up,” Gavin said from behind his paper.
“Settle some business affairs at the casino. Kill a few lycans and
then seek out another female. You?”
    “Look, if you
think it bothers me that you’re bedding a different woman every
night, you’re wrong.”
    Gavin cleared
his throat. “Believe it or not, my motives aren’t based on what
might upset you.”
    Ayden smiled,
sipped her coffee and held the cup to her chest. “What’s going on
at the casino?”
    “Dealer.” He
sighed. “She’s stealing from me. Had to hear it from my pit
boss.”
    “So what do
demons do with thieves? Take them out back and cut their fingers
off?” She snickered. “Cast their souls into hell?”
    “Not a
succubus.” Behind the newspaper, his expression must’ve been grim
by the sudden change in his voice. “Wish I’d have known that when I
hired her.”
    “Why? What
does that mean?”
    His forced
exhale fluttered the paper. “It means I have to be very careful in
how I handle her or risk the consequences. So I’m going to do what
any human would do. I’m letting her go. And she’ll be lucky
if she finds another job in Detroit.”
    “You’re firing her. That’s being careful? I’d be pretty pissed if I
was her.” Ayden tapped her fingernails on the outside of her cup,
stopping only when Gavin cleared his throat again. “So you actually
plan to show up tonight for the hunt?”
    He finally set
the paper down. “Did you miss me last night?”
    She narrowed
her eyes. “I don’t like being ditched on a job. I was attacked by
three of them at the same time.”
    “You’re a
slayer. And if my vision serves me correctly, my brothers handled
the other two.”
    “So, “—she
waved her hand back and forth—“you’re just going to come and go as
you please with this contract?”
    “Ayden, I have
other obligations in addition to yours.” He rubbed his eyes,
pinched the bridge of his nose. “I’ve committed three of my six
brothers to this case. And me. What more do you want?” His
fingertips released his nose then entwined with his other hand, and
his eyes focused on her.
    Ayden swung
her boots from the table to the floor and straightened in her seat.
“I want a commitment from you that you’re going to be there when
these things go down. The entire pack chased us.”
    “You walked
away from it.” His interlaced fingers splayed as if to shrug it
off. “And besides, you’re one to talk of commitments?”
    Ayden opened
her mouth to speak but slammed it shut instead and frowned. Another
sip of her coffee drowned the smartass remark begging to come
out.
    Gavin
disappeared behind his newspaper again.
    Her jaw
hardened. “When will the others return?”
    “Zayne returns
tomorrow evening. Maddox and Ferno won’t be back for another couple
of weeks. Apparently, Ferno needs a bit more time. Rightly so.”
    Ferno was
short for Inferno , so nicknamed after his brand of
pain—hellfire His real name was Kennet, but no one called him that,
lest the poor ignorant sap who made that mistake would be in for a
serious ass beating. The