In the early hours before dawn, I am sick. I wake up with my stomach in a tumult, vomit rising in the back of my throat before I even open my eyes. Plastering my hands over my mouth and running to the bathroom, I barely make it to the toilet before I retch up all the waffles from last night. I kneel before the toilet, tears streaming down my face, and silently gag for twenty minutes.

Afterward, I feel headachy and lightheaded, so I just sit by the toilet for a long while. It’s cold on the floor. I’m not wearing a stitch of clothing, not since Monster stripped me of it earlier. All I have is the collar, and that won’t keep me warm. I pull a towel off the counter, sitting on it.

I’m not sure what made me sick. I’m usually not sensitive to anything. It must have been the waffles, although how you make waffles bad is beyond me.

When I finally get up and rinse my mouth in the sink, I hear Monster’s faint call from the other room. “Are you alright?”

I pad out of the bathroom, giving him a sheepish look. “I’m fine. I think something was weird with the waffles I ate, that’s all.”

Monster pulls back the covers, making a space for me. I settle back on the bed, comfortable in his arms. Soon the warmth makes me drowsy enough that I close my eyes, drifting off.

I open my eyes again to find myself staring at Monster’s place in bed. It’s dawn, or almost… the faint light in poking slits in the curtains that Monster drew close over the windows. I sit up with a yawn, looking for him. I find him at the desk, staring down at the phone in his hands.

He looks worried. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Monster look worried before this moment.

He glances up, seeing that I’m awake in the mirror in front of him. He doesn’t move, just keeps looking at me. The frown lines bracketing his mouth deepen.

“What?” I ask, tousling my hair. “What is it?”

“That was Damen, just now. He said that our house…” He stops and swallows. “He said that our house is gone.”

My jaw drops. “What… what do you mean, gone?”

I’ve heard of houses disappearing in the hurricanes, but not in this weather we’re having tonight. It might’ve rained for all of twenty minutes earlier, but now it’s promising to be a beautiful late fall day.

I’m honestly not even sure that I heard him right.

He clears his throat. “He said that there was a fire. Not a naturally occurring one; he meant someone started a fire that demolished the house. It’s just… gone.”

My hand comes up to my throat, feeling for my collar. “I… I don’t know what to say. God, are the servants okay?”

His face wrinkles for a moment. Is he worrying about them, or wondering why I’m even saying anything? With Monster, it’s impossible to tell. “I don’t know.”

“We should check on them. We should see the house,” I say. A thought occurs to me and I look to Monster, horrified. “Thank god that Cerberus is still at that training camp you insisted he go to.”

I feel winded like I just can’t quite get my breath. When I imagine that great old house being nothing but a pile of smoking rubble, I want to cry.

“Hmm,” he says, looking out the window. “The club we were at last night, The Balconnet?”

I look at him expectantly. “Yes?”

“There was a mass shooting there, too.”

My eyes go wide. “So… this fire…”

He finishes my thought. “It wasn’t an accident, no.”

I feel the same kind of queasiness that I felt this morning. The same bitter bile, backing up into my throat. I collapse backward in the bed, feeling strangely hollow.

“People are after us,” I whisper, closing my eyes. “How does that happen, exactly?”

When he doesn’t answer after a minute, I turn my head and open my eyes. Monster looks pensive, gazing out the window. His dark hair is slightly flattened on one side, his normally dewy and dusky complexion has gone a bit pale. He has dark circles rimming both eyes.

He looks human, I suddenly realize. He looks worried. That means we have something to be afraid of.

“Monster,” I say, calling his attention away from the window. He looks over at me, his grey eyes serious.

“What?”

He sounds a little lost, although there is an undertone of anger there too.

I start to cry. I can’t help it. “What are we going to do? Where are we going to hide?”

He sighs, getting up and coming to sit beside me. “Look at me. Look at me, okay? That is not for you to worry about. You’re going to be safe and well cared for, no matter what.”

I don’t like how distant he makes that sound. As if I will be cared for after he’s murdered. Pushing myself up, I throw myself in his arms, hiccuping and sobbing.

“No! I just found you. Don’t say that I will be taken care of… tell me that we will be okay.” It sounds hysterical, probably because it is. “Promise me!”

His hands descend on my back, comforting me.

“I can’t tell you what I’m not certain about myself,” he says quietly.

My hands tighten into fists and I pound them into his chest. “You have to promise me. You don’t understand!”

His hands are soothing on my back, smoothing back and forth in a rough arc. “What don’t I understand, Fiore?”

I gulp. The words are out of my mouth before I even think about what they truly mean. “I love you, damn it. I can’t lose you!”

Monster freezes for a long second, then his hands start rubbing my back again. “You don’t know what you’re saying. You’re upset.”

I push off of him, willing him to see the truth that is written plain on my face. “I’m upset, but that doesn’t change anything. I still love you.”

His expression is just short of incredulous. “You can’t.”

“I can!” I say, my jaw squaring. “I do. I may be young, but I know my own mind. I love you, Monster.”

He pulls away from me, getting up to walk to the window. His face is grave. “I hope you don’t expect me to say it back to you.”

I recoil just a little, stung by his words. “No. I don’t.”

But a little part of me is angry that he doesn’t. Am I the only one who feels this way when we’re together?

That’s a fact that I had not considered. It certainly weighs on me now.

“We’re getting off track,” he says blearily, wiping his hand over his face. “I have to focus on the house being burned down and the shooting at the club. I don’t have time for this… this… whatever this is.”

He’s so damned dismissive, but he’s also sort of right. I’m definitely not done talking about the issue, but there are other more immediate concerns at the moment.

I wipe my face with the sheet, sitting up. “Let’s make a checklist. Or a list of priorities.”

Monster turns his head a little to look at me. “Yeah?”

I slide out of bed, pulling the sheets off and tucking the ends around myself to make a toga. “It’s what my mother used to do when a situation was overwhelming. Make a list, then start ticking things off. Do you know where you want to start?”

“Mmm.” He considers that. “Well… I guess I’d start by getting all my bodyguards here. Then I’d dispatch a couple to do reconnaissance on the house, find out if the servants made it out or not. If they did, I’ll need to track them down, because they might know something helpful.” He shrugs. “That part is easy enough.”

“What’s next on the list?” I ask, grabbing the comforter and pulling it over my shoulders for warmth.

He sighs. “We have to assume that this is motivated by my business. Who would be upset that I’m about to close the deal here in New Orleans?”

I frown. “I don’t know. A rival gang, maybe?”

Monster slides me a curious look. “Yeah, maybe. Somebody that isn’t getting a cut, I guess. Maybe one of the factions that were forced out of New Orleans when I took over.”

“Makes sense to me,” I say with a shrug.

His expression grows conflicted. “I don’t think you’re going to like this, but I am going to have to go out.”

“Like hell you are!” I utter sharply. “What, are you going to lead the murderers away from me? What if they’re after me, and you leave me alone?”

Alright, that isn’t my real concern, but it’s real enough to get my point across. I can see the war of emotions as they play out on his face.

“Fiore, this is very serious. Dangerous, if you get down to it.”

“And what isn’t, exactly? Because if you’d left me to sleep alone tonight, I would have probably died in that house fire.”

He flinches at that. There is some satisfaction in knowing that even if he doesn’t feel the same way that I do, he doesn’t welcome the idea of my demise. It may be pathetic, but I’ll take any little scrap of good news right now.

“It’s hard to know what to do,” he says at last. He hangs his head. “Just tell me what to do.”

I walk over to him, putting my arm around his waist and resting my head against his shoulder.

“Focus on everything else, not on me. Just assume I’m going to come with you, at least as far as staying in the SUV. Then we’re mobile. It’s harder to hit a moving target.”

His forehead wrinkles as he looks down at me. “That’s true.”

I hate to see him so lacking in motivation. “How about we start by ordering some new clothes be brought here? That will give the bodyguards time to gather.”

He nods, tense. “I’ll get someone grab you something that’s wearable for tonight. Tomorrow, we’ll worry about dressing you properly.”

I give him a smile. “Sounds good.”

Monster leans closer to my embrace for a moment, then pulls away. He puts his phone to his ear, issuing commands almost immediately.

A few hours later, he convenes a meeting of the bodyguards in the little sitting room. Although I’m dressed now, wearing some new bright pink Juicy Couture sweats, I stay out of the room. Monster has enough to deal with without worrying about me today.

He leaves his phonein the bedroom though. I know, because as soon as he goes into the other room, his phone lights up on the bedside tables, a text message crossing the screen.

Sorry about your loss, it says. It’s from Dryas.

I purse my lips, choosing to ignore the message. Monster will see it when he comes back from his meeting.

But of course, that’s not all that Dryas has to say.

Are you reading this, Katherine?

And, of course, you are. Are you scared?

I whip my head around, looking at the window. I stalk over to it, peering out into the morning sunlight. Across from the hotel is another four-story building, though it appears vacant. I search the windows but see no one.

How is Dryas looking at me? Maybe he’s not really looking, and he’s just hoping that I will get paranoid.

The phone buzzes again. I’m drawn like a magnet to see what it says.

Nice sweat suit. Very flattering.

Ice cold water fills my veins. I run over to the window, yanking the curtains closed. Shaking, I jog over to the door where Monster is having his meeting, listening in.

Can I interrupt him? Is it worth it?

Fuck it. I barrel into the meeting, careening straight for Monster’s arms. He may not think of his brother as a threat, but I definitely do.

After today, I start to wonder just what he’s doing in town… so close to a mass shooting and our house burning down.

Monster’s arms close around me, and for a minute, I feel safe again.