His to Take (Wicked Lovers #9)
Author: Shayla Black

Chapter One

NIGHT pressed in, along with the rage crushing his chest. As he crept through the unfamiliar house, it lay dark, silent. Every step through the shadowed family room cost him precious seconds during which more people could die.

If he didn’t survive this endeavor, he damn well planned on taking a deserving bastard or two with him. No way were these assholes snuffing out anyone else.

He found the hall and crept down its length. As he peeked in each bedroom, he gripped a SIG SAUER in his gloved palm.

Finally, he found the master bedroom. He stepped in, then frowned. Too still. No snoring, no audible breathing. Dead silence.

Peering through the inky space, he found the bed rumpled but empty and bit back a curse. Where the hell—

The feel of something hard and cold pressing against the back of his skull had him grimacing and holding in a curse.

“You have five seconds to tell me who you are and why the fuck you broke into my house at three a.m. or I’ll blow you away.”

Despite the grim situation, amusement lifted a corner of his lips. “You could, Hunter, but I think your wife would remove your balls if you started offing her family.”

“Joaquin?” the other man asked, but didn’t ease up on the firearm aimed at his brain.

“Kata doesn’t have any other brothers,” he pointed out.

A muffled feminine squeal sounded from around the corner. The turn of a knob and the yank of a door later, bare feet scampered across a hardwood floor.

“Damn it, woman!” Hunter Edgington bit out at his wife.

In response, she flipped on a light and ran at him head-on. “It’s fine, babe.”

Joaquin Muñoz flinched against the bright beams stabbing his eyes. As he adjusted, he turned to face his sister. She barreled toward him in a pink, gauzy nightie that brushed the middle of her thighs and clearly demonstrated the fact that she wasn’t wearing a bra.

Almost as bad, her very protective husband, Hunter, still pointed a gun in his face. No doubt the former Navy SEAL knew how to use it well.

With another feminine scream of delight, Kata reached him and launched herself into his arms. How long had it been since he’d seen her? Almost three years. A fucking lifetime ago, really.

Then Joaquin didn’t think anything as he felt her hard belly against his own. “You’re pregnant?”

Kata stepped back and rubbed a hand over her distended abdomen. “Yeah.”

“Thirty-one weeks.” Hunter lowered the gun, but the tone warned him not to upset Kata or there’d be hell to pay. “We’re happy.”

“We are,” she assured with a smile. “I’m due May thirtieth. It’s a boy. Please be happy for us.”

Joaquin didn’t get the whole pairing off and spitting out kids thing, but pregnancy agreed with Kata. Though she didn’t wear a shred of makeup, she glowed. Glossy chocolate hair covered her shoulders. Her smile wasn’t the only thing that revealed her apparently sublime joy.

If she was happy, he’d play happy for her. “Of course.”

Kata relaxed, grabbing a nearby robe and belting it above her belly. “What brings you here?”

“Yeah. In the middle of the night without so much as ringing the doorbell?” Hunter’s eyes looked chilly even when he was in a good mood. At the moment, they held the warmth of a glacier.

Kata elbowed her husband with an exasperated sigh. “Is everything all right? Do you need a bed? Can you stay this time?”

“Hold it right there, motherfucker!” Another Edgington blasted from the hallway, semiautomatic pointed in his face. Then he blinked. “Joaquin?”

“As you can see . . .”

“Logan, damn it!” Kata braced her hands on her hips. “Put the gun down. What are you doing here?”

“I was up helping Tara feed the twins when I looked out the window. Since that streetlight shines on your back fence, I could see someone sneak over. I found the French doors to the family room unlocked and I followed.”

When Hunter whipped a censuring stare at Kata, she winced. “Sorry. I forgot to lock the door when I came back in after watering the plants.”

“And you forgot to set the alarm,” her husband added. “Again.”

“Jesus, why didn’t you just knock?” Logan sounded almost as annoyed as his brother.

“I didn’t want to wake everyone in the house up.”

“Everyone?” Hunter quipped. “There was no one else in the house with me except your sister. And the damn dog that’s obviously sacked out. Freaking furball.”

Joaquin rubbed at the back of his neck. He’d kind of figured that. He’d wanted help, not a family reunion. Right now, the family thing was just in his way, but he smiled at Kata. “I wasn’t sure, and my time to be polite has run out.”