Jasper groaned in pain then, breaking the weird trance that I’d fallen into.

“I’m fine,” I insisted again, trying my best to talk clearly through the pain in my throat. Whilst evading Evan’s knowing stare. Dylan reappeared from wherever he’d gone and tossed a bag each to Evan and me. I hadn’t even noticed that they’d collected up the supplies from our previous camp, until now. In my defense, there was a lot going on in my head.

“Hop up, Riley,” Dylan told me, nudging my knee with his hand. “Evan, let’s put Jasper beside the fire, he needs warmth.”

I stood aside, feeling a bit like a spare wheel while they got Jasper situated and comfortable near the fire Beck had managed to get going.

“Butterfly,” Beck said softly, holding out a hand to me. Again. Was this some sort of weird symbolism? “Come here.” He held a warm coat in his hand, and when I moved closer to him, he gently unzipped the one I was wearing. “You have blood all over this one,” he explained as he pushed it open then paused. Numbness was overtaking my brain, and it took me way too long to understand his sharp intake of breath, rumbling chest, and intense perusal.

“Oh.” I looked down at my black bra. “I used my shirt for Jasper’s... cut thing.” I waved a hand, failing to find the right word for his injury. I was done pretending to be a doctor for one lifetime. But it wasn’t my bra—or the breasts within it—that held Beck’s stare. His thumb trailed over the rapidly darkening patch on my ribs where I’d caught a boot from my attacker.

“What the fuck is this?” Beck demanded in a low, deadly voice. His fingers then trailed up over my skin, sending a fiery path along my body before he brushed across my neck. “And this?”

I just shrugged, pulling my blood stained coat the rest of the way off and exchanging it for the clean one Beck held. “One of those... people... found me and Jasper,” I murmured, keeping my gaze down to avoid Beck’s. My fingers fumbled with the thick buttons of the coat, too cold to function properly. I just knew I needed to cover those injuries, because Beck didn’t appear to be doing anything except silently losing his shit.

“Dylan,” he said, that word a snap of sound.

In a flash, the deadly second to Beck was at our side. “Check her ribs,” Beck bit out, his eyes a gray so dark it was almost black. “And her throat. Some fucker tried to choke her.”

Dylan shot me softer eyes than I’d seen from him before. “Jasper told me you saved him,” he said as he pushed my coat open and gently stroked his fingers across my side.

I snorted before tiredly dropping my head back, clanking it against the tree trunk behind me. “Jasper saved me. That … assassin or whatever was strangling me, and he dragged himself out to shoot your blade my way.”

Soft fingers brushed across my throat then, and since Dylan was still prodding my side, I knew it was Beck. Touching the marks blooming on my fair skin. I didn’t open my eyes, somehow content in this moment to have two of the deadliest guys I’d ever met in my life, touching me. Protecting me.

“I think your ribs are just bruised,” Dylan said, breaking me from my stupor. “Let me know though if the pain gets worse, or if you have any trouble breathing.”

He moved on to my neck then, and this time I flinched as he pressed near the center.

“Your throat is bruised as well. But since you’re still managing to talk, somewhat, I think you’ll be fine.”

I nodded, finally opening my eyes. Beck allowed me to zip the new jacket up, and after that I moved closer to the fire. Dylan took off, heading to put out our distress call, and Beck went out to scout the area and make sure we were definitely alone. Creeping closer, I grabbed one of the blankets and draped it over Jasper. I pressed my hand to his head, worried by the slightly flushed look of his skin. “His vitals are steady,” Evan said from his perch nearby. “As long as Dylan can get the call out, we’ll be out of here by morning, and Jasper will have the best medical care in the country.”

I snorted. “Which country, Canada or America?”

It truly hit me then that this was my first time out of America. Shit, I didn’t even have a passport.

Evan and I remained close to Jasper, both of us checking on him. I forced some water into him at one point, and he didn’t even curse at me. Beck reappeared, scaring the ever living fuck out of me, because he made like zero noise. Despite the fact he was tall and built like a high level athlete.

Whatever those survival skills were, they’d definitely excelled.

For four dudes who had done nothing but torment and scare me in the short time I’d known them, I felt awfully safe right now, especially as Beck settled in on the other side of me, his heat seeping into the colder parts of my body.

“Still clear?” Evan asked, and Beck nodded.

“Nothing is trailing us, we took out the entire team.”

Swallowing roughly, wishing my throat wasn’t burning like a bitch, I had to ask. “Who tried to kill us?”

Beck met my gaze, and for a moment I thought he was going to tell me it wasn’t my business.

“Huntley Incorporated.”

I blinked, wondering why that name sounded vaguely familiar.

“They started in oil,” Evan supplied from the other side of Jasper. “Not that long ago, which is why they’re ‘new money.’ Those fuckers are quick to throw their green and power around, but they lack the foresight to think long term. They’ve decided now they want to own it all, control the world, and they’re not taking it well that we still manage to come out on top.”

What was this fucking world? They were supposed to be civilized people, and they sabotaged planes and sent out teams of hired killers?

“They tried to kill us?” I all but screeched. Or I would have screeched had I been capable of that sound right now. “A little step up from buying shares out from under you to take over your companies.”

Beck shook his head, drawing my attention to him. “You don’t understand, we’ve all moved past the point of shares and hostile takeovers … now it’s about control. Control of the world. Of wars. Of resources. At the moment Delta has more, and Huntley wants it. They also know we have a strong set of rules which govern us. Company shares can only be passed to heirs … the inheritors. If there are no heirs … you have a weakness that can be manipulated. “

“Not to mention we’re the first inheritors, since our great-great-grandfathers, to have a bond stronger than simply being part of Delta,” Evan added. “We’re loyal. We’re even more highly trained than our fathers, and we can’t be bought or manipulated. They’re afraid when we rise up and take control of our companies, we will decimate them.”

Beck’s chest rumbled, and I shivered as he pressed closer to me. “We need to figure out what our retaliation is going to be.”

“How can you be sure it was them, though?” I asked, wondering if they might be overlooking another enemy. “I know this Huntley is the competition, but surely you have other enemies to worry about?”

Beck and Evan exchanged a glance, and I reached out to check Jasper’s pulse and temperature again, adjusting the blanket that had fallen down.

“No one else has the resources to get to our people,” Beck finally said, answering my question. “That pilot, he’d been with us for a long time.”

My hands trembled as I recalled his drawn face, the tears in his eyes as he lifted the gun. “He said he had to protect his family,” I whispered, my own eyes burning as those dark memories tried to edge further into my head.

A thought hit me then. “Why don’t you guys have bodyguards? I mean, Huntley sent hired killers after us, and clearly after the pilot, so why are you always…”

Alone. They handled everything themselves, and considering they were rich and powerful, clearly had dangerous enemies—I already knew of more than one attempt on their lives—but there was never any sign of bodyguards.

Jasper chuckled then, and I was relieved to see him open his eyes a touch. “Our parents tried to keep a team around us,” he rasped. “But we ditched them so often, they eventually gave up.”

“We don’t need any others,” Beck said without emotion. “We have no weaknesses in our group, the four of us are a team. We trust no one else. We have each other’s back, and no team of bodyguards could do what we can.”

That was for sure, I’d never seen anybody move the way they did when those hired killers showed up. That was cool, capable, kill-without-remorse sort of shit that I expected from hardened soldiers. Not dudes only a year or two older than me.

“What about my brother?” I asked, reaching for the water again, and making Jasper drink a few more sips. My throat seized then and I took a few drinks myself before continuing, “Was he … part of your inner circle?”