“RIGHT!” She threw her hands up. “They just turned me and put me on a leash, but it’s like one of those really long ones where I have a false sense of freedom while not knowing a damn thing.”

“She turned me and stuck me in a cage. I’m lucky if I get words in a full sentence and level breathing,” I grumbled.

Sam snort-laughed. Then I realized what I’d just said and burst into laughs with her. For a moment we just lost it. Together.

As her laughs faded away, she leaned forward again and whispered, “On a scale of one to ten—one being absolutely no way, not—how badly do you want to escape and switch teams in this fight?”

“Ten,” I whispered back without hesitation. Then my eyes widened. “I mean . . . what was the question?”

Her gold and red eyes sparkled wickedly. “Don’t worry, beautiful. I was going to say twenty.”

My breath left me in a rush. I had so many questions, but before I could speak, the door to her room opened and one of the servers pushed a fancy cart in. I leaned back and licked my lips. The food smelled incredible . . . It smelled like my life before all of this.

The server, whose name I didn’t know, began sitting plates on the table between me and Sam. “The chef has delivered for you a sampling of gumbo, jambalaya, po'boys, Crawfish Etouffee, and of course beignets. Also, a bottle of red wine. Will you be needing anything else, mistress?”

“That’s all. Thank you.” Sam gave him a tight-lipped smile and watched him leave. Once the door shut and we were alone again, she turned to me with a giddy grin. “So, Pierce, tell me everything about your life before it was stolen from you.”

“I’ll show you mine if you show me yours.”

Her cheeks flushed pink. “Deal. Now spill.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

FRANKIE

Tenn had been kicked out of the house.

Apparently, this was a common side effect of Tegan going down, or being gone, where Tenn would have so much panicked energy that he literally caused distress in the others. So no one else was surprised when they sent him out like a bad puppy. They were surprised I was sent out with him. I’d lost track of how long we’d been kicked out or how many laps around the house we’d done with all the dogs, but we’d finally sat down on the front steps because I’d worn myself out. Tenn hadn’t lost any energy. Dude didn’t seem to tire physically. We’d been sitting here for a hot minute in comfortable silence on the outside. I was sure his mind was as noisy as mine.

The waiting was the hardest part.