2. Lincoln

God, she was fucking gorgeous. She had a wild, powerful kind of beauty. The kind you could never control. The type you could never cage.

I’d stood in the shadows like a creep, watching her: the way she moved, her long, dark brown ponytail swinging with each punch. Her tan skin pulling tautly over lean muscle. She was on the petite side, but you’d never know that, given how much force she put behind her blows.

It was clear the woman had training, and the fact that she currently had a blade pressed to my carotid told me she wasn’t afraid to use it. Amusement was my first reaction, that the tiny powerhouse was so full of fire.

She pressed the blade harder against my skin, not enough to slice me open but enough to prick my flesh. The sting took hold the same way her beauty had.

“I asked who you were,” she gritted out, her gray-violet eyes flashing.

The fierceness there had all amusement fleeing from my system. Because there was only one reason someone defended themselves with such ferocity: they’d been hurt before.

Fuck.

I slowly lifted my hand, revealing a key ring with the Haven gym tag I’d picked up yesterday dangling from it, one coded to let people into the gym any time after six. “New gym member.”

The woman didn’t show any signs of retreat. Her bewitching eyes simply narrowed on me, looking for all my secrets. “It isn’t open yet.”

I kept my hand where she could see it, not wanting to risk further injury but also not wanting to frighten her more. I wanted to kick my ass for that as it was. “I was told it opened at six.”

Her gaze flicked to the large clock on the wall, and then she cursed, finally pulling the knife away from my neck. “Of course, Kye’s late,” she muttered.

So, she knew the owner. An owner who happened to be the brother of my best friend, the one who’d gone on and on about the best place to train in Sparrow Falls. A prickle of something unfamiliar slid through me. Were the two involved? No part of me liked that idea. Which was ludicrous, given the fact that the only things I knew about this woman were how quickly she could pull a knife and that she looked like a walking temptation when taking on a heavy bag.

The massive gray dog next to her let out another low growl. Her gaze flicked to him. “ Beruhigen .” She spoke as easily as if she’d been born speaking German. For all I knew, she had.

The dog eased but still watched me carefully. I had a feeling he’d lunge if I made even one wrong move. But I was glad she had that.

She watched me closely as she slowly closed the switchblade and stepped back. She wore leggings that hugged every inch of her lean, muscular legs and a black tank top that dipped just enough to hint at what was under it—something that was none of my business. But as my gaze swept over her, I noticed something else.

Her tan skin was dotted with something. Paint. Gray, black, deep purple, and blue. The pattern had no rhyme or reason, but I found I wanted to search for every last speck of color.

She cleared her throat, annoyance evident in the sound.

My gaze flicked up to her face and the swirling irises that had held me rapt a moment ago. Those gray-violet orbs were siren’s eyes. Ones that could cast a spell and make you crash your ship against a rocky shore.

One of the paint splatters on her cheek fluttered as she scowled. “What are you staring at?”

“You aren’t going to apologize for nearly cutting my jugular?” I challenged, trying to shift the conversation from my fast-growing obsession.

The woman arched one dark brow at that. “You’re the one who broke into a gym without permission. You’re lucky you’re still breathing.”

Those siren’s eyes flashed a brighter violet as she spoke, and I thought I fell just a little bit in love with her fire.

“Vicious,” I muttered, but there was only admiration in my tone. “Though I don’t know if it can be considered breaking in when the door was unlocked, and I called out. But it’s hard to hear over this…noise.”

Annoyance flickered across the woman’s features as she bent and snatched a phone from the mat. She tapped the screen a few times, and the music cut off. “It’s not noise, it’s Cradle of Filth .”

My lips twitched. “You said it, not me.”

She rolled her eyes. “It’s the band’s name.”

“I think calling that a band is a stretch.”

“Toh-may-toh, toh-mah-toh,” she said, then winced, heading for a stack of towels. “Sorry about your neck.”

I moved to follow her as if she’d cast some sort of spell on me, but the gray beast stepped into my path, baring his teeth. “Is your dog going to rip out my throat?”

The siren chuckled, and the sound had a husky tone that wrapped around me, causing all my nerve endings to stand at attention. “Not if you stay where you are,” she said as she grabbed a couple of paper towels and crossed back to me.

She glanced down at her dog, grinning at him. “ Freund , Brutus.”

The moment she spoke the words, the tension in the dog’s muscles eased, but his gaze stayed fixed on me as if he didn’t trust me yet.

“Brutus knows German.”

The woman shrugged as she handed me a towel. “That’s how he was trained.”

“Guard dog?” I asked, curiosity piquing as I pressed the paper towel to my neck.

A hint of wariness slid into her expression. “Personal protection. Lots of people have protective dogs around here. Ranches and all.”

But that hit like a lie. A person didn’t bring their ranch dog into town if they weren’t worried about something. I had the bizarre urge to push for more. To learn all this woman’s secrets.

That wasn’t me. I’d built an empire through patience and tenacity. I didn’t rush. Didn’t let a single soul know I was eager for something. Because they could take advantage. And I’d learned the hard way never to let someone know what I really wanted. Or how much I cared.

The woman headed for a duffel by the shelves stocked with gloves, jump ropes, and other equipment. Swinging it over her shoulder, she straightened. “Enjoy your workout. Try not to steal anything. Even if it would serve my brother right for being a lazy ass.”

I stilled, my hold on my keys tightening. “Your brother?”

“Kye. He owns the place. He’s also notorious for sleeping through alarms.”

Kye. As in Cope’s brother. And if Kye was Cope’s brother, then… Hell. My siren was my best friend’s sister.