Total pages in book: 134
Estimated words: 127026 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 635(@200wpm)___ 508(@250wpm)___ 423(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 127026 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 635(@200wpm)___ 508(@250wpm)___ 423(@300wpm)
Kerrigan had never seen Isa in anything other than fighting leathers. Tonight, she was in an expensive white dress that hugged her lithe figure like a glove. She was beautiful on a regular day with her short white hair, sharp jawline, and light eyes that cut straight through you. Today, she was otherworldly.
The object of desire of every male and female in the room.
“Hello, love,” Trask said cheerfully.
Isa arched an eyebrow as she approached him. From anyone else’s vantage point, all it looked like was Isa coming in for a hug from Trask. But from where Kerrigan and Fordham hid, they watched Trask hand Isa the Collector. She spirited it away into a hidden pocket in her dress.
“You should stay,” Trask said with a licentious smirk. “We could have a good time.”
Isa’s smile was ice. She turned her face away from the rest of the party, and Kerrigan read her lips as she whispered, “I can still cut off your balls.”
Kerrigan held back her smirk. Well, Isa played that nicely.
Isa fluttered her eyelashes again and then was gone. March was asking after her, but there was no time to waste. Isa alone with the Collector was a fight they could take.
“Jump,” Kerrigan said, but Fordham was already grabbing her wrist and disappearing through the shadows.
They appeared a moment later in the darkness on the edge of Trask’s property. It was late, and the street was empty. So, it was obvious as Isa traipsed down the townhouse stairs and into the open.
Kerrigan stepped into her path. “Give me the Collector, Isa.”
Isa’s eyes widened. Then, she smirked. “This?” She removed the small disc from her pocket. “Come and get it.”
Fordham stepped out of the shadows next. “I believe we will.”
“Oh, I’m shaking,” Isa said with a laugh. “I do applaud you. How did you know it was here?”
Kerrigan said nothing.
“You can have it,” Isa said. “If you can take it.”
Kerrigan lunged forward without a second thought. She needed that Collector. She needed to unlock its secrets. Stopping Isa was just a bonus at this point.
But as soon as Kerrigan was within reach, Isa disappeared. Kerrigan gasped and whipped around at the sound of Isa’s voice a dozen feet behind her. What the hell? Did the Collector allow someone to jump like Fordham?
“I will rejoice when I watch your life blood spill from your body,” Isa told her plainly. “I will only be sad that I was not the one to kill you.”
Then, she disappeared entirely.
Kerrigan wanted to scream her fury, but she just stood there in utter shock.
They’d lost the Collector.
45
THE DEMONSTRATION
ISA
Isa wanted to laugh herself hoarse at the look on Kerrigan’s face when she’d jumped, but she couldn’t. Because there was only one other person who had known where the Collector was.
Trask might have been bragging about his involvement, as idiotic as that was when they were so close to the finish line, but he wouldn’t have told anyone who could tell Kerrigan. Not even that brainless wretch he called a fiancée knew about the Collector’s whereabouts. Isa had made sure of it at their last meeting.
Which left her one person.
She just didn’t want it to be true.
“There you are,” Valia said, appearing out of the shadows at the bottom of the dungeon stairs. “I thought maybe you weren’t coming.”
“I had something else to do first.”
“More important than this?”
Isa eyed her sister warily. She was Isa’s only weakness. She had cut everything and everyone else out of her life. But she would die for her sister. A fact that Valia readily knew.
“It was in fact.” Then, she drew the Collector out of her pocket. “The Father sent me for this.”
Valia’s eyes lingered a beat on the magical artifact and then away. A tell. Though only Isa could see it. “You’re delivering it to him directly?”
“Yes.” Isa still hadn’t put it away.
“All right. Then, we should get this over with.”
Isa didn’t move. “Take it, V.”
Valia looked at her blankly. A perfect facade. “Why would I want that?”
“You tell me,” Isa said.
“We’re here for a job.”
“We are. But no one else knew where this was being stored.”
Valia arched an eyebrow. “So?”
“And Kerrigan and Fordham showed up to steal it.”
“Then, someone else knew,” Valia said slowly.
Isa sighed. She didn’t want to ask the next question. She didn’t want an answer for something she already knew. If she didn’t know, then maybe she could move on from this moment. But still … she had to.
“Are you working with her?”
Valia said nothing. Her sister stared back at her. Not pleading. Not begging. Not even an ounce of sorrow crossing her face.
Finally, she said, “Don’t ask questions, Isa.”
Isa dropped the Collector back into her pocket and got up into her sister’s face. “What are you thinking?” she hissed. “We are days away from getting everything we’ve worked for.”