Total pages in book: 159
Estimated words: 150546 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 753(@200wpm)___ 602(@250wpm)___ 502(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 150546 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 753(@200wpm)___ 602(@250wpm)___ 502(@300wpm)
Perdita has a particular scent that I haven’t smelled anywhere else. I could never put my finger on it. It was the perfume of pine and something sweet like floral. I now know that the unfamiliar note is the herb we drank at the ritual.
Flames from the small pockets of fire release embers through the silence. There’s not a single sound except for the crunching of my boots over the loose gravel.
The deeper we walk down Main, the worse it gets. It’s like a damn bomb site.
“Tell me everything.” The sensitivity of my vigilance doesn’t waver, as my head swivels from left to right. The rest of the Kings would have no doubt heard by now, as much as I tried to ignore it.
Ignore her coming here. I don’t even want to allow my mind to wander to Halen. I may have pushed her away a little too hard tonight. Let’s just hope I don’t end up with a matching bullet in my head like that Lost Boy.
The soles of her shoes clap against the cobblestone the farther we move through the street. We’re only a couple hundred meters from the end, where her mansion is.
Moments later, we reach the high-wire fence that’s slightly ajar and unprotected. I’ve never seen this place left unprotected before.
“I was down at the docks. A shipment was due to go out, but I got a notification from an unknown number that I had to be there to retrieve it. When I got down there, men piled out of a black jet boat and started shooting.”
“They all missed you?” I gesture to the front of us. “And why is the house unprotected?”
“Because the Lost Boys wanted them to think it was. Easier to clip them off one by one.” I follow her line of sight to one of the corners of the roof, where a barrel looks down at us.
She shoves the gate open. “And thankfully, yes. You know me, War. I run.”
I do know her. And she does run… too well.
I don’t bother raising my gun. If anyone’s gonna shoot me, it better be a fucking kill shot because mine sure as fuck will be.
Three bodies lay sprawled out on the driveway, but music plays in the distance. “You leave a radio on?”
She shakes her head. “No. But there was a party happening when it started.”
“Do I even need to ask what kind?” My boots slosh through the puddles of blood and brain matter when I climb the steps that lead to the front door. “Have you checked them?”
The empty foyer displays nothing but the diamond chandelier that hangs above.
“Yep. Nothing on them that we could see. No ink, no ID. Nothing.”
Glass stairs lead up to the second and third floors, but I turn a sharp right to follow the music. Columns line the path down the wide hallway, before we reach the twin doors directly at the end that lead into her office.
My palm lands on the wood as I push it open, the music now even louder than it was before.
The step is careful, but I haven’t even lowered my heel when something flies out from the side. I turn just in time, catching his gun that’s coming for my temple and whacking it out of his hand.
I grip him around the throat and force him back against the bookshelf, squeezing so hard I feel his organs splinter beneath my palm.
“Yeah? So much for your fucking security, Katsia!” The venom in my words are for her and she knows it.
“I don’t know how he got in!” The panic in her tone releases some of my annoyance with her. For now.
“Maybe you’re not as hot as you think you are, and your seductress ways are a little rusty?” I tease, keeping the intruder close. It’s a lie. Katsia emanates erotic, feminine energy. Even when she’s naked, there’s a softness about her. She doesn’t like to kill, which is not only why she has the Lost Boys, but is how she chooses to use them. She could seduce her way into any motherfucker. We’d even caught Priest eyeing her once. He’d never, but you could see he admired it. It isn’t just about her appearance, nah. It is more than that. It is her to her core. It usually only comes from a blood Stuprum. Old Katsia clearly trained her well.
“Actually, he was captured and left for you.”
The color in his face drains, his eyes widening. “You’re—" He stops abruptly. Probably smart.
He doesn’t look like a Baker. Not a Gentleman, not that it would be them, but we still have to consider our biggest threat. Fuck.
Shuffling rustles in the background and I don’t bother to turn and see what Katsia is doing. She’s not weak. She can handle her own; it’s just that she loves when people do it for her.