Total pages in book: 47
Estimated words: 46899 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 234(@200wpm)___ 188(@250wpm)___ 156(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 46899 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 234(@200wpm)___ 188(@250wpm)___ 156(@300wpm)
My smile felt sad, out of place, awkward. “Don’t have one, it was fully obliterated a few weeks ago.”
“Good.” Cassian tilted his head. “You really think the Alferos have the intel once you’re in? Or is it false information?”
“They’re so neck deep in the De Langes, they probably have everything. All I need is one name,” I said. “The name of the shooter so he can meet the same fate.”
“And if it’s me?” Cassian asked.
“Then I’ll apologize in advance for making a mess of all your rich blood and try not to hit an artery?”
Cassian nodded. “Just keep my face intact—but I’m not the shooter. I don’t shoot kids, and I was basically one at the time too. Whoever took out the hit, whoever ordered the De Langes to target your house will pay. I promise.”
They would. Tenfold. I’d cleanse the entire family line and make them wish they were never brought into this world, and then I could finally face my little brother’s grave and say I was worthy to fucking gaze upon it.
“Then get it,” Cassian said. “Get close to the Alferos. Find out who ordered the hit. Who pulled the trigger. You get your info before I get mine—you win a prize. If I get what I need first?”
My voice was low. “What happens to the loser?”
Cassian flipped a coin into the air. It caught the moonlight and spun like fate before landing in his palm. He didn’t show it—just smiled, slow and deadly.
“I never hit and tell.”
Ah I forgot, this was the game part.
I stirred awake, thoughts dark from that interaction weeks ago, and stared out at the heavy curtains. Tempest was already gone—big shock. We hadn’t exactly ended the night on the best terms. Sunlight sliced through the thick black curtains like judgment or maybe something else. I refused to think it was longing or need for something more than a fight with her before sleeping with one eye open.
With a curse, I threw off the blankets and quickly got ready. We had our first official brunch as a married wolf also known as eating with the wolves. I was used to the five families but that didn’t mean I looked forward to dining with them when so many of them had hot tempers and sharp objects nearby.
I mean at least hide the steak knives, did they learn nothing after all these years?
By the time I made it into the kitchen I was already exhausted, mentally, not physically, my brain had a hell of a workout just trying to figure the game plan after my conversation with Cassian and also remembering our lovely little date at Lake Michigan before all of this went from possibility to reality, nightmare to reality.
Truth.
There was a sharp knock on the front door, precise and deliberate. Followed by the doorbell ringing. I heard the click of Tempest’s heels, the door opening, and then she was in the kitchen holding a small white box that matched her perfect white jumpsuit and nude heels. This couldn’t be good for me. Nothing pretty ever ended up that way.
She set the box down at the table and took a seat opposite then started sipping out of a small porcelain cup like she had all the time in the world.
"Coffee?” I asked.
She pointed with her free hand like words were too hard to express that early in the morning or that maybe just maybe expressing them on me was a waste.
I quickly made a cup then joined her and stared down at the box.
“A wedding gift?” I finally asked after a painfully silent four minutes where I wondered how much of her pink lipstick would press against the cup and what it would look like if I wiped it all off with my mouth.
I had a hypothesis that it wouldn’t take long.
And that it somehow would taste like candied espresso.
Yeah, I needed to buy a succulent.
Join a gym.
Do anything but get distracted by her mouth.
The worst part was that I wasn’t even thinking of her as a replacement for her sister and the stolen kisses we had. She was an entirely different person, a puzzle I was just introduced to that I very desperately wanted to solve if only to prove to myself I could and that nothing was beyond my reach. Was that arrogance? Maybe. Probably. She intrigued me, though. the first person to make me feel intrigued in a long time. Maybe that’s why I was hanging on when I should let go when I should dissociate and just do my job and focus on the box in front of me and why I was here.
She was using me plain and simple.
The same way I was using her.
The end.
No notes.
Tempest finally set her cup down. “Think of it as a little something to get your day started.” She changed the tone of her language, it was lighter at the end, less of a threat. She even lifted her empty cup in a mock toast. Interesting. She was… nervous. I made her nervous or the circumstances made her nervous?