Total pages in book: 194
Estimated words: 187021 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 935(@200wpm)___ 748(@250wpm)___ 623(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 187021 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 935(@200wpm)___ 748(@250wpm)___ 623(@300wpm)
“You woke up late,” Gen said.
“Late night,” Kierse said. Lots of sex. “And a hangover. Do you think you could…?” Kierse gestured to her head.
Gen snorted. “You earned that hangover. You can live with a rough morning.”
“I had a rough night.” She winked at Gen, who blushed.
“I bet,” Gen said with an eye roll.
“What about you? Did you and Ronan do the dirty?”
Gen flushed. “No!” Then glanced sideways at Walter and back. “But we did hook up.”
“Ahhh!” Kierse said. “Tell me everything.”
“I can hear you,” Walter promised. “And I do not want to know, respectfully.”
“Sure. Sure,” Gen said. “We just met, but I’ve heard a lot about you.”
Walter looked up at her with a tilted head. “All bad, I presume.”
“Heard you’re really strong.”
“Huh,” Walter said and then went back to his computer.
Kierse fiddled with the combination lock. She’d spent the last couple weeks dismantling the thing piece by piece, but the lock still eluded her. It was infuriating. She felt like she was missing part of the puzzle. It had been years since a lock had messed with her this much. Not since she’d been a child, working with Jason as he trained her through the intricacies. And she felt again like that small child again as this lock refused to open for her.
“So, Walter,” Gen said amicably, “you decided to join Team Holly.”
Kierse nearly choked on her own spit. “Team Holly?”
“What? It works! I even designed a logo.” She turned over the notebook she had in her lap to reveal a little holly leaf with the berries in the center, Team Holly written in block text over top. “I thought we should get T-shirts.”
Walter stared at Gen as if she were some bizarre sort of creature with horns sprouting out of her head. He shrugged. “I’d wear a T-shirt.”
Kierse sputtered. “You just joined!”
“I try not to do things half assed. If we’re getting team shirts, I want one.”
“I like him,” Gen said with a wide smile.
“How did he convince you to work with us?”
“He didn’t,” Walter said into his computer.
Gen and Kierse exchanged a look. “What convinced you?” Gen asked.
“You did,” Walter said.
Kierse frowned. “Me?”
He looked up at her very practically. “You could have killed me at any point. You can get through my force fields. You can bypass my wards. You are a weapon. Graves should have used his weapon to kill me, which would have deactivated my wards. Then he could have walked in and taken the spear himself.”
“But he didn’t,” Kierse realized.
“You didn’t kill me. Graves didn’t want me dead,” Walter said simply.
“Huh.”
Sometimes she forgot that Graves could have been even more of a villain. For whatever reason, he didn’t want Walter dead, and Walter knew that. If Graves was asking for his help, Walter also must have calculated it was better to work for the biggest bad on the block than get stuck in someone else’s machinations.
“While we’re on the topic of not killing people,” Gen said matter-of-factly.
“Yeah?”
“Triskel training.”
Kierse groaned. She’d hoped to never think about triskel training again. “Do I have to?”
“You agreed.”
“Yeah, but…”
“Niamh said it’s best to start on the full moon, because we’ll be at full strength. That’s Tuesday.”
“Okay,” Kierse said with a sigh. “I’ll need the week to prepare to see Lorcan again, anyway.”
“And Niamh,” Gen said softly.
Kierse nodded at her friend. They were both a little fucked.
Graves stepped through the door of his library. His hands were bare, and he ran one through his dark hair. The sight of him in that suit with the ferocious look on his face just made her want to drag him back upstairs.
“Everything all right?” Kierse asked.
“Laz is in place,” Graves said without preamble. “Schwartz was taken off of security from the Curator.”
“What?” Kierse and Gen gasped at the same time.
“Since the auction, the Curator decided to go with in-house security,” Graves said. “We’re going to have to find some other way to get him inside.”
“Fuck,” Kierse grumbled.
“And you inside,” Graves added. “Since we thought Schwartz would be able to bypass security for you.”
“Double fuck.”
“Plus, I just got the final information from the con. Increased security, due to the nature of the business—monsters—and the new collection being showcased.”
“Curator,” Gen said with a sigh.
Graves nodded. “No plus-ones are allowed inside the conference space at any point. Everyone will have a badge given to them at check-in with a bar scanner that matches a picture verification.”
“So Walter just adds me to the list,” Kierse said.
“Then they’d know you were there,” Walter said. “The uninvited thief.”
“Correct.” Graves glanced at Walter. “Rodriguez, you got anything for me?”
“In fact, I do.” He pressed a button, and a small printer Kierse hadn’t noticed at his side whirred to life. “This is the Monster Con schedule.”
“You had no difficulties getting into the con network?”
Walter looked up at him with skepticism. “Should I have? It took about three minutes.”