Total pages in book: 88
Estimated words: 84763 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 424(@200wpm)___ 339(@250wpm)___ 283(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 84763 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 424(@200wpm)___ 339(@250wpm)___ 283(@300wpm)
“You disrespect me,” Cassian says.
“Unintentional,” Malek says through clenched teeth.
“Can you do the math, Malek, or do you need a fucking calculator?” Cassian asks.
“Michael is inexperienced.”
“And that’s why you’re to guide him. Isn’t that the way of things? End of next week. Understood?”
Malek clenches his jaw. Cassian raises an eyebrow and Malek nods tightly once.
“Good.” Cassian steps toward the door and I think he’s going to leave. I can almost breathe again. But he stops and turns to look at me. Something in the way his eyes narrow and darken sends a strange, unfamiliar flush of heat through me. There’s fear. That I recognize. But there’s something else. Something different beneath that fear. My hands grow clammy and sweat pools under my arms. I swear I can hear the thudding of my heart against my chest.
“I’ll need collateral in the meantime,” he says, both hands in his pockets now, jacket pushed back over that too-broad chest, a tattoo I hadn’t noticed earlier creeping up from beneath the collar of his shirt, ink along the side of his neck.
“Collateral?” Malek asks. I feel his and Michael’s eyes on me, but I can’t look away from Cassian. He’s got me trapped with those electric eyes.
“Collateral,” he says, and gestures to the soldier closest to me who understands his meaning and closes his hands over my arms. “Gently,” Cassian reprimands.
“Sir,” the soldier responds, his grip no gentler, and I’m pulled to my feet.
“What?” I ask, although I know, don’t I? I know what he means. What sort of collateral he’ll take. The place where my little finger used to be throbs. Panic washes through me. I force a deep breath in and tell myself to stay calm. This isn’t like that. It’s nothing like that.
“Put her in the room adjacent to mine.”
“Yes sir.”
“Cassian, be reasonable,” Malek starts, but Cassian isn’t reasonable. “I hardly think you need to take Allegra.”
“Wait!” I cry out but no one is listening to me. “You can’t!” I struggle to get free of the soldier but it’s no use. “Wait!”
Cassian comes to stand inches from me.
I crane my neck to look over his shoulder at my brother on his knees, Malek watching. Calculating.
Cassian takes hold of my jaw and makes me look at him. “They can’t help you, Little Moth.”
“Let me go!”
“Are you going to give me trouble?”
“You can’t just take me!”
“No? Do you prefer I take the little one sleeping upstairs? I wouldn’t want to scare him,” he says mockingly.
“You can’t do this!”
“Dignity, Allegra. It’s something your father had but your brother sadly did not inherit.” At the mention of my father I begin to wonder again at the accident that was too unbelievable. Was he killed? Was it this man, Cassian, who killed him? He had enemies. Many enemies. I know.
Cassian must feel the shift in me and softens his grip. “Better. I’ll ask you again, although I’m getting tired of repeating myself with you. One way or another, you’re coming with me. Are you going to give me trouble or are you going to walk out of here with your dignity intact?”
I shake my head then nod.
He raises his eyebrows as if he doesn’t understand my response.
“You’ll leave Amal and Daniel alone?” I ask.
“Are you bargaining with me?” He cocks his head. “Because you’re in no position—”
“I’ll go with you! Just leave them alone!”
His eyes gleam with amusement. He’s enjoying this. But when he raises a hand, I flinch. Instinct. He doesn’t miss it. He takes a moment, turning his palm to me as if to say he won’t hurt me, but he will. I’ve danced this dance before too.
But then he does something strange. He brushes a lock of hair behind my ear, carefully, almost reverently. He leans close to me and is he inhaling my scent?
“I like a little fight, a little fire,” he starts, and that gentle hand at the back of my head morphs into something else. Fingers weave into my hair turning into a fist and my head is tugged backward. Tears sting the corners of my eyes, but I refuse to look away as he takes in my features. “Just know that I will always win, Moth.”
I open my mouth to retort, to say something, I’m not sure what, but he tugs, and I shut it again.
“If she gives you any trouble,” he starts, and although he’s looking at me, he’s very clearly talking to a soldier. “Put her in the crypt.”
The crypt? Where the hell are we going?
“Yes, sir.”
He leans toward me, his face so close I feel the scratch of stubble along my cheek as he brings his mouth to my ear. “I wouldn’t give them an excuse,” he whispers darkly. He straightens, releasing my hair, my scalp tingling. I stare up at him, hating him, hating his dominance, his power over me, but knowing to keep my mouth shut. But before we go, before I’m taken out of that room, he does something strange. He wraps his arms around me.