Total pages in book: 102
Estimated words: 100493 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 502(@200wpm)___ 402(@250wpm)___ 335(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 100493 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 502(@200wpm)___ 402(@250wpm)___ 335(@300wpm)
What? I almost ask him to repeat himself, because…what.
I keep my mouth shut. Frozen where I stand, I let his sentence hang there between us. I need to absorb the words before I react.
He continues. “Everything you’ve done, every job, every kill, every piece of intelligence you handed him. You were housekeeping. You were part of a very long vendetta that Emeric has held over La Maison Du Mal for—“he pauses, before rolling his eyes. “I mean shit, for as long as time.”
The carving of the loyalty wings, how much he loved Nonna, how he saved me when I was thirteen years old and trapped in a pedophile ring that was run by fucking Parker.
I shake my head. “No, why?” But the answer crawls up through my chest before I even finish asking.
Seventeen missed calls.
His eyes shift to the side, muscles in his face hardening.
I swallow against the ache. “Why the hell didn’t you tell me any of this?”
“I was going to.” He steps forward, his features tightening. “But you put a fucking bullet in me before I got the chance, Ivy.”
I open my mouth. Close it.
“And after that?” He rolls his tongue against his teeth, shaking his head. “I couldn’t trust you. Not until I knew you weren’t still under all the mind fuck of the Codex. Not until I knew Emeric hadn’t already hollowed you out and filled you back up with whatever the fuck he needed you to be.”
Silence.
Eleven years realigns through every memory. Every mission, every message, every time Emeric told me to trust the process with that calm tone. It made me feel handpicked for his design. It was all a fucking lie.
I curl my fingers into fists at my sides, biting crescents into my palms with my nails.
Asher scans my face, searching for the crack, the warning sign that I’m about to shatter into thousands of pieces that he can’t put back together. I don’t give him one.
“How are you talking right now?” I say, careful with my words. “If what you’re saying is true, then you know Emeric’s reach. You know he has eyes and ears over every fucking speck of this world.”
“You’re right, he does.” His eyes narrow, as he lowers onto the single sofa. “Everywhere but here. Veilarath Lane.”
My stomach dips. “What?”
Surely I misheard him.
Every second of this conversation is getting under his skin.
“He doesn’t have access to this island. Period. But we’ve let him in everywhere else.”
Everything he’s just dropped on me turns over in my head before I land on the one thing I need to address. “I know Parker is your father.”
He doesn’t even flinch, kicking his leg out with a low chuckle. “Who snitched?”
I search his face for the tell, the flicker of deceit. His eyes hold steady, borderline vulnerable.
“That doesn’t matter.” I shake my head. There’s no way I’m telling him it was his mom. “You’re… part of him.”
Leaning forward, he drags me closer by the backs of my thighs, and I drop to my knees in front of him.
With a finger pressed below my chin, he directs my face up to his. “Fuck that. Just because DNA ties me to him. Doesn’t mean shit. Hasn’t for a while.”
He starts to pull back but my hand flies out, catching his jaw to hold him in place.
“Stop,” I whisper, the walls inside my head trembling. “Tell me.”
Whether he tries to hide it or not, I see it. Right there in the split second before he answers. The hard set of his mouth. His eyes raking over my face for the hundredth time, and I know exactly what he’s doing. He’s searching for the crack, the tell, the part where I feed him a pretty lie and expect him to swallow it like everyone else has.
He doesn’t trust me. I’ll be earning that back for the rest of my life.
“I love you,” I say, not only because it’s the most truthful thing I’ve ever said, but because it’s all I’ll ever be able to give him.
I lock my other hand around his neck, forcing his forehead down to mine. “You hear me? I don’t care what you’ve done. I just. I need to know if the son is—“The words stick to my throat, refusing to leave.
“Mmm,” Sarcasm drips from his chuckle. “Not so easy is it?”
I kiss him, so soft his lips barely feather mine.
“Well are you?” I try to keep the desperation out of my tone but I’m fucking dying here.
His jaw locks. “You shouldn’t even need to ask me that shit.”
He pulls back, ripping the air from my lungs.
I’ve seen every face he owns. Rage, laughter, the soft one he watches me with when he thinks I’m asleep. But he’s never pulled away physically.
Shit. I’m so far gone I’m going to check myself into rehab at this point.