Total pages in book: 98
Estimated words: 92559 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 463(@200wpm)___ 370(@250wpm)___ 309(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92559 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 463(@200wpm)___ 370(@250wpm)___ 309(@300wpm)
The blow to the back of his head came from out of nowhere.
As the floor rushed up to meet him, he thought, Sonofabitch. This is going to hurt . . .
And the last thing he saw were all those animal heads, the glass eyes staring at him as if they were welcoming him to the club of dead things in the house.
“Callum,” he said hoarsely as he passed out.
CHAPTER FORTY–ONE
It was just after dawn when Mayhem pushed his chair back from the kitchen table so he could cross his legs and drum a beat on his thigh. Between him and Mahrci, there was a half-eaten pecan pie, three plates smeared with pie streaks and melted vanilla ice cream, and three cups with a quarter of an inch of cold coffee in the bottom of them.
Crawie, who he’d totally fallen in love with, had gone to bed about twenty minutes ago.
And yes, it had been the best chicken pot pie he’d ever had.
Too bad his stomach was grinding like everything had been spoiled.
“So you see,” Mahrci concluded, “this is very messy. The whole thing.”
Mayhem stopped tapping his fingertips and rubbed his eyes. He never got headaches. He had one now. A real humdinger.
“Let me get this straight,” he heard himself say. “Your sire is about to declare war on both the Black Dagger Brotherhood and Wrath, the great Blind King. He, ah, he has a consortium of aristocrats behind him, and you think—you think they’re arming themselves and preparing for an insurrection that will topple the throne and elect your father as some kind of president?”
“Yes.” She took a deep breath. “I started to get suspicious about a year ago, when he began pushing me to be with Remis and get mated. He’d never particularly cared one way or the other about me or who I was with—and I’ve always known why.”
“Why,” he prompted.
“I think my mahmen was already pregnant with me, by someone else, when they got mated. She was very beautiful, a perfect status symbol for a male who was on the rise, and if I’d been a boy, maybe things might have been different. Her later dying on the birthing bed with their blooded son had not been part of Whestmorel’s plan, and I think he only kept me as potential leverage for later. On my side, I knew I didn’t belong anywhere in the world, and I had no one but Crawie, so I always tried to stay in his good graces. One night, about a month ago . . . I overheard him and Remis talking about buying guns? And then this male named Broadius started coming around our house.”
She shook her head. “My father knew if Remis mated me, the male was locked in. He does this to people. That’s why he had Apex install all those cameras. He’s pulling the aristocrats together for a meeting at the Adirondack house, and he’s going to record everything so he can make sure there are no cracks in the consortium. If he has these males on tape prepared to commit treason? He’s got them for life. They try to get out and all he has to do is threaten to expose them.”
Mayhem frowned. “Is Apex . . . involved in all this shit?”
“I don’t know. You’d have to ask him. He’s been my father’s head of security for about two years now. I mean, I’m on the periphery and I found out about it. I’d find it hard to believe that male doesn’t know and isn’t working on all of it.”
His first thought was that that wasn’t the Apex he knew. Overthrowing the fucking King? Come on. But it had been a long time since he’d seen the guy. Maybe things had changed.
Also, how close had they been anyway?
“Apex does the legitimate security,” she tacked on. “Remis is the other side, in spite of how he tries to make himself look like a gentlemale. That’s why I worry about you.”
“Yeah, he’s still not a problem.” Mayhem sat back again because he didn’t know what the hell to do with himself. “And you tried to tip off the Brotherhood?”
“Yes. I asked Crawie—and I probably shouldn’t have—to sneak these papers to them. I had her go to the Audience House on a pretense and leave them behind.” The female looked down at the pie. “My father’s forgotten about her. He has no idea I’ve been supporting her all these years or that I bought this house. He has no clue where I am now—and he’s not going to care. The idea that somebody like me could take down somebody like him? Unfathomable.”
“What are the papers you turned in?”
“I found them in the trash. They were supposed to have been shredded. I think they’re contributions for weapons, but my father isn’t dumb. The data is blinded—so I don’t know who the people are, and really I’m just guessing it all has something to do with the payments for guns that they were talking about.” She drew her dark hair back. Let it fall down on her shoulders. “And I just wanted to signal the Brotherhood about my sire somehow so I made up this page of numbers. As I told you, I’ve always liked puzzles and stuff—it’s the Wheel of Fortune, right? Anyway, I figured someone over there would be smart enough to decode the name.”