Total pages in book: 24
Estimated words: 22821 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 114(@200wpm)___ 91(@250wpm)___ 76(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 22821 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 114(@200wpm)___ 91(@250wpm)___ 76(@300wpm)
"But if you're not, this day has opened my eyes, and how do you feel about the two of us starting one? It can be an offshoot of Strakh—-"
I roll my eyes, he grins, and did I just let him tease me into flirting with him again?
"Seriously, though. What the hell did we just do back there?"
I tell him about Yiorgos, who works for a second cousin of mine and whose dog we've rescued from his evil ex-girlfriend's clutches. "She regularly sends him photos to torment him, and when he showed me one of them, I knew I had to take this job."
"And this is why they call you Familia's most skilled tracker?"
"Yes."
Rake rubs his jaw at this, and I automatically grit my teeth to avoid betraying myself with a smile.
"There's more to this than what you're telling me."
"I just do what most others would say no to."
"I don't think that's it."
"I also don't feel fear the way others do?"
Rake shakes his head. "Still not that."
"You're imagining things."
"Doubt it."
"There's no great mystery to solve here—-"
"Not buying it."
I lift my shoulders in a shrug. "Then don't."
"Just make this easy for yourself, darling."
"Are you trying to threaten me?"
"Yes, I believe I am," he says pleasantly, "and if you don't tell me the truth, you'll find yourself tickled to death in public—-and it will embarrass the hell out of you, I promise."
Aargh.
It would have been so much better if he had simply threatened to kill me, darn it.
"I'm the only one who accepts jobs that involves non-human elements."
"Still not buying it."
I can't remember being this humanly tempted to freak out. Why, darn it? Why does this man know me so well?
"Last chance, Kayra." He leans towards me and actually wiggles his fingers like we're a couple about to giggle over tickles.
Yuck. Yuck. Yuck.
I'd rather die than have someone see me being tickled, so fine. We're already dating anyway, so it's not like he won't know the truth sooner or later.
I take a deep breath...and just grumble the words out in one go.
"Everything about this is pro bono."
It's the most painful admission I've ever made, and all I can do is snarl as he suddenly hauls me to his lap with a laugh that patently rubs salt in my wound.
"You adorable little hypocrite," Rake purrs. "Who's the killer with a soft heart now?"
Grrr.
"I do not have a soft heart."
"Do you know how cute you are when you're angry?"
Why does he keep saying I'm 'cute' and not 'beautiful'? People say I'm beautiful all the time, and it's always made me feel like I'm a monster hiding under a mask. But every time this man says I'm cute, he makes me feel so vulnerably human—-
"You're looking at me that way again," he says softly.
"Like what?"
"Like you can't make your mind up if I'm more helpful dead or alive."
"Because I don't get you at all," I mutter. "You know what I am. You know what I can do. So why doesn't it seem to matter to you?"
"Because I like what you are. Or rather...this between us won't even work if you're not who you are."
I know a man has to be crazy himself to want someone like me, but isn't what Rake said a little too crazy?
"Are you saying you don't want me to change?"
"I'm saying I never want you to change."
I'm not empathetic as a rule, but even though his tone is still light, the pain underscoring his words is unmistakable and heartbreakingly familiar. It's the same pain I felt when my sister and brother-in-law were taken from me, and so I know.
"You lost someone," I say quietly.
"You sound like you're hurting for me, darling." A smile touches his lips as he says this, but it's the first time I don't see his eyes twinkle at the same time.
"And now you're changing the subject."
"I am, aren't I?"
"Who was she?"
"Just a girl...who was too good for this world."
I expected myself to feel angry at hearing him talk about another girl, but instead it just makes me feel sad.
"She liked to put everyone else before her first."
Because this man has changed me, and now that our hearts are beating as one—-
It's so frighteningly easy to tell.
That girl is someone he once loved, and I know he said he doesn't ever want me to change, but what if he just doesn't know he's lying, and I can never compare to her?
Chapter Nine
I tell Kayra I need a stiff drink if she wants me to continue dredging up old memories, and I simply nod when she tells me she knows just the place. The past has me blind to my surroundings, and it's only when we take our seats by the counter, and a familiar voice jovially calls out to me that I realize where we are.
"That you, Drake?"
Well, fuck.
The bartender of Mackie's also happens to be the owner himself, and the older man claps a back over me in hearty greeting.