Total pages in book: 151
Estimated words: 138334 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 692(@200wpm)___ 553(@250wpm)___ 461(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 138334 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 692(@200wpm)___ 553(@250wpm)___ 461(@300wpm)
Gedeon, they don’t expect that anyone is looking for her. They know you’re coming because you made an appointment with them. You were even respectful and told them what it was in regard to. If they check up on you, they’ll find you were just in Venezuela a few days ago and you did visit Lubin Diaz and then flew to New Orleans. You have a reputation, Gedeon. Best guess, they’ll try to hire you themselves.
That would be fucking funny if they did. Should I accept the offer to hunt you down, little Lotus Blossom? Take their money from them? We can have a hell of a time looking for you. He knew there was a time she had feared he might turn on her and take money to turn her over to those looking for her. That was before she knew and trusted him. Before she knew his past. He would never betray her. Never give her up. He could tease her.
Do you think they pay their debts?
Not to someone like me. They would consider me a rogue. Someone without a lair. An easy target. He sent her one of his cruel smiles—the ones he reserved for their crap clients. He let her hold that image in her mind. I like that they’ll think that. You stay out of sight, Meiling. Don’t show yourself even for a moment, no matter what the temptation is. There isn’t a good enough reason to show yourself.
Her silence made him uneasy. She’d agreed that if she gave up her weapon, it would only make it that much easier for their enemies to kill her and Cosette, if that was their intention.
I think it is very important for you to understand that I do have a brain. Not only do I have a brain, but it also happens to be an above-average one.
There was that little bite to her voice. He loved that edge she got sometimes. Lotus, we’re working. How many times have I told you not to talk to me like that when we’re working? You sound like that, I get hard. Not just hard. I get hard as a fuckin’ rock. I can’t move. I’m stuck right here in this meadow waiting for the guards to come back around and find me just lying here.
You’re always hard.
Not so hard I can’t walk, he denied.
You’re so dramatic. You’d better not wait there in the open for the guards. I’m going to take a look around inside and see if can find Cosette. The teasing note disappeared from her voice. This place is insane. It looks like a palace in China. The real deal, all themed around dragons. Gold edging on the chairs. There’s a huge chessboard and I kid you not, Gedeon, it’s gilded in gold. The pieces are all trimmed in gold.
Gedeon didn’t like the mixture of awe and repugnance in her voice. It took concentration not to be seen. Yes, remaining hidden in plain sight was a gift, but it also was one that required the wielder to be aware at all times of his or her surroundings and utilize every bit of the energy close to shield her.
Lotus, baby, stay focused. He had to stay focused as well. Losing her wasn’t an option. He hadn’t told her that. He should have. Doing so in the middle of their mission was just plain ludicrous.
Gedeon, I’m solid. No worries here. You filled me in on what to expect. The greed and the true hatred against women. I was expecting both, but when you come into this place and see the fortune they’ve acquired and realize it isn’t enough for them, I think it will shock even you.
He knew it wouldn’t. He’d seen it over and over again.
These men have trafficked men, women and children for decades, amassing fortunes, Gedeon, ordering the murders of villages, of families, while they lived here doing whatever they wanted, and still, it was never enough for them. When is it enough?
He didn’t have an answer for her. He hadn’t ever found that answer.
Why do they see themselves as superior? Or entitled? What makes them believe they are? The circumstances of their birth? What gifts were they born with that made them believe they could put themselves before any other shifter?
I told you, they have the ability to produce fire.
Just those original five.
To my knowledge. I have never heard that any of their children were able to do so, including Longwei Lis’s son, Kang Lis, who lives at the palace with them now and is eager to sit on the board.
Is Kang the only child any of them have?
The only living child that Rene and I could ascertain. It was common practice to murder any female child when they were born, along with the woman who gave birth to the female child. No sons were born with the ability to produce fire.