Total pages in book: 56
Estimated words: 53433 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 267(@200wpm)___ 214(@250wpm)___ 178(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 53433 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 267(@200wpm)___ 214(@250wpm)___ 178(@300wpm)
“I did a little treasure hunting.”
“Oh? Find anything interesting?” she asked, her heart-shaped lips twisting to one side.
Yes, actually. I found out that the objects in various people’s collections were no longer functioning. Potions, poisons, and an immortality ring. All dead. I was beginning to feel the same. Drained. Tired. Weak.
“I did. But nothing useful for finding Draco. Are you ready to go?” I asked, feeling light-headed.
“Yep. Just one quick thing I have to do. Found this in the garage.” Jeni leaned over and produced a large gas can, setting it on the counter.
I raised a brow. “What are you going to do with that?”
Jeni
Something about the house called for its destruction. Call me crazy, but during that short nap, I’d dreamed of myself burning it down after I met that crazy man. Afterwards, flowers bloomed, and butterflies flocked to the spot. I kept thinking that life would flourish there again if I destroyed the toxic past holding it back.
“So you’re trying to erase him,” Ansin said from the seat in front of me on the private jet. I hadn’t bothered to ask how he’d gotten a plane on such short notice. Probably stolen, or “borrowed,” as he liked to say. All that mattered was finding Draco as quickly as possible. So if this jet got us to San Francisco faster, then great.
“No,” I replied.
“Then why burn it down?”
I shrugged. “Just something I had to do.”
He nodded, an inquisitive look in his eyes. “May I ask you something?”
“Sure.” Just as long as it didn’t have to do with he and me having sex, getting married, or having a baby. Yes, I’d agreed to doing it—for real this time—but I wasn’t ready to jump right in.
“How are your headaches?” Ansin’s expression became distressed. Strange, because he wasn’t the type to worry about anything.
“Better, I guess?” I hadn’t had one since my nap. “Why?”
I waited, but then he threw a wall up between us.
“Ansin, what is it?” I pushed.
“Never mind.”
“No. Not never mind.”
He didn’t speak.
“Ansin, if you know something, you have to tell me.”
He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his thighs and threading his fingers together. “You must trust me, Jeni.”
“What does that mean? Trust you with my life? Trust you to keep me in the dark and make decisions for me because you’re some…powerful man? Hell no.”
He shook his head. “You must trust that I want to share everything with you. It is an urge I find difficult to resist. But…”
“But what?” Why was he jerking me around?
“But then I think of what is best for you—what will keep your head in the right place and maximize your chances of success.”
I didn’t know what he meant. “Ansin, for fuck’s sake, stop talking in code.”
“I love you, Jeni.”
“I’m…wait, what?”
“I love you, and I need to tell you some—”
My phone rang. The number was unknown. “Hello?”
The sound on the other end was garbled, and the voice broke up. Probably because we were on a plane somewhere over the ocean.
“Hello?” I repeated.
“You fucking bitch.” A deep, powerful voice crackled through the static.
I swallowed hard, my entire body exploding with adrenaline. “King?” I whispered.
“No, it’s your fucking fairy godmother.”
I looked at Ansin, my eyes bulging from my head.
“Hell fucking yes, it’s me,” King growled. “Where are you?”
I hit speaker so Ansin could hear.
“Where are you?” I asked instead of replying to King.
“I just clawed my fucking frozen ass out of a morgue freezer.”
What the hell?
Ansin’s expression grew angry and intense. “Fuck. They never burned him,” he muttered.
My heart accelerated as the surreal became real. King was alive. Is this really happening? Maybe the tablet worked, but instead of delivering him to Niko, it sent him back to his frozen body? But I thought he’d been burned.
“I’m coming for you, and then I’m going to fucking kill you,” he growled.
Yep. Happening. “So I take it you found Mia.”
“Kill. You. I will not rest until it is done,” he said.
“That’s fine by me,” I replied. “Just as long as you find our son first.”
“What the devil are you talking about, woman?” King snarled.
“He was taken four days ago. That’s why we tried to bring you back. And, yes, I know there’s a price. I’m willing to pay it. Whatever it is. Just find him.”
“Fuck,” he said.
“Will you do it, King?” I asked.
For once, Ansin looked uneasy. He likely knew that King was going to try to take his revenge against him, too.
“Where do we meet?” King asked.
“We were on our way to your warehouse,” I said, “but we can come to wherever you are.”
“The warehouse is fine.”
“We’ll be there in ten hours,” Ansin said.
“Ansin. Good. You are coming along. I know you had something to do with this,” King said. “I am definitely going to kill you first.” King hung up.
I stared at Ansin. “I thought the tablet didn’t work?”