Total pages in book: 164
Estimated words: 157308 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 787(@200wpm)___ 629(@250wpm)___ 524(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 157308 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 787(@200wpm)___ 629(@250wpm)___ 524(@300wpm)
I was saved thinking of an answer as he placed my hand back where he found it. He was saved too, because I don’t think I’d question him ever again. Not unless we were alone... and I wasn’t engaged.
I found my voice, facing away from him. “So, Wilder, what about you?”
“What about me?” He leaned against the fridge, sipping from his water bottle and watching me with an unflinching stare. I leaned a little side to side and his blue orbs tracked me like a lightning rod.
“What do your parents do?”
“Why?”
“Just wondering. Making friendly conversation and all that.”
“Huh.”
I waited for more and none came. “Okay, then, what about you? What are you studying? What do you like to do? How did you get into hacking?”
“What are you, writing a book?”
“What are you,” I burst out, “playing some game to see which one of you drives me nuts first? Just answer one question.”
Wilder bobbed his head, lips pursed in thought. “No.”
“Okay,” I said, throwing up my hands. “Now I give up.”
Rafael cracked up. “But you haven’t gotten to me and Cato yet.”
“I don’t have the strength. Let’s get to the point of why I’m here.” Climbing off the stool, I leaned against the kitchen counter to look at all of them at once. “How did you get into this? Why?”
“Don’t you know already?” Rafael plopped in my vacant seat. “Because it’s fun.”
“You said you came up with a plan. Give it to me. Whatever makes those bastards cry, we keep. Whatever doesn’t, we fix.”
The guys exchanged looks.
“We’d prefer to hear your plan first,” Rafael said. “No metaphors. No double-talk. What did you want to do to them?”
“I was going to slit Owen Thasher’s throat.” I dropped it as easily as Cato dipped a spoon in his oatmeal. “Let him bleed to death scared and alone in the dark. As for Levi, his death I’ll make look like an accident. He’s got a limp—people will believe he fell down the stairs. Two down, three to go.
“That’s when my engagement to Victor Wilson comes in handy. I’ll throw a party and use his name on the invitation to get all the Royals to come. I’ll seduce one of them—which doesn’t matter. Once we’re alone, he meets with another accident. If I can get away with that once, I hope to get away with it again, luring number four away either with sex or threats—whatever works.
“By then, the final shit stain should be suspicious. He’s the only one left of their torture campaign against my sister. He’ll probably hire security, watch his back, and warn people I’m the one with the motive if anything happens to him. I’ll pay one of his guards to drown him in the river my sister died in.”
Rafael nodded along, his face as expressionless as the guys around him. “And then, you break into an NSA facility, erase yourself from every database, and go on the run because you’ll be the prime suspect in their deaths for the rest of your life.” Shaking his head, he blew out a breath. “Damn, darling, you need us bad.”
I peered at them through my lashes. “No comment on my plan to kill them? Because the end result won’t change.”
Lucien tucked his shaman’s gift under his clothes. “One of them tried to burn us to ash—a method that would’ve ended my living death too. All five of them bullied, assaulted, and tormented the girl who saved us just because they could.”
“Did you think we were going to cry, wail, and beg for their eternal souls?” Rafael said. “Do whatever you want to them. Just don’t get caught.”
I scanned their faces, neither one seemed to disagree with Rafael. “Your turn,” I finally said. “What did you have in mind?”
“Buckle up, princess. You’re about to throw yourself in my arms.”
Rafael explained what they planned to do to each one of them—with Lucien and Wilder throwing in details. My eyes widened in places. Three times I gasped. Four I laughed. Once I confirmed it: there wasn’t a soul left in me to care about right and wrong.
He grinned at the expression on my face. “What do you—?”
I took a running leap, jumping Rafael. He almost fell off the stool catching me. “Yes,” I stated. “Yours is better. Your plan is way better. We start now—tonight. Owen doesn’t get another good night’s sleep.”
I shook him, wicked glee spilling through my pores. “You’re right. Once we’re done with them, I won’t have to lift a finger. They’ll slit their own throats.”
“You’re terrifying, Cloud Girl.” Rafael slipped around my arm, perfectly happy to have me in his lap. “I’m finding it very sexy.”
“Behave,” I said with a laugh. “This is a business arrangement.”
Rafael flicked to my finger. “Is that a business arrangement too?”
I covered my ring. “This is... what it is.”