 by Ruby Vincent.jpg)
Total pages in book: 161
Estimated words: 154882 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 774(@200wpm)___ 620(@250wpm)___ 516(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 154882 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 774(@200wpm)___ 620(@250wpm)___ 516(@300wpm)
I lost my job, got kicked out of my apartment, and now I sleep under an overpass. If that wasn’t bad enough, my psychic twin is plagued with daily visions of my death.
She guarantees it’ll be gruesome.
The last thing I needed was for Sole “Sunny” Bellisario to come crashing through my tent.
Someone tried to kill the heir to the notorious Merchant crime family, and he’ll change my life if I help him find out who.
This is just a business arrangement.
I will not be seduced by that wicked grin, reckless lust for destruction, or how quickly he cuts down anyone who crosses me. His long line of brothers, each more gorgeous and deadlier than the last, don’t have a chance either.
Doesn’t matter that despite my impending foretold demise, I’ve never felt this alive. I’m walking away. Returning to a normal life with normal boyfriends who don’t tattoo their body count.
Sunny and the Savage Princes will not have me. They won’t.
They won’t.
Dammit. My sister said Death would court me.
Why didn’t she mention he was hot as hell?
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
Chapter One
“Beams of splintered starlight gathering around you in a blinding halo.”
Her whisper gathered around me. Words coming from everywhere at once to sink in my skin—penetrate my bones.
“You’re walking through an endless forest. You lost your way miles ago, but you’re not afraid. Lost is where you must be.”
Leaning in, breath stole from my parted lips.
“One by one, the surrounding beams of light are going out till there are three... two... one left. The final one burns brighter than them all. It does not extinguish. It’s growing, growing, grown into the size of a fist.”
I lean closer, raising two legs of the stool off the ground.
“That ball of brilliance hovers before you tantalizing, seducing, oh so beautiful, then—”
Bang!
“Ah!”
I jerked, pitching off the stool. I barely smothered a shriek as I hit the dirt.
“—it shoots through your chest, leaving a burning hole. Then everything goes black.”
“Wh— What does that mean?” the woman asked.
“Death,” whispered Sienna. “It means death.”
I heaved a sigh as the customer ran out of the tent. Righting the stool, I dusted off my peeling, patchy leather jacket and ducked inside the tent. My sister stared off at nothing—creases wrinkling her forehead.
“Sienna, how many times. People want to hear they’re going to meet their soulmate by the next full moon, or that a pile of money is about to drop into their laps. All this death and gloom stuff does not get us repeat customers.”
She came to life, blinking at me. “What?”
“You just told that woman a ball of light is going to punch a hole through her chest. That’s the very opposite of the positive fortunes we talked about.”
“That woman?” Sienna rose from her tattered seat of pillows. Her hands shook as they took mine. “Kenzie, that vision wasn’t about her. It was about you.”
I quirked a brow. “Oh yeah? What’s that make it, the third time this week? Your spirit friends have a hard-on for me all of a sudden.”
My expression did not match her mask of worry.
“You know it doesn’t work like that. I don’t commune with spirits. I don’t have that gift.”
“Right, of course. How could I forget?”
She shook me. “Kenzie, this is serious. I see people. I touch things, and I get glimpses of their future. Sudden flashes that are easy to interpret. But for the last few weeks, the visions have gotten longer, they haven’t made much sense, and they’ve been about you.” Her grip on me tightened. “They also all end one way.”
I let out a long breath, softening at the clear panic in her eyes. My belief in her psychic powers was iffy, but Sienna’s love for me wasn’t. These visions genuinely scared her.
If only her spirit friends would give it a damn rest.
“That I’m going to die isn’t news,” I said gently. “We’ve all got a dirt bed in our future. And that mine may be sooner than later isn’t news either.” I swallowed hard, and the saliva did nothing to ease my gnawing hunger.
I brushed away a smear of dirt on her cheek with fingers that were no cleaner.
“We’ve got death hanging over us every day,” I said softly, “and... after Halloween, this borough’s become a dangerous place for me. We’ve gotta keep our heads down. Can’t wander at night. Can’t hook up with anyone from the old crew. You’re having these visions because your senses are warning us to stay alert at all times.”
Her eyes, so much like our mother’s, filled. “Do you really believe that’s it?”
“Of course, little sister.” I injected lightness into my voice. “Trust me, the message is received. So, don’t worry about me. Just get ready for the next one. I’m going to hook us another customer.”
Her back straightened, smile returning to her lips. It still amazed me she was able to do that. I hadn’t given a smile that wasn’t faked or rimmed with tears in almost a year.
“How much did we get from the last one?”
Sienna handed me a wrinkled five-dollar bill. It was five more than we got the day before. Or the day before that.
“I saw a stall at the north end of the park selling fruit cups for two dollars,” she said. “Preference for strawberry or cantaloupe?”
“Last time we got sick buying fruit from a stall. The guy didn’t believe in food sanitation.”
“We gotta eat something.”
I tugged on my jacket—glad it hid my protruding bones and ribs. The tattered, holey T-shirt beneath didn’t do the same job.
“Not fruit,” I finally said. “Something cooked. A couple of stalls down from that guy was a lady selling monkey bread. Buy that. It’s been a long time since we had a treat.”
“That treat is selling for six dollars.”
“You’ve got the kind of face that’ll get it for three.”
She laughed, and that face lit up, reminding me so much of Mom, my gut twisted.