Total pages in book: 192
Estimated words: 182641 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 913(@200wpm)___ 731(@250wpm)___ 609(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 182641 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 913(@200wpm)___ 731(@250wpm)___ 609(@300wpm)
“Boring, right?”
My thoughts are mirrored when the porcelain princess slows to walk beside me, the two of us trailing the group now, her white harried boy toy keeping one eye on her from where he walks five feet away.
“Nah, it’s just my style.”
“Sure, it is.” Delta smiles, looping her arm into mine, and my eyes slide her way. She winks and leans a little closer, pausing a few feet back from the group as Rocklin goes into some speech of founders and whatnot. “Let me give you the real tour.” She speaks low, turning us the slightest bit. “The brunette by the wall, she’s the daughter of a crooked congressman, and see the guy across from her? His father is the underboss of the eastern Chicago district. He’s only here because his daddy wants him to spy on her, report back with all sorts of naughty details to help get the backing he needs to move product in the city. But he’ll be sure to leave out how he feels the need to run off every guy who has tried to get with her.” She turns us to the left.
“Over here, it gets really interesting,” she whispers. “See the dark-haired guy leaning on the wall with his arms crossed? His father … well, eliminated the father of the guy beside him. They act like they’re best friends but must be planning vengeance on one another, each secretly pretending that is not the case. Then there’s the orange-haired girl with the big lips. She’s a royal, the actual crown-wearing kind, and the guy holding her hand is the son of a duchess. They were betrothed at birth, supposed to marry after graduation.” She lifts her chin, so I lower mine, giving her my ear. “Little does she know, he’s sneaking into her brother’s room at night.”
My brows jump and I pull back, looking at her.
“Why you sound so excited by all that?”
“Forbidden love, a sexual scandal, and a murder plot leading to the potential fall of a powerful empire that, in turn, creates openings for someone else to step in as the white knight? Gee, I haven’t the faintest idea.” Her smile is too damn wide.
“You girls are twisted.”
“Hmm.” She hums in agreement as she glances around. “That’s not the worst of it. All of the staff are banned beings.”
“Say what now?”
I follow her attention to the back corner of the room, where a woman wipes down already shiny as fuck photos on the wall, then to a man wearing a tool belt and carrying a drill as he hustles, eyes on the floor, down the hall. “Exiled people, scummy and disloyal and unwelcome where they come from. They’re dropped here. Transported in and out on a bus each day, dropped back into their jail cell of an apartment each night. Wash and repeat.”
Unease works its way into me, and I shake my head, eyes tailing the man as he disappears into a door marked Staff Only. “That’s dumb as fuck, having people like that around you.”
“It’s punishment. They can’t look or speak to any of us. Eat only what they’re allowed, and they don’t get paid. Besides, they’re not hard-timers, just ignorant people who made the wrong choice or stayed quiet when they shouldn’t have. The woman against the wall is the sister of a Mafia wife, and she knew the wife hired someone to kill her secret lover, a man who worked for her husband. The husband found out … dealt with the wife and lover and spared her.” The woman climbs off the step stool, moving it to the next image.
Okay, that changes things, but still. “Isn’t that mercy?”
“No. It’s a message to everyone else. Why do you think they’re here now? So you and everyone else can see what the future holds for those who make poor decisions or sit on things they shouldn’t. Most places have cleanup crews come in after hours. Ours are only here when we are. It’s more humiliating this way, depending on their task of the day, anyway.”
Can’t argue with that.
“Every soul in this place has a reason or ulterior motive for being here, some worse than others, but they have one nonetheless.” Finally, she releases my arm, facing me fully. “What’s yours?”
“If you’re asking me if I came here today for a reason, the answer is yes.”
“That’s not exactly what I asked.”
“Isn’t it?”
She studies me, dropping her head onto her man’s—one of her men—shoulder when he steps up behind her, pressing into her back. “You’re here to make a point.”
I say nothing and she smiles, whispering, “It better be a big one.”
“Don’t encourage him any more than I’m sure he already is,” the guy, I forget his name, tells her before offering me a hand. “I know we met briefly, but again, I’m Alto.”