Total pages in book: 79
Estimated words: 73953 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 370(@200wpm)___ 296(@250wpm)___ 247(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 73953 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 370(@200wpm)___ 296(@250wpm)___ 247(@300wpm)
I laid my head on his muscular chest. “I meant what I just said. I’m sorry about running away. I wanted to know if my brother was still alive. I never meant for this to happen. I thought I could sneak out of the house and get back before you finished your meeting.”
“Why didn’t you just ask me? If I knew you would do something that stupid, I would have told you.”
“I asked you over dinner. You said you didn’t kill Aiden but refused to give me more. I had to know if he was still alive.”
“You drugged my brother, used insider knowledge to sneak out of the house, and put yourself in danger because you’re impatient.” Luca gripped my chin. “I should punish you for your insubordination.”
I moaned in response.
“You would like that too much, wouldn’t you?”
I nodded.
Luca smirked. “My cock is too much of a reward.”
I brushed my lips against his. “Maybe you should spank me for being a bad girl.”
He shook his head. “You need to take it easy for a few days.” Luca lifted my shirt to inspect my bruises and shook his head. “I told you how much danger you were in before you ran, and you did it anyway.”
“I knew about the possibility of the auction. But I thought you meant your family.”
“You are my family, Drea.” He stroked his fingers through my hair. “What am I going to do with you, woman? I need to know I can trust you with my secrets without using them against me.”
“You can. This is your fault, too. I wouldn’t have gone looking for answers if you would have told me the truth about my brother.”
“Some things you can’t know until you swear the oath.” He pressed a kiss to the top of my head. “Not yet, anyway. There are rules and rituals in my world.”
I chuckled. “You break the law every day. But the criminal underworld has a code?”
“That’s right.”
“We’re in this together now.” I sucked his bottom lip into my mouth, and he fisted my curls in his hand. “One day, you will be my husband. I will be your wife. You need to trust me with your secrets.”
Luca kissed me once more before he rolled his thumb across my bottom lip. “What do you want to know?”
“What happened to Aiden? I remember him jumping off the cliff behind your house. He used a parachute, which must have been your idea because you once told me that was how you tried to run from your father.”
He chuckled at the memory. “Yeah, except your brother fucked up. He didn’t test the parachute.”
“He fell,” I said with certainty. “How did he survive the drop?”
“I saw the fall from my bedroom window. You were on the ground, screaming his name. When I found you, it was like you didn’t even know me. Your mind reset to before we’d ever met.”
“How is Aiden alive?”
“I had him rushed to the nearest hospital. He was in a coma for two weeks before I went to visit him. Your brother screwed up with The Serpents. I smoothed things over for him, and because of that, he owed me.”
“Why did you keep him from me?”
“Your brother is one of us now.”
My eyes widened at his confession. “He’s a Knight?”
He nodded. “To become a Knight, it’s a six-month initiation process that requires no contact with the outside world.”
“But Aiden has been missing for nine months.”
“He didn’t want to be a Knight. Aiden fought me every step of the way. It was his insistence on working with The Serpents that led him to me. Do you remember the night you found me at The River Styx, and I introduced your brother to Hades and Morpheus?”
“Yes.”
“He wanted to work with The Serpents, even though your grandfather was forcing him to become a Knight. I had convinced Hades to give your brother a shot. I figured he would end up getting you killed if I didn’t make the introductions. I wanted him to fail on his own, forcing him to crawl back to me for help. And he did.”
“He jumped from the cliff because The Serpents told him to do it?”
Luca nodded in confirmation. “Aiden had to show The Serpents he could go the distance. Your brother knew them for their street art, but they consider their work more than art.”
“They’re killers. That’s why I tried to stop my brother from making a horrible mistake.”
“No, baby. You don’t even know half of it. There’s so much more to The Serpents your brother didn’t tell you.”
“What am I missing?”
“The Serpents make statements. Their pieces are for impact, not for show or admiration. They only spray paint a mural when there’s a message behind it. Your brother understood that.”
“I still don’t understand.”
Luca sat up. “Do you remember when the stock market nearly collapsed a few years ago? People panicked and started selling stocks like crazy because of the Inviro scandal.”