Total pages in book: 154
Estimated words: 145721 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 729(@200wpm)___ 583(@250wpm)___ 486(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 145721 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 729(@200wpm)___ 583(@250wpm)___ 486(@300wpm)
And yet . . . Graves held her life in his hands, and she believed he would bring her to the other side. Her stomach fluttered at the thought.
“You’re shaking again,” he said, tipping her chin up to look at him.
“I’ve never seen you like this.”
“Out of a suit?” he asked.
“Exposed,” she whispered.
He tipped his head. “I’m not exposed when I’m with you.”
Then he dropped his lips down onto hers, and she lost all thought. He tasted like bliss, and she wanted to drown in him. Wrap herself up in this feeling forever and never break free. She wrapped her arms around his neck and drew his bare skin against her. Felt his heat and the hard planes of his stomach and the firm grip of his hands on her back as he clutched her to him.
For so long, every gentle touch had come with a volatile price, where she had no idea whether or not this was the time she would end up dead. And even with her closest friends, when they could never hurt her, she still flinched at the thought of that level of intimacy. Now here, with Graves, that washed away.
He wasn’t going to hurt her. Her entire body melted into him at the realization.
And that was when her phone started buzzing.
Graves jerked back, his eyes narrowing. “What is that?”
“Uh, nothing,” she said, realizing in a panic exactly which phone was currently going off.
Her burner.
And only two people had that number—Colette and Nate.
“If it’s nothing, then let me see.” He held his hand out. His eyes had gone flinty, as if he’d realized that this wasn’t something she was supposed to have at the same time she realized he shouldn’t know about it.
She’d kept the phone on her at all times, but it was on silent except for emergencies. She hadn’t anticipated it ringing in front of Graves. Or at least she figured she would have been able to silence the phone and call them back at another time.
But that was not what was happening.
She dug the phone out, revealing the burner, which had switched off and then quickly began to buzz again.
Graves plucked the thing out of her hand, and before she could stop him, he answered it.
“Kierse!” Nate gasped on the other line before Graves could even say anything. “You need to get out on the street right this minute. Make any excuse you have to. I’m the closest one to your location, since I was on duty, and I’m picking you up.”
The whole time Nate had been speaking, Graves’s eyes were locked on her. And whatever kindness and understanding had been in them evaporated at the words coming out of Nate’s mouth. He knew that she’d been speaking with them, that Nate had been patrolling the house, that she’d given him a way to contact her.
He was knowledge; he could easily infer what all of that meant.
She’d broken their bargain.
“Graves,” she whispered.
But Nate was still rambling. “Kierse? Do you hear me? Ethan and a bunch of my wolves were drugged. We don’t know if they’re going to make it.”
In that moment, she didn’t care what Graves thought. Ethan was in trouble, and her brain short-circuited. She snatched the phone out of Graves’s hand and pressed it to her ear.
“Nate? What happened with Ethan? He was drugged?”
“They think someone slipped him something in his drink and they’re ODing.”
“His drink?” she asked in incomprehension. Ethan wasn’t supposed to be anywhere where someone could spike his drink.
“I’ll tell you when I get there,” he said, swearing foully. “Two minutes or I’m barging in that fucking house, Kierse.”
And then he hung up.
Graves’s hands were clenched into fists, and his eyes were like ice. He turned on his heel and disappeared. Shit.
She followed after him. “Graves,” she called.
But she didn’t dare cross the threshold into his room. Whether the door was open or not, it wasn’t an invitation. She didn’t fucking have time for this, but she had to say something.
Just then, Graves returned with a shirt on.
“You’ve been in contact with your friends and the Dreadlords,” he said, his voice frozen over.
“I haven’t been in contact with my friends.”
“And Nathaniel O’Connor?”
“This isn’t about Nate. It’s about Ethan.”
“Go save your friend,” he said, gesturing to the door. “Your wolf should be here any moment.”
“Don’t do that,” she said. “Don’t close yourself off right now. This is life or death.”
“I would never keep you from your friend’s side in a time of need,” Graves said. “But this isn’t about Ethan. This is about our broken bargain. I made it very clear that any contact with your friends and associates would put them at risk and jeopardize this mission.”
Kierse shook her head. “That’s not what happened at all.”
Graves had opened his mouth, ready to breathe fire like the dragon he was, when a banging sounded on the front door. Edgar and Isolde were long gone for the day. And there was only one person who had been sent to pick her up.