Total pages in book: 133
Estimated words: 128290 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 641(@200wpm)___ 513(@250wpm)___ 428(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 128290 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 641(@200wpm)___ 513(@250wpm)___ 428(@300wpm)
“Trust is earned.” The green-eyed guy leans across the table with a frown. “You don’t have ours. We don’t have yours. Changes nothing. Tell us what we want to know.”
“Watch yourself, Maddoc.” It’s Bastian who speaks before I can, slowly moving to stand, and the guy is just as fast, the two in a sudden face-off.
I chance a glance at the girl, who grins up at the pair, chewing a piece of gum without a care.
“Get your ass kicked, Bishop.” Maddoc gets angrier. “We can’t sit on this, and you know it.”
Bastian only tips his head, his expression as blank as ever. “I brought you here, did I not? You’re going to respect that girl and if you can’t do that for real, you’re going to fucking fake it. Her man is not one you want on your bad side, and you keep this up, none of us will make it out of this house without injury.”
“Sit down, Big Man.” Raven faces me, not caring if he actually listens.
He doesn’t.
“Look.” She pins me with her creepy-ass crystal eyes. “Tell me everything that happened at the club last night, every single detail of your night, and I’ll tell you why I want to know.”
How does she even know about that?
Several seconds of silence pass between us, and a look of triumph flashes across her features as she lounges back in her chair.
That little show of arrogance makes this all the more satisfying.
How I love to prove people wrong.
Without another word, I turn around and walk away.
“What the fuck?” I hear her say and then the chair scrapes. “Bass, this is your territory. Handle her before I do.”
“No.” I spin. “This is not his territory. You’re on Fikile grounds, my grounds.”
“Your grounds?” She pops a black brow. “Five seconds ago, you said his home, so which is it, bad Barbie?”
“It’s go fuck yourself, punk princess.”
She smiles at that. “I could probably like you. Maybe.”
“Doubtful,” her dutiful man adds.
“I don’t care, and if you think I’d be easy for you to handle, I’d find a better source than the guy my sister got the drop on.”
She pulls a switchblade from her pocket, flicking it open and dragging her thumb across the point. “Wanna test that theory?”
My fingers curl into the sleeves of my blazer, both palms now holding the sharp points of the daggers hidden there. “Do you?”
Her eyes fall to my hands as if she knows, and she gives a small nod, pivoting back to where she started. “He doesn’t have to know we’re here, Boston.”
She doesn’t have to say who she means, everyone here is aware of who she’s talking about, but I can’t be the only one who knows better.
“You’re only here because someone decided to allow you to be and make no mistake, Brayshaw, that someone was not the man beside you.”
Her frown is instant, and she cuts Bastian an accusing glare, though her question is for me. “You knew we were coming?”
“No.” I stand tall. “But if you think the man whose zone you stepped into didn’t, you’re not as smart as you think you are.”
The two whip their heads toward Bastian, who quite lazily looks from me to them.
“You come from a world as twisted as this one.” He shrugs a single shoulder. “You really think you were walking into anything less than a tiger’s den?”
“Lion’s den.” They all look at me then. “There are no tigers here, only the king of the jungle and his pride. Remember that the next time you show up unwanted, making demands and inaccurate assumptions.” As I turn, I swear I catch a small smirk on the girl’s face, but I don’t care to look back and be sure. I step through the corridor, pausing beside a guard, who lowers his chin to his chest at my presence, almost as if it’s meant as a bow, and try something I haven’t yet.
“Remove them.” I make a request.
The moment the word leaves my lips the man’s head dips even lower, and three more appear. One flanking the man I spoke to, the other two silently sweeping out from the opposite side, as if their backs were pressed to that wall, waiting just in case.
Just in case I needed them?
They move behind me without a word, faces hidden behind their bandanas, as always, but I don’t bother looking back.
I smile and head for the terrace that overlooks the lake.
Maybe it’s dumb, but it’s the first time I feel like the queen of this castle, like I’m not just a fragment inside it, but a fixture of its very foundation. That feeling only further cements itself when Grandma appears with a smirk of her own, her palm facing upright, a rose gold cell phone sitting in the center of it.
It rings the moment my fingers wrap around it, and I answer the incoming call. As if he can see me with his own eyes, he speaks the second it touches my ear.