Total pages in book: 135
Estimated words: 128061 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 640(@200wpm)___ 512(@250wpm)___ 427(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 128061 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 640(@200wpm)___ 512(@250wpm)___ 427(@300wpm)
We wanted to test the instincts of the gargoyles. A shifter would be able to feel them lurking there, even if they couldn’t see, hear, or smell them. We wondered if these gargoyles had the same abilities.
“Ready?” Austin asked, his words as hazy as his appearance, but easily understandable.
Nessa put out a thumbs-up. Sebastian nodded. Niamh took a sip of her flask. Thanks to the potion, I could see them all.
“Bring them in,” I whispered.
Austin brought up his phone and sent off a text. A moment later, the sound of rubber soles on hardwood came our way.
“Right this way,” a host said, carrying menus and stopping at the two tables we’d pulled together. The tables had all been adorned in white tablecloths with flickering candle centerpieces. The lights on the walls had been somewhat dimmed with softly glowing sconces.
Pierce sauntered in first, looking around as he did so. He took a seat with a flourish as Anthott followed behind, not bothering to glance around the room or look beyond the leather billfold he carried.
“Miss Ironheart and Alpha Steele will be in shortly,” the host said, handing out the menus. “They have been momentarily delayed. Can I get you something to drink while you wait?”
“Grab me some bread, will ya?” Pierce said, not looking up at the man. He pushed his menu to the side, disturbing his place setting. “And a wine list.”
“The wine list is just”—the host leaned forward and tapped the third menu he’d set on the table—“here, sir.”
Pierce picked it up without preamble.
“Soda water for me, please,” Anthott said, placing his menu atop the empty decorative plate in front of him. He set his billfold to the other side of his napkin and silverware, and then straightened everything in front of him.
After his host left, Pierce put up his finger with a sly smile. “Wait…” He pulled a device out of his blazer. Clunky and black, it was clearly a sort of technology, and he placed it on the table next to his plate. “This should scramble their security cameras’ audio. And your phone. Hope you aren’t waiting for an important call.”
Anthott pulled his phone out of his pocket and checked it before putting it away again. He didn’t seem troubled. Austin did the same, as did Broken Sue. Both looked incredibly annoyed.
“That’s why they are late, obviously.” Pierce leaned back in his chair and put his hand over the chair top next to him. “They want us to talk amongst ourselves, revealing our secrets.”
“I don’t have any,” Anthott said.
Pierce frowned at him before shaking his head with a condescending smile. “Well, it’s clear why no cairns have picked you up. How long you been looking?”
“I’ve sent samples to a few of the larger cairns every six months for the past two years. My cairn is only five years old.”
Pierce laughed. “Maybe stop aiming for the stars, bro. A few of the larger cairns? With your setup, you need to aim low and settle quick.”
“Smaller cairns won’t have the starting capital for the kind of production I envision. We’d have to pick and choose what to produce, when it would be optimal for profit to produce sets. People like to buy sets. If given a choice, the average person would rather buy a bedroom set, for example, at a higher price than buy one piece and bargain-hunt for things that would match. They simply don’t have the ability, time, or desire to piece together a room by themselves. You sell more, and in turn make more, with sets.”
Broken Sue glanced at Austin with a lifted brow. Pierce’s eyebrows were also lifted, but in a different way. He blew out a breath and leaned forward, hitting the edge of his plate and making it wobble.
“Wow, bro,” he said. “With conversational skills like that, you’ll get a big cairn, no problem.” He laughed, leaning back again. “No offense, but you don’t have the right stuff to lure in a big cairn. I watched my old cairn pitch new products to Nikken’s buyers. The big cairns look for a certain charm. They want someone who talks a good game. I’m great at that sort of thing. I was rising in the ranks faster than anyone in history.”
“Why did you leave, then?”
“Why?” Pierce flared a hand. “I want a bigger piece of the pie, that’s why. I was making peanuts while securing big orders. It was crap. A lot of the other guys felt the same. I figured screw it, you know? I can do it myself. No one to tell me I was aiming too high or thinking too big. You get that part at least, right? Now I just gotta secure a big cairn, and I’m golden.”
“I might be wrong, but I don’t know that laughing at the benefactor of a cairn is the best approach.”