Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 91809 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 459(@200wpm)___ 367(@250wpm)___ 306(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91809 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 459(@200wpm)___ 367(@250wpm)___ 306(@300wpm)
“WE SHOULD SPLIT UP.”
Rafael, Wilder, Lucien, Cato, and I were on the couch. Adonis wandered off after dinner to grade papers, and Victor left hours before to speak to his father. Wilson Industries was a billion-dollar conglomerate with its fingers in almost every industry. It was a simple fact that hackers must attack their systems on a daily basis, searching and hoping for a weakness. Victor promised to employ the best in their IT department to help us.
We didn’t need them to find Wolfgang. We knew exactly where the guy was and that he was coming to us. What we needed was to stop him playing ring-around-the-rosy in our devices like he did to Wilder’s computers.
It was a scary world when we couldn’t trust our phones, laptops, Apple watches, Alexa, or anything with an internet connection. All those machines-take-over-the-world movies suddenly didn’t seem so far-fetched.
My guys and I gathered in the living room that night, making a plan to find Everleigh’s cabin that would hopefully go much better than my adventure the night before.
“The five cabins are now down to three.” I absentmindedly rubbed my shoulder. “The problem is the final three are miles away from each other. One is all the way in East Regalia. Cato and I will take that one. Lucien, you take the one closest to the beach. Wilder and Rafael, you two take the one in the middle.
“We’ll meet up at Toussaint’s after. They’re open till late, and after the week I’ve had, I need three orders of their baklava cheesecake.”
“We’re not splitting up,” Wilder said. “You won’t hold back if you’re the one to find her, and Cato’s not going to stop you.” His eyes narrowed. “Bet that’s why you want to go with him. You’ll say let’s go fuck her up, and he’ll already have the lighter out and flinging himself through the window like a flaming wrecking ball.”
I giggled at the image. Cato would, one hundred percent. “You shouldn’t be so suspicious of the love of your life. This isn’t a trick to get to Everleigh alone. I learned my lesson from last night. I also learned that I’m not built for tromping through the woods till five in the morning. I want to get this over with quickly,” I said. “If I do find Everleigh, I’ll get out of there and text you guys right away.
“The last thing I’m going to do is fight her on her own turf. When I come at her for the last time, it’ll be in a situation that I control. No more surprises.”
The suspicion softened. “Okay,” Wilder said. “We’ll all go together.”
I heaved a sigh. “I will not charge in like a flaming wrecking ball again. I promise. Please, I just want to get through this night, then spend time with my guys. We’ll get takeout, then bring it back here and enjoy it, just us.”
“All right,” Rafael said. “We trust you, gorgeous. Mostly because you’ve yelled your last ‘surprise, bitch’ for a lifetime.”
I rolled my eyes as they burst out laughing. I told them all what happened, and after kissing me and making sure I was okay, they lost their shit. We’d laugh about this night for a long time. I only hoped that we’d do it with Alistair after Everleigh was gone and I made up for the terrible things I said to him.
A glance out the window told me the sun finished its daily retreat across the sky. “Let’s get going. We’re splitting up, yes?”
The guys exchanged a look. It impressed me how they did that. Communicated with each other without words. They were a tight-knit unit long before I came along. Four young men given a destiny and then cast out to fulfill it on their own. What kind of fate was it that the daughter of the Rogue king fell in love with them?
Lucien tossed me his keys. “You and Cato take my car. I can walk to my cabin.”
I linked my hand through Cato’s. “I just hope it is one of these three and that the cabin wasn’t sold and bulldozed years ago.”
“Katie told you that she avoids her home like it’s a plague hospital. She’s going somewhere that she doesn’t want her parents and friends to know about. The former home of her fugitive father is just as good a guess as any.”
All I had was that hope, so I held on to it. “Remember. The cabin will be one story and outrageously grand.”
With that, we headed out and went our separate ways.
Cato dropped his backpack in the back seat. The guys lost almost everything in the fire, but somehow my muzzled love held on to a pack full of lighters, torches, and jewelry he maintained wasn’t stolen.
The ride to East Regalia felt longer than the forty minutes it took. I kept a stranglehold on the steering wheel, Alistair’s face playing on a loop in my mind. I would do everything possible to end the war with Everleigh quickly and make it up to him. Those last few days—talking about our childhood, comparing our uncannily similar likes and dislikes, and telling him all the things I could never say to a normal father. I loved it.