Total pages in book: 139
Estimated words: 135958 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 680(@200wpm)___ 544(@250wpm)___ 453(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 135958 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 680(@200wpm)___ 544(@250wpm)___ 453(@300wpm)
“Where is he?”
She shifted to face me. Her crying stopped. “You mean you don’t know? I would’ve thought Kai would say something. He always had a soft spot for you.”
What? “A soft spot?”
“Yeah. When I left school, he kept tabs on you. I asked him to in the beginning, but when you went into the 411, I told him to stop. He didn’t. I lied about the P.I.”
I snorted. “Really?”
But the soft spot…
“What has he said to you?” She drew her leg up and leaned forward. Her eyes grew determined.
A guard came down the stairs at that moment.
Brooke moved back, watching him.
“Boss said to finish up.” He looked at me. “He wants you upstairs.”
Brooke flicked her eyes upward. “Yeah, yeah. We’re going.” But she cast me a quizzical look as I stood and crossed the room for the stairs.
Kai was leaving the kitchen as I arrived, his lips pressed together.
I felt his fury blasting me. “Did she say anything to you?” he asked gruffly.
Really? A soft spot?
“Not really. Just that Levi is the galaxy to her.”
His lips thinned, a shadow of a grin there, but it vanished right away. He stepped behind me, his hand coming to the small of my back. “Let’s go.”
I tried to look over his shoulder, to see whatever had made him so furious, but he moved to block my view.
“It’s better if you don’t see.” His words were soft, but laced with authority.
I looked down and went outside, Kai still behind me. I started for the car, but he urged me toward one of the SUVs.
When I got in, he lingered in the opened door. “Do you want to ride with Brooke?”
I always kept myself walled in, protecting my feelings. But little by little, that wall to him was being chipped away. I felt anger and hurt at Brooke for what she’d done, but there was more for him. Just more of the other feelings.
“If you’d asked me that an hour ago, I would’ve said yes. But now, I want…” I took a deep breath, trying to see my way clearly. “You.”
His eyes darkened. Desire, lust, and another ominous emotion wound its way down my spine.
“Give me a moment.” Then he was gone.
A few minutes later, he slid back in next to me.
The guards led Brooke past our SUV into another one parked in front of us. Two guards got in on either side of her, and a minute later, our whole caravan was leaving.
We turned down the block, then went around the corner to the next block—the street behind the house Brooke had been in.
I felt the explosion through the SUV’s floorboards. It was that powerful. Twisting around, I found myself speechless for the third time since coming to this state. I couldn’t say or do anything.
I could only stare at the fire lighting up the sky, the dark black smoke swirling up around it.
Kai had blown up the house.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
We drove north, away from the city.
We kept on for five hours before we turned off onto smaller roads, and finally we turned on to a gravel road again. This place felt similar to the New York home, with the driveway that wound back into a forest of pine trees for almost a mile. Finally we pulled up to the cabin, which perched on a cliffside overlooking a lake. It was still large for my standards, but not one of the oversized mansions we’d been using. Water stretched out for what seemed like another mile around us. We were so far up, it was a little scary.
Forest packed us in, with trees that seemed to stretch as far as the water did. Miles and miles. Stepping out and stretching my legs, I took it all in. A shiver went down my spine. I couldn’t even see the roads out there, though I knew they were there. We’d just come from one.
Looking for even another house nearby, I saw nothing.
That shiver doubled, making the hair on the back of my neck stand up.
I wrapped my arms more tightly around myself, and Kai approached. He didn’t touch me, but he studied me, his eyebrows pulling together.
“You okay?”
Brooke got out of her vehicle, her bag close to her chest. She marched past us, glowering. “Traitor,” she hissed under her breath.
Something inside me snapped. “YOU LIED TO ME!”
I wasn’t sure who was more shocked by my outburst. I think me.
“You have no idea what you have done, what lives you have uprooted, what futures you have changed,” I told her in a fury. “No idea! Your lie had a domino effect. It brought your brother to me. It pulled me out of the life I was living, a life I loved. It brought me away from my roommates, my job, my mission in life—and it’s not even just me. Hiders from my Network were affected by your decision. My roommate was affected. You, you—since leaving my father, everything has made sense in my world. Everything. I knew right and wrong. I was good at what I did. I loved what I did, and then your brother had me brought to him, and ever since then, everything has been turned upside down. All because of you. All because of your lie!”