Total pages in book: 124
Estimated words: 114936 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 575(@200wpm)___ 460(@250wpm)___ 383(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 114936 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 575(@200wpm)___ 460(@250wpm)___ 383(@300wpm)
“Psshh.” Her head jerks back, hiding her smile behind her glass. “Because it’s Cartier and you always need a drink when it comes to her.” I don’t know if Maya is being coy and finally picking up on the back and forth that Cartier and I do, or if it’s just that obvious that the girl is a headcase.
“Thanks.” I leave Maya and make my way through the doors, but not before calling out, “Don’t drink too much of that shit. We’re on the road tomorrow night and, well, you’re you.”
She flips me off, tipping her head back and shooting her drink back like a fucking college student.
I laugh, passing the people surrounding the fire and making my way to the swing that’s connected to the tree down near the water. Kyrin put it in when Cartier was four years old and demanded to have one to fly into the water. Her words.
“You know, people are starting to notice…” Cartier says, pushing the swing a little higher the closer I get. She’s in the same clothes she was in earlier, only now she has a glass of whiskey dangling between her fingers.
“Notice what?” I tease, grabbing the rope and forcing her to a stop by standing directly in front of her.
She tilts her head up at me, squinting her eyes against the burning orange of the setting sun. “Your little plaything inside is going to notice too, you know. Which, by the way, I—” I wrap my fingers around her chin, forcing her mouth to widen by pressing my thumb down on her lower lip inside her mouth.
“Shut up. Jealousy doesn’t look good on you.”
Her eyes narrow, and I smirk when I notice that same fire put her in a chokehold. I release her mouth so she can speak. “First of all, I’m not jealous. I’m glad someone else is taking your… wrath that isn’t me.” My finger twitches. “Which by the way, this party could go both ways and I’m not responsible. Everyone is Kiznitch and horny.”
I kneel down in front of her so I can watch her reaction. I need to know what she knows, and it’s obvious that she’s hiding shit. I don’t care about her bratty antics. The bitch is mine, and she damn well fucking knows it. “Do you know about Eli?”
Her face turns pale, and I watch as her mouth straightens to a flat line, her eyes drift over my shoulder. “No.”
Lie.
The battle starts in my head. Whether I should pull her up in her blatant dishonesty, or whether I should just let her do what she’s doing and watch. Cartier has become a recluse over the years. She thinks I don’t notice how she disappears for months on end and comes back with a more distant look in her eye. The worst part is that if she was anyone else, we would extract all the info we needed from her with or without her consent, but because she’s Cartier, she’s untouchable.
She stands from the swing, her palm resting against my chest. “It’s funny.”
“What’s funny?” I ask, one wrong word away from drowning her in the lake.
Her lashes fan over her cheeks every time she blinks. “That you all think that we’re safe now.”
She turns to walk away, but I catch her hand with mine, my eyes flying up to the house for a second to make sure no one is watching our exchange. “What the fuck does that mean?”
“It means what I said.” Then she leaves, and I watch as her ass sways with each step. I need to find Kyrin and call a meeting because whatever she’s holding on to is deep. I can feel it the same way I can feel her other emotions.
There are cages that line the edges of the wall to form little rooms and lights flash to the beat of the music.
“Are they figuring it out?” Eli says from beside me, a glass of whiskey in his hands. I watch as the girls inside the cages rub against one another.
“No.” I lean back on the bar, crossing my legs in front of me. I wasn’t there the night Eli and Dominic crossed paths while they were here the last time, but I’m beginning to think that my brother and Lilith missed a massive hint as to what Eli was truly dealing with.
I lean into him, ignoring the beeping in the background. Dominic has been trying experimental drugs on people for a year now, according to Eli, but he still hasn’t told me why he’s where he is and why he must be here. “You can come back, E. You know we have your back too.”
Eli leans down and snorts the line of coke that’s spread over the marble counter. The Connoisseur is a club that is built into the old city tunnels which run beneath the ground. Dominic is known to traffic drugs and guns by using this system. He’s about as rotten as they come.