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Shoulders cased in fine silk rise with a shrug. “I have to do something around here if you won’t let me speak to Lillith. An idle mind is the devil’s”—the oval whips to me—“workshop.”
I see red. “If you so much as look at her wrong—”
“Oh, relax,” Ghost says, throwing up a hand in exasperation. “We’re going to have a lovely time. I even promise to have her in bed by eight.”
Bastard. Rotten fucking bastard. “Just keep her safe. That’s all I’ve paid you for.”
“And I always honor my contracts.” Ghost lowers in a bow, keeping that oval aimed at my face. “Always.”
The ironic thing is as long as Ghost gets his money, he’s the most trustworthy guy in the city.
So even though everything in me is screaming to do the opposite, I step toward the front door.
“Keep her safe for me, Ghost. It’s the only thing I’ll ever ask of you.”
That obsidian mask seems to shake with laughter as he says, “I highly doubt that.”
Knowing this might be a mistake, I step out into the night.
I’m coming, Wes. I’m coming to save you.
CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
LILLITH
It’s been thirty minutes since I heard the scrape of the front door, signaling Kain’s departure. I can’t stop running through worst-case scenarios, and though I know in my heart he’s capable of handling the situation, I can’t stop thinking about what I would do if something… if something happened to him.
An image of him, pallid and gasping on the hospital bed, springs to mind, and I nearly fall off the bed with the strength that I shake my head. No, that won’t happen again. It can’t.
A knock sounds from the other side of the bedroom door, and a screech fills the air, mingling with the sound of my bones slamming into the hardwood floors.
“Goodness. You look a mess.”
The mechanical voice that fills the space sends a chill down my spine, and against my better judgment, I rise and face him. A fine silk suit covers his frame, clinging to the lean muscle across his forearms. He’s slimmer than Kain and a few inches shorter, but the air he carries himself with… is just as deadly.
If I could see his face, I’m sure I’d look into eyes just as cruel and calculating as Kain’s, but the oval-shaped mask stops that from being a possibility. I’m so busy taking in the deadly apparition that I don’t realize he’s taken a step closer.
He extends a gloved hand, his body eerily still as he waits for me to take it.
I don’t.
The man—Ghost—clicks his tongue. “Everyone is so paranoid these days. It’s a hand, not a viper. Take it.”
Swallowing hard, I place my hand in his. The coolness of the leather bites into my palm—just as a snake would—as he hauls me to my feet, and suddenly, I’m not so sure he was telling the truth.
He’s so… cold. Wrong.
“I assume he informed you of our arrangement?”
I jump at the sound of that distorted voice. Once my heart stops pounding, I nod, my stomach roiling with unease at the way that masked face stares at me. Like he’s looking at the threads of my soul, debating which one to unravel first. It makes me uneasy, and I have to remind myself that Kain trusts this man and wouldn’t leave me in the hands of anyone who would harm me.
Although I can’t tell by the looks of him…
The black oval swivels around the room, taking in every inch with clinical precision. “Has he told you anything about me?”
I can’t help but scoff. “Should he have?”
That black hole faces me and threatens to suck my soul in. “I prefer when people don’t. My mannerisms often get… lost in translation.” A mechanical chuckle fills the space, and my skin roils with how uncomfortable of a sound it is.
