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Whatever happens from here on out, I know Fox is going to be at the heart of all of us.
Of that, I am absolutely certain.
45
“Those secrets of yours are piling up like bodies over there, Calliano.”
I stretch my legs out and glance sideways at the man filling the seat beside me.
Over in a spot close to the turquoise water, Ky and Fox are cuddled together in a hammock laughing, and it looks like a scene from a fucking picture book.
Only it isn’t.
We’re here because there’s a threat against our property, and Thorne knows shit about whatever is going on that he’s choosing not to reveal.
I’m far from an open book, but when it comes to this girl…there’s no way in hell I’m going to let him get away with thinking he can run this gig himself.
“Takes one to know one.” He grunts at me. But digs a hand in his hair, observing the other two as closely as I am. As if they might vanish from right under our noses, stolen away from us, if we dare blink for a second too long.
“What’s the latest from Hawke and the teams? Have they uncovered anything to trace the encryption?”
“Nothing.” Thorne looks just as frustrated as I am. The Anguis are culpable of turning a blind eye to the scum of the earth, and it has my teeth on edge that whoever made this threat knew exactly how to reach us in the one place we have always been safe.
It doesn’t make sense.
Tapping my thumb against my thigh, I put a voice to the thought I’ve been turning over in my mind since leaving Port Macabre. “The fight night might be the perfect opportunity, you know.”
“How so?”
“Use it as a spectacle. Jab whoever this is in the ribs. Flush out some information.”
We have to leave here tomorrow, whether we want to or not since I’m featured on the title card for a fight night held at Noire House. Where the Gathered will soak themselves in the gratuitous violence of watching two men beat the shit out of each other and then lose themselves in an evening of hedonistic pleasures at the club afterward.
Blood. Violence. Sex. The foundation upon which the Anguis built their temples of power.
I’m guessing that whoever is attempting this threat will be in attendance. There’s no doubt in my mind they’ll be fixated on the little Fox’s every move.
Possibly this so-called ‘true heir’ they claim will be revealed might be among the crowd, too.
“It seems risky.”
“There are three of us. You really think someone could get past us all?”
A peal of high-pitched laughter bursts from the direction of the girl in question. She’s squirming, but it’s all for show; there’s no genuine attempt to get away from Ky’s taunting or riling or whatever he’s up to. Probably both, seeing as how his hands dig into her soft curves and his lips hover at her ear.
That asshole has rarely been without a cocky smile in all the years I’ve known him, but lately, it’s like he can’t stop beaming.
“She needs to be kept safe,” Thorne mutters beneath his breath. He’s reluctant to admit how much Fox has gotten under his skin, and I can see the conflict raging inside him. He’s stuck with the reality that he doesn't have a choice but to let her in…or lose her.
“Which is exactly what you’ll do. But you’ll achieve nothing by keeping her away from the fight night. We need to push whoever is planning shit into making a wrong move.”
He stares at me with those cold blue eyes of his. “And you think by parading her around some more, it’ll do just that?”
I shrug. “It’ll force their hand at the very least.” Turning my attention back to Fox and Ky in the hammock, I try to block out the dull thud of my pulse intensifying in my ears. There’s something that tightens inside my chest whenever Thorne and I spend time close like this. Having his eyes on me isn’t anything similar to how it feels when I’m with Ky.
“Or it might be unnecessarily setting her as an easy target.” He scrubs a hand over his jaw.
“Sure. Or, it might piss off whoever this is enough that they start getting sloppy. So far, they’ve hidden behind encrypted threats sent by message. But they might take a swing and give us something much easier to trace.”
