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“When?” I asked once I’d schooled my features.
“I’d rather not explain while standing in front of a knocked-out weapons lord and his sidekick.”
There wouldn’t be any other time, I wanted to say. But it didn’t matter. Theo had his plans, I had mine.
“I’m sorry,” I said, though I didn’t know why.
I showed him my back, this new image of Theo etching into permanence, the long-term of him never receding from my mind even after the time that stood between us. But despite the mark, Theo wasn’t made grotesque. Children wouldn’t scream at the sight of him. Even flawed, he was much too beautiful. If anything, his presence was more commanding, his angles sharpened, the eerie history of his scar casting an additional allure. A mark of Cain, a warrior for the devil.
I’d dream of him tonight, of softening his sins with my lips.
“So am I, Scarlet.”
I paused at his voice, and that was my mistake.
Someone crept into my blind spot, and my shock followed too late after the prick in my neck.
The floor wobbled, my knees unable to keep the balance. I was caught, my face flopping into the hard lines of the man who steadied me.
Neri? One of his henchmen I didn’t count? But I’d studied everything … I made sure there was an out before stepping into the Asten Martin…
Though hazy, I forced my gaze up, and grimaced.
“When I wake up,” I forced out to say to Kai, “I’m throwing you overboard.”
Or maybe I garbled it. The crease between his brows could’ve been because he didn’t understand, or maybe that he understood too well.
“You’re safe,” he promised me.
There was no safety in this game. Every person was out for themselves, every tic a sign of a plan, malevolent smiles hidden behind the fan of cards. Every gamble took on the chance of ruin.
Which was why I made no friends. I’d even kept Kai at a distance, though I couldn’t help my growing affection for him. We’d worked closely for a long time, and I’d thought I’d caught every clue to his feelings, in the way he moved his brows or chewed on the inside of his cheek, the scent of his fear and the sound of his laugh.
But I’d forgotten. There was a time when I was his student.
Two years later, despite his vow to become a civil servant, his sworn oath into the FBI, Kai decided to cash in on duplicity instead.
Goddamnhim for fucking me over first.
