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“He also wanted me to go over the rebuild plans for Tales with you.”
I blink in surprise. “After everything that happened tonight he still trusts me to handle it?”
Beast nods. “You’re smart, Princess. Capable. He’d be a fool not to notice that. The plans are on the kitchen table. I’ve made coffee.”
“But I’m also the inferior species, right?” I scoff, shoving back the covers, climbing out of bed and moving past him into the hallway.
“That was a low fucking blow,” Beast admits as we stride down the stairs.
“True though, at least part of it,” I say as I reach the kitchen table and glance at the plans laid out there.
“Noneof it’s true,” Beast argues, pulling out a chair and sitting down next to me. He hands me a mug of coffee with cream. I take a sip, tasting the sweetness of honey.
“You know how I take my coffee?” I ask.
He cocks his head to the side. “I pay attention.”
“Hmm,” I mutter, glancing at him behind the rim of my mug as I drink the perfectly made coffee and try to unravel everything that’s gone down tonight. If he knows that I’m staring he doesn’t make a point of it. Instead he takes a sip of his own coffee and looks at the plans, a little crease forming between his eyes.
“Can I ask you something?” I ask eventually.
“Sure,” he replies, focusing back on me as he places his mug on the table.
“Why?”
“Why what?”
“Why do you want me to be Kate and not Grim?”
Beast chews on his bottom lip, then remembering that I know it’s his tell, frees it from between his teeth. “Because you’ve got a good heart.”
“Soyouthink I’m a bleeding heart as well? Figures,” I snort, shaking my head and focusing back on the plans, not really taking any of it in. Carter has been wanting to fix up Tales for a while now, and a couple of months back he gave me the responsibility to oversee the build starting in a few weeks. Of course I jumped at the chance. Now myheartisn’t really in it. The fucking irony.
“No, I don’t. But I do think you have the potential to be so much more than—”
“What? A criminal?” I roll my eyes.
“Well, I was gonna say a murderer, but yeah, that too,” he says with a straight face.
“Pot, Kettle… Are you suddenly getting a conscience or something?” He doesn’t break out into a smile at my response, or have that usual twinkle in his eyes. Tonight he’s serious as fuck, and it’s more unnerving than when he’s pissed off or angry. “What?” I press.
“Do you think I wanted this life?” he asks me, adjusting his chair so that he’s facing me. His knees brush against my thighs, and my stomach does a little flip at the slight contact.
Frowning, I adjust my position too, so that I’m facing him more. “You didn’t?”
“No one chooses this life, Princess.”
“They don’t? Could’ve fooled me. Have you met the patrons of Tales?”
“Okay, so maybe some people walk into this life with their eyes wide open,” he concedes. “But a lot of them ended up here because there was no other way. They were either brought up in it and they really didn’t have a fucking choice, or they fell into it because they couldn’t see any other way.”
“And here’s Carter callingmea bleeding heart,” I sass, trying to make light of a serious discussion.
Beast sighs. “I don’t enjoy killing people for a living, Princess.”
“No?” My brows shoot up at that because a part of me always wondered.
“No.” His finger taps at the table as he considers what to say next. “I’m numb to it now, and it’s true that taking someone’s life doesn’t affect me, but I’ve never gotten any kicks out of it. I do what I need to do for myself or for the people I’m loyal to. That’s it. That’s all.”
