AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Let her in.” I wave my hand and lower myself onto the edge of the bed when she enters, pushing a metal cart with the latest Louis Vuitton bag on top.
“Hey, Cartier!” Amie is a five-foot-something goddess who is a magician with hair. She pauses when she sees me, placing a hand on her hip. “I know better than to ask, but honey…” She slowly makes her way to the bed, kneeling in front of me. Her hand rests on mine. “I know this may not be my place, but are you sure this is what you want?” No, I’m not. My blue hair is the one thing that makes me feel like me. I know it sounds superficial, but to me, it never was. I can’t imagine myself without it.
I reach up and touch the ends as pain rips through my chest. “No, I don’t know.” Did my subconscious know to color my hair to take away the pain of staying the brunette I once was?
Finally having the knowledge of something I’ve wanted to know for so long isn’t reassuring. It isn’t calming. Now I’m angry. Anger is to pain what oxygen is to fire. Fucking catastrophic.
Shaking my head, I bring my eyes to hers. “No.”
“Okay, hon.” She pats my hand and stands back to her feet. “How about we do something else?”
I swipe the tears off my cheeks and nod. “Yeah. Okay.” I watch as she busies herself with the bottles on her trolley. Amie always does my hair when I’m back in Kiznitch, even if she’s fully booked out, which she always is. I’ve come to know her over the years, especially since taking on my role as CEO and spending more time in Kiznitch. Ideally, I want her to come on the road with us. I trust her.
“Amie…” I reach for her arm when she jumps, turning back to face me. I see the worry etched in her eyes and the subtle hint of something being wrong. “What is it?”
“There’s something I need to tell you, and… well, show you.”
I stare at the white wall in front of me. There are swirls from the plaster curved and cut into patterns, and right up the top of the fireplace is a little cherub face that’s plastered into the wall.
A fucking cherub.
Everyone is here, but I refuse to look at any of them. I refuse.
“Cartier, talk to us.” Kyrin’s voice is strained, as if he had rehearsed those same simple words over and over again. Why did he even think to ask me that?
“Killian…” I finally shift my focus to where he sits on the two-seat sofa opposite the burning fireplace.
Killian’s brows raise up in question, but without a second thought, he stands and closes the distance between us. Lowering himself down onto the coffee table, he rests his hands on his knees and sighs. “Alright, baby girl. Let’s do this.”
I bring my hands to his and shut my eyes. I roll over the conversations I don’t want to hear or know, stopping at one they had last night. It’s no point going farther back from then because the older a memory is, the harder it is to manipulate. I know the fresh ones are real.
Keaton slammed his fist into the wall, his back rising and falling as he took in deep breaths. This was when I had been taken, they must have just found out about me. I hung back behind Killian and watched their altercation.
“He won’t kill her,” King announced, typing on a laptop. He’s tucked into the desk of the main office downstairs. “She means too much to him.”
“What the fuck does that mean?” Killian asked, and I tried to slap his packet of smokes out of his hand when he pulled them out.
“It means that he needs her alive as much as we need him alive but not as much as Bam Bam wants him alive.”
“Why the fuck do The Kings want with Dominic? I thought they washed their hands of his bullshit.”
“They have, but they want him. The reason why Eli was here? Was to find who was working against The Kings. Eli found that with Dominic, all while protecting Cartier and him taking her back. He did a direct swap—him for her. It worked well, until Dominic decided he did in fact need Cartier.”
“Why?” Keaton yelled, spinning around to face Killian. Seeing his face was like a punch in the stomach. His hair was disarrayed, deep lines below his eyes, and sweat sparkled over his temples. The vein that pulsed beneath his skin throbbed and his jaw tightened so hard the muscles on the outside twerked.
“We don’t know. Eli doesn’t know either. He’s been trying to figure it all out.”
The whole crowd sighed, and I felt it. The truth in their words.
I pull my hand back from his and lean back in my chair. “So no one knows why Dominic wanted me in the first place or why he wanted me back, Eli cut a deal to take my place while trying to see what kind of threat he is to The Kings, and King has killed the only person who could have ever told us?” I glare right up at King. “Did I miss anything?”
Keaton steps closer to my chair and my eyes finally snap up to his. “Who was the girl that you had with you?”
Keaton’s face changes into something I don’t recognize, before he lowers down beside me, his hand coming straight to my chin, forcing my eyes to his. “She’s a no one.”
“So charming,” I snide, ripping my face out of his grip. The lies are starting to taste a lot like he’s never fucking touching me again, but does he know? Or doesn’t he?
He chuckles so low it vibrates through every single inch of my traitorous body. Fuck. But I remain frozen. Dead. Cold. “I want him dead. And I want it done tonight.”
